115 pages

English

Taking Lives

script-cinema - Michael Pye , Jon Bokenkamp

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115 pages

English

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Tout savoir sur nos offres

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Description

by Jon Bokenkamp (based on the novel by Michael Pye) previous revisions Seitz, David Ayer

Sujets

Horror

Informations

Publié par	script-cinema
Nombre de lectures	3
Licence :	En savoir + Paternité, pas d'utilisation commerciale, partage des conditions initiales à l'identique
Langue	English

Extrait

Taking Lives

Jon Bokenkamp

based on the novel by

Michael Pye

previous revisions by

Nicholas Kazan H. Seitz David Ayer

EARLY DRAFT

February 28, 2003

FADE IN:

INT. BUS STATION - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: 17 YEARS AGO

Small, Canadian, rural. Just the Native American CASHIER jotting down sports stats from the paper. MARTIN, 16, enters. Slight, pale and frail, new clothes, a tag still hangs from his stiff work jacket. Martin stands in front of the Cashier a beat. Nervously tugs an earlobe.

MARTIN Sir. Sir, may I have a ticket to Montreal please?

Pardon?

CASHIER

MARTIN I need a ticket to Montreal.

Montreal?

CASHIER

MARTIN Yes, sir. Please.

CASHIER Forty-three dollars.

Martin pulls out an envelope filled with crisp twenties and carefully counts out three. The Cashier gives Martin his ticket and change. Points at a bus outside. The DRIVER loading bags.

INT. BUS - DAY

A half dozen PASSENGERS. Martin steps aboard, takes a seat. DAN SOULSBY, Martin's age, sits next to him, offers a hand. Martin shakes.

DAN Dan Soulsby.

MARTIN Martin. Nice to meet you.

DAN Where you heading to?

MARTIN Away from here.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

Dan produces a couple beers from his pockets. Offers Martin one.

Pisswater.

MARTIN

DAN At least it's cold pisswater. Here's to getting away.

They CLINK CANS. The Driver enters the bus. Unlocks the airbrakes. Puts the bus in reverse, gives it gas.

BOOM! The ENGINE throws a rod. Horrible GRINDING. Smoke wafts into the windows. The Driver KILLS the ENGINE. Silence. Martin and Dan trade looks.

DAN That was bad. (bummed) It's gonna take all day to get another bus here.

Martin sighs, looks out the window.

WHAT MARTIN SEES

A car rental place.

BACK TO SCENE

Martin fingers the envelope of cash in his pocket.

MARTIN You have a license?

DAN Had one. They took it away.

MARTIN I got one. Let's go.

INT. RENTAL CAR - MOVING - NIGHT

Dan drives. JOURNEY ON the RADIO. Martin checks out Dan's guitar. Dan shows Martin his teeth.

DAN See that? They're all fake.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

MARTIN You take a hockey puck in the face?

DAN A fist. My stepdad socked me. I flew across the room and dented the sheetrock in the kitchen. My mom saw everything and still took his side.

MARTIN You got cracked good.

DAN I hate that guy. Two hundred pounds of worthless grease.

MARTIN Why'd he hit you?

DAN I wrecked his sixty-five Mustang and his boat in the same week. His babies. I totaled them.

MARTIN I would have popped you too.

DAN It was worth it. But I didn't deserve the tour in hell.

Dan rubs his close-cropped hair.

DAN Don't ever go to military school if you can help it. It sucks. (a beat) I jumped the wall two days ago.

MARTIN You going back?

DAN I'm done with that racket. I'm going to Seattle and playing music.

Martin tries the guitar, he's not that good.

MARTIN I know some chords.

DAN Think you can learn drums?

INT. RENTAL CAR - MOVING - DAY

The land rolls endlessly. Martin drives. Dan plays his guitar. He's really good.

DAN I'm the next Billy Squire. Krokus will be opening for me one day.

POW! The CAR HITS a BOTTLE. A front tire deflates. Martin guides the crippled vehicle to the curb.

EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY

The middle of nowhere. Martin flips a coin. Heads.

Shit.

DAN

Dan hauls the spare from the trunk. Sets the jack under the bumper.

A PICKUP TRUCK approaches. Still a mile away.

Martin watches Dan lean in the trunk for the tire iron.

The pickup gets closer, a big one. Heavy with bags of animal feed. Speeding.

Martin looking at Dan's back. Martin shoves Dan hard, into the highway. In front of:

THE GRILL OF THE PICKUP

WHAM! It plasters Dan. He goes over the hood, SHATTERS the front WINDSHIELD. Bounces off, spins like a rag doll into a ditch.

The pickup has lost control, it rolls. Several times, a heaving mass of steel.

CRASH! The TRUCK folds itself around a husky tree. No survivors, that's clear.

MARTIN

He can't believe what he has just done. He takes in the carnage, tugs at his ear.

EXT. MONTREAL - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: PRESENT DAY

ESTABLISHING the river-bound city. Beautiful.

EXT. ST. LAWRENCE RIVER - DAY

A large Ferry plies the unstoppable waters. Gliding toward skyscrapers.

EXT. FERRY PIER - DAY

The signs in French. Crowded with PASSENGERS waiting to board. As more PASSENGERS pour off the just-docked ship.

A WOMAN runs through the crowd. Terror etched in her face. She knocks aside several PEOPLE. Runs toward a row of restaurants. Even in her turmoil, she is patrician, elegant.

EXT. PIER-SIDE CAFE - DAY

Two BEAT COPS eat at an outdoor table. Laid back. The WOMAN approaches them, frantic.

WOMAN I just saw my dead son get off the ferry.

The COPS trade looks.

WOMAN Listen to me; he's been dead eighteen years. He just walked right past me.

INT. MONTREAL PD OFFICE - DAY

An INSPECTOR pours the Woman tea. She has calmed down. He takes his pen, looking at her statement.

WOMAN You need to open that grave. It can't be my son in there.

A beat.

INSPECTOR I lost my mother two years ago. Every day I think I see her. Driving to work in the car next to me. At mass. Shopping, I see her, but this is someone else's mother. You see? The Woman lays a hand on his arm, looks him in the eye. There is something formidable about her.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

WOMAN Inspector, I'm saddened by your loss and touched by loyalty. But let's focus on the matter at hand. He walked right past me. We made eye contact. I know he recognized me. It was my son. A mother knows these things. I will sign anything, I will swear before a judge. And thank you, I do have all my faculties and friends who can vouch for my character.

INSPECTOR Did you talk to this man, he is a man now?

WOMAN Yes. Of course he's a man. He'd be thirty-two. And no, I did not speak with him. I ran. (low, serious) Inspector, my son was very, very disturbed. He had serious emotional problems. I assure you he was. (a beat) Is. Is a dangerous person.

He hands her some forms.

INSPECTOR Madame. The police department cannot resolve your problem. You need to get permits from the coroner and health and safety department. You pay for an exhumation. You have someone qualified examine the remains. If it is the wrong body, the Forensic Examiner will confirm there is a problem and call us. Then we open an investigation. (a beat) No, Quebec City police will investigate. He is buried there, no?

The Woman bristles. Stands, takes the forms.

WOMAN No. Inspector. He is not.

EXT. FOREST CONSTRUCTION SITE - DAY

Deep woods. In the mountains. Near a roaring river. A log vacation cabin is being erected by CONSTRUCTION WORKERS.

A BACK HOE digs a trench. The scoop snags something -- a wetsuit -- worn by a long dead corpse, twirling slowly, hanging from the bucket's steel teeth. The BACK HOE OPERATOR jumps off the huge machine, stares at the headless body he has just dragged from its grave. Workers gather and gawk.

WORKER Someone call the cops.

INT. TASK FORCE ROOM - NIGHT

CUT TO:

INSPECTOR LAVAL and INSPECTOR REYNAUD, rock solid French Canadians, pin photographs of the body we just saw on the wall. Laval steps back. Takes in the display.

INSPECTOR LAVAL (subtitled French) Think she will like this?

Reynaud shrugs. Laval tosses him a Newsweek.

INSPECTOR LAVAL (subtitled French) We are lucky the FBI is sending her. She is the Michael Jordan of criminal profiling. (off Reynaud's look) The Guy Le Fleuer of profiling. She will save our ass.

The PHONE RINGS. Laval answers.

INSPECTOR LAVAL (subtitled French) Inspector Laval. (a beat) Have the airline check again. Look around baggage claim. (to Reynaud) She was on the flight but they can't find her.

Reynaud's CELL RINGS.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

Oui?

INSPECTOR REYNAUD (into phone)

Reynaud grabs his coat. Turns to Laval.

DARKNESS

INSPECTOR REYNAUD (subtitled French) I know where she is.

CUT TO:

We hear BREATHING and the SOFT RUSH of a RIVER. Soft, rhythmic. Then FOOTSTEPS.

Two eyes open, reflect moonlight. The FOOTSTEPS drawing closer.

CLICK! A FLASHLIGHT turns on. REVEALING:

EXT. FOREST CONSTRUCTION SITE - NIGHT

GRACE VANDERHOLT lies in the grave where the body was discovered. It has been excavated by criminologists, the soil sifted, the grass and brush removed. Grace sits up.

Grace holds out her FBI creds, shielding her eyes from the bright light.

GRACE It's okay, I'm supposed to be here.

CLICK. The LIGHT goes off. REVEALING Laval and Reynaud.

INSPECTOR LAVAL Agent Vanderholt, we requested your help. I'm Inspector Laval, this is Inspector Reynaud.

GRACE Hi. Look, I'm not ready to talk to you guys yet. I need a little more time here.

Reynaud and Laval trade looks, walk toward two UNIFORMS guarding the site.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

Grace lays back down. Sighs. Concentrates on the sounds. The RIVER. WIND in the trees. Then: LAUGHTER (O.S.).

GRACE Would you mind trading one liners somewhere else? I need to hear the natural sounds. I appreciate it.

The policemen have gathered in a chummy knot. Laval gestures for them to walk down the road.

ON GRACE

She steps out of the grave. Sits by it. Writes some notes. Everything glistens in the moonlight, alive. Grace takes it in for a beat.

Then: HOWLING, the lonely song of a distant WOLF.

Grace rises, crosses to the river, to a big gravel bar. Used as a campsite complete with a large fire pit. Grace sits by the fire pit.

More HOWLING, CLOSER this time.

Grace looks down river, SEES the glowing eyes of a TIMBER WOLF staring from a clump of trees. The animal stares a beat, then runs off. Grace has the chills.

Grace walks quietly toward the trees. Grace just a few feet away. RUSTLING. She cautiously moves aside a sapling.

EXT. RIVERBANK - GRACE'S FLASHLIGHT - NIGHT

A TIMBER WOLF nestled amidst the trees gnaws on something; a HUMAN HEAD.

EXT. RIVERBANK - NIGHT

Grace stands there alone, the wolf is long gone. She stoops, pushes aside brush. She finds a hollow under some roots. Grace CLICKS on her FLASHLIGHT.

WHAT SHE SEES

A human skull stares up from the hollow. Picked clean, weathered.

EXT. DIRT ROAD IN THE FOREST - NIGHT

10.

Laval and Reynaud, and the two UNIFORMS smoke and joke. A quiet beat as the WIND picks up. Their cars up the road in the b.g.

SOMETHING MOVES in the woods. Inspector Reynaud draws his Glock. SHUSHES the men.

A beat. MOVEMENT. Laval signals for the men to spread out. Holsters are UNSNAPPED. Reynaud is all eyes and ears as he picks his way toward the trees.

GRACE emerges from the trees, a laser-aiming dot on her forehead. She REACTS to Reynaud, raises her hands.

GRACE Don't shoot, I'm on your team.

Reynaud holsters his gun. The men relax. Grace takes Inspector Laval aside.

GRACE Call who you have to call. I found his head.

Laval REACTS.

INT. AUTOPSY ROOM - DAY

Gloved hands carefully remove the skull from a box. The MEDICAL EXAMINER places the skull on an exam table and begins cleaning it.

Grace walks around the headless body. The wetsuit has been removed, the body has been autopsied. Headless, skeletal hands, the legs are surprisingly well-preserved.

DIRECTOR GILLET is tall, heavy, smoking a cigar. He's a cop's cop and all-around nice guy.

DIRECTOR GILLET I can't tell you how excited we are to have you here.

GRACE You only have one victim. Usually there's two or three by the time I get called in.

DIRECTOR GILLET This case made page one of the Globe. The tabloids say there is a headhunter on the loose. (MORE) (CONTINUED)