REDRESS

By
Jayson Johnson

Draft - V

Strike Five Films

Jayson Johnson
707.227.5804
j.johnson155@gmail.com

EXT. YERBA BUENA ISLAND - MORNING

A broken shell of a man stands at the top of the small
island connecting both sides of the San Francisco Bay
Bridge, dead eyes staring off into space as cars pass by in
the b.g. He produces a quarter from his right pants pocket,
flips it and holds his hand out to catch it.
MAN (O.S.)
Call it.
WOMAN (O.S.)
Tails!
MATCH CUT TO:
INT. BATHROOM - MORNING (FLASHBACK)
A coin spinning in the air. A male and a females hand
compete to grab it. The female hand wins.
WOMAN
Uh-oh, too slow!
Dressed in bra and panties, fresh-faced JEANNIE GRIMES (28),
gloats to clean-cut JAKE GRIMES (32), wearing his bathrobe.
Although he looks much different, we can tell that this is
the same man who was standing on Yerba Buena Island.
JAKE
Hey, you can catch it all you want,
its still gonna be heads!
JEANNIE
Well see about that...
She removes her hand from the coin. Its heads.
JEANNIE
(CONT[PLEASEINSERT\PRERENDERUNICODE{
A
Z}INTOPREAMBLE]D)
Shit!
JAKE
Ha! I knew it! Told ya, didnt I?
JEANNIE
You always win! How do you do that?
Jake exits the bathroom and heads towards the bedroom while
looking out the window.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

2.

JAKE
What can I say? I got a gift!
(beat)
(contd)
JAKE
Im going back
looks cold out
(beat)
Are you taking
after school?

(CONTD)
to bed - man, it
there!
Carrie to ballet

Jeannie quickly gets dressed as Jake slides back under the

covers.
JEANNIE
Yes, but were gonna walk instead
of taking that death trap of yours.
I dont understand why you keep
putting money into that thing.
JAKE
(Prideful)
Cuz thats what men do! Two
hundred thirty thousand miles and
counting, baby!
Jeannie rolls her eyes as she picks up her purse and heads
for the door.
JAKE (CONTD)
Hey, dont I get a kiss??
Jeannie stops, turns and leans down to give him a kiss, but
then stops at the last second and hands him the quarter
instead.
JEANNIE
(playfully)
Dont spend it all in one place.
JAKE
(Smiling)
Yes, maam!
Jake watches her go, smiling happily.

3.
EXT. BAY BRIDGE - EARLY MORNING
Howling winds whip around
keeps rolling in the b.g.
right pants pocket, pulls
pants pocket and looks at

Jake as a steady stream of traffic

He puts the quarter back in his
a business card out of his left
it intently.

INSERT C.U. BUSINESS CARD

Its an official San Francisco Police Department business
card. The name (and title below it) read: RAYMOND LOWELL
POLICE OFFICER.
CUT TO:
EXT. SUBURBAN APARTMENT BUILDING - MORNING (FLASHBACK)
Its a bright, peaceful morning in a nondescript suburban
neighborhood. A police cruiser pulls up to the curb.
Heavyset veteran police officer RAYMOND LOWELL (45), climbs
out of the driver side as younger female police officer
JULIANA LOPEZ (30) climbs out of the passenger side. She
follows Lowell as he walks past a middle-aged Latino
GARDENER who is kneeling down and pouring some gas into his
weed whacker.
LOWELL
Buenos dias.
GARDENER
Buenos dias, senor.
The officers cross to an apartment door, knock and wait for
a response. A moment later Jake opens the door.
LOWELL
(contd)
JAKE
Yes...
LOWELL
Im Officer Lowell, this if Officer
Lopez. I have some news to tell
you...mind if I come in?
JAKE
Uh, yeah, sure, I guess...Whats
this about?
We hear the annoying WHINE of the weed whacker as the O.S.
Gardener fires it up.
(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

4.
LOWELL
(to Lopez)
Stay here.
LOPEZ
What?

Lowell raises his voice so she can hear.

OFFICER LOWELL
Stay here!
Lopez nods her head yes and stands off to one side. Jake
motions with his hand for Lowell to enter the apartment.
Lowell enters and he and Jake walk to the back of the
apartment, where we see them in silhouette having an intense
conversation. We can tell from Jakes body language that
hes just gotten some really bad news. Lowell walks slowly
back to the front door and Jake trails slowly after him.
OFFICER LOWELL (CONTD)
Im really sorry.
(beat)
Heres my card, give me a call if
you need grief counseling, we have
people in the department that are
specially trained to help people in
your situation.
Lowell gently places his BUSINESS CARD on a table near the
front door and exits the apartment, closing the door after
him.
EXT. YERBA BUENA ISLAND - MORNING
JAKE crosses to a Nissan Maxima thats seen better days and
gets in.
INSERT C.U. BUSINESS CARD
...as it falls to the ground in slow motion.
INT. JAKES CAR
Jake sits staring out the windshield, lost in thought while
looking at a picture of JEANNIE and a cute LITTLE GIRL taped
to the dashboard. Hes surrounded by all kinds of coffee
cups, fast food wrappers and miscellaneous pieces of paper visual evidence of a seriously depressed person who just
doesnt give a shit about anything anymore.
CUT TO:

5.
INT. JAKES APARTMENT HOME - KITCHEN - DAY (FLASHBACK)
While Jeannie stands at the kitchen counter chopping some
vegetables for dinner, JAKE sits at the kitchen table with a
vintage reel-to-reel tape deck lying on its back in front of
him.
The transport mechanism has been removed and Jake is busily
soldering something inside its "guts. The Little Girl from
the picture is his impish daughter CARRIE, who enters the
kitchen holding her nose.
CARRIE
Daddy, what are you doing? That
smells weird!
JAKE
Im fixing the footage counter,
honey.
CARRIE
A footy kawn-ter?! Whats that?
Jake and Jeannie smile at each other, charmed by their
daughters innocent curiosity. Jake puts the soldering iron
down, turns around, scoops Carrie up and places her in his
lap.
JAKE
See all of these little wires?
CARRIE
Yeah.
Jake holds up the two tape reels.
JAKE
And see these?
CARRIE
Yeah.
JAKE
These are called reels. And these
wires tell each other how much of
this tape has gone from this reel
to this reel. Kind of like the way
you and your friends talk on the
phone and tell each other how many
presents you got for Christmas.
Thats good to know, right?
Jake tickles Carrie and she GIGGLES.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

6.

CARRIE
Yeah, I like presents!
JAKE
But sometimes the wires cant phone
each because the connections
broken, see?
He points out the broken connection as she looks on.
JAKE (CONTD)
Thats when I use my special
soldering iron to fix the
connection so they can talk to each
other on the phone again!
CARRIE
So they can know how many presents
they got?
JAKE
Thats right!
CARRIE
Cool!
CUT TO:
INT. JAKES CAR - MORNING
Jake is driving on the freeway while looking at the picture
of Jeannie and Carrie and thinking about the past.
CARRIE (V.O.)
Is your iron like Mommys iron,
Daddy?
JAKE (V.O)
Yeah, kinda - only a lot smaller.
CARRIE (V.O.)
What else can you fix, Daddy? Can
you fix our car?
JAKE (V.O.)
I dont know, baby...maybe!
Jake looks down at something on the seat next to him.
INSERT M.S. SEAT
A small black metal box with a triggering device next to it.

7.

CUT TO:
EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD DIVE BAR - NIGHT (FLASHBACK)
A drunken Jake staggers down the sidewalk toward the bar,
holding an almost-empty bottle of bourbon. He pulls the
front door open and starts to enter, but has to wait for a
middle-aged WHITE COUPLE to exit first. They give him a
dirty look as they walk away. Jake gives them a dirty look
back.
JAKE
What?!
Jake enters the bar.
INT. NEIGHBORHOOD DIVE BAR - NIGHT (FLASHBACK)
A physically imposing bald BARTENDER with a handlebar
mustache shakes his head as Jake flumps down onto a bar
stool and puts the bottle on the bar in front of him.
BARTENDER
Cant bring that in here - no
outside drinks allowed.
JAKE
Hey, no problem!
Jake finishes the bottle with a giant swig. The Bartender
grabs it out of his hand, throws it in a a garbage can
behind the bar and gives Jake the stink eye.
BARTENDER
House rules.
Jake LAUGHS.
JAKE
Rules?! What, you mean like "eye
for an eye?" There aint no more
rules, man! Whats the point of
rules anyway if there aint no
justice?!
BARTENDER
What the hell are you talking
about?
Jakes demeanor suddenly turns deep dark black and he hands
the Bartender his cell phone.
(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

8.

INSERT CU CELL PHONE

The headline of a newspaper article reads "Local Man
sentenced to prison in fatal hit and run accident"
Underneath the headline is a picture of an African-American
man next to the body of the article copy.
ANGLE ON BARTENDER
Who sneers while reading the article on cell phone.
JAKE
Drunk son of a bitch ran over my
family...and all he gets is
vehicular manslaughter?! Wheres
the fucking justice in that?!
Even though the bar is empty, the Bartender still looks
around the bar to see if anyone else is paying attention to
the scene in front of him.
BARTENDER
(handing back cell phone) Look man,
Im sorry about your family, but
were about to close up for the
night...
Jake calms down and stares at the Bartender with tears in
his eyes.
BARTENDER (CONTD)
All right, look - lemme buy you a
drink.
The Bartender grabs a bottle and two shot glasses. As he
pours the drinks, Jake looks closely at the Bartenders
forearm...
INSERT C.U. BARTENDERS FOREARM
Its covered with a big tattoo of an eagle holding a Nazi
swastika.
BARTENDER (CONTD)
So wheres he live?
JAKE
Who?
BARTENDER
The son of a bitch who killed your
family.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

9.

JAKE
In prison...four years. Probably
gonna get out in less than two. Why
do you care?
BARTENDER
Cuz I think I might be able to
help you get some...justice.
The Bartender downs his shot and stares at Jake with a hard,
cold look in his eye.
INT. BAR - BACK ROOM - NIGHT
The Bartender leads Jake into a cramped back room that
serves as an office. Theres a desk with a phone and some
papers on it, but Jakes attention is immediately drawn to
the Nazi paraphernalia that covers the walls.
BARTENDER
Have a seat.
JAKE
Listen, I....
The Bartender pulls a bottle of bourbon out and a couple of
shot glasses out of the desk drawer. He pours them both a
drink while looking at Jakes shocked expression.
BARTENDER
Scared?
JAKE
What? You mean about...
BARTENDER
Yeah.
Jake LAUGHS nervously.
JAKE
Yeah, a little.
BARTENDER
Lemme let you in on a little
secret, my friend. White powers
about more than just racial purity.
Its about moral purity, too. This
societys gone to shit and we stand
for the same thing you want justice.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

10.

The Bartender picks up his shot and downs it. Jake does the
same.
JAKE
So...what are you saying?
BARTENDER
Im sayin tonights your lucky
night...because I can help you get
what you want.
The bartender reaches into the OFFICE DESK and produces a
BOX-LIKE STRUCTURE in a BROWN PAPER BAG. He slides it across
the desk to Jake.
Jake attempts to take the box out of the bag. The bartender
puts his hand on the box stopping Jake in his tracks.
BARTENDER
Not here.
JAKE
Whaaaat?
BARTENDER
Open this when your ready to use
it.
The Bartender smiles and pours Jake another shot.
EXT. BAR - NIGHT
Camera sits on the image of the closed bar. We know Jake and
the bartender are still inside continuing their
conversation.
CUT TO:
INT. SUBURBAN HOME - MORNING
A city at sleep. Birds chirp as the sun rises. A slightly
overweight African-American MOTHER (35) places a sandwich in
a paper lunch bag and folds the bag shut, then looks at the
digital clock on the kitchen counter.
INSERT C.U. CLOCK
It reads 7:18 A.M.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

11.

MOTHER
Tasha, come on honey, your Daddys
waiting for us to visit him, we
dont want to be late!
P.O.V JAKE
Looking through the windshield of his car at the Mother and
her cute 8-year-old daughter TASHA exiting their house and
getting into an SUV parked in the driveway.
EXT. JAKES CAR - MORNING
Jakes car is parked as close as possible to the driveway.
The brown paper bag sits in his lap. After a brief moment of
hesitation, he opens the bag revealing a BLACK DEVICE. He
inserts a KEY and turns it. The black device begins to beep.
He gets out of the car and starts walking away quickly. As
he does so, his wallet falls out of his jacket pocket and
lands in the middle of the driveway.
The Daughter notices the wallet, picks it up and starts
running after Jake, who is now halfway down the block. The
Mother notices and calls out after her.
MOTHER
Tasha, come back here! Tasha!
Tasha ignores her Mother and keeps going towards Jake.
TASHA
Hey mister! You dropped your
wallet! Hey mister!
Jake stops and turns to face her. We can tell by the look on
her face that he realizes hes made a terrible mistake.
ANGLE ON TASHA
Who is smiling as she holds out the wallet for him to take.
TASHA (CONTD)
I found this, is it yours?
Jake looks past her with desperation in his eyes.
SMASH CUT TO:
BLACK SCREEN
FADE OUT: