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(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | necessarily | How many times the word 'necessarily' appears in the text? | 1 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | name | How many times the word 'name' appears in the text? | 2 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | sounded | How many times the word 'sounded' appears in the text? | 2 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | asked | How many times the word 'asked' appears in the text? | 2 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | look | How many times the word 'look' appears in the text? | 3 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | parties | How many times the word 'parties' appears in the text? | 1 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | drunk | How many times the word 'drunk' appears in the text? | 2 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | striped | How many times the word 'striped' appears in the text? | 2 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | thing | How many times the word 'thing' appears in the text? | 3 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | please | How many times the word 'please' appears in the text? | 3 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | easier | How many times the word 'easier' appears in the text? | 1 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | nonproprietary | How many times the word 'nonproprietary' appears in the text? | 0 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | relief | How many times the word 'relief' appears in the text? | 0 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | performed | How many times the word 'performed' appears in the text? | 0 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | were | How many times the word 'were' appears in the text? | 1 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | shaved | How many times the word 'shaved' appears in the text? | 0 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | real | How many times the word 'real' appears in the text? | 3 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | avert | How many times the word 'avert' appears in the text? | 0 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | looks | How many times the word 'looks' appears in the text? | 2 |
(red tie striped cream, wearing glasses), and their wives. RAY HANLEY Hey, pal! Calvin kisses Ray's wife. Beth is with two women : Woman #1 with dark hair (in green), the other, Woman #2, with grey hair (in orange). BETH Hi there. WOMAN #1 Hi. Beth. BETH Good to see you, and where were you at the lunch last week? Man #3 is giving Clark Murray some financial advice MAN #3 Call your bank and borrow the money. MURRAY I was thinking of going public. MAN #3 I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do it now... MURRAY Why not? MAN #3 ...because the market's low. Beth is talking to Woman #2 (with grey hair, orange dress) BETH Your hair looks wonderful. It's shorter, isn't it? I like that. Man #2 is telling a joke to two women (CONTINUED) 36. 50 CONTINUED: 50 MAN #2 I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?" and he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you put out your cigar?", he says: "Huh?". I said: "Would you please put out your cigar?", he says: " I don't have another one!" The two women laugh. BETH Good to see you! You look beautiful. As ever. MAN #4 (full grey hair) It's a macho factor. When these kids are at school, they just think they've got to walk on the edge of danger. Beth joins the two women and man #2 : BETH What are these hushed tones all about? WOMAN # He just told the funniest joke! Calvin laughs with two male guests. MAN #4 (with grey hair) passes him MAN #4 I'm not talking to you. CALVIN Why? Woman #2 with grey hair (in orange) is sitting on a couch talking to other guests WOMAN #2 Obviously, you know, I have my fingers crossed on this merger. Man #3 and Clark Murray are still talking financial advice. MURRAY When can we have lunch? MAN #3 Great. Fill me in the office, I have no idea of my schedule, but I'm free almost everyday. (CONTINUED) 37. 50 CONTINUED: 50 Calvin talks with Man #2 (red tie striped cream, wearing glasses) MAN #2 I ran into Billy white. Bob Mc Lean's leaving Coles and Johnson. CALVIN Where is he going? MAN #2 He doesn't know. CALVIN Jesus. Beth is laughing, adressing MAN #4 (with grey hair) BETH No. You didn't. You're so mean. Isn't he the meanest man you've met? A guest, Man #5, talks golf with a woman. MAN #5 When a ball is in play, if a player, his partner, their equipment or their caddies accidentally move it... Birthday cake comes in with candles (CU) GUESTS He's a jolly good fellow For he's a jolly good fellow Won't regret, can't forget What we did for love Beth and other women and gathered around the piano. They are a little drunk are singing a little false. Annie, a guest with red blouse, is sitting on the steps of the stairs, eating out of her plate. Calvin comes and sits next to her. CALVIN Hi. Annie. What's your boy up to these days? ANNIE Oh. Who knows? They won't tell. How's Conrad doing? CALVIN He's great. Just great. (CONTINUED) 38. 50 CONTINUED: 50 ANNIE I asked Donald, and he says they haven't talked much. I said maybe he's a little self-conscious. A woman in green going upstairs, drunk, trips over Calvin CALVIN Oh! Calvin laughs. The woman goes upstairs. CALVIN (cont'd) No, no. No. No. He's... Beth, not far, listens. CALVIN (cont'd) There's a doctor in Highland Park... that he sees a couple of times a week. That kinda cuts into his social life. Beth, still. CALVIN (cont'd) He's great. Just great. ANNIE Really? Is he still having some problems? CALVIN Oh, no, no. Nothing like that. No, no, just somebody to talk to... that's all. Kind of polish off the rough edges, that's all. Beth joins in, to cut him off. BETH How are you. Darling? Is he falling asleep on you, yet? ANNIE Nah. He's great. CALVIN (Mimicking "Mr. Wonderful") Mr. Great. That's me! 51 INT. CAR NIGHT 51 Beth looks uptight and scornful. Calvin notices it. (CONTINUED) 39. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CALVIN Hey? BETH You drink too much at parties, Calvin. CALVIN I'm not drunk. BETH Why did you tell Annie Marshall that Conrad is seeing a psychiatrist? CALVIN I dunno. Why not? BETH Well for one thing, I don't think people hear that kind of thing very easily. CALVIN Come on, for most people, it's a status symbol, right up there with going to Europe. BETH Well, I thought your blurting it out like that was in very bad taste... CALVIN I did not think it was that... BETH Not to mention a violation of privacy! CALVIN Whose privacy? Beth is strangely vehement. BETH Our privacy! The family's privacy! I think it is a very private matter. Calvin sighs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE DAY Conrad sits in an armchair, very nervous, scratching his leg. (CONTINUED) 40. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD So what do I do... tell you my dreams? DR BERGER I don't hold much stock in dreams. CONRAD What kind of a psychiatrist are you? They all believe in dreams. DR BERGER Really? What's happening? What's going on? CONRAD I just feel... I feel so... DR BERGER What? CONRAD Jumpy. I don't know. DR BERGER Look. Kiddo... I lied. I do believe in dreams. Only sometimes I want to know what's happening when you're awake. Come on, something's bugging you, making you nervous. You're making me nervous. CONRAD Maybe I need a tranquilizer. DR BERGER Tranquilizer? CONRAD Yeah. What do you think? DR BERGER I think you came in here looking like something out of The Body Snatchers. It's not my impression that you need a tranquilizer. Conrad notices a cube on the table. CONRAD What is this? DR BERGER Clock. (CONTINUED) 41. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD Oh, I see. So you get to tell the time, but I can't. Is that it? DR BERGER Mmm, mmm. CONRAD So you know when the hour's up? DR BERGER Right. CONRAD Fifty minutes, fifty five minutes? What is it? Dr Berger doesn't answer. CONRAD (cont'd) Maybe... Maybe I don't want to swim anymore. You know, I mean my timing is for shit. You know, he's got two guys that swim the fifty, they're better than me, and... DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD They're a bunch of boring ass jocks. DR BERGER Ha, ha. CONRAD And him... I can't stand him. He's a tight ass son of a bitch! DR BERGER Ah, ah?... Have you ever thought about quitting? CONRAD Are you telling me to? DR BERGER No. CONRAD It wouldn't look good. DR BERGER Forget about how it looks! How does it feel? (CONTINUED) 42. 51 CONTINUED: 51 CONRAD How does it feel? How does it feel? DR BERGER Yes! CONRAD How does it feel?! DR BERGER Yes! How does it feel? CONRAD It's the same thing that happened last year... It's the same damn thing I did last year. DR BERGER Are you the same person you were last year? CONRAD I don't know! DR BERGER That's why you need a tranquilizer? CONRAD You tell me! DR BERGER No. It's up to you! CONRAD Fifty bucks an hour, can't you decide if I should have a pill or not? I mean, you're a doctor, I'm supposed to feel better! Right? DR BERGER Not necessarily. Conrad reflects. Dr BERGER (cont'd) How is it with your friends? Is it getting any easier? CONRAD No. It's still hard. DR BERGER Is anyplace easy? CONRAD The hospital was. (CONTINUED) 43. 51 CONTINUED: 51 DR BERGER It was? Why? CONRAD Because nobody hid anything there. DR BERGER Was there anyone there you could talk to? CONRAD Uh-huh. DR BERGER I mean, besides Dr. Crawford? CONRAD Uh-huh. 52 INT. RESTAURANT DAY 52 Conrad is sitting, reflecting. A young woman's hand blinds him for a second : Karen has arrived. CONRAD Whoa! KAREN Hi! CONRAD Hey, Karen! Hi! How are you? KAREN Good. Real good. CONRAD Sit down. Please. KAREN Thank you. CONRAD Wow. Long Pause. They laugh. KAREN When did you get back? CONRAD Uh... The end of August. KAREN God... (CONTINUED) 44. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD It's great to see you. KAREN Oh, you too. Listen. I am not gonna be able to stay a real long time. I've got a meeting over at school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns" this year. You know it? Anyway. We're going so crazy trying to get it together. I am secretary this year too. CONRAD Don't let me hang you up. KAREN No. Oh, no, you're not hanging me up! No, I really wanted to see you. I didn't know quite what to expect, though... I mean, you sounded...uh, you sounded sort of funny on the phone. CONRAD (interrupting) No, no, I wasn't. It was just a gray day, that's all. Kind of... But everything's great, I'm back in school, I am on the swim team, and... KAREN Oh. You're swimming? Terrific, Conrad! That's... That's really wonderful. CONRAD We haven't had any meets yet. I could end up on the bench all year, but... KAREN Come on, you'll do great. I'll bet your folks are real proud of you. CONRAD Yeah, yeah. WAITER What can I get you guys? CONRAD You're hungry, at all? (CONTINUED) 45. 52 CONTINUED: 52 KAREN Uh... I just want a coke. CONRAD Uh... two cokes, please. KAREN You think we offended him? CONRAD Something I said? Definitely a low self-image day. KAREN So. Uh... CONRAD KAREN - Are you... - What did... CONRAD KAREN I can't believe how beautiful You know what I really wanted you look. to... CONRAD You really look beautiful. KAREN So do you. CONRAD Do you miss it? KAREN Miss what? CONRAD The hospital. KAREN No. Waiter brings two cokes KAREN (cont'd) Thank you. CONRAD You don't miss it? At all? Nothing? Nothing about it? KAREN No. CONRAD You don't miss Leo's corny jokes? (CONTINUED) 46. 52 CONTINUED: 52 Pause. She looks at him sternly. KAREN Are you seeing a doctor? CONRAD Yeah. I'm seeing a doctor. Are you? KAREN Uh... Uh, well, Dr. Crawford gave me a name, and I went for a while. But uh... I dunno.It just didn't work for me, I guess. He just kept telling me all the things I already knew, and , uh... finally, I decided... the only one who can help me is myself. At least, that's what my dad says. I don't mean it's not right for you, Conrad. I mean I think that if it's something you want to do, that's what you should be doing. CONRAD Well, ya, I don't know how long I'll keep it up. I sorta got shoved into it. Pause KAREN Your hair grew in. CONRAD Oh, yes. That was such a dumb thing to do. KAREN I like it. CONRAD You do? KAREN Yeah! CONRAD I don't know, I just... Uh... I miss it sometimes, the hospital. Really do. KAREN Things have to change. You know? (CONTINUED) 47. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD But that's where we had the laughs. KAREN But that was a hospital. This is the real world. CONRAD Yeah, yeah, I... you're sure right. Pause KAREN I really have to go. I'm sorry. I have a meeting over at the school. Drama Club meeting. We're doing "A Thousand Clowns". CONRAD I know, you told me. KAREN Did I? CONRAD Yeah. KAREN I better hurry. Don't wanna be late. CONRAD Thanks for seeing me. He clears his throat. KAREN Conrad? Let's have a great Christmas! Okay? Let's have... a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives, OK? We can, you know. This could be the best year ever. CONRAD Yeah... Yeah. KAREN Yeah! She gets up KAREN (cont'd) Mmm... Will you call me? (CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52 CONRAD Yeah... KAREN You mean it? CONRAD Yep! KAREN You. Uh... You look good. Conrad. CONRAD Yeah. KAREN Bye. CONRAD Bye-bye. She leaves. Then stops a few steps away, and shouts : KAREN Hey! A customer is startled. KAREN (cont'd) Would you cheer up? Conrad sits there with a strange feeling of embarrassment, reflecting. 53 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. GARDEN DAY 53 From inside, Beth stares outside in the garden where Conrad is lying on a chaise lounge. She comes out. BETH It's cold out here. You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? CONRAD Do I need one? Beth is taken off guard by Conrad's reaction, doesn't know what to do. BETH What are you doing? CONRAD Nothing. Thinking. (CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 BETH About what? CONRAD Not about anything. BETH Your hair is starting to grow out. It's looking... looking better. Pause CONRAD I was thinking about the pigeon... You know the one that used to hang around the garage. How it used to get on top of your car, and he take off when you pulled out of the driveway. BETH Oh. Yeah, I remember. I remember how scared I used to get... That whosssshhhhh! Flap, flap, flap, flap!... Every time I started the car. CONRAD Yeah. That was the closest we ever came to having a pet. You remember Buck asked you, he tried to talk you into... getting a dog. Do you remember that? He said. "How about it, if it's the size of a little football?" BETH You know. Uh... That animal next door, that Pepper or Pippin, whatever its name is... CONRAD Pippin. Pippin. Pippin! BETH He's not a very friendly dog... I... I don't care what Mr. McGreary says. CONRAD BETH - What he really wanted was a - Everytime time that dog retriever. It was down the comes into this backyard, I street for sale. That's what try to get him out... he wanted. A retriever. (CONTINUED) 50. 53 CONTINUED: 53 CONRAD (he barks) Arf! Arf! Arf! Beth stops in her tracks, startled, but doesn't show it. BETH Put that on if you're gonna stay out here, okay? Conrad stays alone a while and stares. Then goes inside. 54 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE. DINING ROOM DAY 54 Conrad enters hesitantly, back from garden. Beth is busy dressing up the table. CONRAD Can I help? BETH Help what? Oh, you mean with this? No. CONRAD I will. BETH (casually) No, I tell you what you can do though. You can go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. CONRAD Mom... BETH Okay? Because it really is a mess. They stand there, facing each other, uptight. The telephone rings. Beth goes over to it, picks it up, seems suddenly delighted. BETH (cont'd) Hello. /.../ Oh, hi! /.../ Yeah, , no, I didn't get there. I was swamped with work. How did it go? /.../ No, no, I'm not doing anything, just getting ready for dinner. Uh-huh. Beth laughs to a gossip. Conrad is devastated. (CONTINUED) 51. 54 CONTINUED: 54 BETH (cont'd) Did she really? Beth laughs again. [echo effect to get into Flashback] 55 EXT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, GARDEN DAY 55 Beth is laughing at Buck story. She is lying leisurely on a mattress on the lawn. Buck is standing, telling his story. BUCK Oh anyway, Mary Ann Ramon started to just scream, just cry, right? It was crazy. We got so drunk that we couldn't talk to each other. It was the last day... the last day of school. A younger Conrad, sitting aside, is listening too, amused. BUCK (cont'd) We walked out of the building in the middle of the class! Conrad laughs. Beth laughs. BETH Oh, Bucky! Beth laughs. 56 INT. JARRETT'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY 56 Beth laughs. Conrad stares at Beth laughing on the phone. The gossip gets too funny. BETH No. Stop! Beth laughs. INT. Dr. BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING DR BERGER What do you expect from her? CONRAD We just don't connect. DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I don't know. We just don't. (CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56 Silence DR BERGER What are you thinking? CONRAD That I jack off a lot. DR BERGER So what else is new? Does it help? CONRAD For a minute. Silence DR BERGER What now? CONRAD John Boy. DR BERGER Who? CONRAD You know, in "The Waltons". John Boy? DR BERGER Yeah. What about him? CONRAD My father came into my room and he didn't know what to say. This is right after Buck died. And he came over and sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my shoulder. We just sat there. I remember I was watching his shoe. And thinking... Cos his shoe was turned over on its side. I was thinking: "He's so uptight, it's gonna crack off." Dr Berger listens carefully. CONRAD (cont'd) And I knew I should have felt something. But I didn't know what to feel. I kept thinking what they say on TV, you know, stuff like: (MORE) (CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: 56 CONRAD (cont'd) "Oh, no, noo! Ooh, My god!" But I didn't say that... because I didn't feel sad... so much as... Conrad sighs. DR BERGER So much as what? CONRAD I dunno. I kept thinking that John Boy would've said something...about the way he felt, you know. Something. DR BERGER What would John Boy have said? CONRAD I don't know. DR BERGER Come on. Conrad seems lost. Dr Berger is on to something. Dr BERGER (cont'd) Come on. CONRAD Come on what? DR BERGER Don't hold back. Silence 57 EXT. CITY BUSINESS CENTER DAY 57 Calvin walks with his business partner Ray Hanley (seen at the party). RAY HANLEY Well. At least she's an improvement. She doesn't crack gum in your face. That's what you get when your partner does the hiring and firing. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I just can never seem to tell anybody that they're not making it. (CONTINUED) 54. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY Hold, hold it. Wait a minute. That's not the problem. Where are you? CALVIN What? RAY HANLEY I've been losing you these days. CALVIN Oh, I'm sorry. RAY HANLEY That's okay. That's okay. You off the track? CALVIN Huh? They laugh. RAY HANLEY Come on. I've known you for twenty years. You think I can't tell when something's wrong? How's Connie? CALVIN Connie's all right. He is. He's okay. RAY HANLEY Look, I am sorry, it's none of my business, but I think you worry too much. You've been on the rack about him long enough. You're making it a habit. You've gotta let him go sometime. CALVIN I'm not on the rack about him. RAY HANLEY The thing about it is, in a year he'll be gone. Off to Michigan or Harvard or wherever in the hell he gets it in his head he wants to go. Maybe he'll decide to take a tour of Europe for a year and not even go to school at all. Who knows? CALVIN I can't argue with "Who knows." (CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57 RAY HANLEY I'm just try giving you the benefit of my experience. CALVIN Thanks. RAY HANLEY With Valerie, it's more than her living away from home... She's gone. Got her own friends, her own life. She breezes in ...for a couple of days on vacations, but... I don't know, maybe girls are different. Or maybe she was too aware of what was happening between Nance and me. But they leave... And all that worrying doesn't amount to a hill of crap. It's just wasted energy. Calvin is troubled. 58 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 58 Going home on the commuter, Calvin is thoughtful. He remembers his sons when they were kids. 59 INT. JARRETT'S DINING ROOM - DAY 59 YOUNG CONRAD Give me back my sweater! Come on, it's my sweater! YOUNG BUCK Possession is nine tenths... CALVIN Hang on! YOUNG BUCK Dad, what's possession? YOUNG CONRAD Give it to me! YOUNG BUCK I can't, it's already on me. CALVIN Wait, hang on! Whose sweater is it? YOUNG CONRAD It's my sweater! (CONTINUED) 56. 59 CONTINUED: 59 YOUNG BUCK OK! Alright! I'll give it back to you... as long as you give me back my hockey stick and my skis. YOUNG CONRAD All right. Calvin laughs CALVIN That's fair! In the commuter train Calvin also remembers... 60 INT. JARRETT'S HOME. LANDING NIGHT 60 Calvin knocks violently on Conrad's bedroom door CALVIN Conrad! Conrad! BETH What is it? 61 EXT. JARRETT'S HOME. STREET NIGHT 61 Conrad is taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. AMBULANCE MAN Watch your back. Cuts are vertical. He really meant business. WS on Beth, hand on mouth, astonished. Beth and Conrad have overheard. AMBULANCE MAN (cont'd) Let's go. 62 INT. COMMUTER TRAIN NIGHT 62 CONDUCTOR Lake Forest is next. Lake Forest. Calvin realizes he has to get off. 63 INT. SWIMMING POOL NIGHT 63 Another training session at the swimming pool. Conrad is heavily swimming in his lane, although he looks tired and bored, not really fit for training. He stops, exhausted at the end of a row, looks at his friends happily discussing by the side of the pool, then at coach Salan in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. Conrad reflects. 57. 64 INT. SWIMMING POOL. COACH SALAN'S OFFICE BOOTH NIGHT 64 Coach Salan is sermonning Conrad in his office glass booth overlooking the swimming pool. COACH SALAN What it is you want? I don't know what else to do for you. CONRAD I'm not asking you for anything. COACH SALAN You gotta be kidding me. I don't get it. I excuse you from practice twice a week so you can see some shrink. I work with you every damn night at your convenience. What the hell more am I supposed to do for you? CONRAD Nothing. COACH SALAN Bright kid like you, everything going for you. See, I don't get it. Why do you wanna keep messing up your life? CONRAD I don't think that ...that quitting swimming will mess up my life. I... I really don't. COACH SALAN Okay. Okay. Now, this is it. CONRAD Yeah. COACH SALAN You're a big kid now. CONRAD Uh, uh. COACH SALAN Actions have consequences. CONRAD Okay! (CONTINUED) 58. 64 CONTINUED: 64 COACH SALAN I'm not taking you back again. You'll remember that? CONRAD I won't ask you to ...sir. Conrad stands up and leaves. Coach Salan is disappointed. 65 INT. LOCKER ROOM NIGHT 65 [Laughter] Conrad tidies his closet. Lazenby comes to him. LAZENBY What happened? You all right? CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Salan says you quit the swim team. CONRAD Yeah. LAZENBY Why? CONRAD I don't know. I felt like it was a bore. LAZENBY That's not a real reason! CONRAD Well, that's the way it is. LAZENBY So what's going on? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY What happened? CONRAD Nothing. LAZENBY Connie, come on, talk to me. (CONTINUED) 59. 65 CONTINUED: 65 CONRAD Nothing. Swimming's a bore. That's all. LAZENBY Well listen, I talked to Salan... CONRAD Well, quit talking to people! Okay? LAZENBY Holy shit! Yeah. Sure. Fuck you. Jarrett. Lazenby walks away to the others, waiting. They leave. STILLMAN Ooh! Ohh! LAZENBY Shut up. Leave it alone. STILLMAN I told you. The guy's a flake. They laugh. Conrad, angry with himself, slams his locker's door. 66 INT. DR BERGER'S OFFICE EVENING 66 Conrad reclining on couch. Dr Berger washes his hands in background room, then comes in. DR BERGER So, what did your dad say about it? CONRAD I haven't told him yet. DR BERGER How come? CONRAD I don't know. The timing isn't right, you know. He sweats everything so much, he'll just get worried about it. DR BERGER Can you tell your mother? CONRAD My mother? My mother and I don't connect. Don't you listen? I told you that. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 60. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD (cont'd) What do people have in common with mothers anyway? It's all surface junk. You know: "Clean your room, brush your teeth, get good grades, nah, nah, nah, veh..." Hey, look, I'm just wasting money today. I am not gonna feel anything. I'm sorry. DR BERGER No. Sorry's out. Come on, something's on your mind. CONRAD What time is it? DR BERGER No, no, never mind the time. There's time. Look. Remember the contract? Control? Maybe there's some connection between control and uh... what do we call it? - lack of feeling? Mmm? CONRAD I said I feel things. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Ah, God... Come on. DR BERGER When? CONRAD Sometimes. I don't know. DR BERGER Come on, come on, Jarrett, I thought you didn't like to fool around. CONRAD I don't? I'm not. DR BERGER Like to play games, do you? CONRAD I don't! DR BERGER So? (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD What do you want? DR BERGER I'll tell you what I want. I want you to leave "I don't know" out there on the table with the magazines. Okay? CONRAD Yeah, and if I don't have an answer you want me to make one up? DR BERGER Yeah. That would be nice. Make one up. Right now. About how there's no feelings in there. CONRAD I said I have feelings. DR BERGER Oh! Now you have, now you don't! Get it together, Jarrett. CONRAD Why you hassle me? Why are you trying to make me mad? DR BERGER Are you mad? CONRAD No! DR BERGER Oh, cut the shit! You're mad! You're mad as hell! You don't like being pushed. So why don't you do something about it! CONRAD What? DR BERGER Tell me to fuck off! I don't know. CONRAD Well, fuck off! No. No, I can't, I can't do this. DR BERGER Why not? (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: 66 CONRAD I can't... DR BERGER Why not? CONRAD I can't do this. It takes too much energy to get mad! DR BERGER Do you know how much energy it takes to hold it back? CONRAD When I let myself feel low, I feel as lousy. DR BERGER Oh! I beg your pardon! I never promised you a rose garden... CONRAD Fuck you. Berger! DR BERGER What? CONRAD Fuck you. DR BERGER Yeah? CONRAD Fuck you! DR BERGER That's it! CONRAD Jesus, you're really weird! What about you? What do you feel, huh? Do you jack off or jerk off? Whatever you call it? DR BERGER What do you think? CONRAD (shouts at him) What do I think? I think you married your fat lady... and you goona over fuck the daylights out of her! (CONTINUED) 63. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DR BERGER Sounds good to me. CONRAD Ah! Ha! Ha... Conrad falls on the couch, out of breath. DR BERGER A little advice about feeling, kiddo... Don't expect it always to tickle. 67 INT. GRANDPARENTS' LIVING ROOM DAY 67 Beth, Grandfather (Beth's father), Conrad and Calvin pose in front of Grandmother (Beth's mother) aiming her camera to take a photo. Grandfather is very excited and noisy. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ha! Ha! Mother do you know Be quiet. I have to how to aim that thing? concentrate. Be quiet. GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Is it in focus? Smile. Smile. Okay. Good. Okay, now I want to take the three young ones. Dad, will you get out of there. Will you get out of there? GRANDFATHER Oh, all right, all right. GRANDMOTHER And be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. Conrad. Where are you? GRANDFATHER Connie! GRANDMOTHER Connie. GRANDFATHER Over in the middle between your mother and father. CALVIN That's good. GRANDMOTHER That's great. All right, smile everybody. (CONTINUED) 64. 67 CONTINUED: 67 GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER You're taller than your Quiet! Will you be quiet? mother is! Really! All right, smile! GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER This is beautiful. Hold it Shut up! Wonderful. OK, now I level, would you? want to take Cal and Beth. OK? GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Great! Sure. Oh, come on. You Oh, hoooold it! can do better than that. GRANDFATHER Ohhh! CALVIN Connie. I want one of Connie and his mother. BETH No, I tell you what. Let's get the three men in there, and I'll take a picture of you. CALVIN Connie, move in a little closer to your mother. Okay... prize winner... GRANDFATHER Yeah. That's great. CALVIN Portrait... GRANDFATHER It's great. BETH Do it. CALVIN Page one, Lake Forrester... GRANDFATHER GRANDMOTHER Ain't it mother? Yes. It's marvellous. I love it. Calvin clicks but it doesn't work, the camera wasn't cocked. CALVIN (cont'd) Shoot, I didn't cock it. (CONTINUED) 65. 67 CONTINUED: 67 BETH Calvin... CALVIN Hold it. Connie, smile! BETH Calvin! CALVIN Just a second, smile! BETH Calvin, give me the camera. CALVIN No, I didn't get it yet , Beth. BETH Come on, give me the camera. CONRAD Dad, give her the camera. CALVIN I want a really good picture of the two of you, OK? BETH No but I really want a shot of the three of you men. Give me the camera, Calvin. Please... CALVIN Not until I get a picture of the two of you. BETH Cal? CONRAD (shouts) GIVE-HER-THE-GODDAMN-CAMERA! Calvin is startled. Conrad sits in an armchair. Calvin hands the camera to Beth. They exchange places. BETH Smile. Beth takes a photo of Calvin. BETH (cont'd) Who's hungry? I'll make the sandwiches. (CONTINUED) 66. 67 CONTINUED: 67 Beth leaves for the kitchen, leaving the camera to her mother. 68 INT. GRANDPARENTS' KITCHEN DAY 68 [plate crashes]. We follow the grandmother going to the kitchen to see what's happening. With her, we discover Beth kneeling, picking up a broken plate on the ground. GRANDMOTHER Beth?! BETH I think it can be saved. Beth gets up, goes to the table and starts preparing the sandwiches. BETH (cont'd) That was dumb. It was just so dumb. I don't think he's happy in school. GRANDMOTHER Have you talked to his teachers? BETH I don't think people want to be with him. He provokes people. GRANDMOTHER Well. / Why don't | shortly | How many times the word 'shortly' appears in the text? | 0 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | showed | How many times the word 'showed' appears in the text? | 1 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | equipped | How many times the word 'equipped' appears in the text? | 0 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | strictly | How many times the word 'strictly' appears in the text? | 1 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | room | How many times the word 'room' appears in the text? | 3 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | nicer | How many times the word 'nicer' appears in the text? | 0 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | wrapped | How many times the word 'wrapped' appears in the text? | 1 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | heavens | How many times the word 'heavens' appears in the text? | 1 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | attention | How many times the word 'attention' appears in the text? | 3 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | water | How many times the word 'water' appears in the text? | 0 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | just | How many times the word 'just' appears in the text? | 3 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | amphetamines | How many times the word 'amphetamines' appears in the text? | 0 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | picture | How many times the word 'picture' appears in the text? | 2 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | straggling | How many times the word 'straggling' appears in the text? | 0 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | breath | How many times the word 'breath' appears in the text? | 1 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | candy | How many times the word 'candy' appears in the text? | 2 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | rehearsed | How many times the word 'rehearsed' appears in the text? | 0 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | frames | How many times the word 'frames' appears in the text? | 0 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | computers | How many times the word 'computers' appears in the text? | 2 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | lunchtime | How many times the word 'lunchtime' appears in the text? | 1 |
* * Mary, looking pale and worried, left him to go down to the kitchen and start breakfast. Burckhardt stood staring at the switch for a long time. His mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. He shaved and dressed and ate his breakfast in a state of numb introspection. Mary didn't disturb him; she was apprehensive and soothing. She kissed him good-by as he hurried out to the bus without another word. Miss Mitkin, at the reception desk, greeted him with a yawn. "Morning," she said drowsily. "Mr. Barth won't be in today." Burckhardt started to say something, but checked himself. She would not know that Barth hadn't been in yesterday, either, because she was tearing a June 14th pad off her calendar to make way for the "new" June 15th sheet. He staggered to his own desk and stared unseeingly at the morning's mail. It had not even been opened yet, but he knew that the Factory Distributors envelope contained an order for twenty thousand feet of the new acoustic tile, and the one from Finebeck & Sons was a complaint. After a long while, he forced himself to open them. They were. By lunchtime, driven by a desperate sense of urgency, Burckhardt made Miss Mitkin take her lunch hour first--the June-fifteenth-that-was-yesterday, _he_ had gone first. She went, looking vaguely worried about his strained insistence, but it made no difference to Burckhardt's mood. The phone rang and Burckhardt picked it up abstractedly. "Contro Chemicals Downtown, Burckhardt speaking." The voice said, "This is Swanson," and stopped. Burckhardt waited expectantly, but that was all. He said, "Hello?" Again the pause. Then Swanson asked in sad resignation, "Still nothing, eh?" "Nothing what? Swanson, is there something you want? You came up to me yesterday and went through this routine. You--" The voice crackled: "Burckhardt! Oh, my good heavens, _you remember_! Stay right there--I'll be down in half an hour!" "What's this all about?" "Never mind," the little man said exultantly. "Tell you about it when I see you. Don't say any more over the phone--somebody may be listening. Just wait there. Say, hold on a minute. Will you be alone in the office?" "Well, no. Miss Mitkin will probably--" "Hell. Look, Burckhardt, where do you eat lunch? Is it good and noisy?" "Why, I suppose so. The Crystal Cafe. It's just about a block--" "I know where it is. Meet you in half an hour!" And the receiver clicked. * * * * * The Crystal Cafe was no longer painted red, but the temperature was still up. And they had added piped-in music interspersed with commercials. The advertisements were for Frosty-Flip, Marlin Cigarettes--"They're sanitized," the announcer purred--and something called Choco-Bite candy bars that Burckhardt couldn't remember ever having heard of before. But he heard more about them quickly enough. While he was waiting for Swanson to show up, a girl in the cellophane skirt of a nightclub cigarette vendor came through the restaurant with a tray of tiny scarlet-wrapped candies. "Choco-Bites are _tangy_," she was murmuring as she came close to his table. "Choco-Bites are _tangier_ than tangy!" Burckhardt, intent on watching for the strange little man who had phoned him, paid little attention. But as she scattered a handful of the confections over the table next to his, smiling at the occupants, he caught a glimpse of her and turned to stare. "Why, Miss Horn!" he said. The girl dropped her tray of candies. Burckhardt rose, concerned over the girl. "Is something wrong?" But she fled. The manager of the restaurant was staring suspiciously at Burckhardt, who sank back in his seat and tried to look inconspicuous. He hadn't insulted the girl! Maybe she was just a very strictly reared young lady, he thought--in spite of the long bare legs under the cellophane skirt--and when he addressed her, she thought he was a masher. Ridiculous idea. Burckhardt scowled uneasily and picked up his menu. "Burckhardt!" It was a shrill whisper. Burckhardt looked up over the top of his menu, startled. In the seat across from him, the little man named Swanson was sitting, tensely poised. "Burckhardt!" the little man whispered again. "Let's get out of here! They're on to you now. If you want to stay alive, come on!" There was no arguing with the man. Burckhardt gave the hovering manager a sick, apologetic smile and followed Swanson out. The little man seemed to know where he was going. In the street, he clutched Burckhardt by the elbow and hurried him off down the block. "Did you see her?" he demanded. "That Horn woman, in the phone booth? She'll have them here in five minutes, believe me, so hurry it up!" * * * * * Although the street was full of people and cars, nobody was paying any attention to Burckhardt and Swanson. The air had a nip in it--more like October than June, Burckhardt thought, in spite of the weather bureau. And he felt like a fool, following this mad little man down the street, running away from some "them" toward--toward what? The little man might be crazy, but he was afraid. And the fear was infectious. "In here!" panted the little man. It was another restaurant--more of a bar, really, and a sort of second-rate place that Burckhardt had never patronized. "Right straight through," Swanson whispered; and Burckhardt, like a biddable boy, side-stepped through the mass of tables to the far end of the restaurant. It was "L"-shaped, with a front on two streets at right angles to each other. They came out on the side street, Swanson staring coldly back at the question-looking cashier, and crossed to the opposite sidewalk. They were under the marquee of a movie theater. Swanson's expression began to relax. "Lost them!" he crowed softly. "We're almost there." He stepped up to the window and bought two tickets. Burckhardt trailed him in to the theater. It was a weekday matinee and the place was almost empty. From the screen came sounds of gunfire and horse's hoofs. A solitary usher, leaning against a bright brass rail, looked briefly at them and went back to staring boredly at the picture as Swanson led Burckhardt down a flight of carpeted marble steps. They were in the lounge and it was empty. There was a door for men and one for ladies; and there was a third door, marked "MANAGER" in gold letters. Swanson listened at the door, and gently opened it and peered inside. "Okay," he said, gesturing. Burckhardt followed him through an empty office, to another door--a closet, probably, because it was unmarked. But it was no closet. Swanson opened it warily, looked inside, then motioned Burckhardt to follow. It was a tunnel, metal-walled, brightly lit. Empty, it stretched vacantly away in both directions from them. Burckhardt looked wondering around. One thing he knew and knew full well: No such tunnel belonged under Tylerton. * * * * * There was a room off the tunnel with chairs and a desk and what looked like television screens. Swanson slumped in a chair, panting. "We're all right for a while here," he wheezed. "They don't come here much any more. If they do, we'll hear them and we can hide." "Who?" demanded Burckhardt. The little man said, "Martians!" His voice cracked on the word and the life seemed to go out of him. In morose tones, he went on: "Well, I think they're Martians. Although you could be right, you know; I've had plenty of time to think it over these last few weeks, after they got you, and it's possible they're Russians after all. Still--" "Start from the beginning. Who got me when?" Swanson sighed. "So we have to go through the whole thing again. All right. It was about two months ago that you banged on my door, late at night. You were all beat up--scared silly. You begged me to help you--" "_I_ did?" "Naturally you don't remember any of this. Listen and you'll understand. You were talking a blue streak about being captured and threatened, and your wife being dead and coming back to life, and all kinds of mixed-up nonsense. I thought you were crazy. But--well, I've always had a lot of respect for you. And you begged me to hide you and I have this darkroom, you know. It locks from the inside only. I put the lock on myself. So we went in there--just to humor you--and along about midnight, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes after, we passed out." "Passed out?" Swanson nodded. "Both of us. It was like being hit with a sandbag. Look, didn't that happen to you again last night?" "I guess it did," Burckhardt shook his head uncertainly. "Sure. And then all of a sudden we were awake again, and you said you were going to show me something funny, and we went out and bought a paper. And the date on it was June 15th." "June 15th? But that's today! I mean--" "You got it, friend. It's _always_ today!" It took time to penetrate. Burckhardt said wonderingly, "You've hidden out in that darkroom for how many weeks?" "How can I tell? Four or five, maybe. I lost count. And every day the same--always the 15th of June, always my landlady, Mrs. Keefer, is sweeping the front steps, always the same headline in the papers at the corner. It gets monotonous, friend." IV It was Burckhardt's idea and Swanson despised it, but he went along. He was the type who always went along. "It's dangerous," he grumbled worriedly. "Suppose somebody comes by? They'll spot us and--" "What have we got to lose?" Swanson shrugged. "It's dangerous," he said again. But he went along. Burckhardt's idea was very simple. He was sure of only one thing--the tunnel went somewhere. Martians or Russians, fantastic plot or crazy hallucination, whatever was wrong with Tylerton had an explanation, and the place to look for it was at the end of the tunnel. They jogged along. It was more than a mile before they began to see an end. They were in luck--at least no one came through the tunnel to spot them. But Swanson had said that it was only at certain hours that the tunnel seemed to be in use. Always the fifteenth of June. Why? Burckhardt asked himself. Never mind the how. _Why?_ And falling asleep, completely involuntarily--everyone at the same time, it seemed. And not remembering, never remembering anything--Swanson had said how eagerly he saw Burckhardt again, the morning after Burckhardt had incautiously waited five minutes too many before retreating into the darkroom. When Swanson had come to, Burckhardt was gone. Swanson had seen him in the street that afternoon, but Burckhardt had remembered nothing. And Swanson had lived his mouse's existence for weeks, hiding in the woodwork at night, stealing out by day to search for Burckhardt in pitiful hope, scurrying around the fringe of life, trying to keep from the deadly eyes of _them_. Them. One of "them" was the girl named April Horn. It was by seeing her walk carelessly into a telephone booth and never come out that Swanson had found the tunnel. Another was the man at the cigar stand in Burckhardt's office building. There were more, at least a dozen that Swanson knew of or suspected. They were easy enough to spot, once you knew where to look--for they, alone in Tylerton, changed their roles from day to day. Burckhardt was on that 8:51 bus, every morning of every day-that-was-June-15th, never different by a hair or a moment. But April Horn was sometimes gaudy in the cellophane skirt, giving away candy or cigarettes; sometimes plainly dressed; sometimes not seen by Swanson at all. Russians? Martians? Whatever they were, what could they be hoping to gain from this mad masquerade? Burckhardt didn't know the answer--but perhaps it lay beyond the door at the end of the tunnel. They listened carefully and heard distant sounds that could not quite be made out, but nothing that seemed dangerous. They slipped through. And, through a wide chamber and up a flight of steps, they found they were in what Burckhardt recognized as the Contro Chemicals plant. * * * * * Nobody was in sight. By itself, that was not so very odd--the automatized factory had never had very many persons in it. But Burckhardt remembered, from his single visit, the endless, ceaseless busyness of the plant, the valves that opened and closed, the vats that emptied themselves and filled themselves and stirred and cooked and chemically tasted the bubbling liquids they held inside themselves. The plant was never populated, but it was never still. Only--now it _was_ still. Except for the distant sounds, there was no breath of life in it. The captive electronic minds were sending out no commands; the coils and relays were at rest. Burckhardt said, "Come on." Swanson reluctantly followed him through the tangled aisles of stainless steel columns and tanks. They walked as though they were in the presence of the dead. In a way, they were, for what were the automatons that once had run the factory, if not corpses? The machines were controlled by computers that were really not computers at all, but the electronic analogues of living brains. And if they were turned off, were they not dead? For each had once been a human mind. Take a master petroleum chemist, infinitely skilled in the separation of crude oil into its fractions. Strap him down, probe into his brain with searching electronic needles. The machine scans the patterns of the mind, translates what it sees into charts and sine waves. Impress these same waves on a robot computer and you have your chemist. Or a thousand copies of your chemist, if you wish, with all of his knowledge and skill, and no human limitations at all. Put a dozen copies of him into a plant and they will run it all, twenty-four hours a day, seven days of every week, never tiring, never overlooking anything, never forgetting.... Swanson stepped up closer to Burckhardt. "I'm scared," he said. They were across the room now and the sounds were louder. They were not machine sounds, but voices; Burckhardt moved cautiously up to a door and dared to peer around it. It was a smaller room, lined with television screens, each one--a dozen or more, at least--with a man or woman sitting before it, staring into the screen and dictating notes into a recorder. The viewers dialed from scene to scene; no two screens ever showed the same picture. The pictures seemed to have little in common. One was a store, where a girl dressed like April Horn was demonstrating home freezers. One was a series of shots of kitchens. Burckhardt caught a glimpse of what looked like the cigar stand in his office building. It was baffling and Burckhardt would have loved to stand there and puzzle it out, but it was too busy a place. There was the chance that someone would look their way or walk out and find them. * * * * * They found another room. This one was empty. It was an office, large and sumptuous. It had a desk, littered with papers. Burckhardt stared at them, briefly at first--then, as the words on one of them caught his attention, with incredulous fascination. He snatched up the topmost sheet, scanned it, and another, while Swanson was frenziedly searching through the drawers. Burckhardt swore unbelievingly and dropped the papers to the desk. Swanson, hardly noticing, yelped with delight: "Look!" He dragged a gun from the desk. "And it's loaded, too!" Burckhardt stared at him blankly, trying to assimilate what he had read. Then, as he realized what Swanson had said, Burckhardt's eyes sparked. "Good man!" he cried. "We'll take it. We're getting out of here with that gun, Swanson. And we're going to the police! Not the cops in Tylerton, but the F.B.I., maybe. Take a look at this!" The sheaf he handed Swanson was headed: "Test Area Progress Report. Subject: Marlin Cigarettes Campaign." It was mostly tabulated figures that made little sense to Burckhardt and Swanson, but at the end was a summary that said: Although Test 47-K3 pulled nearly double the number of new users of any of the other tests conducted, it probably cannot be used in the field because of local sound-truck control ordinances. The tests in the 47-K12 group were second best and our recommendation is that retests be conducted in this appeal, testing each of the three best campaigns with and without the addition of sampling techniques. An alternative suggestion might be to proceed directly with the top appeal in the K12 series, if the client is unwilling to go to the expense of additional tests. All of these forecast expectations have an 80% probability of being within one-half of one per cent of results forecast, and more than 99% probability of coming within 5%. Swanson looked up from the paper into Burckhardt's eyes. "I don't get it," he complained. Burckhardt said, "I don't blame you. It's crazy, but it fits the facts, Swanson, _it fits the facts_. They aren't Russians and they aren't Martians. These people are advertising men! Somehow--heaven knows how they did it--they've taken Tylerton over. They've got us, all of us, you and me and twenty or thirty thousand other people, right under their thumbs. "Maybe they hypnotize us and maybe it's something else; but however they do it, what happens is that they let us live a day at a time. They pour advertising into us the whole damned day long. And at the end of the day, they see what happened--and then they wash the day out of our minds and start again the next day with different advertising." * * * * * Swanson's jaw was hanging. He managed to close it and swallow. "Nuts!" he said flatly. Burckhardt shook his head. "Sure, it sounds crazy--but this whole thing is crazy. How else would you explain it? You can't deny that most of Tylerton lives the same day over and over again. You've _seen_ it! And that's the crazy part and we have to admit that that's true--unless we are the crazy ones. And once you admit that somebody, somehow, knows how to accomplish that, the rest of it makes all kinds of sense. "Think of it, Swanson! They test every last detail before they spend a nickel on advertising! Do you have any idea what that means? Lord knows how much money is involved, but I know for a fact that some companies spend twenty or thirty million dollars a year on advertising. Multiply it, say, by a hundred companies. Say that every one of them learns how to cut its advertising cost by only ten per cent. And that's peanuts, believe me! "If they know in advance what's going to work, they can cut their costs in half--maybe to less than half, I don't know. But that's saving two or three hundred million dollars a year--and if they pay only ten or twenty per cent of that for the use of Tylerton, it's still dirt cheap for them and a fortune for whoever took over Tylerton." Swanson licked his lips. "You mean," he offered hesitantly, "that we're a--well, a kind of captive audience?" Burckhardt frowned. "Not exactly." He thought for a minute. "You know how a doctor tests something like penicillin? He sets up a series of little colonies of germs on gelatine disks and he tries the stuff on one after another, changing it a little each time. Well, that's us--we're the germs, Swanson. Only it's even more efficient than that. They don't have to test more than one colony, because they can use it over and over again." It was too hard for Swanson to take in. He only said: "What do we do about it?" "We go to the police. They can't use human beings for guinea pigs!" "How do we get to the police?" Burckhardt hesitated. "I think--" he began slowly. "Sure. This place is the office of somebody important. We've got a gun. We'll stay right here until he comes along. And he'll get us out of here." Simple and direct. Swanson subsided and found a place to sit, against the wall, out of sight of the door. Burckhardt took up a position behind the door itself-- And waited. * * * * * The wait was not as long as it might have been. Half an hour, perhaps. Then Burckhardt heard approaching voices and had time for a swift whisper to Swanson before he flattened himself against the wall. It was a man's voice, and a girl's. The man was saying, "--reason why you couldn't report on the phone? You're ruining your whole day's test! What the devil's the matter with you, Janet?" "I'm sorry, Mr. Dorchin," she said in a sweet, clear tone. "I thought it was important." The man grumbled, "Important! One lousy unit out of twenty-one thousand." "But it's the Burckhardt one, Mr. Dorchin. Again. And the way he got out of sight, he must have had some help." "All right, all right. It doesn't matter, Janet; the Choco-Bite program is ahead of schedule anyhow. As long as you're this far, come on in the office and make out your worksheet. And don't worry about the Burckhardt business. He's probably just wandering around. We'll pick him up tonight and--" They were inside the door. Burckhardt kicked it shut and pointed the gun. "That's what you think," he said triumphantly. It was worth the terrified hours, the bewildered sense of insanity, the confusion and fear. It was the most satisfying sensation Burckhardt had ever had in his life. The expression on the man's face was one he had read about but never actually seen: Dorchin's mouth fell open and his eyes went wide, and though he managed to make a sound that might have been a question, it was not in words. The girl was almost as surprised. And Burckhardt, looking at her, knew why her voice had been so familiar. The girl was the one who had introduced herself to him as April Horn. Dorchin recovered himself quickly. "Is this the one?" he asked sharply. The girl said, "Yes." Dorchin nodded. "I take it back. You were right. Uh, you--Burckhardt. What do you want?" * * * * * Swanson piped up, "Watch him! He might have another gun." "Search him then," Burckhardt said. "I'll tell you what we want, Dorchin. We want you to come along with us to the FBI and explain to them how you can get away with kidnapping twenty thousand people." "Kidnapping?" Dorchin snorted. "That's ridiculous, man! Put that gun away--you can't get away with this!" Burckhardt hefted the gun grimly. "I think I can." Dorchin looked furious and sick--but, oddly, not afraid. "Damn it--" he started to bellow, then closed his mouth and swallowed. "Listen," he said persuasively, "you're making a big mistake. I haven't kidnapped anybody, believe me!" "I don't believe you," said Burckhardt bluntly. "Why should I?" "But it's true! Take my word for it!" Burckhardt shook his head. "The FBI can take your word if they like. We'll find out. Now how do we get out of here?" Dorchin opened his mouth to argue. Burckhardt blazed: "Don't get in my way! I'm willing to kill you if I have to. Don't you understand that? I've gone through two days of hell and every second of it I blame on you. Kill you? It would be a pleasure and I don't have a thing in the world to lose! Get us out of here!" Dorchin's face went suddenly opaque. He seemed about to move; but the blonde girl he had called Janet slipped between him and the gun. "Please!" she begged Burckhardt. "You don't understand. You mustn't shoot!" "_Get out of my way!_" "But, Mr. Burckhardt--" She never finished. Dorchin, his face unreadable, headed for the door. Burckhardt had been pushed one degree too far. He swung the gun, bellowing. The girl called out sharply. He pulled the trigger. Closing on him with pity and pleading in her eyes, she came again between the gun and the man. Burckhardt aimed low instinctively, to cripple, not to kill. But his aim was not good. The pistol bullet caught her in the pit of the stomach. * * * * * Dorchin was out and away, the door slamming behind him, his footsteps racing into the distance. Burckhardt hurled the gun across the room and jumped to the girl. Swanson was moaning. "That finishes us, Burckhardt. Oh, why did you do it? We could have got away. We could have gone to the police. We were practically out of here! We--" Burckhardt wasn't listening. He was kneeling beside the girl. She lay flat on her back, arms helter-skelter. There was no blood, hardly any sign of the wound; but the position in which she lay was one that no living human being could have held. Yet she wasn't dead. She wasn't dead--and Burckhardt, frozen beside her, thought: _She isn't alive, either._ There was no pulse, but there was a rhythmic ticking of the outstretched fingers of one hand. There was no sound of breathing, but there was a hissing, sizzling noise. The eyes were open and they were looking at Burckhardt. There was neither fear nor pain in them, only a pity deeper than the Pit. She said, through lips that writhed erratically, "Don't--worry, Mr. Burckhardt. I'm--all right." Burckhardt rocked back on his haunches, staring. Where there should have been blood, there was a clean break of a substance that was not flesh; and a curl of thin golden-copper wire. Burckhardt moistened his lips. "You're a robot," he said. The girl tried to nod. The twitching lips said, "I am. And so are you." V Swanson, after a single inarticulate sound, walked over to the desk and sat staring at the wall. Burckhardt rocked back and forth beside the shattered puppet on the floor. He had no words. The girl managed to say, "I'm--sorry all this happened." The lovely lips twisted into a rictus sneer, frightening on that smooth young face, until she got them under control. "Sorry," she said again. "The--nerve center was right about where the bullet hit. Makes it difficult to--control this body." Burckhardt nodded automatically, accepting the apology. Robots. It was obvious, now that he knew it. In hindsight, it was inevitable. He thought of his mystic notions of hypnosis or Martians or something stranger still--idiotic, for the simple fact of created robots fitted the facts better and more economically. All the evidence had been before him. The automatized factory, with its transplanted minds--why not transplant a mind into a humanoid robot, give it its original owner's features and form? Could it know that it was a robot? "All of us," Burckhardt said, hardly aware that he spoke out loud. "My wife and my secretary and you and the neighbors. All of us the same." "No." The voice was stronger. "Not exactly the same, all of us. I chose it, you see. I--" this time the convulsed lips were not a random contortion of the nerves--"I was an ugly woman, Mr. Burckhardt, and nearly sixty years old. Life had passed me. And when Mr. Dorchin offered me the chance to live again as a beautiful girl, I jumped at the opportunity. Believe me, I _jumped_, in spite of its disadvantages. My flesh body is still alive--it is sleeping, while I am here. I could go back to it. But I never do." "And the rest of us?" "Different, Mr. Burckhardt. I work here. I'm carrying out Mr. Dorchin's orders, mapping the results of the advertising tests, watching you and the others live as he makes you live. I do it by choice, but you have no choice. Because, you see, you are dead." "Dead?" cried Burckhardt; it was almost a scream. The blue eyes looked at him unwinkingly and he knew that it was no lie. He swallowed, marveling at the intricate mechanisms that let him swallow, and sweat, and eat. He said: "Oh. The explosion in my dream." "It was no dream. You are right--the explosion. That was real and this plant was the cause of it. The storage tanks let go and what the blast didn't get, the fumes killed a little later. But almost everyone died in the blast, twenty-one thousand persons. You died with them and that was Dorchin's chance." "The damned ghoul!" said Burckhardt. * * * * * The twisted shoulders shrugged with an odd grace. "Why? You were gone. And you and all the others were what Dorchin wanted--a whole town, a perfect slice of America. It's as easy to transfer a pattern from a dead brain as a living one. Easier--the dead can't say no. Oh, it took work and money--the town was a wreck--but it was possible to rebuild it entirely, especially because it wasn't necessary to have all the details exact. "There were the homes where even the brains had been utterly destroyed, and those are empty inside, and the cellars that needn't be too perfect, and the streets that hardly matter. And anyway, it only has to last for one day. The same day--June 15th--over and over again; and if someone finds something a little wrong, somehow, the discovery won't have time to snowball, wreck the validity of the tests, because all errors are canceled out at midnight." The face tried to smile. "That's the dream, Mr. Burckhardt, that day of June 15th, because you never really lived it. It's a present from Mr. Dorchin, a dream that he gives you and then takes back at the end of the day, when he has all his figures on how many of you responded to | caught | How many times the word 'caught' appears in the text? | 2 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | doe | How many times the word 'doe' appears in the text? | 3 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | tonight | How many times the word 'tonight' appears in the text? | 3 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | different | How many times the word 'different' appears in the text? | 3 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | re | How many times the word 're' appears in the text? | 1 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | taking | How many times the word 'taking' appears in the text? | 2 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | doing | How many times the word 'doing' appears in the text? | 2 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | insults | How many times the word 'insults' appears in the text? | 0 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | knocking | How many times the word 'knocking' appears in the text? | 1 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | sacrifice | How many times the word 'sacrifice' appears in the text? | 0 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | guys | How many times the word 'guys' appears in the text? | 0 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | sorry | How many times the word 'sorry' appears in the text? | 3 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | please | How many times the word 'please' appears in the text? | 3 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | fast | How many times the word 'fast' appears in the text? | 1 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | stare | How many times the word 'stare' appears in the text? | 2 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | fines | How many times the word 'fines' appears in the text? | 0 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | area | How many times the word 'area' appears in the text? | 1 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | i.a. | How many times the word 'i.a.' appears in the text? | 1 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | blew | How many times the word 'blew' appears in the text? | 0 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | pouring | How many times the word 'pouring' appears in the text? | 2 |
- (choking back tears) We worked on... cases ... together ... (can't go on) I'm sorry ... sorry -- Trent's grief is so sincere, he himself almost believes it; his aides shield him from the camera, steer him away, in the direction of where O'Malley is. Holland goes the opposite way. The reporter picks up her V.O.: Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 23. TV REPORTER (V.O.) That was Assemblyman Vernon Trent, deeply moved by the loss of an officer he knew, (etc.). Medics wheel Felicia's body past, one bloody forearm visible beneath the sheet. TRENT What makes people do this? (in tears, agony) Will you tell me? Will someone please tell me?!! O'Malley watches Trent pass, weeping, escorted out by police and aides. Across the crowd O'Malley spots Captain Holland, who apparently is the man he's searching for. O'MALLEY (calls) Holland! Captain Holland! In the general hubbub, Holland doesn't hear -- conferring with some other officers. ANGLE PAST HOLLAND - EMERGENCY ROOM THROUGH the glass partition, we see doctors and nurses going about their examination of Storm's body. O'MALLEY pushes his way toward Holland. Two uniformed cops in the crush along the way. O'Malley comes up beside Holland. HOLLAND (BAREHEADED SHADOW) They always said Storm was superhuman. Now we know why he was always jacked up on coke! O'Malley grabs Holland, slams him against the glass wall. O'MALLEY (whisper, full of menace) Let me tell you something, you piss- ant. That man in there was the cleanest I ever knew -- with more honor and guts than this whole department put together. If I ever hear you say fuck all like that again, I'll lose my shield to put you where you belong. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 24. O'Malley releases Holland, backs off, calming himself. The men stare at each other. HOLLAND (hostile) What the hell's I.A. doing up at this hour? O'MALLEY Taking over the show. HOLLAND This is Homicide, not Internal Affairs. O'Malley tugs out a letter on official stationery. O'MALLEY We got two cops down, with money and drugs all over the place. This is straight from the commissioner. Holland is clearly upset by this, but knows he can't argue with a letter from the commissioner. Reluctantly he yields. He turns his gaze back to the stretcher in the ER. Now he and O'Malley are just two officers, sharing a loss. HOLLAND You and Storm were tight, O'Malley. I'm sorry. O'MALLEY He was the most unstoppable sonofabitch I ever knew. HOLLAND Well. He got stopped tonight. Holland breaks his stare at Storm's body and drags away, signaling his own cops to vacate. They exit. No farewells between Holland and O'Malley. O'Malley waits silently, watching Holland and his men clear the corridor and disappear. DOCTOR emerges from the emergency room. E.R. DOCTOR Excuse me, are you with the police? Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 25. O'MALLEY (dully, showing ID) Lieutenant O'Malley. What've you got, Doc? E.R. DOCTOR I've got a live cop, is what I've got. INT. E.R. TRAUMA ROOM O'Malley stares at Storm's body, stunned. The Doctor stands beside him -- at the side of the room, away from the medics. E.R. DOCTOR The paramedics called it wrong, so did my people at first. Look... it happens. The man had no vital signs. With all the blood and excitement, I almost missed it myself. But we have a pulse now. Your man is alive, Lieutenant. O'Malley's eyes flash from Storm (over whom the medics are now working) to the corridor outside, at the end of which he can see several straggling cops and news people. His mind is racing -- He spots something on a stainless steel medical table: Storm's blood-soaked vest, apparently tossed there when the medics stripped Storm to work on him. O'Malley picks the vest up. He studies it - INSERT - VEST The surveillance tape Storm stashed is still there! O'MALLEY slips the cassette into his pocket. O'Malley makes a decision. Turns intensely toward the Doctor. O'MALLEY Who else knows he isn't dead? E.R. DOCTOR No one ... just the people in her. But -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 26. O'MALLEY I want to see each one of them before they leave the room. No one else comes in as of right now. E.R. DOCTOR Hold on. I don't think you -- O'Malley steers the Doctor into a corner. O'MALLEY (eyeball to eyeball) Mason Storm is going to vanish, Doctor -- and you're gonna help make it happen. Until he can give us some answers, the deader he is, the safer he is. CLOSE - STORM The man could be dead, but the reality is he has survived and still lives. QUICK FADE TO: MONTAGE - WITH SCORE A) L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE "SENATOR CALDWELL KILLED IN SIERRA PLANE CRASH. Photo of Senator Caldwell, photo of light plane crash in mountains. B) CLOSE - TV - LOCAL NEWS Photo of Trent, with capitol in b.g. NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) -- The governor today appointed dashing L.A. Assemblyman Vernon Trent to the Senate seat vacated by the tragic death of -- C) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Scene of still sadness, motionless bodies in beds. An elderly nurse tends to patients ... one of them is Storm. D) SAN FRANCISC0 CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 27. "TRENT WINS SECOND TERM." Subhead: "POPULAR SENATOR TOUTED FOR VP SLOT IN '92." Photo of Trent with wife and kids. E) INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm in a different bed, different side of the ward. Different nurse. Monitors depict EEG, etc. MUSIC DOWN, sequence ends -- EXT. NIGHT SKY - THUNDERSTORM (STOCK) A THUNDERBOLT CRACKS -- lightning, rain sheeting down. SUPER: "SEVEN YEARS LATER" INT. (UCI) MEDICAL FACILITY - COMA WARD - NIGHT We hear RAIN O.S. as two hallway swinging doors open and -- ANDREA SIMPSON ("ANDY") strides through. Raincoat, wet hair ... carrying a small clothing bag, armload of books and notes. Andy is serious and businesslike but underneath it all, she is the most sensuous and beautiful woman you have ever seen. ANGLE - NURSES' STATION MARTHA COE, an attractive black nurse about Andy's age, finishes her shift report. She barely pays attention as Andy comes up, starts unloading her stuff. MARTHA You're early again. ANDY (deadpan) You won't report me, will you? Andy gulps from Martha's coffee cup. We see they're good friends, who've split shifts on this ward for many moons. ANDY (re: shift report) Inquiring minds want to know -- INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Martha and Andy, with the shift report. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 28. MARTHA -- Dr. Cannon ordered a glucose drip on Jimmy See. Mack's E.E.G. monitor's developing a nice electronic hiccup -- and your boyfriend... (indicating Storm) ... turned his head. ANDY (electrified) He did? In a coma ward, this is headline news. MARTHA (excited too) I thought he was going to sit up. I almost shit! The nurses laugh. But Andy's glance toward Storm's bed is full of deep care and hope. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - LATER Changed in seven years, softer. His shaggy hair is manicured in a sleeker, longer length and he wears a smartly short, perfectly trimmed beard. We glimpse, on Storm's chart, the identifying label: "JOHN DOE 461Z." ANGLE - BEDS OF OTHER PATIENTS trapped between sleep and death. A spectral, haunting scene, full of pathos. BESIDE STORM'S BED - ANDY works, full of beauty and youth -- like a beacon of life and hope in this silent still world. She runs a physical therapy regimen on Storm and seems quite expert at this delicate work. The "workouts" are electronically induced by sophisticated impulse equipment. ANDY (gently, with compassion and hope) -- Can you hear me, John Doe? I don't care what the doctors say, I know my words are reaching you somehow. (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 29. ANDY (CONT'D) I'm going to talk to you tonight... and tomorrow night ... and the night after that. I'm going to keep talking to you till you come back -- On the shelf behind his head is a framed photo of Yogi Berra, with the quote: "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER. Andy lifts it and sets it an the pillow beside Storm's head. ANDY Yogi said it ain't over till it's over. Till the fat lady sings. There's life in you, J.D., I feel it. I'll never give up on you, and you'll never give up on yourself -- She finishes working out Storm's muscles, beginning disconnecting the contact points. She stops, lifts the robe off Storm so that she can see his lower body, naked, underneath. ANDY Besides ... you've got so much to live for. As Andy replaces the sheet, her WRISTWATCH ALARM BEEPS a reminder. Checking the watch, she leans over and smooths Storm's sheet, touching him tenderly. ANDY Sorry. I won't be long. She exits. INT. EMPLOYEE SNACK KITCHEN - NIGHT Martha pouring herself a cup of coffee. Andy comes in. MARTHA How's the sleeping prince? Andy crosses to the counter, starts pouring herself a cup too. ANDY Still sleeping. (serious) It's bad enough when it's old people. But a young handsome guy -- Her voice trails off. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 30. MARTHA Don't let this job get you, honey. It's eight hours, not twenty-four. Get out, meet somebody ... get laid -- ANDY (with a grin) You can have my orgasms, Martha. I'll make up for 'em later. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON STORM - NIGHT His hand moves! A beat ... then another. Something's happening. Another beat, and then we see him draw several sharp intake breaths, then a very deep breath. Suddenly he shudders intensely -- MONTAGE - SUBLIMINAL SEQUENCE Storm's return to consciousness. Like a disjointed dream sequence, we meld OPTICALLY DISTORTED FOOTAGE of scenes into a quick sequence depicting Storm's journey up the "tunnel" from unconsciousness and back to life: A) Storm emerging from the door of his house, the night of the Oscars. Felicia smiling, taking his arm -- B) Sonny's bedroom, the night of the Oscars. Sonny with, the stuffed toy, embracing Storm -- C) The masked assassins. SHOTGUN BLASTS detonating point blank into Storm and Felicia -- INT. COMA WARD - STORM His eyes open. He grimaces with pain, as if even the dim illumination of the ward blinds him. His eyes keep blinking and squeezing, his tongue working for saliva -- INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY Alone, doing paperwork, concentrating totally on her work. INT. COMA WARD - STORM His hand slowly rises, finds his face. He discovers the electrodes, pausing to determine what they are, everything a slow painful effort. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 31. INT. NURSES' STATION - ANDY A BUZZER sounds on a bank of monitoring equipment. Andy glances up; a light flashes on one screen. She studies the screen a moment, gives a perplexed look toward the ward -- INT. COMA WARD Andy enters, scanning the area, listening. She moves down the row of patients, visually checking each. She stops at Storm and checks him, too. Storm's eyes are closed; he's motionless. Andy turns, starts to exit. STORM (in b.g., weakly, directly behind) -- Nurse ... Andy whips around, sucking air and falling back, knocking over an IV UNIT -- which SHATTERS on the floor! She turns and sprints from the room. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - TRACKING STORM'S GURNEY - NIGHT As we crash through doors WITH it. MOVING FAST. Knotted around Storm is an emergency team of doctors and nurses. A controlled chaos of AD LIB status reports and queries from them overlaps as the doors swing shut behind them. Andy is left alone on the coma ward. INT. NURSES' STATION - NIGHT Andy unlocks a drawer, pulls out a laminated card from the record notice section. She picks up a phone, punches in a long series of numbers. INTERCUT: INT. PRECINCT HOUSE - DETECTIVES' ROOM - NIGHT The PHONE on someone's desk begins RINGING. JONES, a plainclothesman, picks it up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 32. JONES Internal affairs. Detective Sergeant Jones. ANDY My name is Andrea Simpson. I'm calling from U.C.I. Medical Center. I'd like to speak with (reads from card) Captain O'Malley. Wheels start to turn in Jones' head. JONES What is this in regard to, please? ANDY I have a John Doe coma patient, code access 461 zebra, with instructions to notify upon any change in condition. JONES What is the change? ANDY (with enthusiasm) The patient has regained consciousness. Jones reacts -- puts his hand over the receiver, turns to a leather-faced plainclothesman (NOLAN) at the next desk. JONES (urgent) Nolan. Get Holland at home ... right now. (back to Andy on phone) I'm sorry, Ms. Simpson. Captain O'Malley is no longer with this division. Let me take your information. Please ... contact no one else on this matter. INT. COMA WARD - NIGHT Storm back in bed. A knot of doctors finishes returning him from their emergency resuscitation work. "We'll leave him here for tonight, where they've got the full support setup." The team wraps up and begins to move off. The TEAM LEADER instructs Andy in Storm's immediate condition and care. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 33. DOCTOR (TEAM LEADER) -- Clip him with 50 cc of Thorazine if he gives you any trouble. I'm afraid he's very disoriented and quite paranoid. He thinks people are trying to kill him. The team exits. Andy is alone in the ward with the immobile patients -- and Storm. Storm groans and tries to lift himself onto an elbow. STORM Miss ... please ... they won't tell me ... think I'm too disorient -- ANDY This is U.C.I. Medical Center. You've been in a coma. Your charts go back for seven years. STORM (staggered) Seven... years? He can't absorb this. It's too much. His mind reels. STORM Who ... who knows I'm awake? ANDY (innocent enthusiasm) It's all over the hospital. You're the first one that's come out of a coma of this duration. You'll probably be on the news! (beat) You'll be famous! STORM (struggles to sit up; fails) Listen to me carefully -- (reads her name tag) -- Andy. I don't have the strength to talk much. I'm a cop. My wife ... family ... murdered. That's how I got here. If you don't get me out ... you and I ... good chance ... both be dead. ANDY Please -- you're in no danger here. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 34. She touches him kindly -- but Storm sees that she doesn't believe him, thinks he's paranoid. STORM Goddamit -- (urgent but weak) can't stay here. Listen to me - ANDY I'll have one of the aides take you down the hall for hydrotherapy. It'll help you relax. STORM No -- ANDY Listen... I've got work to do. You're my cutest patient, but you're not my only one. She leaves. Storm blows a sigh of frustration. His body won't do what his brain tells it! In half-paralyzed rage he struggles to move his limbs, open and close his hands -- INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - FIRST FLOOR - NIGHT An accident case being hurried in from an ambulance. Paramedics, E.R. personnel and patients fill the scene. A bespectacled doctor in a white coat casually emerges from the crush and continues on into a hallway. ANGLE - DOCTOR This is no doctor; it's Jack Ford, one of the killers who shotgunned Storm seven years ago! INT. HYDROTHERAPY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION DANNY, an aide, has Storm harnessed in a frothing whirlpool. INT. FIRST FLOOR/MAIN DIRECTORY - CONTINUOUS ACTION Several nurses chat and drink coffee at a clerical station. Ford comes up - nameplate, stethoscope, looking the part perfectly. We see him exchange a greeting, ask a question. One of the nurses hands him a clipboard with some papers on it. As the killer scans the clipboard -RUSS, the security man, approaches. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 35. Ford averts his face subtly, continuing to study the list. Russ passes, with a greeting for the nurses -- and a (slightly unsure) nod for the killer. The killer nods back. SECOND FLOOR SUPPLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION Andy arrives and goes about business. INT. THIRD FLOOR ELEVATORS - CONTINUOUS ACTION A set of DOORS DINGS open. Ford steps out. INT. COMA WARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Eerie ultraviolet; motionless forms; steady HUM of monitoring EQUIPMENT -- and the shuffle of the killer's shoes ... moving purposefully from bed to bed checking each chart for the right name. INT. THIRD-FLOOR NORTH CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION Danny helps Storm out of the tub. INT. COMA WARD - CLOSE ON FORD - CONTINUOUS ACTION Checking the chart in the dim blue when -- a flashlight ray suddenly hits his face ... RUSS Excuse me, Doctor. I have to check everyone on the upper floors. (comes forward, no suspicion) Can I just get your I.D. -- PHHT! Russ takes the SILENCED SHOT right between the eyes. His body collapses in a heap there in the entry. INT. THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR Danny wheels Storm through the big swinging doors. Suddenly -- he freezes. DANNY'S POV He sees Russ's partial body in the doorway up the hall recognizable because of its security uniform trousers. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 36. DANNY reacts as if fearing Russ has had a heart attack. He leaves Storm, rushes forward to investigate. Storm strains to see. INT. DOORWAY TO COMA WARD DANNY (dashes up) Russ! Russ, are you -- PHHT! PHHT! Danny sprawls onto the floor, dead. INT. CLOSE ON STORM Doesn't need to see to recognize that sound. He gropes at once for the wall corner, trying to propel his litter back through the swinging doors and out of sight. Storm strains for it, his limbs maddeningly uncooperative ... stretching, pawing ... until -- he claws far enough to reach where the janitor's mop rests against the wall. COMA WARD - HALLWAY - FORD steps into the hallway, peering up and down -- just as Storm slides out of view. The killer grabs Danny's body by the ankles, to drag it back out of sight. Just then: ANDY backs through the double doors at the other end of the hall, trying to balance an overloaded tray of supplies she's carrying. She and Ford are momentarily in full view of each other ... but backs turned. Suddenly -- Ford hears Andy! He spins ... gun ready. Andy carefully heads that way -- the two corpses visible ahead and the killer poised to waste her. But she's concentrating on the overloaded tray, traveling closer ... closer ... until -- she turns off into the medicine room. Ford swiftly hauls both corpses out of sight. AT ELEVATORS Storm weakly, awkwardly "rows" himself toward the elevators with the mop handle. Then using his hands, trying to grasp the wall and push himself along. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 37. He makes it within reach of the call button and stabs at it with the mop handle. Misses. Again. Then: bull's- eye! The light comes on! INT. COMA WARD Ford has found the last (Storm's) medical chart -- and the empty bed. He's heading back -- frustrated, angry out toward the hall when... the elevator BELL DINGS. AT ELEVATORS Storm struggles to push himself inside. Everything an excruciating effort. The doors slap into his litter, trying to close. Reopen. Close. Reopen. Hindering him as he throws a look toward -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD stalks this way, ears tuned to the SLAPPING DOORS ahead around the corner. He breaks into a trot -- ELEVATORS - STORM makes it all the way in with a final heave. FOOTSTEPS nearing. The doors not yet closed and -- INT. CORRIDOR - FORD rounds the corner just as they shut. Races forward -- INT. ELEVATOR Storm jabs at the panel for the lobby button -- but the shaky mop handle hits 7TH FLOOR instead. STORM Sonofabitch! THIRD-FLOOR CORRIDOR - AT ELEVATORS The killer hears this -- hears the ELEVATOR START UP. He punches the call button. The other elevator opens. He plunges in just as: SOUTH CORRIDOR - ANDY comes out of the medicine room and spots blood on the floor, hurries forward -- sees Russ and Danny's bodies! Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 38. She backs off in horror. Andy rushes to the ward station, lunges for the phone -- finds it's been cut. Her view into the coma room suddenly brings the realization that Storm's bed is still gone. STORM'S ELEVATOR The doors open -- revealing a dark, deserted seventh floor still under construction. He registers the opposing elevator rising his way -- jabbing again at the control panel ... exposed there ... doors wide open. Wild stabs. Any button will do -- just close the goddam door! DING! Ford's ELEVATOR arrives. Doors open. We make out the killer's form -- just as Storm's doors close. Storm blows huge relief. Looks to see what he finally pushed ... Shit! -- the 3RD FLOOR button. He puts the mop to the side wall and shoves himself with all he's got. The gurney wheels around and places him right next to the control panel. Storm twists onto his side and slams a hand over the EMERGENCY STOP button. But the button jams! And Storm's thrusting hand has pushed his gurney even farther away! He can't reach it! He feels the elevator about to stop at a floor ... claws at the mop, as a weapon ... raises it with all his feeble strength. The doors open and -- Andy crashes into him! ANDY My God! STORM (hoarse, weak) -- Help me ... INT. STAIRWELL - FORD Pounding down the steps three at a time. Gun in hand. INT. LOBBY Andy hauls Storm's litter full tilt out of the elevator. A night janitor is waxing the floor, his long power cord snaking down the corridor. He stares in astonishment at this nurse racing down the corridor with a gurney -- Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 39. ANGLE - GURNEY As its wheels hit the buffing machine cord. The gurney bucks, almost capsizes. ANDY I'm sorry! Sorry -- She heaves the gurney, despite all its weight, past the power cord, just as: FORD hurtles from the stairwell. In one beat, he takes in the janitor; in the next, Andy and Storm -- down the hall. Ford takes off after them. He's going to catch them! JANITOR jerks up on the power cord! It whipsnakes down the hall, flaring up, tripping Ford! He sprawls face-first as: EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT Andy blasts through the exit doors with Storm on the gurney. She hauls ass with him into the parking lot -- BACK TO FORD He spins, on the floor, drills TWO SILENCED SHOTS into the janitor's chest. The janitor drops. EXT. HOSPITAL EXIT - FORD highballs from the doors, in time to see: FORD'S POV - ACROSS PARKING LOT A dark-colored CAR, its make indistinguishable in the dark lot, SCREECHES into an exit lane and races out of the lot. PARKING LOT - FORD hurries after it on foot. Too late. He pulls up. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 40. EMPTY GURNEY rolls randomly INTO VIEW across the lot. HIGH ANGLE - WIDE SHOT - PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAWN Andy's car speeds up the PCH. Majestic Malibu Mountains visible -- dawn sun shimmering the ocean with early light. INT. ANDY'S CAR - MOVING - DAWN Storm sprawled, asleep, exhausted, in the passenger seat. Andy windblown at the wheel. A pair of fugitives, on the run. The car pulls off the highway, past a sign for "OJAI." INT. L.A. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - MEETING ROOM - DAY OPENING ON a big table, covered with weapons confiscated from gangs -- pistols, knives, assault rifles. Reporters crowd around Senator Trent at the table. A large sign reads: "GANG WEAPONS SEIZED IN ONE WEEK!" TRENT (to group, finishing up) Six gang-related murders in one week. We're going to put a stop to it -- and we're going to start right here! Trent picks an AK-47 off the table and stuffs it theatrically into a huge TRASH CAN. News cameras record this juicy nugget for the nightly news. TRENT I'll be talking with the mayor. We'll have a statement shortly -- He raises a fist in a "power salute," moves off -- SIDE OF ROOM - TRENT Waving and beaming, edges away to the "wings," where Ford and Dunne wait, along with Holland -- proper and official in their plainclothes suits. TRENT (to Holland, furious) How much dirt do I have to shovel into this goddam Storm's grave? (MORE) Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 41. TRENT (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! (turns to Ford) The man is flat out on a stretcher and you still can't kill him! Reporters and bystanders continue to approach and congratulate Trent. He handles them easily, shaking hands -- then ducking back, aside, to his thugs. TRENT Holland -- plaster his ass with slime in the press. Put a tail on every person he knows -- HOLLAND We know how to do our job, Senator. TRENT Then start showing it. (to Ford, Dunne) I'm starring in that sonofabitch's home movie -- and the Oscar is thirty years in the slammer. He's toast, understand? The assassins nod grimly. Trent turns, hands raised triumphantly, to the crowd. TRENT (to crowd) We're going to end violence in this state -- and you can take that to the bank! EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - DAY A horse in sunshine. Pretty oaks on a hillside beyond. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - BEDR00M DAY Storm blinks his eyes -- groggy, disoriented. He is in bed, just waking up. Outside his window: this postcard- perfect ranch scene. Has he died and gone to heaven? He can barely absorb it: nature, sunshine, life. Storm peers around. He is alone in a pretty room, with Western and Oriental furnishings. He's safe; someone has apparently put him to bed, seen that he's comfortable. He remembers: the nurse ... Andy. A TV is on at the foot of the bed. Storm squints at the digital clock beside him: 4:17 PM. Storm closes his eyes. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 42. STORM Seven years. He struggles to sit. It takes all his strength simply to get half-propped on pillows. Something jabs him. It's a TV remote, on the sheet beside him. Storm picks it up. After a beat, he manages to focus on the TV -- TV SCREEN - "GERALDO SHOW" (FILE TAPE) Heated argument in progress. Suddenly Roy Innis leaps from his chair, starts strangling a white supremacist across from him. Melee. The stage flooded with shooting, fist-fighting men. Geraldo's nose is broken! ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) -- Stay tuned for more of: Best of Geraldo! BACK TO STORM Dumbstruck. STORM Geraldo? Outside the HORSE WHINNIES loudly and rears up on its hind legs. Storm turns toward the horse -- When Storm is turned away from the TV, a 10-second ad comes on. Senator Trent waving and smiling to a crowd. AD (V.O.) (from TV) Senator Vernon Trent promises: No new taxes! TRENT (V.O.) (from TV) And you can take that to the bank! Storm misses this. He turns back to: TV SCREEN An attractive female spokesperson speaks directly and sincerely into camera. FEMALE SPOKESPERSON (V.O.) (from TV) -- If you want to sleep with me ... you better wear a Pharoah. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 43. A "product shot" of condom packages appears. MALE ANNOUNCER (V.O.) (from TV) Pharoah condoms. The only safer sex is no sex at all! STORM Certain the world has gone insane. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Andy at the wall phone. ANDY (into phone) can't come in to work, are you crazy?! I can't even go to my apartment! People are dead, Martha ... no, I can't tell you where I am ... you're better off not knowing -- Mini-TV on countertop. On TV: a photo of Storm. Jack Esposito reporting -- ANDY (into phone) I am freaking A.W.O.L. I mean, what am I gonna do with this guy -- (pacing, anxious) I want to help him... my God, he needs it ... but it's all over the T.V., he's some kind of crooked cop with drugs and murder and -- CLICK. Andy turns to see Storm standing there, glowering -- his hand on the PHONE hang-up bar. For half a beat, Andy is frightened: unsure what this man will do. Then Storm starts to collapse. Andy rushes to him, supports him. ANDY It's okay -- I'm here, I'm with you. INT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Storm on the couch, phone in hand -- Andy across from him. The day's newspapers before them... TV ON in b.g. Converted to PDF by www.screentalk.org 44. STORM (into phone) Yeah, that Esposito. The ignorant fuck who's broadcasting the news right now. (listens) Tell him it's Storm. Mason Storm. Storm cups the receiver -- steaming -- waiting to be put through. His eyes flash to the room, the house... STORM (to Andy) I can't stay here. They'll trace you from the hospital in two -- ANDY (cuts him off) I told you -- no one knows I'm here! I'm house-sitting... (out of patience, frustrated and frightened) This place belongs to a doctor friend of my parents. He's in China now, on research... won't be back for six months. The medical center only has my apartment address. Even my friends don't have this number. (beat) Will you believe me?! We're safe here. Storm studies her for a long beat. Then: a voice comes onto the phone line. STORM (into phone) Esposito? (furious) Listen, you sonofabitch -- EXT. ARMSTEAD HOUSE (OJAI) - EVENING We see a little more of where we are: a pretty little retreat, nestled amid rolling hills. With the evening light, the mood seems softer. | together | How many times the word 'together' appears in the text? | 2 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | a50 | How many times the word 'a50' appears in the text? | 2 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | legally | How many times the word 'legally' appears in the text? | 0 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | so | How many times the word 'so' appears in the text? | 3 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | deserved | How many times the word 'deserved' appears in the text? | 1 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | groans | How many times the word 'groans' appears in the text? | 1 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | ome | How many times the word 'ome' appears in the text? | 0 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | pads | How many times the word 'pads' appears in the text? | 2 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | yes | How many times the word 'yes' appears in the text? | 2 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | moves | How many times the word 'moves' appears in the text? | 1 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | fired | How many times the word 'fired' appears in the text? | 2 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | fireplace | How many times the word 'fireplace' appears in the text? | 2 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | no | How many times the word 'no' appears in the text? | 3 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | loaded | How many times the word 'loaded' appears in the text? | 1 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | tiny | How many times the word 'tiny' appears in the text? | 1 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | derelict | How many times the word 'derelict' appears in the text? | 0 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | accelerator | How many times the word 'accelerator' appears in the text? | 0 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | back | How many times the word 'back' appears in the text? | 3 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | landing | How many times the word 'landing' appears in the text? | 1 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | fate | How many times the word 'fate' appears in the text? | 0 |
- NIGHT - 1966 45A The crews continue their work under lights. VANGER Firemen stayed on the bridge all night pumping out the gasoline. And no one swam across, or took a row boat. All of them were still tied up on this side Sunday. Believe me, we checked. 45B INT. VANGER MANOR - DUSK - PRESENT DAY 45B BLOMKVIST She couldn't have fallen and drowned? VANGER The currents aren't strong here. Anything that falls into the water turns up nearby. Like her father. His body didn't drift more than ten meters when he drowned the year before. Vanger's pauses at a landing to steady himself and his labored breathing. VANGER No. Someone killed her, Mr. Blomkvist. Someone on the island that day. Someone close enough to know what she used to give me each year on my birthday. He unlocks the door of the attic and pushes it open to reveal a cluster of nine dusty framed dried flowers on a wall. 24. 24. VANGER These were from her. And, on another wall, forty similarly-framed flowers - VANGER These, from her killer. Blomkvist regards the forty ... BLOMKVIST Who knows about these? VANGER Me, the police, the murderer ... and now you. 46 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DUSK 46 It's raining as an elegantly-dressed woman slows before a luxurious apartment building. Salander approaches from the other direction. Passing, she notes the four number tones the woman keys in the code lock. The door buzzes open and the woman disappears inside. Salander doubles back and keys the same four number tones in the Milton Security lock. 47 INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - STOCKHOLM - CONTINUOUS 47 Opulent foyer. Security camera. Antique elevator cage whose cables pull the woman upstairs. Salander comes to an unlocked service door and takes stairs to a basement machine room. Examines tangles of phone lines, meters, Wi-Fi routers. Photographs them with a digital camera. She climbs the stairs back up to the foyer. The front door buzzes, and a man in a suit on the sidewalk pushes it open, sees her, holds it wide enough for her to pass. The man is a driver/bodyguard. He continues to hold the door for his employer who now emerges from the back of an idling car and crosses to it in the rain ... Wennerstrom. 48 EXT. VANGER'S MANOR - NIGHT 48 The rain here is icier and more punishing. VANGER V/O When the police investigation petered out, I kept at it - 25. 25. 49 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT 49 They're eating dinner now in the dining room. VANGER - studying their reports and interviews, all the information there was, and it's a lot. I've spent half my life examining the events of a single day. And for all that, he's no closer to the truth. BLOMKVIST I understand your frustration. But what you're asking me to do is a waste of money. VANGER We haven't discussed your fee. BLOMKVIST We don't need to. I can't find something you haven't been able to in forty years. VANGER You don't know that. You have a very keen investigative mind. Blomkvist wonders why he ever agreed to come here as Vanger refills his wine glass. VANGER Here's what I propose: You come stay on the island. I have a nice little cottage by the water you can use. You study the material I give you. You find something I've missed - or you don't. BLOMKVIST You want me to set aside my life and career for something that's a complete waste of time. VANGER Think of it as a well deserved vacation. A way of avoiding all the people you want to avoid right now. (nothing from Blomkvist) As for compensation, I'll pay you twice your salary for as many months as it takes. I'll quadruple it if you solve the mystery. 26. 26. BLOMKVIST Mr. (Vanger) - VANGER I'm not done. I'll throw in one more thing - even though you're a terrible negotiator. It's what you want more than anything else and it can't be bought at any price. I'll give it to you ... Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. He pushes toward Blomkvist a plate: the carcass of the fresh-killed and cooked duck they've been eating. It and the mention of Wennerstrom's name clouds, at least for a moment, Blomkvist's memory of the train he missed. VANGER He began his career working for me. And I've followed it with interest, shall we say, ever since. You were right about him. You just couldn't prove it. A50 EXT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - ESTABLISHING A50 50 INT. PLAGUE'S APARTMENT - STOCKHOLM - NIGHT 50 Salander climbs a flight of stairs in a building that couldn't be more different than Wennerstrom's. Knocks on a door, waits, listens to some dead-bolts unlocking. It opens, but remains impassable by a figure weighing over 300 pounds. He offers her no greeting. Fades back into the shadows of his dark apartment. PLAGUE Would you like to sit? I could possibly clear a place if necessary. It's hard to imagine how he or anyone might accomplish that. The place is like a junkyard. Even the unmade bed is covered with stuff. SALANDER Did you make it? PLAGUE Have you something for me? She takes some cash from a pocket, hands it to him. He counts it and is unimpressed with its total. PLAGUE I'm on welfare; I don't administer it. This isn't enough. 27. 27. SALANDER I had to pay three months back rent and eat a little bit. It's all I have right now. PLAGUE I find that so poignant. So much so that he does nothing more than look at her. She reaches to take the money back, but he pockets it and moves across the dark room to a work table where high-end computers fight for space with debris. Finds and gives her a small homemade electronic box, which she turns over in her hands. While it's clear both these people are deficient in behavior that governs polite society, it's hard to tell which lacks it more. PLAGUE No `thank you?' 51 INT. MILLENNIUM OFFICE - EARLY MORNING 51 Erika, first to arrive this morning, or so she thinks, comes through the empty offices with a Wayne's Coffee to- go cup - but Blomkvist is already there, packing supplies from his desk, books from his shelf. A second suitcase, presumably full of clothes, sits on the floor. ERIKA V/O You can't be serious - 51A INT/EXT. MILLENNIUM'S OFFICES - EARLY MORNING - LATER 51A He zips the suitcase with the supplies in it closed and gathers the rest. ERIKA We're in our worst crisis ever and you're writing a memoir? BLOMKVIST You fired me; I need something to do. ERIKA You fired you; I need you here, not the North Pole. You know what this is going to look like. BLOMKVIST Like I've been gutted. Like I'm running away. I am. They cross through the building, he with his cases, she with her coffee cup. 28. 28. BLOMKVIST Wennerstrom wants to see me waving a white flag, not a red one. And the more it looks like there's a problem between you and me, the more it'll satisfy him. ERIKA There is a problem between us. He won't be satisfied until he shuts us down, and you're leaving me to fight him alone. He kisses her but gets back no more than he would from a statue - and steps outside. BLOMKVIST It's four hours by train. It's not the North Pole. 52 EXT. TRAIN STATION - HEDESTAD - DAY 52 The depot thermometer reads 0. Blomkvist disembarks with two suitcases. This time, Frode isn't there to meet him. He struggles with his luggage through the snow to a taxi stand. 53 INT. TAXI - MOVING - DAY 53 As a taxi passes a gas station by the bridge, Blomkvist regards the Middle Eastern driver's eyes which regard him in the rear view mirror. BLOMKVIST Think this snow's going to let up anytime soon? HUSSEIN This is the North Pole. 54 EXT. COTTAGE - HEDEBY ISLAND - DAY 54 The taxi deposits Blomkvist outside a cottage. From here he can see Vanger's manor and couple other houses. The taxi drives off and disappears into the snow. 55 INT. COTTAGE - DAY 55 Two rooms. Fireplace. Pile of wood. A realtor would call it cozy. In truth it's just tiny and freezing cold. Blomkvist unpacks. Puts clothes in a wardrobe, sets out books, note pads, pens, CD's, a CD player, his laptop and a small printer. 29. 29. He flips open his cell phone to make a call. Gets no reception bars. Hears a faint, plaintive cry and traces it to a window, beyond which, on the sill outside, stands a cat peering in. He opens the door, and the cat heads straight for the kitchenette. Then looks at him. BLOMKVIST What. Milk? He opens the old fridge. No milk. Nothing. 56 EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 56 He comes out into falling snow holding his cell phone out in front of him like a dowser divining ground water. Moves around trying to get a signal. Can't. 57 INT. MARKET - HEDESTAD - DUSK 57 He purchases milk, butter, a loaf of sliced bread, some packaged lunch meats and a few cans of cat food. 58 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 58 He walks along the street through wind-whipping snow, cradling the grocery bag, cell out in front of him again. Any of the locals could tell him he could do this forever - there are no cell towers anywhere around here. 59 EXT. HEDESTAD - DUSK 59 Grocery bag at his feet, he dials a call with fingers he can no longer feel on the gas station pay phone by the end of the bridge. It goes to Erika's voice mail. BLOMKVIST It's me. I'm here. It's fucking cold and I'm on a pay phone. If you tried to call, the reception sucks, and if you tried to email, there's none of that either, so - so - I'm here - and - I can't even speak it's so fucking cold. He hangs up, open the same pack of cigarettes from before. Eighteen in there. Struggles to get one lit in the wind and snow, hurries off toward the bridge. 60 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 60 As the cat laps at milk on a plate, Blomkvist tries to get a fire going using pages ripped from a book. It's a struggle he's going to lose; he's no Boy Scout. 30. 30. 61 EXT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 61 Salander appears and keys in the four lock tones. 62 INT. WENNERSTROM'S BUILDING - NIGHT 62 In the machine room again, she pulls one cable away from the others and wires to it to Plague's electronic box. 63 EXT. HEDESTAD - DAWN 63 The bell in the church tower clangs - 64 INT. COTTAGE - DAWN 64 But it's a knock that draws Blomkvist awake. Having forgotten where he is, he regards the cat sleeping with him, then the room, and groans. He pads to the door in the freezing cold. Opens it to find a rugged older man on his doorstep with a handcart loaded with file boxes. NILSSON I'm Gunner. The caretaker. 65 INT. COTTAGE - LATER - DAWN 65 As Gunner expertly builds a fire in the fireplace for him, Blomkvist works at unpacking the boxes - documents, fat police reports, notebooks, folders, photo albums. NILSSON You're an author. BLOMKVIST I'm writing a biography of Mr. Vanger, yes. Nilsson nods, but isn't sure he believes it. Maybe he took a look inside the boxes before he brought them down. NILSSON I saw you on television. BLOMKVIST That's unfortunate. NILSSON Bit of trouble, I guess. Blomkvist nods and hopes that's enough to put an end to the subject. It isn't. NILSSON No jail time, though. That's good. Cost you a lot of money though, yeah? 31. 31. Blomkvist shares his annoyance with the cat. Nilsson dusts himself off, satisfied with the fire he's made. NILSSON There. 66 EXT. VANGER ESTATE - DAY 66 Vanger has ventured outside to show Blomkvist around the estate. Smoke from chimneys rise into bitter cold grey skies, weather for which Blomkvist, unlike the old man, is inadequately dressed. VANGER The island is owned by my family. Your closest neighbor is my brother Harald, another Nazi if you can believe. Two in the family. He's detestable to put it nicely, but you'll probably never see him. He's a recluse. BLOMKVIST He was there that day? VANGER Indeed he was. Vanger's look to Blomkvist adds, `so consider him a suspect.' He indicates another house on the grounds - VANGER That's his daughter Cecilia's house. They don't speak. BLOMKVIST Does anyone speak to anyone on this island? VANGER Actually, Isabella - Harriet's mother - who lives there - (points) - she speaks to Harald - which is one of reasons I don't speak to her. (points) Cecilia's brother Birger lives there. BLOMKVIST Who doesn't he speak to? VANGER You, probably. Not that you'd want him to. He can be as unpleasant as Harald. 32. 32. BLOMKVIST I'm quickly losing track who's who. VANGER Oh, how you'll wish were it always so. Soon you'll know us all only too well - with my apologies. (points) Out there is my nephew Martin's house; Harriet's brother. It's a modern house - lots of glass - out on the point. BLOMKVIST Who speaks to him? VANGER I speak to him. He runs the company now, as I think I told you. They hear a distant rifle crack and echo. It startles Blomkvist a bit, but not Vanger. VANGER Someone shooting their dinner. Gunner probably. The caretaker. BLOMKVIST I just met him. VANGER He was 19 when Harriet disappeared. Old enough, Blomkvist gathers, to be considered a suspect. Vanger points off - VANGER He lives over there. Shivering in the cold, Blomkvist turns. BLOMKVIST And you live here. VANGER Sorry? BLOMKVIST Your house. For a moment, Vanger isn't sure what Blomkvist means. Then he is, and is pleased by it. 33. 33. VANGER Yes, you're right. The man who hires the detective should always be kept on the suspects list. 66A OMIT - INT. COTTAGE - DAY 66A 67 INT. PALMGREN'S APARTMENT - DAY 67 A nurse takes a tray away, leaving Salander alone with Palmgren, separated by the chess table they won't playing a game on. She wipes his mouth with her sleeve. SALANDER I got a call from social welfare. I've been assigned a new guardian. It's unlikely he understands what she has said. It's unlikely he even knows she's there. 68 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 68 Tacked to a wall, a map of the island on which Blomkvist has written the names of the living Vanger family members and staff in the approximate locations of their houses. Next to it - 3x5 cards and photos - a Vanger family tree - which doubles as a suspects list. On some of the cards is the word, `deceased.' He makes a sandwich. Refills a coffee cup. Begins reading the police reports. The first is a photocopy of a note when the call from Vanger came in: "Officer Morell informed by telephone of situation, 10:19 p.m." 69 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 69 Gustaf Morell stands at the bow of a patrol boat slowly motoring past the bridge where the fire brigade works to pump the gasoline from the overturned truck. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Morell on site, Hedeby Island, 11:42 p.m." 70 INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 70 Morell, feeling like he's entered an Agatha Christie locked room mystery, regards the extended Vanger clan sitting in the living room looking suitably worried. MORELL I'd like to see the girl's room. VANGER It's down the hall. 34. 34. MORELL I thought this was your house. VANGER It is. She lives with me. MORELL Are her parents alive? VANGER Her mother is. Vanger points Isabella out. Slender, overdressed and smoking a Sobranie, she immediately strikes Morell as a woman as venomous as she is beautiful. VANGER This way. Morell follows Vanger down a hall - INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Approx. 12:05, inspected missing girl's bedroom. Found - " 71 INT. HARRIET'S ROOM - VANGER MANOR - DAWN - 1966 71 A purse on the desk in Harriet's room. Morell carefully removes the contents: Comb, pocket mirror, handkerchief, wallet containing a few kronor, her ID, and her address book. He leafs through this. DET. MORELL I want to speak to everyone here. That'll take all night so you might want someone to put some coffee on. YOUNGER VANGER What about the search? MORELL First thing in the morning. YOUNGER VANGER No. We should do it now. She could be hurt out there. Vanger is either a good actor or has nothing to hide. VANGER Please. I beg you. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "authorized our patrol boat and two volunteer craft to begin 12:20 a.m. - G. Morell." 35. 35. 71A EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 71A The police patrol boat and two Peterssons motor around the island, spotlighting the shore and rocky cliffs. 71B INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 71B The weird tableaux of characters, awaiting their interviews with Morell. At the moment, he's across the room with Harald Vanger, taking notes, drinking coffee. INTERCUT: Blomkvist reads, "Patrol 014 and Orienteering Club volunteers assembled, 6:40 a.m." 72 OMIT: INT. VANGER MANOR - NIGHT - 1966 72 73 OMIT: EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT - 1966 73 74 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DAWN - 1966 74 Search parties crisscross the island, wade through ditches, check old barns, shine flashlights up chimneys. Woodsmen with blood hounds comb through woods. MORELL V/O We searched for days ... 75 EXT/INT. TRAIN - MOVING - LAKE SILJAN - PRESENT DAY 75 A train bisects the landscape. Blomkvist looks out. MORELL V/O Eventually, much to his dismay - and mine - I had to talk to Henrik about calling it off - 76 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - DUSK - 1966 76 As the search continues, Morell, looking like he hasn't slept - which he hasn't - peers down a rocky cliff to the water. Somehow he knows they're never going to find her. MORELL V/O The fact that I never found a body didn't surprise me. You can't dig up an entire island. A77 OMIT: EXT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - ESTABLISHING A77 77 INT. CABIN - LAKE SILJAN - DAY 77 The same face - forty years older - the man who spoke to Vanger on the phone about the dried flowers - now speaks with Blomkvist as he scrapes out the bowl of his pipe. 36. 36. MORELL But I also couldn't find a motive. Was it spontaneous? Was it planned? Did she know something someone wished she didn't? Was it about business? BLOMKVIST Business? She was sixteen. MORELL And very bright. Henrik told me he could easily imagine her running the business someday, which would mean someone else wouldn't. BLOMKVIST She was with some friends that day. At a parade. You must have talked to them. MORELL She told them she wasn't feeling well. She left early. But they also said she kept secrets from them, too. The main thing I learned talking to them for hours is that teenage girls are complicated. BLOMKVIST I have one. MORELL So you know. (Blomkvist does indeed) Did you bring the last gift Henrik received? BLOMKVIST It's at the National Forensic Lab. MORELL I can tell you what their report will say now: It's a flower common to Europe. All of them are. No prints. No DNA. He lights the pipe. Blomkvist watches the tobacco glow. BLOMKVIST I wanted to ask you about this. He produces an old address book from his jacket pocket. Of course, Morell has seen it before, and handles it delicately. The decades have dried out its pages. 37. 37. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MORELL She received this from Henrik the Christmas before. I studied it more times than I can say. I know every page of it. BLOMKVIST It's the last page I'm curious about. MORELL As was I. BLOMKVIST The only names not alphabetized. Morell nods that he knows that only too well as he turns to that last page. On it, in neat handwriting: Magda 32016 Sara 32109 R.J. 30114 R.L. 32027 Mari 32018 MORELL They're local Hedestad phone numbers. The first belonged to a woman named Margot, whose mother was Magda, who claimed she didn't know Harriet. The fourth, R.L., belonged to Rosemarie Larsson, an elderly woman who died a few years before. The other three were unconnected in any way that I could find. He hands the address book back. It, and everything else about the case, clearly trouble him still. BLOMKVIST I've reminded you of things you'd rather forget. I'm sorry. MORELL I can't forget it. It's my Rebecka Case. Blomkvist isn't sure what that means. MORELL Every policeman has at least one unsolved case. Back then it was old Torstensson. Year after year he kept returning to one - taking out the files - uselessly studying them. As young men, we had to laugh. BLOMKVIST Was this also a missing girl case? 38. 38. MORELL No, that's not why I mention it. The Rebecka Case is something that happened before Harriet was born. I'm talking about the soul of a policeman. Poor Torstensson could never solve it, and could never let it go. And neither can poor Morell with his Harriet case. 78 EXT. STOCKHOLM - DAY 78 An unexciting social welfare building. 79 INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE - DAY 79 As a man behind a desk reviews a thick file, Salander reviews him: About 50; spends money on suits, thinking that might disguise his public servant status; no wedding ring; typical creep, as far as she's concerned. BJURMAN How's Mr. Palmgren doing? I was told he had a stroke of some kind. (nothing from Salander) Terrible. It is, but she can tell he couldn't care less. He leafs through her file - BJURMAN What exactly do you do at this security company? SALANDER Make coffee and sort mail. BJURMAN But not full-time. Not even part- time consistently. They somehow got along without coffee or mail in July and August? Nothing from her. BJURMAN How much do you earn there? SALANDER Enough. BJURMAN How much is your rent? 39. 39. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ SALANDER I pay my rent. BJURMAN When's the last time you were late? SALANDER Never. BJURMAN Do you think that ring in your eyelid makes you attractive? Salander, who's had to suffer insufferable officials all her life, doesn't dignify the question with an answer. BJURMAN Here's the problem. There a discrepancy between the obligation of Mr. Palmgren's guardianship and the management of your finances. SALANDER It isn't a discrepancy or a problem. It was clear to him I could manage my own finances. BJURMAN But that's not clear to me. SALANDER I'm not a child. BJURMAN No. You're not. (looks at her too long) But you were. And between then and now - (indicating the files) - two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man's face. You may have conned Mr. Palmgren into thinking you've improved, but looking at this - (the file) - not to mention how you're looking at me now - I can see you haven't. So the Good-Old-Mr-Palmgren-Days are over. Starting now, you'll be given a monthly allowance. You'll provide me with receipts for your expenses. (MORE) 40. 40. BJURMAN (CONT'D) If the numbers don't balance, I'll have to assume the difference is going to drugs. SALANDER I've been on my own since I was twelve. BJURMAN No. You've been a persistent burden to the State since you were twelve. She won't look at him any more - not that there's anything even remotely interesting to see if she did. BJURMAN (CONT'D) Ms. Salander? Please look at me. Because this is important. She does ... in a way that says, I'd like to kill you. BJURMAN This behavior you're displaying right now is elaborately documented here - (in the file) - so it would come as a shock to no one if I chose an alternative to the lenient arrangement I just outlined. Is that what you're saying with your silence? You'd prefer institutionalization? 79A INT. BJURMAN'S OFFICE BUILDING - DAY 79A Salander steps into the elevator, hits the down button. As the doors close - 80 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - EVENING 80 Martin's house didn't look so far away, but the road Blomkvist has to climb to reach it, and the fact he, like all writers, is out of shape, taxes him. A car driven by an attractive woman in her 30's pulls alongside him. LIV Mikael? (he manages a nod) We're going to the same place. Hop in. 81 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - EVENING 81 Martin, wearing an apron, opens the door to find both his dinner guests on the porch. 41. 41. LIV I found him at death's door halfway up the hill. BLOMKVIST I'm afraid I'm a bit out of shape. MARTIN No, it's a climb for anyone. I should've warned you. Come on in. Blomkvist puts a bottle of aquavit in Martin's hand. 82 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 82 The place is far cry from Vanger's manor. It's modern. Martin, Liv and Blomkvist work on the dinner Martin has prepared. Soft jazz music issues from somewhere. LIV I used to work in the company's petrochemical division in Goteborg. When it was sold, I went with it. MARTIN A dark day. LIV I live in Hong Kong now, but come back to Stockholm for family events, and when I do, I drive up to spend a couple days with Martin. MARTIN She comes for the moose steak. BLOMKVIST Is that what this is? They all glance away to a sound: A soft, strange, wailing wind. Martin drains the last of a bottle of wine in Blomkvist's glass and gets up. MARTIN Something's open. You like this one, or would you like to try something else? BLOMKVIST That one's good. Martin heads off to the kitchen. Blomkvist and Liv, left with each other, seem unsure what to talk about. LIV I saw you on Sky News a while ago. 42. 42. BLOMKVIST That was a dark day. LIV Sorry to remind you of it. BLOMKVIST It's okay. There are worse things than libel - though I can't immediately think of one in my business. LIV You're writing a book now, Martin said. BLOMKVIST Henrik's biography. LIV I love Henrik. He's fascinating. Martin, too. Together they're the Old Sweden and the New. BLOMKVIST They are. LIV You know about Harriet, right? Blomkvist doesn't say. The sound of the wind stops. LIV You don't? BLOMKVIST I do. Martin emerges from the cellar with a bottle of wine in hand and returns with it to the dining room. LIV O/S The family doesn't like to talk about it, but it can't just be swept under the rug. MARTIN What can't. LIV Harriet. Martin doesn't comment. Just nods. Silence. Then - 43. 43. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ BLOMKVIST Maybe we could talk about that later. MARTIN We can talk about it now. (Blomkvist glances to Liv) Liv knows everything about my crazy family. Which is why she'll never marry me. LIV That's one reason. She holds up her left hand. A wedding ring is on it. The couple seems very comfortable with each other, not unlike Blomkvist and Erika. MARTIN Don't put that in your book. Anything else is fine. Harriet certainly. Everything changed after that. Not just the family, but the company. BLOMKVIST How so. MARTIN We're not Nordea or Ericsson, but we're still the largest family-owned company in the country. At the height, we had 40,000 employees. We have about half that now, and that downward slide - anyone can tell you - began after my sister's death. It broke Henrik's entrepreneurial spirit, and his heart. And Martin's, too, clearly. Blomkvist dares to ask, as innocently as possible - BLOMKVIST You were here that day? MARTIN Everyone was here, though I didn't get in until after the accident on the bridge. The 4:30 train. BLOMKVIST I know it well. 44. 44. MARTIN It was a terrible day. And the days after - searching and not finding her - were even worse. Liv sets her hand atop her boyfriend's. MARTIN This event, Mikael, has to be a big part of your book. Blomkvist promises him with a nod that it will. 83 INT. STOCKHOLM METRO - DAY 83 As Salander moves with a crowd toward the doors of a subway car, someone behind her roughly yanks the strap of her messenger bag from her shoulder - She gives chase, pushes past people, catches up with the junkie, grapples with him. He slugs her. She goes down, but doesn't give up. Catches up with him on the escalator, throws him back down it. The bag slams onto the metal stairs, too, but at least she has it now. She doesn't run. She waits at the top and watches the junkie drag himself up and think about trying again. He wisely decides to let it go, hops to the down-escalator and disappears into the underground station. 84 INT/EXT. COTTAGE - DAY 84 Blomkvist sifts through a box containing some of Harriet's personal belongings: school papers, textbooks, a Bible, the address book, her wallet and ID ... A knock on the door. He puts the box in a closet on top of others, kicks it closed, opens the front door to | stairs | How many times the word 'stairs' appears in the text? | 2 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | c'm | How many times the word 'c'm' appears in the text? | 2 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | thick | How many times the word 'thick' appears in the text? | 2 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | lights | How many times the word 'lights' appears in the text? | 3 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | hair | How many times the word 'hair' appears in the text? | 2 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | being | How many times the word 'being' appears in the text? | 1 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | electricity | How many times the word 'electricity' appears in the text? | 1 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | art | How many times the word 'art' appears in the text? | 0 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | rudely | How many times the word 'rudely' appears in the text? | 0 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | sign | How many times the word 'sign' appears in the text? | 3 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | by | How many times the word 'by' appears in the text? | 2 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | alongside | How many times the word 'alongside' appears in the text? | 2 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | waterfall | How many times the word 'waterfall' appears in the text? | 2 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | silent | How many times the word 'silent' appears in the text? | 1 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | till | How many times the word 'till' appears in the text? | 0 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | party | How many times the word 'party' appears in the text? | 0 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | hoses | How many times the word 'hoses' appears in the text? | 1 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | turn | How many times the word 'turn' appears in the text? | 1 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | spelling | How many times the word 'spelling' appears in the text? | 0 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | covered | How many times the word 'covered' appears in the text? | 1 |
- Rev. 10/24/00 76. 112 EXT. PARADISO HOTEL (ON STRIP) - DAY 112 Just down the block from the Terry Benedict Trinity stands (for a few remaining moments) the edifice of the Paradiso, Reuben Tishkoff's bankrupted hotel-casino. A crowd has gathered to witness its destruction: Terry Benedict, for one, his finger on the button and his face in the spotlight; Tess another, standing (near)by her man; Danny, too, hidden within the masses, eyes fixed on his ex; and Linus, who keeps a steady bead on Danny. REPORTER ... and here's Reuben Tishkoff, former owner of the Paradiso, come to bid farewell to his fabled resort and wish Terry Benedict all the best with his future plans for the property... Terry greets Reuben before the TV cameras and newspaper reporters, and everyone's smiling and shaking hands, but behind those smiles and under their breaths... BENEDICT Good to see you. REUBEN Go shit in your mouth. Tess, her eyes roaming the crowd, finds a pair staring back at her: Danny's. She holds his glance a moment -- long enough for both Linus and Benedict to notice -- before turning away, to... ... Benedict, who puts his public smile back on and steps up to a podium alongside MIKE TYSON and LENNOX LEWIS, and together they all put their hands on "the plunger" and Benedict leans into a microphone... BENEDICT I hope there's as much dynamite in the Paradiso as there will be in this Saturday's fight. ... and -- WHOOMPH -- the PLUNGER comes down and -- write your own onomatopoeia here -- the PARADISO IMPLODES. Reuben wipes a tear from his eye. REUBEN G'bye, honey... 113 INT. BASHER TARR'S HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME 113 As the Paradiso crumbles outside his window, the lights and TV in his room flicker and go out. (CONTINUED) 77. 113 CONTINUED: 113 BASHER Shit. As he scrambles out the door, making sure to post a "Do Not Disturb" sign... RUSTY (V.O.) Saturday day is yours. Do whatever you like with it. 114 INT. TISHKOFF'S - GAME ROOM - NIGHT 114 FROM ABOVE, SLOWLY DESCENDING: Ten of our eleven (Basher is missing) surround the model of the three casinos. Rusty leads everyone in a run-down of the heist... RUSTY Call is at five-thirty. Makeup and costume. Saul's package arrives at seven-fifteen, and Linus grabs our codes. All goes well there and we're a go. Seven- thirty Virgil and Turk deliver Yen and we're committed. From that point, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or he suffocates. We DESCEND ONTO the miniature of the vault, then -- DISSOLVE TO: 115 INT. BELLAGIO VAULT - NIGHT 115 FROM ABOVE, DESCENDING STILL: This is the Real Deal. The Bellagio vault. A clock reads: 8:03. RUSTY (V.O.) Once the electricity goes, all entry points to the vault and its elevator will automatically lock down for two minutes. That's when we make our move... Two guards wheel in a cash cart and leave it in the vault's center and march out again, closing the thick metal door behind them. When the vault LOCKS CLICK... ... We STOP DESCENDING, just above the cash cart. There is silence for a spell, the lights flicker out, then... ... the false top of the cart springs open, revealing Yen within, folded neatly. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 78. 115 CONTINUED: 115 He inhales deeply, then slowly unspools himself from the cash cart until, at last, he crouches atop it. He takes in the room: vacant and silent. Except for Rusty, who walks right by him, incongruously. RUSTY Okay: they've put you in the middle of the room, far from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do? A WIDER ANGLE reveals we're... 116 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 116 The Bellagio vault has been fully reproduced here, and what we've been watching has been a trial run. Ten of the eleven (Turk and Virgil in guard costumes, Basher is still missing) watch from offstage, like a film crew watching a dress rehearsal. FRANK Fin says he shorts it. LIVINGSTON Make it a sawbuck. From a dead squat, Yen leaps, hands first, from the cash cart to a ledge five yards away, and grips it safely with both hands without touching the floor. From this position, he'll inch his way to a counter, then, to the door... Frank pays up. Behind him, a DOOR SLAMS, and he turns to see Basher, at last. Sniffing the air, he double-takes -- Basher's covered head-to-toe in sewage. BASHER (and he's not happy) We're in deep shit. 117 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT 117 Linus hoses Basher off, his accent angry and thick as he spits out water and the story of his afternoon and if nobody understands a word he's saying, that's okay... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 79. 117 CONTINUED: 117 BASHER The damn demo crew didn't use a coaxial lynch to back the mainline! Onioned the mainframe couplet! Reuben leans into Livingston... REUBEN You understand any of this? LIVINGSTON I'll explain later. BASHER Blew the backup grid one by one! Like dominoes! DANNY (as he hardly understands this either) Basher. What happened? 118 FLASHBACK - INT. VEGAS SEWERS - THAT AFTERNOON 118 A cabal of city engineers investigates subterranean fuse boxes, and Basher tails them, hiding near a waterfall of effluent. BASHER (V.O.) They did exactly what I planned to do. Only they did it by accident. Now they know their weakness. And they're fixing it. An ECHOING FOOTSTEP draws the attention of the city engineers, and Basher retreats into the waterfall. 119 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (PRESENT) 119 Basher towels off his hair... DANNY So... BASHER So unless we decide to do this job in Reno, we're screwed. Danny rises and paces, frustrated. He's come too far for things to go awry now. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 80. 119 CONTINUED: 119 RUSTY We could -- DANNY By tomorrow? Danny keeps pacing; Rusty hangs his head and thinks; Basher dries his hair. BASHER (an idea occurs to him) We could use a pinch. Danny stops; Rusty looks up. DANNY What -- is a pinch? 120 INT. LAB - DAY 120 Scientists demonstrate the pinch, a lithium wire in a glass vacuum tube the size of a small refrigerator. BASHER (V.O.) A pinch is the equivalent of a cardiac arrest for any broad-band electrical circuitry. Or better yet: A pinch is a bomb... but without the bomb. Every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity. That tends not to matter in most cases because the nuclear weapon destroys everything you might need power for anyway. Now a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the headache of mass destruction and death. So instead of Hiroshima, you get the Seventeenth Century. A121 INT. TISHKOFF'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT A121 RUSTY For how long? BASHER About ten seconds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 81. A121 CONTINUED: A121 DANNY Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, I don't... BASHER Las Vegas? (beat) But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to handle it. Danny and Rusty trade a look: They have their answer. DANNY Where? BASHER (a beat, then balefully) Pasadena. B121 EXT. CAL TECH CAMPUS - NIGHT B121 Headlights hit a sign: "Cal Tech. HIGH-SECURITY AREA. KEEP OUT." A white VAN SHOOTS PAST it. 121 OMITTED 121 122 INT. WHITE VAN - NIGHT 122 Turk and Virgil man the front seats as Danny, Basher, Yen and Linus huddle in the back. Basher and Yen both prepare equipment for their raid: hooks and a rope for Yen, a small blowtorch and a drill for Basher. DANNY (to Basher and Yen) You two ready? They nod and, with Danny, start out the van's rear door. Linus starts to follow but... DANNY What are you doing? LINUS Coming with you. Danny smiles and shakes his head. LINUS (furious) But... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 82. 122 CONTINUED: 122 The van door slams in his face. 123 EXT. LABORATORY - AT PERIMETER DOOR - NIGHT 123 Danny picks a lock, then he, Yen, and Basher disappear into the lab's interior. 124 INT. WHITE VAN 124 Linus twiddles his thumbs, tired of being seated at the kids' table. Meanwhile, up front, another Mensa meeting has been called to order... VIRGIL Are you a man? TURK Yes. Nineteen. VIRGIL Are you alive? TURK Yes. Eighteen. VIRGIL Evel Knievel. TURK Shit! Okay, your turn... SAME SCENE - LATER VIRGIL Co-sign squared over .0455. TURK No. Co-sign squared over .0415. VIRGIL .04-five-five. TURK One-five. VIRGIL You're so wrong. TURK You don't know your string theory, bitch. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 83. 124 CONTINUED: 124 SAME SCENE - LATER After a spell of silence... VIRGIL Mom told me she loves me more. TURK She told me she was going to tell you that. ON LINUS TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. TURK (O.S.) Stop it. VIRGIL (O.S.) Make me. They can be heard WRESTLING. Linus has had enough. He sneaks out the van's back door without the Malloys hearing him. 125 AT PERIMETER DOOR 125 Linus sulks along the laboratory's perimeter, finds the door Danny pick-locked, and disappears inside. A moment passes. A moment passes. And the next door opens, and Danny, Basher, and Yen appear, pinch in hand -- they've succeeded. They weave a path to the van... 126 INT. VAN 126 Turk and Virgil are still wrestling as the trio appears. Danny, Basher and Yen pile in the back... DANNY We got it. Let's go. Turk floors it, and they're off. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 84. 126 CONTINUED: 126 DANNY Wait a minute. Turk brakes, and they're not. DANNY Where's Linus? Everyone realizes: he's not here. Just then: SIRENS and ALARMS and lights come to life. Uh-oh. Danny spins to look out the back of the van, Basher by his side. His eyes scan the compound, then: DANNY There he is. DANNY'S POV of the lab, and its beveled-glass stairwell. Linus scrambles up its steps, a flight ahead of a duo of chasing guards. As he ascends out of sight... Danny shifts his focus to - DANNY'S POV The other side of the building, and two more guards arriving on the roof and moving toward the staircase: Linus will be trapped. BACK TO SCENE Danny, Basher, and Yen squat side-by-side-by-side, watching all this. Yen makes a colorful observation about Linus's predicament; of course, no one understands it. VIRGIL (O.S.) One of us should help him. BASHER (who speaks Danny's mind) Then there'll be two of us who need saving. DANNY He knows where we are. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 85. 126 CONTINUED: (2) 126 DANNY'S POV Both sets of guards appear on the rooftop, and find no Linus between them -- he's disappeared. TURK (O.S.) Where'd he go? BACK TO SCENE Danny and Basher slowly turn: Turk and Virgil crouch inches behind them, wanting to spectate as well. TURK (off Danny's look) What? (then, realizing their goof, to his brother, remonstratively) Would you -- shouldn't someone be behind the wheel? CRASH! 127 OMITTED 127 & & 128 128 129 EXT. LABORATORY - NIGHT 129 A second-story WINDOW EXPLODES as a desk chair flies through it, followed shortly by Linus who leaps onto a steel-mesh overhang running alongside the building. 130 OMITTED 130 A131 INT. VAN A131 DANNY Alright, back it up, back it up! Virgil leaps into the driver's seat, shifts into reverse. B131 EXT. VAN B131 Linus runs along the overhang, then leaps down, onto the reversing van, and rolls along its roof and down its windshield. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 86. B131 CONTINUED: B131 THROUGH the windshield: Virgil jabs his thumb over his shoulder: get in the back. DANNY (appearing from the rear doors) C'mon, c'mon... Linus scrambles back over the van, and Danny and Yen pull him in. Virgil hits the gas for a quick getaway, but he does so before the rear doors are closed, and one of them slams shut right on Yen's hand -- CRUNCH! YEN Ahhh! 131 INT. WHITE VAN 131 as it hurtles away. Basher tends to Yen, cradling his hand, and Danny stares down Linus, breathless. DANNY I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt. LINUS (he's had just about enough of Danny's shit) I got it. They continue staring daggers at one another as... A132 EXT. VAN A132 The van pulls away into the night... JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) It's fight night in Las Vegas... 132 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 132 Incoming lanes of the I-15 reflect bumper-to-bumper steel; planes in the air are stacked for five miles over the desert; even Gila monsters below seem Vegas-bound. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 87. 132 CONTINUED: 132 JIM LAMPLEY (V.O.) ... people are flooding in from all over the country to see what has been dubbed the 'Fight to End All Fights'... 133 EXT. LAS VEGAS - DAY 133 JIM LAMPLEY broadcasts live from a mobbed Strip. JIM LAMPLEY ... and even though it's still five hours 'til the opening bell, the energy here is fever-pitched. 134 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 134 Every table is in play, every seat filled. 88. 135 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 135 The Bellagio's CASINO MANAGER (the one Linus spied with Benedict before) checks in with his watchers. MANAGER How we doing? 136 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - DAY 136 Livingston has moved A/V operations into Lyman Zerga's suite. As he scours the same images the watchers downstairs do, he eavesdrops on their communications through his headset. WATCHER (V.O.) (over Livingston's headset) Cotton couldn't be taller. 137 IN MIRADOR SUITE BATHROOM 137 Lost in the luxury his role dictates, Saul floats in a full-sized Jacuzzi and chews on a hundred dollar cigar; Reuben, meanwhile, paces the floor, nervously. TISHKOFF Where are they? That's what I want to know. Where are they? SAUL (as Lyman) They'll be here. TISHKOFF (to himself, mocking "Lyman") 'They'll be here.' Thanks a lot, Fidel. 138 AT LIVINGSTON'S CONSOLE 138 Punching up a new set of views from the Eye In The Sky, Livingston thrusts forward, alarmed by one. LIVINGSTON Yikes. 139 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - LOBBY - DAY 139 Rusty keeps watch on the hotel's side entrance. (CONTINUED) 89. 139 CONTINUED: 139 He glances at his watch, then outside again as the white van arrives, dropping off only Linus and Danny, who slaps the van's roof before it pulls away. As Danny and Linus enter the lobby, Rusty falls into step with them, exchanging a smile with Danny but not Linus, he still looks chastised from the car-trailer. 140 INT. ELEVATOR 140 Riding up... RUSTY You boys have a nice trip? Rusty, smiling, looks to Linus, glowering, then to Danny. Before Danny can explain the doors part at the Mirador Suite, where Livingston greets them urgently. LIVINGSTON We have a problem. 141 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S LAPTOP - DAY 141 A mug-shot of Danny, complete with vital information: height, weight, criminal history. LIVINGSTON You've been red-flagged. It means the moment you step on the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks. Hawks with video cameras. DANNY This is a problem. A pall falls over the room: this is more than a problem, this is disastrous. Only SAUL dares make a noise, HUMMING and SPLASHING in the next room. RUSTY Saul: time to get out. SAUL (O.S.) (as Lyman) It's time when I say it is. RUSTY Now! We hear HIM JUMP-TO-IT out of the tub... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 90. 141 CONTINUED: 141 SAUL (O.S.) (himself again) I'm out. RUSTY (back to Danny) You have any idea how this happened? Before Danny can answer... LINUS I do. He's been chasing Benedict's woman. Got into a real snarl with him two nights ago. (off Danny's look) I was tailing you. DANNY Who told you to do that? Before Linus can answer... RUSTY I did. (he and Danny hold a stare) I knew you couldn't leave Tess alone. TISHKOFF Who's Tess? DANNY My wife. RUSTY Ex-wife. SAUL (appearing in a bathrobe) Tess is here? RUSTY (eyes still on Danny) I'm sorry. I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. (the most difficult words he's ever had to say) You're out, Danny. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 91. 141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 TISHKOFF He's out?! RUSTY It's that or we shut down right now. His involvement puts us all at risk. Danny and Rusty face off, furious with each other. DANNY This isn't your call. RUSTY You made it my call. When you put her ahead of us. You made it mine. DANNY This is my job. RUSTY Not anymore. Danny stares daggers at Rusty. But he can see: everyone in the room is on Rusty's side. Defeated, he stalks out of the room, onto a balcony, but not without staring down Linus. TISHKOFF But, but... he can't just be out. Who's gonna take his place? Rusty turns to Linus. RUSTY Kid, you up for it? Linus's eyes drift to Danny outside -- whatever acrimony he felt before, he never meant to kick Danny off the job. He nods, half-cocksure/half-scared-pissless: he's up for it. RUSTY (to Livingston) Find everyone else. Let 'em know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven. Livingston exits. Everyone else in the room staggers about, like witnesses after an execution. Rusty steps out onto the balcony, perhaps to console Danny, but (as Linus watches them from inside) their words cannot be heard. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 92. 141 CONTINUED: (3) 141 SAUL Tess is with Benedict now? (as nobody responds) She's too tall for him. 142 OMITTED 142 & & 143 143 144 INT. BENEDICT'S SUITE - DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT 144 Tess, readying herself for the big evening, meets her own glance in a dressing mirror, then spots Benedict in its reflection, pacing the bedroom behind her. BENEDICT (on phone) Yes. Yes. No. Very much no. (beat) Then inform Mr. Levin he'll find a better view of the fight in front of his television. Surely he must have H.B.O. Hanging up, Benedict approaches her, puts his hands on her shoulders... BENEDICT What are you thinking about? TESS You. She smiles at him in the mirror. His glance in it, turns from her to himself. 145 INT. EXECUTIVE ELEVATOR 145 Riding down, Terry Benedict checks his watch. The elevator doors open and... 146 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - ELEVATOR BAY 146 ... he steps onto his casino's floor, the king of Las Vegas. The time is 7:00. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 93. 147 ON BALCONY OVERLOOKING CASINO FLOOR 147 Benedict meets his casino Manager, according to schedule. BENEDICT Any sign of Ocean? MANAGER (WALSH) Not in a couple hours. You want him out? I can bounce him from the state for parole violation if you like. BENEDICT (shakes his head) Put a guy on him. He's here for a reason. I'd like to know what it is. But if he comes anywhere near Tess, take it to the next level. MANAGER Bruiser? Benedict nods, goes on his way. 148 AT CASINO ENTRANCE 148 Saul, as Lyman Zerga, stands ramrod straight, looking through sliding glass doors out at the valet station. From behind, Terry Benedict approaches, two security guards walking half a pace behind him. Saul spots him in the glass's reflection; he does not turn. SAUL Mr. Benedict. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga. It's a very busy night for me. Are we on schedule? SAUL I have no reason to suspect otherwise. My couriers should be here momentarily. A beat as Benedict studies Saul. BENEDICT It's a nice evening. Shall we wait outside? OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 94. 149 POV THROUGH BINOCULARS - ON BELLAGIO VALET AREA 149 Benedict and Saul emerge, guards positioned around them. TURK (V.O.) They're in position. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) (over STATIC) Okay. We're a go. 150 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - VALET AREA - SUNSET 150 A white, unmarked van pulls in from the street and races up to the curb where Saul and Benedict wait. Turk Malloy gets out the passenger's side, a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, as Virgil comes around from the driver's side, both of them dressed in their bodyguard suits. TURK Mr. Zerga. A gift from Mr. Hesse. Turk extends the briefcase to Saul, so that they both clasp the handle, as Virgil produces a key, unlocks the cuff on Turk's wrist, transfers it to Saul's, clamps it shut, and hands Saul the key. SAUL Thank you, Friedrich, Gunther. He turns, nods to Benedict, and they retreat into the hotel, the security guards and Malloys flanking them. 151 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO 151 Frank deals blackjack to a full table. His eyes gaze past his players to Saul, the guards and Benedict passing by. FRANK (as he busts) Lookin' like a bad night for the house. MOVING WITH Benedict as he spies out of the corner of his eye Danny, lurking at a slot machine. To one of his guards... BENEDICT Find Mr. Walsh. Tell him Mr. Ocean's in the west slots. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 95. 151 CONTINUED: 151 The guard goes, and Benedict continues with Saul... BENEDICT I'm afraid I can't allow my private security personnel inside the casino cages. I hope you don't mind... SAUL Of course not. Saul turns to dismiss Virgil and Turk when... ... passing by, on his way to a sports betting window, an old RACETRACK DENIZEN happens past this cabal and, worse yet, happens to recognize Saul. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul? Saul Bloom, is that you? Saul does his best to ignore the man. But even Benedict notices: this guy seems to know Lyman Zerga. RACETRACK DENIZEN Saul, it's me. Bucky Buchanan, remember? From Saratoga. At last Saul turns to face this man, with shark's eyes. SAUL Friedrich, Gunther. An order: dispose of this man. Virgil and Turk pick up the Denizen by his elbows and haul him away. SAUL Mr. Benedict... (gesturing to the cage; re: his briefcase-cuff) Please: I have never enjoyed the touch of steel to my skin. They proceed. 152 AT SLOTS 152 Danny sits in a row of octogenarians, all vacantly dropping $1 coins and pulling levers. As he watches Saul and Benedict disappear into the cage... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 96. 152 CONTINUED: 152 DING! DING! DING! DING! Four cherries. Danny smiles, a big winner, but he's got bigger pots to win tonight. He steers a neighboring senior citizen (blind as a bat) to his slot machine... DANNY Pops, you won. ... then slips away. A153 INT. MIRADOR SUITE A153 Linus stands dressed in a sharp, conservative suit -- a far cry from the threadbare thief in Chicago. Rusty circles him, inspecting. RUSTY Where you gonna put your hands? Linus clasps them. RUSTY No... Linus goes for his pockets. RUSTY Not the pockets, either. And don't touch your tie. Look at me... Linus does. RUSTY That how you gonna stand? Linus shifts his balance. RUSTY Wrong again. I ask you a question, you have to think of the answer, where you gonna look? Linus looks down. RUSTY Death. You look down, they know you're lying -- Linus looks up. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 1/8/01 97. A153 CONTINUED: A153 RUSTY -- and up they know you don't know the truth. Don't use three words when one will do, don't shift your eyes, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, funny but don't make him laugh, he's gotta like you then forget you the moment you've left his sight, and for God's sakes whatever you do, don't under any circumstances -- LIVINGSTON (O.S.) Rust, can you come here a sec? RUSTY (wandering off) Sure thing. Linus is left utterly bewildered, a thousand commandments to remember and fifteen minutes to remember them in. 153 EXT. ALLEY - DUSK 153 Turk and Virgil's white van whips around a corner and shoots inside... 154 INT. WAREHOUSE - SECOND VAN POV 154 Of which, importantly, we never see the exterior, just an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror... The white VAN SCREECHES to a halt inches from Basher who stands ready beside the pinch (and the now-gutted and dismantled mockup of the Bellagio vault) and faster than a NASCAR pit crew Basher, Turk and Virgil load the pinch into the white van's rear and before you can say "electromagnetic pulse" the VAN SCREECHES back out of the warehouse fully loaded. The time is 7:16. 155 INT. BELLAGIO CAGES - EMPTY COUNT ROOM 155 The room is empty save for a large table. Saul places his briefcase on it, adjusts its numbered combination locks, and opens it. Inside the case: five rows of glittering emeralds. (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98. 155 CONTINUED: 155 BENEDICT They're very beautiful. A gift. Saul stares at him: none of your fucking business. BENEDICT Can you lift them out, please? Saul lifts the velvet tray out of the case, and Benedict pats down the case's interior. Saul replaces the tray. BENEDICT Alright, Mr. Zerga. I acknowledge that the case does not contain any dangerous or illicit material. I further agree to take custody of your case for a twenty-four hour period to store in our secured vault. While I cannot permit you to accompany the case to the vault... SAUL Why not? BENEDICT Insurance, for one. Security, another. And I don't trust you. There is a KNOCK at the door, and Walsh the casino manager enters. He speaks low in Benedict's ear. WALSH (MANAGER) I put two plainclothes on Ocean. He's at the keno bar now. Walsh nods, and Benedict turns back to Saul. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga, this is Mr. Walsh, my casino manager. If you will allow, he will arrange for your briefcase to be stored inside our vault while you watch on a security monitor. (beat) Those are my terms. Yes or no? Saul and Benedict eyeball each other. SAUL You leave me no choice. Saul unlocks the cuff from his wrist. OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 98A. 156 EXT. BELLAGIO CASINO - KITCHEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT 156 The white van slows enough to unload Virgil and Turk, changed into waiter uniforms, and they hurry a table- clothed room service cart inside as Basher pulls away. 157 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 157 RISING FROM a spotless pair of wingtips shifting side-to- side, OVER hands flexing and stretching, UP TO Linus Caldwell. He keeps an eye on the cage door, waiting for Benedict to appear, as he tries anything to shake out his nerves. Then, from a discreet earpiece he wears, comes: LIVINGSTON (V.O.) Deep breaths. You'll do fine. LINUS (breathes deep) Thanks. LIVINGSTON (V.O.) No sweat, kid. You're a rock. (as Linus smiles, feeling good about himself) Now don't fuck up. 158 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - ON LIVINGSTON'S MONITOR - NIGHT 158 Linus's smile disappears as he continues to bounce. There's a KNOCK at the door. (CONTINUED) 99. 158 CONTINUED: 158 VOICE (O.S.) Room service. Rusty checks through the peephole, then ushers in Turk and Virgil in costume with their room service cart. TURK Who ordered the penne? Livingston raises a hand, and as Turk serves him his plate, Virgil whips off the cart's tablecloth: underneath it's the false-lid cash cart. Rusty turns to a corner. RUSTY You ready? In it, Yen finishes bandaging his busted hand and nods. 159 INT. BELLAGIO SECURITY CENTER - THE EYE IN THE SKY 159 Fat and Slim sit before their monitors, feet kicked up, as behind them Walsh, Benedict, and Saul enter. WALSH This is our security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. You'll be able to monitor your briefcase from here. Walsh, finding Fat and Slim as they are, coughs; the two watchers leap immediately to their feet. Benedict checks his watch. SAUL Don't let me keep you. BENEDICT Mr. Zerga... And Benedict takes his leave... 160 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 160 RUSTY Linus... you're up. 161 INT. BELLAGIO CASINO - BY CAGE DOOR - NIGHT 161 Linus nods, shakes out his hands some more... (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 100. 161 CONTINUED: 161 LINUS Deep breaths, deep breaths. ... and here comes Benedict, exiting the cage just as his assistant arrives with his portfolio. As he turns toward the restaurant... LINUS Mr. Benedict... BENEDICT Yes? LINUS (presents proper identification) Sheldon Wills. Nevada Gaming Commission. Could I have two minutes of your time? Benedict sighs -- his evening's been sidetracked enough already -- but... BENEDICT Of course. Anything for the N.G.C. 162 AT KENO BAR 162 Danny watches Benedict escort Linus toward the blackjack tables, unaware that TWO PLAINCLOTHES SECURITY GOONS watch him from across the bar, and when he turns in their direction, they look away, acting incognito, but it's not them he's turning toward... ... it's Tess, rounding a corner toward the restaurant. Danny jumps to his feet, throws a tip on the bar, and goes. 163 INT. MIRADOR SUITE - NIGHT 163 The time is 7:27. Yen tucks himself into the cash cart's hidden compartment with a slim oxygen tank for company. Meanwhile, Rusty drills Virgil and Turk... RUSTY Okay: when do you make the deposit? (CONTINUED) OCEAN'S 11 - Rev. 10/24/00 101. 163 CONTINUED: 163 TURK Not until we get your signal. VIRGIL Hey. What do we look like: a couple of peckerwood jackasses or something? No one responds. RUSTY (turning his attention to Yen, squeezed into the cart) Amazing: how's it feel? You alright? (as Yen nods) Want something to read? | abandoned | How many times the word 'abandoned' appears in the text? | 0 |