Bringing Out The Dead

"BRINGING OUT THE DEAD" by Paul Schrader From the novel by Joseph Connelly FIRST DRAFT (11/7/97) After World War One it was called Shell Shock. After World War Two it was called Battle Fatigue. After Vietnam it was called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Frank Pierce, 28, drives an EMS vehicle for Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, New York City. He has been a paramedic for five years. EXT. NEW YORK STREETS--NIGHT An EMS "bus" careens around a corner, tires squealing, lights flashing, siren whoop-whooping, swooping through Stygian canyons of New York. FRANK PIERCE, 28, drives. He wears dark cargo pants, black boots, a white shirt with the paramedic badge, "EMS" gold logo on one collar, "OLM" on the other. "Our Lady of Mercy Paramedic" is inscribed in white across the back of his navy jacket. On his belt: two-way radio, leather gloves, beeper, drug kit, multi-purpose tool kit, mini-flashlight, collapsible baton. LARRY, 35, overweight, his partner for the night, rides techie (shotgun), both hands clutching the dash. Frank scans the blurring cityscape for hidden danger. He is a young man of slight frame and open face -- his life, his possible futures, still before him: behind those open eyes, beneath those dark shadows: hollowness beckons. Dispatcher's voice crackles through the cab static: "Ladder 4, respond to a 10-22, four flight residential, 417 East 32. 13 Boy, men's room Grand Central, man set his pants on fire. Bad burns.