THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

an original screenplay by

Larry Brand

8180 Films
P.O. BOX 975
Leland, MI 49654

Copyright 2011 Larry Brand

 THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

WHITE SPACE

and the distant WHOOSH of the WIND. A few beats, then:

MANS VOICE (OVER)

Youre not real....

WOMANS VOICE (OVER)

How do you know?

MANS VOICE (OVER)

Werent your eyes blue?

A WOMANS EYES

HOVER huge and luminous before us. Light brown. Haunting.

THE MAN

is OUTSIDE and VERY HIGH UP. A distant matrix of BRIDGES

frames him like a spiders web in the bright DAYLIGHT.

MAN
And your hair...?

THE WOMAN

is opposite him, also framed by a latticework of BRIDGES,

bits of Manhattan SKYLINE, impossibly distant CLOUDS and SKY.

WOMAN
Im as real as you make me.

MAN
That proves it.

WOMAN
What?

We begin to HEAR the sound of DRIPPING.

MAN
A real person would never say that.

WOMAN
Do we ever really exist outside
each others imagination?
 2.

The DRIPPING is getting LOUDER.

MAN
How did we get from you not
existing to me not existing?

WOMAN
Whats the difference?

The DRIPPING suddenly becomes DEAFENING as we --

CUT TO:

A TENEMENT ROOM

at NIGHT. Ugly light flashing through uncurtained windows,

casting harsh SHADOWS across stained walls, broken furniture,
a sagging filthy mattress on a naked wire frame. Looks
like a crack den from the post-Apocalypse.

A DIGITAL IMAGE

DISPLAYS a weird SKEWED ANGLE from the floor, where a

camera has been dropped: crushed cigarette packs, scraps
of aluminum foil. A dark shape lies just beyond the bed.

A FRYING PAN

is on the floor, looking out of place. A DROP of BLOOD

splatters onto the surface: the source of the DRIPPING.

MANS VOICE (OVER)

So, this is where it gets you:
too much thinking...or not enough.

Another DROP cascades into the pan, EXPLODES in SLOW MOTION.

MANS VOICE (OVER)

(continuing)
Its a myth that we use only five
percent of our brains. Ask anyone
whos lost even the smallest bit.

A THREEPENNY NAIL

PROTRUDES from under the arm of a wooden chair.

 3.

MANS VOICE (OVER)

(continuing)
No, we use pretty much all of it --
and usually thats not enough.

FROM BEHIND

we see the man, DANNY, tied to the chair.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
How do we find ourselves, inches
from oblivion, still ignoring the
obvious? If the past no longer
exists and the future hasnt
happened yet, how can we be
anywhere at all?

A RED BEAD

of MOISTURE begins to COALESCE along the length of the nail.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
The edge between two surfaces has
no dimension -- yet somehow a blade
can cut your throat.

MOVE VERY SLOWLY

toward the man in the chair, framed by the harsh LIGHT.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Zeno tells us we cant be anywhere,
yet somehow we find ourselves
at the precipice; we cant move,
though we invariably exit life. We
never catch the turtle who sits on
the turtle, who sits on the...yeah,
its turtles all the way down.

A DROP OF BLOOD

hangs precariously from the point of the nail --

 4.

AND FALLS

toward the waiting frying pan -- FREEZING in mid-flight.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
A lot to learn, a moment too late.

CUT TO:

A DIGITAL CAMERA IMAGE

COMING UP. Too BRIGHT for an instant, then STOPPING DOWN

and FINDING FOCUS: an elderly man, HERMAN HERZMAN, is FRAMED
against a window that looks out on a pleasant garden.

HERMAN
Are you ready?

ACROSS THE ROOM

Danny is adjusting his camera on its tripod -- the source

of the DIGITAL IMAGE. He puts on a pair of headphones.

DANNY
What did you have for breakfast
this morning, Mr. Herzman?

HERMAN
Breakfast? Who cares about that?

DANNY
Im checking sound levels.

HERMAN
Ham and eggs. Like every day.

Danny adjusts the lavalier on Mr. Herzmans shirt.

DANNY
Okay.

He returns to his camera and finds his frame, nods to Herman.

HERMAN
(a few beats)
The trains were hell, but even hell
has levels -- some are always worse
off than others. Who was that
writer, with the circles of hell?
 5.

DANNY
Dante.

HERMAN
So, in there some are in the middle
of the car and theyre probably not
going to make it. The heat from
the bodies -- their hell is worse.
But my father pushed me to the
edge. It wasnt a window there,
but there were slats, and sometimes
through the slats you got a breath
of fresh air. Heaven. Its all a
matter of comparison, right? All
of a sudden, a bit of light and
compared to the rest you are well
off. The smell from the bodies
...for a moment its not so bad.

IN AN EASY CHAIR

across the room an elderly woman, RINA HERZMAN, watches

her husband recount his story, nodding occasionally.

THROUGH DANNYS CAMERA

we go CLOSE on the old mans expressive face.

HERMAN (DIGITAL)
(continuing)
We stopped at a station somewhere,
maybe the soldiers needed some
fresh air. I dont know if we
were there five minutes or two
hours -- time is different in this
situation. Standing still is worse
than moving, even if youre moving
to something bad.
(a beat)
A little bit of light hit my eye and
I squeezed closer to the slat, but
after all those hours in the dark,
the sun hurt my eyes. I could only
see a bright haze. Then, suddenly,
a beautiful face appeared, with
innocent blue eyes looking back at
me. An angel. Of course, I didnt
believe in angels, not even as a
boy. Certainly not in this place....
 6.

DANNY (V.O.)
The Herzmans story had been
featured in a local paper and was
picked up nationally. Next thing
they know, they had a book deal.
There was talk of a movie.

CUT TO:

A WHITE ROOM

so featureless we could be inside a cloud. Danny is seated

opposite an OFF-SCREEN FIGURE.

DANNY
(continuing)
I thought itd make an interesting
documentary.

FIGURE (O.S.)
History Channel, that kind of thing?

DANNY
Yeah.

FIGURE (O.S.)
Internet says you make movies.

DANNY
Normally, I prefer fiction.

FIGURE (O.S)
Whys that?

DANNY
Its more believable.

CUT TO:

A SERIES OF VIEWS

around Manhattan on a bright MORNING: crowds traversing

Times Square, Bryant Park, Herald Square; the mercantile
exchanges of Wall Street and the garment district; masses
of humanity descending into or emerging from the subways.

DANNY (V.O.)
I was late as usual, hustling
to make the 9:40 to Hudson, where
the Herzmans lived. In the city
youre always in a hurry. Gotta
get to that meeting, business
(MORE)
 7.

DANNY (V.O.) (CONT'D)

lunch, the ATM. People are just
obstacles, inconveniences.

MOVING THROUGH

the morning pedestrian ocean, we SLOW DOWN and observe the

FACES of passersby in intimate detail.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Make eye contact and youre almost
embarrassed by your own humanity.
A face separates itself from the
whole: the old woman nursing a
grievance from some long-ago slight;
the kid who knows he can never go
home; the man whos lost his gifts,
fallen from grace; faces that have
seen war and disaster, known passion
and forgotten it, held grudges,
forgiven sins, watched love turn
into apathy. Yeah. The usual.

WE SPEED UP

and are suddenly HURTLING through the streets of MIDTOWN.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
And every now and then, a face you
cant get out of your mind. You
see her across the subway platform,
getting off a bus, in the produce
aisle or at a bookstore.

WOMENS FACES

APPEAR within the crowds: turning toward us and FREEZING

while the frenzied motion continues around them unabated.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Who is this person and how did our
trajectories cross? What histories
does she bring and what myths might
we create, if only given the chance?
You want to say something, but you
cant find the words. Youre just
not that guy.
 8.

THE FACES

slowly FADE back into the gray of the crowd and VANISH.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
There are those sad souls who take
out an ad in the personals: Saw you
in the New Age section at the Barnes
and Noble on 53rd. I was wearing
a green baseball cap. Or they go
back to the same spot, day after
day, hoping its part of her routine.

START MOVING

again through the streets of Midtown.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
What they dont know is that even
if they got a second chance, theyd
only blow it.

We APPROACH the magnificent facade of Grand Central Station.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
They havent changed, only gotten
that much older. Theyd let her
get away again.

WE ENTER

Grand Central Station, MOVING through the domed main chamber.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
So, shell always be a face
among faces, a cypher, one of
the Mysteries. Youll never talk
on the phone, recognize her scent;
you wont face each other over
a bistro table, taste the Malbec,
learn each others favorite color.
She is, in short, every girl youll
never know, never love, never fuck.
 9.

DIGITAL IMAGE

THROUGH Dannys CAMERA shows us descending to the PLATFORMS,

as commuters press toward the doors of a newly-arrived train.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Better to have never seen her
at all. Now you understand the
ancient wisdom: rip out the
offending eye.

A FACE

turns ever so briefly toward Dannys CAMERA amid the press of

bodies: a young woman, hit by a sudden slant of light, which
casts her in fierce and tragic tones; fragile and beautiful.
Haunted. Is it merely a trick of light? Is she looking back
at us? She starts to turn away and we FREEZE FRAME.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Except...Id captured her in my
camera.

DANNY LOOKS

quickly away from the eyepiece and

ACROSS THE PLATFORM

but the woman has disappeared into the crowd.

DANNY (V.O.)
And like that she was gone.

FIGURE (V.O.)
Just a chance occurrence?

CUT TO:

A MONITOR

showing VIDEO of an INTERROGATION ROOM: the white room we

were in earlier. With no windows, it exists in timeless
space. Danny sits across a metal desk from DET. LLOYD MARTIN,
who takes everything in at a glance, giving nothing away.
 10.

DANNY
I was getting some B-roll. She was
just a face across the platform.

DET. MARTIN
No reason to expect youd ever
see her again?

INSIDE THE ROOM

the detective watches Danny dispassionately.

DANNY
(a beat)
There are physicists who believe
there are other universes like
ours, but with one or two things
changed. I thought, maybe theres
a universe in which we meet. I
didnt expect itd be this one.

DET. MARTIN
Other universes.

DANNY
Yeah.

DET. MARTIN
That what you believe?

DANNY
I find it comforting.

DET. MARTIN
(nodding)
For simplicitys sake, why dont
we keep it to this universe....

CUT TO:

DIGITAL IMAGE

of Mr. Herzmans lined and animated face on Dannys CAMERA.

HERMAN (DIGITAL)
It was a little girl, maybe five
or six, with pretty blonde curls.
Maybe she was waiting for a train
and had wandered away from her
parents. She wore a little cross
around her neck and the light from
this was what hit my eyes. Im
(MORE)
 11.

HERMAN (DIGITAL) (CONT'D)

sure all she could see through the
slat was my eye, the eye of a boy
only a little older than she. What
must she have thought of this train
and its strange cargo?

DANNY (V.O.)
After the story had broken, I needed
to see the Herzmans again.

HERMAN (DIGITAL)
For a very long time we looked at
each other through that slat, only
inches away but it might have been
different continents. Then she
made a quick motion and her small
fingers pushed through the hole.
She dropped something into my palm,
and a moment later, as if somehow
the universe had known this moment
had ended, the train started up
again. I looked down at my hand and
saw that she had given me the little
gold cross from around her neck....

CUT TO:

A COMMUTER TRAIN

barreling alongside the Hudson River in the MORNING.

DANNY (V.O.)
At first I wasnt sure it was
the same girl Id seen the other
day. She looked different.

INSIDE THE TRAIN

we find Danny sitting in an aisle seat. He notices

A YOUNG WOMAN

sitting a couple of rows ahead, by the window. We only get

glimpses of her as she leans to look out at the terrain.

DANNY (V.O.)
There is always a moment when your
life changes, though you may not
realize it at the time.
 12.

DANNY FUMBLES

with the bag at his feet to get his camera out.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
The word spoken, the light falling
across someones face in a certain
way; the moment you realize youre
in love or out of it....

DIGITAL IMAGE

THROUGH Dannys CAMERA as he FINDS FOCUS.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
History has turned on its axis
and you will never be the same.

THE YOUNG WOMAN

is very pretty, smartly dressed in hip casual. Oversized

glasses hide her eyes.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Right there! Thats it.

THROUGH DANNYS CAMERA

we watch as the girls hand dabs at her cheek and we FREEZE.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
That little movement of her hand --
if I hadnt been looking through
the camera I never would have
caught it. Was she getting a speck
out of her eye, or dabbing at a
tear? That touch, however small,
turned her into flesh and blood for
me, a soul with a past, a life with
an arc. It gave her...specificity.

DIGITAL ZOOM until the image PIXILATES into NOTHING.

 13.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
A pretty girl on a train is one
thing. A crying girl, a whole
other matter.

INSIDE THE TRAIN

Danny moves into the seat beside the YOUNG WOMAN. She
doesnt seem to notice, looking out the window. He puts
the camera bag awkwardly at his feet. A few beats. Then:

DANNY
You okay?

She continues looking out the window.

DANNY
(continuing)
I mean, you seemed upset.

She is either in her own world or purposefully ignoring him.

DANNY
(trying again)
Hey, trains make a lot of people
sad. Like in all those country-
western songs.

YOUNG WOMAN
(without turning)
Country.

DANNY
Right. I mean, theres always a
train and somebodys always sad.

She finally looks at him, seems to take him in at a glance.

YOUNG WOMAN
No. No ones called it country-
western in thirty years.

DANNY
(smiling)
Well, it was better music when
they did.

LEXI
And dont mistake crying for
vulnerability.
 14.

DANNY
I was just --

YOUNG WOMAN
Your lens is showing.

He looks at her quizzically, and she nods at his camera bag,

which isnt quite zipped shut.

DANNY
My job.

YOUNG WOMAN
If youre a private eye, you suck
at it.

DANNY
Nothing surreptitious. Shooting a
documentary.

YOUNG WOMAN
(nodding to camera)
Its not on now, is it?

DANNY
Camera shy?

YOUNG WOMAN
Who are those people who think
photographs capture your soul?

DANNY
Aborigines. Pretty sure theyre
wrong.

She looks back out the window. Without turning:

YOUNG WOMAN
So, whats it about? Your movie.

DANNY
I guess you could say its a love
story.

YOUNG WOMAN
Thought documentaries were non-
fiction.

DANNY
That would be cynicism?
 15.

YOUNG WOMAN
You think just because something
really happened it isnt fiction?

DANNY (V.O.)
I was pretty sure this wasnt your
average girl on the commuter line.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

where Det. Martin listens impassively to Dannys story.

DET. MARTIN
She give you any personal details?

DANNY
She had a way of turning your
questions around. You thought you
were talking about her but you were
really just talking about yourself.

BACK TO:

INSIDE THE TRAIN

as the New York State landscape floats by beyond the window.

DANNY
(a beat)
So, why were you crying?

She looks at him curiously. Then:

YOUNG WOMAN
You tell me.

DANNY
I get to make up whatever I want?

YOUNG WOMAN
You will anyway.

DANNY
Okay. Seven years ago you met
a man on this very train. Got
to talking but never traded more
than first names. He gets off at
Poughkeepsie. As he steps onto
the platform he looks back through
the window and your eyes meet.
Its then that you realize you
(MORE)
 16.

DANNY (CONT'D)
shouldve gotten off with him.
He was the guy. He was your one
chance to escape the wheel, to
leave behind your everyday life
for the chance, no matter how
improbable, to enter mythic realms.

She has to laugh at his flourish.

DANNY
(continuing)
But the train is already moving.
Youve missed your chance. You
spend weeks going through the
Poughkeepsie directory but all
youve got is his first name.

YOUNG WOMAN
Which is?

DANNY
Bob, unfortunately.

YOUNG WOMAN
If only it had been Zebediah.

DANNY
You call every one of the three-
hundred-and-seventy-three Roberts,
Bobs, and Bobbys --

YOUNG WOMAN
I wouldnt call any Bobbys.

DANNY
With no luck. But every day for
seven years you buy your ticket.
You get on the train, take it to
Poughkeepsie, then turn around
and go back home, alone.

YOUNG WOMAN
(laughing)
That is such a guy story.

DANNY
Yeah?

YOUNG WOMAN
I wouldnt spend that much time
trying to track someone down if
hed murdered my mother.

He looks at her a long beat, their laughter subsiding.

 17.

DANNY
Youre really not going to tell me.

YOUNG WOMAN
See, the difference between trains
and planes is, on a train, if you
dont like the conversation you
can change your seat.

She reaches for her bag as the train starts to SLOW.

YOUNG WOMAN
(smiling)
Or get off at the next stop.

DANNY
I dont suppose I should ask for
your number.

She looks at him with sudden intensity.

YOUNG WOMAN
I heard once that events cast their
shadows before them, that its only
a matter of paying attention....

DANNY (V.O.)
Ive replayed that part of the
conversation a hundred times.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

where Danny looks up at Det. Martin.

DANNY
(continuing)
Was she trying to warn me?

YOUNG WOMAN (V.O.)

Give me your hand.

BACK TO:

THE TRAIN

where Danny holds out his hand and she turns it palm up.

DANNY
Going to tell my fortune?
 18.

YOUNG WOMAN
(dismissively)
Thats easy: youll know moments
of joy, youll lose what you love,
youll die.

DANNY
Can I get a second opinion?

She takes out a pen and writes something on his palm.

YOUNG WOMAN
The other thing about trains is,
you get to see the world passing
in real time. When youre eight
miles up you can convince yourself
youre still the same person when
you get off.

She finishes writing, grabs her bag, and is gone.

THROUGH THE WINDOW

we see her pass the station sign for WESTPORT.

DANNY LOOKS

down at the single word on his palm: LEXI.

FLASH TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

at NIGHT, in the harsh flickering light from the uncurtained

window. Danny, his head lolling forward, bound in the chair.

DANNY (V.O.)
So. A million questions without
a questioner. A hundred replayed
nights. How do I find myself
in this sweaty bed, who is this
person beside me? Why are there
more scars than I remember wounds?
Right. Memory is flawed. But isnt
memory all that knits our moments
of existence into a sense of self?

MOVE SLOWLY

from his shoulder down the length of his arm....

 19.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Of course, philosophical questions
lose power when youre staring at
your own mortality. Its one thing
to know youre going to die at some
point in the indeterminate future;
another to watch the clock wind down.

WE FIND

his HAND...and the huge nail thats been DRIVEN through it.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
And, yeah....

THE SKEWED ANGLE

from Dannys dropped CAMERA shows a pair of legs on the floor

beyond the bed, dark blood slowly pooling nearby.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Im not the only dead guy in the
room.

HERMAN (V.O.)
When we got to the camp everything
is very simple. A man points left
or right and you live or you die.

CUT TO:

A MONITOR

ON which we see the expressive face of Herman Herzman.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
(continuing)
My mother and sisters, death. I
was big for my age, looked like I
could work, so my father and I go
to the right. I still held the
little cross in my hand but I saw
they were taking every little piece
of gold they could find. Rings,
bracelets -- only the fillings in
your teeth you could keep; that
they took when you were dead.
I decided then and there I would
(MORE)
 20.

HERMAN (MONITOR) (CONT'D)

hold on to that little cross the
girl had given me, no matter what.
I slipped it under my tongue.

DANNY SITS

at the EDITING BAY in his OFFICE, watching the MONITOR.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
(continuing)
Having a mission, even if its only
in your mind, keeps you alive. I
was losing everything I had known,
everyone. But I would not lose this
little girls gift -- maybe the last
act of kindness I would know.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

So, you went back to work.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Danny nods at the detective.

DANNY
I had to finish my project.

DET. MARTIN
And the girl?

DANNY
Instead of destroying the mystique,
that short conversation only
heightened it. How many people
can you say that about?

DET. MARTIN
But now you had a name.

DANNY
There were no Lexis in Westport.
I found three Alexandras but none
of them were her.

CUT TO:

MANHATTAN STREETS

at DIFFERENT TIMES of DAY. Everything is SPEEDED UP around

us, but we are moving VERY SLOWLY.
 21.

DANNY (V.O.)
When I wasnt working I found
myself wandering the streets.
I would think I saw her, maybe
a dozen times a day.

A WOMAN

turns to us very slowly -- from behind she could be Lexi.

THE WOMANS FACE

looks blankly back at us, a stranger, then moves away.

SUDDENLY

we SPEED UP, and everything around us SLOWS DOWN.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Like a dog at the grave of his
departed master, Id always wind
up back at the same place....

WE MOVE

crazily through the streets...until we find ourselves INSIDE

GRAND CENTRAL STATION

looking down from the BALCONY as the unceasing motion of the

commuters returns to normal speed.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
I remembered an old photo Id seen
somewhere. Watch things in real
time and its easy to believe were
part of the world, that our motion
is more than random, our presence
more than accidental. But a long
exposure reveals the truth.

THE MOVING PEOPLE

suddenly become a BLUR of motion...and DISAPPEAR. The great

cathedral of Grand Central Station is empty of inhabitants.
 22.

DANNY
Were just ghosts, illusions we
perpetrate on ourselves. This is
the world that lasts, but doesnt
know us. This is our work...but
if theres no one to see it, what
does it amount to?

LEXI (O.S.)
Guys getting his morning paper
at the newsstand....

GRAND CENTRAL STATION

SUDDENLY returns to its normal activity as

DANNY TURNS

around to see Lexi standing behind him.

LEXI
Next to him appears this vision,
gorgeous, I mean, right out of the
swimsuit edition. Shes buying a
lottery ticket.

FLASH TO:

A NEWSSTAND

as a beautiful woman gets her ticket from the proprietor.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Hes smitten, cant get a word out.
Hommina, hommina. Lets her get away.

FLASH TO:

THE WOMAN

walking off down the street.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Next day he stops by the stand,
asks the owner if he knows the
girl who bought the lottery ticket.
(MORE)
 23.

LEXI (V.O.) (CONT'D)

Only English this guys knows is,
buy something or get lost.

FLASH TO:

THE NEWSSTAND

as the owner motions brusquely to the guy.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Well, our boy figures, people are
creatures of habit, so he finds
himself the nearest Starbucks and
plants himself where hes got a view
of the stand, figuring sooner or
later shell come by for her ticket.

FLASH TO:

INSIDE STARBUCKS

as the man settles into a seat by the window.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Hes obsessed. Days turn into
weeks, seasons change.

FLASH TO:

VARIOUS SHOTS

of Starbucks, the man in varying seasonal attire.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Hes coming in late for work.
Hes unavailable to his friends.

FLASH TO:

INSIDE STARBUCKS

where the man seems increasingly unkempt, unshaven. Empty

coffee cups and crumpled newspapers are strewn about.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
And wouldnt you know it, on the
day hes decided to give it up,
(MORE)
 24.

LEXI (V.O.) (CONT'D)

return to some semblance of his
former life --

CUT TO:

INSIDE A DINER

in MIDTOWN, where Danny and Lexi are at a booth. MORNING.

DANNY
She shows up.

LEXI
Turns out shed been out of town.

DANNY
Let me guess. He never makes
his move.

LEXI
(curiously)
Why?

DANNY
He sees the future: theyll have
their affair and in time itll be
no more than that: an affair.

FLASH TO:

A BEDROOM

SOMEWHERE. The couple wrestling among the sheets.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
He can anticipate the rhythms of
their sex, the purr of her throat;
knows the scratchy quality of her
voice in the morning. He closes
his eyes and can almost smell her.

CUT TO:

BRIGHT LIGHT

streaming through the window as the woman turns to the man

in the MORNING.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
It will be good. So good that hes
okay with her stretch marks and the
butterfly tattoo, okay that she has
(MORE)
 25.

DANNY (V.O.) (CONT'D)

morning breath and lets her hair clog
the drain. But they have as much
chance of making it in the long run
as she does of winning the lottery.

The couple look at each other in the suddenly harsh light.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Because good is never perfect.
In his madness hes realized the
unbridgeable distance between real
and ideal. So, he would rather
let her walk away with her sad
lottery ticket.

FLASH TO:

THE NEWSSTAND

and the woman, again, walking away alone.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
He would rather let her live in
the purity of his imagination than
succumb to the sad spectacle of
flesh and blood, scent and sorrow.

THE MAN WATCHES

THROUGH STARBUCKS WINDOW as she disappears down the street.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Hes lost something, yes. Another
notch on his belt, another conquest,
maybe even an enduring relationship.
But think of what he gets in return.

BACK TO:

THE DINER

as Lexi listens, amused, as Danny finishes his exposition.

DANNY
(continuing)
He will forever be the man who
waited through snow and rain, day
after day, for the lottery girl.
He will be the one who walked away
(MORE)
 26.

DANNY (CONT'D)
at the very moment the dream would
be realized. He will be...mythic.

LEXI
Want to know what really happened?

DANNY
Sure.

LEXI
Hes out of that Starbucks so fast
he sloshes his half-caf latt all
over his shirt. Extra hot.

FLASH TO:

STARBUCKS

as the man comes barreling out the door.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
He almost knocks her over, but they
manage to strike up a conversation.
They start dating.

He catches up to her and they start down the street together.

BACK TO:

THE DINER

as Danny nods at Lexis version of events.

DANNY
Two kids and a summer home on
Montauk?

LEXI
Lasted eight months. Its not
you, its me, kind of thing.

DANNY
Ah.

LEXI
Dont be smug. He gave it a shot.

DANNY
My version wouldve lasted forever.

LEXI
But now I know your secret.
 27.

DANNY
Didnt know I had one.

LEXI
Youd rather have a great story
than a great love.

DANNY (V.O.)
Id never thought about it....

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

where Det. Martin listens to Dannys recounting of events.

DANNY
(continuing)
If given the choice, would I rather
have a great love or a great story?

Danny looks at the detective as if for an answer.

LEXI (V.O.)
Oh? And the lottery ticket?

BACK TO:

THE DINER

where Danny looks back at Lexi as she finishes her coffee.

LEXI
(continuing)
She won.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Det. Martin looks at Danny, poker-faced.

DET. MARTIN
You didnt think it was odd,
running into her like that?

DANNY
I guess I wasnt thinking at all.

The detective studies him a long beat.

DANNY
What?
 28.

DET. MARTIN
I havent quite figured out if
youre a victim or a suspect.

Danny holds up his bandaged hand, smiling.

DANNY
Guess thats something you could
pretty much say about anybody.

DET. MARTIN
Get you another pain pill for that?

DANNY
Actually, the pain helps me remember.

DET. MARTIN
Sisters at St. Judes would agree
with you.

DANNY
Catholic school?

DET. MARTIN
You bet.

Danny pulls out a small silver medallion from around his neck.

DANNY
Her patron saint.

LEXI (V.O.)
Did you try to find me?

BACK TO:

THE DINER

as Danny holds up his palm, where she had written her name.

DANNY
There arent any Lexis in Westport.

LEXI
Never said I lived in Westport.

DANNY
Gotta give a guy a fair chance.

LEXI
I found you, didnt I?

He looks at her over his orange juice.

 29.

DANNY
You look different.

LEXI
Its a different day.

DANNY
What color was your hair?

She looks at him a long beat, then nods, as if to herself.

LEXI
Heres the thing about two people
meeting on a train. If they know
theyll always be strangers, it
frees them. You can create me
any way you want, and Ill never
disappoint. I can ask you to kill
for me, and Ill never know if you
carry it out. We have no reason to
lie to each other except when a
lie is prettier than the truth.

DANNY
Were not on the train anymore.

LEXI
No?

DANNY
(a beat)
How did you find me?

LEXI
Dont tell me youre one of those
New Age types who believe there
are no accidents.

DANNY
Youre not going to ask me to kill
someone, are you?

LEXI
(smiling)
Why dont you show me what you do?

CUT TO:

THE MONITOR

in Dannys OFFICE. Mr. Herzman continues his story.

 30.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
I held the cross under my tongue
until there was a bloody sore. I
ate with it like that, slept with
it. Eventually, pain fades and a
callous appears.
(a beat)
My father only made it a few weeks.
After they took my mother and
sisters away he was finished. He
looked at me, but didnt see me.
Maybe he didnt want to watch the
last piece of him die. One morning
they took him to the infirmary and
I never saw him again.

The IMAGE on the MONITOR suddenly PAUSES.

DANNY AND LEXI

are standing at Dannys EDITING BAY. She looks at him.

LEXI
(few beats)
When I was young my mother used
to tell me this story, when things
got bad. Shed hold me in her arms
like she was afraid to let me go.
The world ended when Jesus hung on
the cross, she would say, almost
like a song. And all of history,
all the wars and famines, plagues
and floods, every life played out
in blood and tears, is just a
dream in the last instant of a
Roman centurions life.

She turns to look at him with soulful eyes and we

CUT TO:

A DIGITAL IMAGE

of the ENTRANCE to an upscale Upper West Side APARTMENT

BUILDING at NIGHT. We are looking THROUGH Dannys CAMERA.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

Thats when she asked you to
tail Carl Pruitt?

CUT TO:
 31.

INTERROGATION ROOM

Danny looking back at the detective.

DANNY
Not at first. I knew she was
hiding something. Some problem,
maybe from her past. It wasnt
what she said, so much.

DET. MARTIN
It was the way she said it?

DANNY
More the way she didnt say what
she didnt say.

MALE VOICE #3 (OVER)

(Slavic accent)
You some kind of cop detective?

CUT TO:

INSIDE A TAXICAB

PARKED at the curb. Dannys in the back, looking through

his camera. The CABBY watches with minimal curiosity.

DANNY
Yeah.

CABBY
You dont look like cop.

DANNY
Whats a cop look like?

CABBY
Better dressed. Guy cheating on
wife? I seen it all, right here.

DANNY
I imagine you have.

CABBY
Nothing like stories from cab
driver. One guy tries to strangle
hooker in back seat. I say, not in
my cab. He say he give me big tip.

DANNY
Whatd you do?
 32.

CABBY
I throw him out. He strangle on
street, his business. Not in my
cab. People fucking, okay. Good
tip covers it. Killing? Not --

DANNY
Yeah, I get it. Not in your cab.

CABBY
You can bet you.

THROUGH DIGITAL CAMERA

we see a well-dressed middle-aged man EXIT the building.

DANNY LOOKS

down at a PHOTO of what appears to be the same man.

DANNY
Thats him.

The cabby puts the car in gear and slowly FOLLOWS the man.

CABBY
Want to hear strangest story ever?

Danny has his eye pressed to the eyepiece, shooting.

DANNY
Does it involve dwarves?

CABBY
Dwarves? What?

DANNY
Somehow they always seem to involve
dwarves. And theyre never true.

CABBY
This happened one hundred percent.
My brother, hes fucking this girl.
Two years. Met in spinning class.
You know, bicycle doesnt go nowhere?

THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD

we see the man flagging down a cab. He gets in and we start

FOLLOWING the other cab.
 33.

CABBY
(continuing)
Only women in these classes. My
brother joins for women. So, he
fucking her, right?

DANNY
Yeah. Two years. Got it.

CABBY
One night she asks, can her friend
join in. My brother is like,
winning lottery. Of course.
More is merrier.

THROUGH DANNYS CAMERA

we watch as the cab up ahead TURNS, heading downtown.

DANNY
Let me guess. The friend is a man.

CABBY
Man? You crazy? Is more beautiful
woman than one my brother fucking.
Big tits, everything.

DANNY
So, whats the problem?

THE CABBY

turns halfway around in his seat toward Danny.

CABBY
You telling story, or me? So,
they have wild night. Everything
is on menu -- soup till nuts. My
brother thinks he died straight to
heaven. In the morning I get call.
He wakes up -- everything gone.
Girls, wallet, flat screen. He
calls police but nothing to do.
Her cell doesnt work no more,
shes gone from spinning. Like
she never exists.

Danny puts down the camera, looks back at the man.

 34.

DANNY
Let me get this straight. She
spends two years with the guy,
just so she can steal his TV.

CABBY
His whole house! Lucky she left
him underwear.

Danny looks back through his camera as

UP AHEAD

the other cab SLOWS as they drive through the Lower East Side.

DANNY
Seems like thered be a more cost-
effective way to be a criminal.

CABBY
I tell you was crazy story.

DANNY
He never found her?

CABBY
Every day he sees her! On subway,
walking down street. Sometimes he
chases five blocks, but never her.
One woman he followed half an hour.
She called police.

THE CAB STOPS

a discreet half block behind where the other cab has STOPPED.
The man gets out and heads toward a dark restaurant.

CABBY
(continuing)
My brother is never same. Stopped
spinning classes even.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

So, she had you playing detective.

CUT TO:

VARIOUS SHOTS

of the same middle-aged man THROUGH Dannys DIGITAL CAMERA:

in the RESTAURANT at NIGHT; EXITING an OFFICE BUILDING in the
 35.

AFTERNOON; meeting several apparent businessmen at a LUNCH

SPOT in LATE MORNING; walking briskly down a midtown street.

DANNY (V.O.)
It wasnt until the next time
I saw her that she asked me.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

She just seem to find you again?

DANNY (V.O.)
Id given her my number. I had
no idea if shed ever call.

CUT TO:

DANNYS OFFICE

at NIGHT. Danny is at his EDITING BAY, looking at

THE MONITOR

ON which appears Mr. Herzmans face.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
I was put to work in the crematorium --

The image PAUSES, BACKS UP a few seconds.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
...in the crematorium --

DANNYS HANDS

work the keyboard as he finesses the SOUND to perfection.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
...the crematorium where we --

We hear a cell phone RING and the image PAUSES as

DANNY GRABS

his cell phone and hits the button.

DANNY
Hello?
 36.

LEXI (FILTERED)
Can you meet me?

CUT TO:

THE ROOF TERRACE

of a midtown HIGHRISE at NIGHT. Through a huge plate glass

window we see the RESTAURANT atop the building. Its late
enough that the busboys are stacking chairs to close up.

DANNY WALKS AROUND

taking in the magnificent views of nighttime Manhattan: the

twinkling lights of a million manmade constellations; the
earthbound shooting stars of headlights on city streets.

A FIGURE EMERGES

from the shadows: Lexi moving in and out of stray light.

She approaches Danny, her face pale in the false starlight.

LEXI
Where I grew up everything was
flat. The land, even the cities.

She moves over to the railing, looks at the street far below.

LEXI
(continuing)
This seems more honest.

He looks at her curiously.

LEXI
(continuing)
Eye to eye with everyone you can
convince yourself were not that
different. Step over a homeless
guy to get to your penthouse
apartment, you know better.

DANNY
Grow up poor?

LEXI
Shows?

He comes up beside her, also looks down at the streets.

 37.

LEXI
My mother was always getting mixed
up with the wrong guy. My father
got out before I was born. Cant
really say I blame him.

DANNY
Ever try to find him?

LEXI
I heard he had an uncle in the east.
Its why I came here originally.
He wasnt much use, though.

DANNY
Still close to your mother?

LEXI
(shaking her head)
I grew up using her as a model of
who not to be. She wasnt bad, just
weak. When I was seven she finally
seemed to get her life on track.
Shed stopped drinking, met a guy
from a wealthy family. She always
wanted me to be provided for, so he
agreed to put something aside for
me. For a while it was really good.
For a while....

FLASH TO:

THE KITCHEN

of a modest HOUSE where a man roughly PUSHES a woman --

Lexis MOTHER -- against the sink, SLAPPING her.

BACK TO:

THE ROOF TERRACE

as Lexi looks at Danny, then back at the city lights.

LEXI
(continuing)
He never laid a hand on me, but I
could hear my mother screaming from
the other room. I decided then and
there Id never be a victim.
(looking at Danny)
Its important to keep promises you
make to yourself, isnt it?
 38.

He watches as she reaches into her bag and hands him

A POLICE PHOTOGRAPH

showing Lexis FACE with blackened eyes and split lip.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

where Det. Martin puts the same PHOTO on the metal table.

DET. MARTIN
This the photo she showed you?

Danny looks down at the photo of Lexis battered face, nods.

DANNY
I knew I was going to do what it
took to help her.

CUT TO:

THE BOW BRIDGE

in Central Park LATE at NIGHT. In the MOONLIGHT shimmering

off the lake, we make out the SILHOUETTES of two figures.

LEXI (V.O.)
It starts slowly. At first its
just, You know you like it a
little rough, dont you, babe?

DANNY AND LEXI

stand on the small bridge, outlined by the moonlit water.

LEXI
(continuing)
Makes you feel like youre always
the one at fault. If you hadnt
done this, said that. One morning
you look in the mirror and realize
it isnt only your mothers eyes
youve got. Its the bruises
around them.

FLASH TO:
 39.

THE MODEST HOUSE

of Lexis childhood. We HEAR the sounds of physical abuse

while YOUNG LEXI cowers in a corner of the LIVING ROOM.

DANNY (V.O.)
Is this why you called me?

BACK TO:

THE BOW BRIDGE

as Lexi looks back at him in the dark, smiling.

LEXI
I called you...

With a flourish she removes a small bottle from her handbag.

LEXI
(continuing)
...to get drunk.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

Thats when she told you she was
married?

DANNY (V.O.)
Not in so many words.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

where Det. Martin looks at Danny.

DET. MARTIN
More the way she didnt say what
she didnt say?

On Dannys look back at the detective we

CUT TO:

CENTRAL PARK

LATER in the NIGHT. We FIND Danny and Lexi now sitting on

the granite rocks overlooking the lake and Bethesda Fountain.

LEXI
So. Who was she?
 40.

DANNY
She?

LEXI
The one who got to you.

DANNY
How do you know there was just one?

LEXI
The Devil takes many forms, but
theres really only one.

DANNY
You shouldve been a priest.

LEXI
Not an option for women. And Id
make a terrible nun.

She takes a swig from the bottle and hands it to him.

LEXI
Theres always one who sets the
standard. Most guys its some
girl in college who barely knew
they existed.

DANNY
(smiling)
There were a couple of those, I
guess.

LEXI
Just as well, because if you ever
gathered the courage to talk to
her, youd notice her teeth arent
perfect, her eyes are slightly askew.
And even if she passes muster, how
long before all those traits you used
to find so irresistible -- the way
she tilts her head to the side when
youre talking, how she clears her
throat when shes nervous -- become
intolerable? Have you ever noticed
how its always those quirks we find
most charming in the beginning that
become the most irritating over time?
Theyre the canaries in the mine
of the heart.

She takes back the bottle, looks at him curiously.

 41.

LEXI
Youre really not going to tell me?

He holds up an imaginary camera and points it at her.

DANNY
Im more comfortable on this side.
Who was yours?

LEXI
(taking a swig)
Ah, what the hell. As long as
theres no tape in it.

DANNY
(smiling)
Its digital. No tape.

She hands the bottle back to him. Looks out at the water.

LEXI
Oh, you know, high school stuff,
back seat of his car -- wish I
could be more original. Blue light
of the dash playing off his face,
pot smoke a halo around his hair.
Doors playing on the radio. Its
always the Doors, isnt it?

DANNY
What Ive found.

She takes the bottle back from him but doesnt drink.

LEXI
So. Was there something special
about him? I dont know, memorys
a storyteller. Soft voice, strong
hands. Shy in a way, but didnt
take any bullshit, least of all mine.

Shes quiet for a moment, getting deep into the memory.

LEXI
Theres always this moment when you
know its going to happen, panties
are hitting the floor tonight. He
plays it cool, just this little
smile on his face, like a kid
opening up a Christmas present,
already too old to make a big deal
out of it. And in that smile....
 42.

She hesitates. Looks at Danny. Then out over the dark lake.

LEXI
(a few beats)
In that smile, in the blue light
and pot smoke, is a world of
expectation and sadness. The
flower is beautiful but it dies.
The girl is fertile but she will
age, get cancer, lose her uterus;
she will survive but as a shell.
His cock will produce less sperm
every year and shrivel into his
body. They wont find each other
again in an old age home at the
sunny edge of the world; they wont
wind up in L.A. This is their
moment and they better make of
it what they can. Everything
and nothing.

She upturns the bottle, lets the last drop fall to the earth.

LEXI
So, there you have it.

Danny is silent. Suddenly she stands and smiles at him.

LEXI
Feel like breakfast?

TOWARD THE EAST

the first rays of DAWN color the sky rose and peach.

CUT TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

where Danny is tied to the chair, his hand dripping blood.

We hear a sound, then FOOTSTEPS, and he looks up through

AN OPEN DOORWAY

INTO a dark hall. A SHADOW moves, coming toward the door....

CUT TO:

THE EAST RIVER

and Queens beyond it almost beautiful in the DAWN light.

 43.

DANNY (V.O.)
It wasnt in college....

DANNY AND LEXI

are sitting on a bench along the riverbank, eating breakfast

burritos from brown paper bags.

DANNY
(continuing)
It was a couple of years ago.
We met at the museum.

LEXI
Impressionists?

DANNY
Howd you know?

LEXI
You always find the best women
in the impressionist wing.

He takes a bite of burrito, dabs his face with a napkin.

DANNY
Shed been married, had kids.
Thered been medical problems....

Lexi watches him over her burrito.

DANNY
(continuing)
Went out a couple of times and she
invites me to her place. Were
sitting on the couch, and Im
avoiding the obvious. I dont
know how Ill deal with the scars.

LEXI
Ah. Can Superman get it up in
the face of imperfection?

DANNY
When she gets up to throw a log
on the fire, I notice a slight
stiffness to her step. Normally,
I would convince myself I hadnt
seen it. Normally, I wouldnt be
there in the first place. Somehow,
though, that tiny sign of age made
her...real for me, flesh and blood,
(MORE)
 44.

DANNY (CONT'D)
vulnerable and infinitely human.
Suddenly she was perfected by her
imperfections. In that moment, I
wouldnt have had her a day younger.

Lexi studies him under the brightening skies.

DANNY
(continuing)
And in that moment I can see the
future: I will wake up with her
and not be surprised to find myself
there. We will move together into
the bright haze, fighting age and
decay, losing gloriously. I will
come to love her cancer scars, her
arthritic knee, the last bead of
moisture rising up inside her. And
I know that sex and love are just
animal things, the genes liking
whats good for them. But in this
province of dead egg and biopsied
flesh, maybe theres another
possibility: if love is more than
the sum of its parts, more than
some alchemy of pheromone and
fertility, then maybe we are more
than the sum of our parts.
(a beat)
What if theres a chance to know
someone, really know someone, see
the world through one set of eyes?

LEXI
And if its just an illusion?

DANNY
In the moment you know its not.

LEXI
How can you be sure?

DANNY
How can I be sure Im sitting here
with you?

LEXI
You cant. Maybe youre a brain
in a jar in some mad scientists
lab and this is all a dream.

He looks at her, then back out over the East River.

 45.

DANNY
(a few beats)
But theres another future. She
will leave me or Ill leave her.
Ill feel the pain of loss but only
for a while. Ill forget her in the
morning, with her mess of hair and
cranky eyes; forget the scar where
they took the skin graft. Forget,
even as I think the words, the feel
of her hand, her curve of hip. The
terrible thing isnt the pain but
that it fades: the end of pain
means her final extinction in my
memory. I know that if I ran into
her a year later, I would see a
woman among women, no longer young,
the softness gone from her cheek.
She wont be someone I could imagine
falling in love with; in fact, Ill
question that I ever did at all.
Where once her imperfections
particularized her, now theyre the
sum of what she is: the fortyish
mom with the uneven gait. How can
I have changed so completely? Is
continuity of identity some hoax
we play on ourselves? Of course
we never know whats going on in
someone elses mind. We cant
even say whats going on in ours.

LEXI
So, which future did you choose?

DANNY
Sometimes the scorpion stings you
even if it means hell drown too.

LEXI
(nodding)
Its just his nature.

She joins him in looking out at the ever-mutating currents.

LEXI
When I was little my mother told
me about the saints. She liked
the idea that each one was there
to serve some earthly purpose.
Saint Jude was always my favorite.
 46.

DANNY
Patron saint of lost causes?

She smiles. He looks at her for a long beat. Then:

DANNY
Why did you really call?

CUT TO:

A TRAIN

traveling briskly along the Hudson in the MORNING.

DANNY (V.O.)
I agreed to help her out with
Pruitt. But there was a condition.

INSIDE THE TRAIN

Danny and Lexi are sitting silently side by side.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
She still hadnt told me why she
was crying that day Id met her....

CUT TO:

A SMALL ROOM

in an ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY in the MORNING. An OLD MAN

lies in the rooms single bed, his eyes open but unfocused.

LEXI) (O.S.)
(softly)
He was a very brave man, once.
He saved many lives.

DANNY AND LEXI

stand a few feet away by the window, studying the old man,
who doesnt appear to be aware of their presence.

LEXI
(continuing)
He had the ability to become
whoever he needed to be. He fought
in the resistance, and when the
Germans came looking for him he
forged documents and lived among
(MORE)
 47.

LEXI (CONT'D)
them. He tattooed an S.S. insignia
on his forearm, the same spot where
Jews were tattooed with concentration
camp numbers, his way of laughing in
their faces. When his unit was sent
to massacre a village on the eastern
front, he slit the soldiers throats
as they slept. When the Russians
came he spent six months in a labor
camp until a guard from the village
hed saved recognized him. Still,
the Russians wouldnt free him if it
meant admitting a mistake. So, the
guard helped him escape from work
detail one morning. There wasnt
much chance of surviving the frontier
without papers, but at least hed die
a free man. But he survived again.
Hes lived a hundred lives.

The old man seems to focus briefly on them.

OLD MAN
Do you have chocolate?

Danny and Lexi look at each other. She turns away.

CUT TO:

ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY

as Danny and Lexi walk the grounds OUTSIDE in the MORNING.

DANNY
Your fathers uncle?

LEXI
This is how it ends for him. His
whole history only exists in the
stories I remember. When Im gone,
the last trace of him will be gone
too. Itll be like he never was.

DANNY
The lives he saved, the children
of their children...the stories
might be gone but not him.

LEXI
(looking at him)
I need you to do this for me, Danny.
 48.

DANNY
What will following him with my
camera give you?

LEXI
Ammunition.

DANNY
Not everybody has a double life,
not everybody has a secret.

LEXI
Thats where youre wrong.

On her look at him we

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

Det. Martin betraying little as he studies Danny.

DET. MARTIN
You assumed the elderly gentleman
was her great-uncle?

DANNY
I imagine he was just some old-
timer shed used as a prop. She
was real good with stories.

DET. MARTIN
You agreed to follow Mr. Pruitt.

DANNY
He was a criminal defense lawyer,
so I knew hed have some unsavory
associations. But I didnt expect
itd amount to much.

CUT TO:

MORE FOOTAGE

of Carl Pruitt about town. A DAYTIME meeting with two men

in front of the Criminal Court Building downtown; an EVENING
dinner at an upscale Upper East Side RESTAURANT.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

You were led to believe this
ammunition was for a potential
divorce proceeding?
 49.

DANNY (V.O.)
She never actually mentioned divorce.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Det. Martin nods at Danny.

DET. MARTIN
Right. The way she didnt say
what she didnt say.

CUT TO:

A DOWNTOWN STREET

THROUGH Dannys CAMERA. Alphabet City on the Lower East

Side, where newly gentrified condos fight for space with
the few remaining drug houses and after hours clubs.

DANNY (V.O.)
About a week in, it started to
get interesting.

CAMERA FINDS

Carl Pruitt approaching a young man who definitely doesnt

look like a business associate. Hes young, unshaven,
tattooed. He glances around like hes waiting for his
connection. The two men quickly disappear into a building.

THROUGH A WINDOW

of the building we see a dimly-lit APARTMENT. A few people

mill about desultorily or engage in conversation.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

That was the first time you ever
saw James Fenatree?

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as the detective slides a MUG SHOT across the table to Danny.

DANNY
Well, we werent formally introduced.

He looks down at the mug shot.

 50.

DANNY
(nodding)
Thats him.

DET. MARTIN
Of course, we already know that.

FLASH TO:

DANNY MOVING

slowly down the HALL of the TENEMENT from the earlier scenes.
It is now DARK, deserted. He puts his camera up to his eye
as he steps over piled rubble and debris.

THROUGH HIS CAMERA

we watch as he ENTERS the ROOM, looking around: we see the

chair that we know he will wind up in; the window with the
hard angled light; the bed with the filthy sagging mattress.

HE MOVES ABOUT

cautiously, his feet straining the ancient floorboards. On

the floor just beyond the bed we make out a dark shape....

THROUGH DANNYS CAMERA

we see the pair of feet sticking out past the edge of the
bed. From BEHIND him there is a SOUND and he quickly

SWINGS THE CAMERA

back toward the doorway as SUDDENLY a dark object

SMASHES INTO

the CAMERA and KNOCKS IT to the floor and we

CUT TO:

THE TRAIN

SPEEDING south toward New York City in the AFTERNOON.

DANNY (V.O.)
For the record, I didnt leave her.
 51.

INSIDE THE TRAIN

Lexi turns to Danny, looks at him.

LEXI
So. Sometimes the scorpion gets
stung too.

He looks out the window at the passing terrain.

DANNY
(a beat)
You can replay the last weeks and
days looking for a reason: did
you say something wrong, commit
some callous act? You wonder:
can it really be that fragile?
A misplaced word and its over?
Or you can move on.

LEXI
What doesnt kill me makes me
stronger?

DANNY
Nietzsche.

LEXI
Tell that to an old boxer. See
if getting beat down makes you
stronger. Yeah, youll pick
yourself up. Youll see the light
in another girls eyes and youll
watch it go out. Eternal return.

DANNY
Also Nietzsche.

LEXI
Gotta love those Germans. They
know their death.

She looks back out the window, contemplatively.

LEXI
Envy those couples whove been
together so long they cant
remember why. Envy lives of
quiet desperation. In the land
of the one-eyed, envy the blind.
 52.

THE TRAIN

is crowned in the reds and golds of the SETTING SUN.

CUT TO:

THE MONITOR

in Dannys OFFICE, as Herman Herzman continues.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
I was scheduled to die in the gas
chamber that morning. With the
Russians approaching, they were
in a hurry to finish up with us.
So many times I thought I would
die, but somehow I survived.
Now it was over.

DANNY WATCHES

from his seat at the EDITING BAY. DAY.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
(continuing)
I thought back to the little girl
by the train. I was so used to the
little cross under my tongue that I
didnt feel it anymore. In a place
where evil seemed so big -- also so
small, so everyday -- I believed
this one little act of kindness
saved my life. I had to know there
was something else, some people
existed who could be good and kind.

CUT TO:

DIGITAL IMAGE

of a SKEWED ANGLE from the floor of the TENEMENT ROOM.

We get a PARTIAL VIEW of someone moving in the DARK.

DANNYS HANDS

are quickly secured to the chair using duct tape.

 53.

HIS HEAD

lolls back in semi-consciousness.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

You didnt notice anything a little
odd about the picture she gave you
of Carl Pruitt?

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Danny looks at a PHOTO of Carl Det. Martin places on the

desk. It seems taken from a distance, with Lexi absent.

DET. MARTIN
Most family portraits arent taken
with a telephoto lens.

DANNY
She doesnt like being photographed.

DET. MARTIN
Right. The aborigines.

DANNY
I guess I took a lot on faith.

DET. MARTIN
Thought most Hollywood types were
atheists.

DANNY
Well. Only when it comes to God.

DET. MARTIN
Should try this job for a while.

DANNY
Makes it hard to be a believer?

DET. MARTIN
Harder not to.

DANNY
I thought it was the other way
around. Seeing what people are
capable of.

The detective looks like hes weighing whether or not to

tell Danny something. Then he gives just the slightest nod.
 54.

DET. MARTIN
Guess I can tell you this. Books
are closed on it.

Danny looks at the policeman curiously.

DET. MARTIN
(continuing)
Toe-tag Doe shows up downtown Metro
with a carving fork in the chest in
need of explaining. Turns out one
Mr. Wallstreet Hotshot comes home
a bit early one night to find the
little missus in bed with -- dont
get ahead of me on this -- the
other woman. But it turns out hes
acquainted with this young lady too.
Very well acquainted, actually.

DANNY
Theyre both fucking the same woman?

DET. MARTIN
Kick in the head, huh?

DANNY
But how...?

DET. MARTIN
In the conventional manner, I would
assume.

DANNY
I mean, how did it happen?

DET. MARTIN
Just a bizarre coincidence. Ladies
met at a spinning class.

DANNY
Of course.

DET. MARTIN
Women figured it out first. No
surprise there -- theyre smarter
than us, you know that, right?
They decide to kill the man in
the middle. Why, you might ask?
Could be the quarter of a billion
hes worth. Anyway, he gets tipped
to the plan.
 55.

DANNY
By his gay lover?

DET. MARTIN
Actually, its the trigger man the
girls hired. Turns out the kind
of hit man you find on Craigs List
isnt all that reliable. He
decides its smarter to cut a deal
with hubby and do the girls.

DANNY
So, the corpse is the wife? Or
the girlfriend?

DET. MARTIN
Its the hitter -- that Craigs
List thing again. Hubby decides
to reconcile with wifey, extra girl
in the bargain. Hitter wont take
no for an answer, they struggle,
genius winds up with the fork
in his chest.

DANNY
So, it all worked out.

DET. MARTIN
You could say that.

DANNY
Not clear on the God connection.

The detective looks at Danny a beat, as if truly surprised.

DET. MARTIN
Do you really think a random
universe could be that absurd?

DANNY
(smiling)
Youre good.

Det. Martin looks at him quizzically.

DANNY
Putting me at ease with that story.
You share, I share.

DET. MARTIN
Ah.
 56.

DANNY
So, was it true?

DET. MARTIN
Didnt Jesus say, What is truth?

DANNY
Actually, I think that was Pilate.

CUT TO:

THE MONITOR

as Mr. Herzman continues his narrative.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
In the morning, there was a big
commotion. People running everywhere.
The Russians had liberated the camp.

ACROSS THE ROOM

we find Danny fashioning a spy case of sorts out of an old

camera bag. He finishes making a small hole at the end of
the bag, then places the camera inside it and aligns it.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
(continuing)
They had hot food for us, just some
broth with a little meat, but it
was so long since Id had anything
so hot and good. I ate so quickly
the little cross came loose and I
almost choked. Just think about it
-- if after all Id been through I
choked because of this kind gift!
I took the cross from my mouth and
hung it round my neck. A Jewish
boy wearing a cross! I got tired
of explaining, so if they thought
Id converted, let them.

CUT TO:

AFTER HOURS CLUB

somewhere in Alphabet City at NIGHT. Its little more than

the LIVING ROOM of a tenement flat, with a small Formica
counter at which sit a handful of denizens, purchasing
overpriced screwdrivers or vodka tonics.
 57.

THROUGH DANNYS CAMERA

we look around at the tattered rugs, the naked low-wattage

bulbs in unshaded lamps, the tacky mismatched couches,
riddled with the scorch marks of a hundred cigarettes.

DANNY (V.O.)
Id seen Pruitt go into the
building a couple of times, so
I decided to get a better look.

DANNY SITS

at a small table, trying to be inconspicuous. A CD player

plays mellow JAZZ while a couple dances in arhythmic druggy
stupor in the middle of the room. A tall bottle blonde is
making out with a short fat black man in an easy chair in
the corner. His hand moves under her dress like a mouse.

THROUGH DANNYS CAMERA

we FIND Carl Pruitt and the younger tattooed man at the

kitchen entrance, involved in an intense discussion, though
we cant make out whats being said. The IMAGE turns into

THE MONITOR

in Dannys OFFICE, where we are watching WITHOUT SOUND.

DANNY AND LEXI

watch the images on the screen.

DANNY
Ever seen him before?

LEXI
(nodding)
His names Spider.

DANNY
Of course.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

That would be Fenatree?

CUT TO:
 58.

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Det. Martin holds up the MUG SHOT of James Spider

Fenatree. Danny nods.

LEXI (V.O.)
Carl represented him a few times.

CUT TO:

AFTER HOURS CLUB

where Carl and Spider are now joined by a young woman with
several face piercings, wearing a zebra-striped miniskirt.
They seem to be engaged in some kind of animated negotiation.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Hes required to do a certain
amount of pro bono work.

CUT TO:

DANNYS OFFICE

where Danny and Lexi watch the images on the MONITOR.

DANNY
And Spider?

LEXI
Hes kind of a...provider. Girls,
drugs, you name it. The thing
about Carl is, he likes to get
paid, one way or another.

DANNY
So much for social conscience.

ON THE MONITOR

we see the trio of Carl, Spider, and the girl disappear down
a hallway into the nether regions of the derelict building.

DANNY (V.O.)
If there was any dirt on Carl,
I was pretty sure this was where
Id find it.

CUT TO:
 59.

AFTER HOURS CLUB

as Danny gets up, grabs his camera bag and heads INTO

THE HALLWAY

of the old building. At the far end we lose sight of the

three figures as they turn and head up a staircase.

AN ENORMOUS MAN

sits on a tiny stool by the stairs. He looks up as

DANNY APPROACHES

and stops. The man looks at him expressionlessly. Then

he points to his wrist, as if at a non-existent wristwatch.

DANNY
Are you asking the time?

Irritably, the guy points to his wrist again.

DANNY
(trying again)
Do I need some kind of wrist band?

BIG MAN
Aint no part of the club, man.

Danny nods, having no idea what the man is talking about.

THROUGH HIS CAMERA

we get a view of the mans monstrous girth -- and suddenly

the kindly visage of Herman Herzman APPEARS in it place.

HERMAN (CAMERA MONITOR)

Eventually, I made my way to New
York. I found work with a relative
who sold small gifts -- religious
trinkets from the church. He always
made fun of me anyway -- the goyim
he called me because of the cross I
wore -- Go out and sell the saints!
So I went every day with a cart out
on Coney Island. I couldnt believe
how happy all the people were, just
for nothing. For some cotton candy
(MORE)
 60.

HERMAN (CAMERA MONITOR) (CONT'D)

and a few silly rides. This
happiness was more foreign to
me than the new language.

DANNY (V.O.)
The camera holds two memory cards.
Id forgotten to swap out one of
the cards from Hermans interview.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Danny explains to Det. Martin:

DANNY
(continuing)
I wasnt getting past this guy,
anyway, so I figured Id come
back another night. He had to
take a break sooner or later.

DET. MARTIN
You didnt think you might be
getting in over your head?

DANNY
Ever try to jump off a moving train?

Det. Martin gives him a look.

DET. MARTIN
Just to be clear on this -- you
werent having an affair with her.

DANNY
Thought I wasnt a suspect.

DET. MARTIN
What I said was, I wasnt sure
if you were a suspect.

DANNY
We werent having an affair.

DET. MARTIN
Yet youre willing to walk into
a potentially dangerous situation
armed with a video camera.

DANNY
Digital.
 61.

DET. MARTIN
If theres anything more you need
to tell me about your relationship
with this young woman, this would
be the time and place.

Danny looks at the detective for a long moment. Then:

DANNY
I guess I wanted to know what
was real, and what was just some
kind of image of her in my head.

DET. MARTIN
Real?

DANNY
I needed to know if its possible to
know someone, really know someone.
It seemed...very important.

The detective takes a deep breath. Then he turns and

ON POLICE VIDEO

we see him look INTO the CAMERA and motion to turn it off.

THE TWO MEN

sit opposite each other across the small metal table.

DET. MARTIN
(a few beats)
My wife died last year. Thirty
years. Got that call Im usually
the one making. Car accident.
Funny thing is, she wasnt supposed
to be going out that night. Turns
out she was going somewhere after
all. She was going to meet the
guy she was screwing.

POLICE VIDEO

SHOWS it hasnt been turned off: its still RECORDING.

DET. MARTIN (VIDEO MONITOR)

(continuing)
I thought about killing the guy.
I really wanted to kill her, but
(MORE)
 62.

DET. MARTIN (VIDEO MONITOR) (CONT'D)

she was already dead. For weeks I
bounced between hurt, anger, loss.
The hardest part was constantly
going from one feeling to the next.
I couldnt get a foothold.

IN THE ROOM

Danny watches as the detective continues his story.

DET. MARTIN
(continuing)
So I made a decision to pick one
emotion. I tried to remember who
she was and why Id loved her.
Every time the dark feelings would
rise, I would...whats that thing
where you turn lead into gold?

DANNY
Alchemy.

DET. MARTIN
I would take everything about her --
even the things I hated -- and tell
her, in my mind, how it made me
love her, because it was also the
flaws that made her who she was.
Even tried to find a way to love
her sucking some other guys dick.
That was a rough one. But I knew I
had a choice: to love the bad in
her or hate the good. If I didnt,
Id kill her memory, and the part
of her I couldnt live without.

Danny notices the wedding band around the detectives finger,

which he twirls round and round in an unconscious tic.

DET. MARTIN
(a beat)
I see it every day. The same
person youve loved for half your
life, one day you wake up and cant
find a single thing not to hate.
Ive seen women carved to ribbons
by men who two days ago wouldve
jumped in front of a truck to save.
I wasnt going to do that, wasnt
going to let gold turn into lead.

DANNY
Did it work?
 63.

DET. MARTIN
Most of the time.

Danny looks at him a long beat, then nods.

DANNY
There should be a tab in the camera
menu to turn off the tally light.

Det. Martin looks at him quizzically. Danny nods up at

THE CAMERA

in the upper corner of the room. Its red light is ON.

DANNY SMILES

at the detective, who remains as inscrutable as ever.

DANNY
That way the suspect cant tell
when youre recording.

CUT TO:

THE MONITOR

in Dannys OFFICE at NIGHT. Herman Herzman on the SCREEN.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
One day Im pushing my cart and
a young woman approaches to buy
something for her niece. We talk
and I hear she has an accent, so
we start talking German.

DANNY (V.O.)
Id gotten behind on my project,
so I went back to work.

DANNY SITS

at his EDITING BAY, working the keyboard controls.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
I never talked about my experience
with a gentile, certainly not a
German. But she was so nice, so
gentle, when we got to talking, I
(MORE)
 64.

HERMAN (MONITOR) (CONT'D)

let her know I was a Jew. She
could figure out the rest.

ACROSS THE ROOM

Lexi is curled up on a couch, using a coat as blanket.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
(continuing)
She told me her parents had escaped
with her from the east. Her father
was a scientist so America was
happy to have him.

SLOWLY MOVE

INTO the MONITOR...to become part of the DIGITAL FOOTAGE.

HERMAN (DIGITAL)
(continuing)
So much was different between us,
and yet it was so easy to talk to
her. I never forget her smile.

DANNY WATCHES

from the EDITING BAY as the elderly man continues his tale.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
(continuing)
Finally, she buys a trinket and
when I reach for a bag to put it
in, the little cross comes out from
under my shirt. Her eyes get very
big. Like two blue pools of water.

ON THE MONITOR

Mr. Herzmans expressive face seems close to tears.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
(continuing)
Where did you get this? she asks.
I didnt want to her tell the whole
story. But of course she already
knew -- why is a Jewish boy wearing
a cross?
 65.

NOW WE MOVE

THROUGH THE MONITOR and INTO the ROOM at the Herzman HOME.

HERMAN
It seemed like forever neither of
us said a thing. Then there are
tears in her eyes. I got punished
when I told my parents Id lost
it, she says, so soft Im not
ever sure I heard it.

ON AN EASY CHAIR

nearby Mrs. Herzman watches her husband, her eyes shining.

We notice the small gold cross around her neck.

HERMAN
(continuing)
I had found my angel, the little
girl whose kindness had seen me
through impossible times. I
left the cart right there on the
boardwalk and we walked for hours,
just talking, two people who
couldnt have been more different.
It was like we had known each
other our whole lives -- which,
of course, we had, at least in our
imagination. The ocean a hundred
feet away could have swallowed
us up and I wouldve been happy.

BEHIND THE CAMERA

Danny shoots the scene, wearing headphones to monitor sound.

HERMAN
(continuing)
For many months, in the worst of
circumstances, she had given me
hope. Now that Id found her
again, I promised her, promised
myself, Id never let her go.
 66.

NOW WE MOVE

INTO Dannys DIGITAL CAMERA...and THROUGH IT to the EDITING

BAY in his OFFICE, where we now see that Lexi has gotten up,
is watching the MONITOR from behind Dannys chair.

HERMAN (MONITOR)
(continuing)
So, right there on the Coney Island
boardwalk, I proposed to her. I
didnt want to wait. Id waited
long enough. And, after fifty
years of marriage, three children
and five grandchildren, Ive kept
that promise.

LEXI
(softly)
I was wrong....

He turns around to see her standing behind him.

DANNY
Wrong?

LEXI
You dont want to choose between
the great love and the great story.

DANNY
You think thats what this is about?

LEXI
(a few beats)
I woke up one morning, I couldnt
have been more than seven, saw my
mother at the kitchen sink, and
suddenly I understood what hell
was. You see the world, but
youre not in it. People walk
by your grave, laughing and alive,
forgetting you...until your last
reflection is extinguished, the
last time your name is spoken.
Still you remain, voiceless, a
bead of awareness in a universe
of uncaring. Infinitely, you dont
matter. Infinitely, you arent.

Her shining eyes meet Dannys.

 67.

LEXI
(continuing)
But what if theres a way out?
What if theres a bridge to just
one moment, a story, a sentence
of our lives, a single word?
Do we become part of that story?
Does that become our eternity?

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

where Danny sits there thoughtfully for a long moment.

DANNY
I dont know why I didnt tell her.
I wonder if it saved my life.

CUT TO:

A TAXICAB

DRIVING the Manhattan streets at NIGHT.

INSIDE THE CAB

Danny and Lexi sit in the back. Hes got his camera bag
on his lap. They look out their respective windows.

DANNY (V.O.)
She took the cab down with me.
The idea was Id get the footage
and wed meet up later at a diner.

THE CAB

PULLS UP half a block from the tenement.

DANNY OPENS

the cab door -- but Lexi holds his arm. He turns to her.

LEXI
You shouldve fought for her.

He looks at her quizzically.

 68.

LEXI
(continuing)
Whatever happened to the grand
gesture? Camping out on her lawn,
throwing yourself at her door,
walking a hundred miles on your
bleeding bare feet? Arent we
descended from men who crossed
rivers and mountains, survived the
sabertooth and hunted the mammoth?
(intensely)
You think its her imperfections
you loved but its really just the
story. Makes you into a nicer guy
than the one who wouldve left her
for someone younger. The great
lost love has its appeal, even to
a girl like me. Stories dont age;
they dont look like hell in the
morning. You can tell them over
and over. The only problem is,
they always end the same way.
(meeting his eye)
You shouldve given it a shot.

He returns her look another beat, then exits the cab.

ON THE STREET

we MOVE with him as he approaches the tenement entrance.

INSIDE THE TENEMENT

we see that even the hall lights are OUT. The door to the
after hours club is closed. A note is taped to it but
in the dark we cant make out what it says.

DOWN THE HALL

the path to the rear staircase is clear: the big man from
the other night is nowhere in sight. The place is deserted.

DANNY TURNS

back toward the entrance -- when he HEARS something from

the second floor: FOOTSTEPS? He looks back down the hall.
He reaches into his camera bag and
 69.

THE DIGITAL CAMERA

comes ON, showing us the VIEW as he starts down the hall.

HE REACHES

the rear staircase. The FOOTSTEPS have stopped, and its

suddenly very QUIET. He starts up the stairs....

THROUGH THE CAMERA

we watch as he reaches the SECOND FLOOR LANDING. Walks down

the hall. Finds the OPEN DOOR and moves

INSIDE THE ROOM

weve been in before: we recognize the uncurtained windows,

the hard flickering light, the sagging mattress...the feet
sticking out from the floor beyond the bed.

HE TURNS

SUDDENLY as he hears something from behind him and

EVERYTHING GOES BLACK

as the camera hits the floor. A few long beats. Then:

SPIDER (O.S.)
Seriously, man. What the fuck were
you thinking?

EYELIDS FLICKER OPEN

and we are now seeing the room THROUGH DANNYS EYES as

SPIDER STANDS

looking down at Danny, whos duct-taped to the chair.

DANNY
(groggily)
Fair question.
 70.

SPIDER
I mean, what did you expect was
going to happen?

DANNY
Damned if I know.

SPIDER
Damned if you dont.

DANNY
Good one.

SPIDER
Yeah? Well, take it to the grave.

Spider makes sure Dannys bindings are secure.

DANNY
Why, exactly, am I here?

SPIDER
Hey, man, you chugged in on your
own steam.

DANNY
It was a rhetorical question.

Spider looks down at him expressionlessly.

DANNY
I was asking myself.

SPIDER
(irritably)
I know what rhetorical means.

DANNY
No disrespect.

SPIDER
You know what I like about vampire
stories? The good ones, anyway.

DANNY
I couldnt begin to guess.

SPIDER
The victim needs to invite the
vampire in.

DANNY
I think I might have misjudged you.
 71.

SPIDER
(grinning)
Its a common mistake.

DET. MARTIN (V.O.)

You saw Pruitt lying on the floor?

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Danny looks back at the detective.

DANNY
Well, lets just say the shoes
looked familiar.

CUT TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

where Spider squats down to eye level with Danny.

SPIDER
Did you really think you could
have her? Think shed ever show
you her real self?

DANNY
Guess I wasnt thinking at all.

SPIDER
Thats where youre wrong, pardner.
You think too much. Girl like Lexi
isnt about thought.
(intensely)
She tell you what floats her boat?
Tell you to grab her hair and push
her face into the pillows? Tell
you she likes it rough?

Danny notices the medallion dangling from Spiders neck.

DANNY
I just thought of something funny.

SPIDER
Wouldnt think youd be in a
laughing mood.

DANNY
Something about a saint for lost
causes.
 72.

SPIDER
(nodding)
Yeah, thats one of her raps.
Unlike you, I dont imagine Im
the first man shes told that to.
Probably not the first to wear this
around his neck either. You always
believe women when they tell you
youre their first?

DANNY
Actually, I never believe that.

SPIDER
Well, theres hope for you yet.

Spider takes off his jacket, tosses it to the bed. We notice

the lurid blue-and-red scorpion tattoo on his neck.

DANNY
You do realize, of course, thats
a scorpion.

Spider looks at him blankly.

DANNY
(continuing)
I mean, youre Spider, right? Why
would you have a scorpion tattoo?

SPIDER
You do have a right to remain
silent, which I strongly advise.

DANNY
Im just saying.

Spider studies Danny a long beat.

SPIDER
In the end, does all that smarts
really pay off? Look at where
I am, and look where you sit.
Doesnt that strike you as funny?

DANNY
Well. Not ha-ha funny.

SPIDER
I have this theory about smarts,
that it gets in the way of seeing
things.
 73.

He leans in close to Danny.

SPIDER
(continuing)
What, did you think she cared?

Danny says nothing, Spider just scowls, rising.

SPIDER
Just what I thought. Only a smart
guy could be that fucking stupid.

He starts to turn away, then suddenly LASHES OUT

KNOCKING DANNY

over BACKWARD in the chair, which hits the floor hard.

Then he moves over to the body on the floor by the bed.

SPIDER
Another smart guy.

He KICKS Pruitts prone body with sudden rage.

SPIDER
(continuing)
See how fucking smart?

He returns to Danny, rights the chair.

SPIDER
So, wanna hear the plan? Our girl
asks you to get some dirt on old
Carl over there, which isnt hard
to do. Hes much more interested
in pain than women.

DANNY
Whats the difference?

Spider disappears into the ruined apartments kitchen.

SPIDER (O.S.)
But you wind up falling for her,
decide you have to have her.

He reappears carrying a large kitchen knife.

SPIDER
(smiling)
She brings that out in a man.
 74.

DANNY
Let me guess. I kill him.

SUDDENLY SPIDER

crouches down -- and PLUNGES the knife repeatedly into Carls

prone body. He looks back at Danny, grinning fiercely.

SPIDER
See? Those smarts again.

DANNY
Why do I kill him if shes going
to leave him anyway?

SPIDER
Hang on a minute.

He disappears again, this time returning with a hammer.

HE POSITIONS

a THREEPENNY NAIL above Dannys hand.

SPIDER
Because he put a fucking nail
through your hand!

AND HE DRIVES

the nail THROUGH Dannys hand and out the arm of the chair --

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Det. Martin watches impassively as Danny tells his story.

DANNY
Of course, Id been following Pruitt,
collecting all this footage, so it
had a certain logic.

CUT TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

as Danny looks up, dazed. Spiders not in the room.

 75.

DANNY
Hey, Spider. Scorpion, whatever
your name is. Arachnid.

Spider returns to the room carrying a frying pan.

SPIDER
You like pain or something?

He places the pan on the floor under Dannys dripping hand.

DANNY
Maybe smarts has its limitations.
But dumb doesnt get you very far
either.

SPIDER
(sighing)
Seriously?

DANNY
Or do you really see yourself in
some island paradise with her?

Spider looks down at Danny with true curiosity.

SPIDER
You really dont know whats what,
do you?

DANNY
Shes not real.

SPIDER
No?

DANNY
She shows you only what she needs to.

SPIDER
See, a man like you will never get
what shes about. Upper West Side
pussy, think I dont know you?

DANNY
You got the wrong cowboy, pardner.

SPIDER
You walk the line, afraid to give
the littlest offense. Tell them
what they want to hear, fuck on
their schedule. Tiptoeing nine
(MORE)
 76.

SPIDER (CONT'D)
paces behind them. Youre right,
hoss. Shell never be real to you.

There is a SOUND from behind them and they both turn toward

THE DOORWAY

as Lexi appears. She takes in the situation at a glance.

SPIDER
Just about done here.

She looks at Danny, his hand impaled to the chair.

LEXI
And you thought the nail was a
good idea because...?

SPIDER
He pisses me off.

LEXI
So, let me get this straight. He
kills Carl, then hammers a nail
through his own hand?

SPIDER
Carl fucks him up with the nail,
but he gets himself free. He does
Carl with the knife, and Carl has
just enough left in him to put a
bullet between his eyes.

LEXI
(sighing)
What did I say about improvising?

Spider dips the kitchen knife in the pan with Dannys blood.

LEXI
(looking around)
I want to see him.

Spider nods over to Carl, on the floor by the bed.

LEXI SQUATS

down by Carls blood-soaked body. Looks at him a long beat.

LEXI
Ive waited a long time for --
 77.

SUDDENLY Carl GROANS loudly and SITS UP --

LEXI JUMPS BACK

in shock as Carls eyes open wide and focus on her.

CARL
Who the fuck are you?

DANNY STARES

in disbelief from across the room as

SPIDER JUMPS

in and finishes off the badly injured man with the knife.

LEXI PLOPS DOWN

onto the floor, stunned.

LEXI
For Gods sake -- !

SPIDER
(grinning)
Now hes dead.

LEXI
Jesus.

Danny looks at Lexi in puzzlement.

DANNY
He didnt know you....

She regroups, gets back to her feet. Turns to Spider.

LEXI
You have the gun?

Spider removes a heavy revolver from his pocket.

SPIDER
Cold as they come.

DANNY
(to Lexi)
Why didnt he know you?
 78.

He raises the weapon and points it at Dannys head.

LEXI
No. Let me.

SPIDER
You sure, babe?

LEXI
Hes my responsibility.

Spider hands her the gun. She raises it toward Dannys head.

SPIDER
Theres my girl....

DANNY
Come on, now, you can do better
than that.

She looks at him curiously. He nods down toward his heart.

SHE LOWERS

the gun and aims it dead at Dannys heart.

LEXI
If it makes a difference, Im sorry.

DANNY
(smiling)
Cant blame the scorpion for
stinging you.

SPIDER
(irritably)
Again with the scorp --

But he is cut off in mid-word as Lexi shifts position --

AND AN EXPLOSION

ROCKS the room as

SPIDERS HEAD

EXPLODES in a SPRAY of BLOOD and BONE.

 79.

DANNY STARES

in disbelief, his face dappled with Spiders blood, as

LEXI STANDS

there with the still-smoking gun in her hand.

LEXI
(to Spider)
For the record -- I never liked
it rough.

SPIDER TOPPLES

slowly to the floor, his expression never changing.

DANNY AND LEXI

look at each other for a long beat. She shrugs.

LEXI
He pisses me off.

DANNY
You werent what I thought.

LEXI
You were exactly what I thought.

He cant help smiling. He nods to her.

DANNY
You know the smartest thing you did?

LEXI
Hmm?

FLASH TO:

THE HIGH ANGLE

from the first scene. Surrounded by the giant web-like

architecture of BRIDGES, we could be in timeless space.

DANNY
Holding out on sex.
 80.

LEXI
Men are simple.

DANNY
I wouldve bought any line you
were selling.

LEXI
I did like talking to you. Youre
the only man Ive ever met as
smart as me.

DANNY
Not quite smart enough, though.

LEXI
We do have a natural advantage.

BACK TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

as Lexi squats by Spiders body. When she straightens

shes holding the St. Judes medallion he was wearing.

LEXI
He wont be needing it.

She comes to the chair and slips it over Dannys head.

DANNY
So, where you headed?

LEXI
Someplace warm.

DANNY
Who are you going to be when
you get there?

She looks down at him.

LEXI
You invented me as much as I
invented myself, Danny. The
vampire cant enter without
an invitation.

DANNY
(to himself)
I knew he didnt come up with
that one on his own.
 81.

She takes a step toward him. We hear his DRIPPING blood.

LEXI
You want me to tell you it was real
for me, that I loved you, if only
for a moment? That thats why
youre alive and Spiders dead?
Will it make up for everything?

FLASH TO:

THE BRIDGES

against the impossibly BRIGHT skies and churning waters.

LEXI
(continuing)
Okay. I love you. I always have.
Our souls were born together at
the beginning of time. Cant tell
you anything you dont already know.

We can still HEAR the sound of Dannys dripping blood.

DANNY (V.O.)
Hey....

BACK TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

where Lexi is at the door. She turns back to Danny.

DANNY
(smiling)
I believe you.

FLASH TO:

THE BRIDGES

as the two figures look at each other across empty space.

LEXI
Will you remember me?

DANNY
Safe bet.

And when we look back to where Lexi was standing

 82.

NOTHING IS THERE

except the webwork of bridge cables, the water far below.

And we are left wondering: was she ever there at all?

BACK TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

as Danny is left looking at the empty doorway....

DANNY (V.O.)
The thing is, even after everything,
I wanted to believe.

CUT TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Danny looks at Det. Martin.

DANNY
(continuing)
Duct-taped to a chair, nail through
my hand, two dead guys on the floor,
I still wanted to believe her.

DET. MARTIN
Homo creditus, Man the Believer.

DANNY
Pretty fucking stupid, huh?

DET. MARTIN
Just overmatched. At least youre
not one of the dead guys on the
floor.

DANNY
Does that make me a suspect?

DET. MARTIN
I dont think you killed Carl, if
thats what you mean. And I dont
think she ever really thought youd
take the rap for it. My guess is,
her plan was always to get rid of
Carl and Spider at the same time.

DANNY
Why use me?
 83.

DET. MARTIN
Whatever Spider lacked in moral
clarity, he made up for in street
smarts. He wouldve known someone
had to take the fall for Carl. She
convinced him it was you, so he
wouldnt know it was him all along.

DANNY
But why kill Spider?

Det. Martin touches the copy of Lexis assault PHOTO.

DET. MARTIN
I guess she had a short fuse on
this kind of thing.

Danny looks at the photo, back at Det. Martin.

FLASH TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

where Spider grins down at Danny.

SPIDER
She tell you she likes it rough?

BACK TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Det. Martin helps Danny connect the dots.

DET. MARTIN
She was never married to Carl.

DANNY
(nodding)
He didnt seem to know her.

DET. MARTIN
Oh, he knew her.

On the detectives meaningful look at Danny we

FLASH TO:

LEXIS CHILDHOOD HOME

where her stepfather is assaulting her mother at the kitchen

sink. Hes got his hand gripped tightly around her throat.
 84.

YOUNG LEXI

cowers in a corner, hearing her mothers SCREAMS.

LEXI (V.O.)
And, in that moment, I see what
my mother had seen.

FLASH TO:

THE ROOF TERRACE

where Lexi tells Danny of her mothers abuse.

LEXI
(continuing)
I decided I wasnt going to end
up like her, another broken woman.

BACK TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Det. Martin pulls out a set of CRIME SCENE PHOTOS, dated

from the nineties: a womans body lying on a kitchen floor.

DET. MARTIN
But it was her mother who was
married to him.

FLASH TO:

LEXIS CHILDHOOD HOME

as her mothers SCREAMS grow weak and muffled as Carls

grip tightens around her throat. SUDDENLY

YOUNG LEXI LUNGES

forward and grabs a kitchen knife, STABBING at Carl --

BUT HE SWIPES

at her with one powerful hand --

KNOCKING HER

to the floor as she lets go of the knife.

 85.

DANNY (V.O.)
(realizing)
He killed her....

BACK TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Det. Martin looks back at Danny.

DET. MARTIN
D.A. went for manslaughter. Carl
claimed shed come at him with a
kitchen knife. He was acquitted.

FLASH TO:

THE KITCHEN KNIFE

skittering across the KITCHEN floor.

FLASH TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

as Spider covers the murder weapon -- a kitchen knife --

in Dannys blood.

BACK TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Danny shakes his head, almost smiling.

DANNY
She never said she was married to
him.

DET. MARTIN
Hows that?

DANNY
Or that he was the one who beat her.

FLASH TO:

THE ROOF TERRACE

where we hear Lexis precise choice of words:

 86.

LEXI
...it isnt only your mothers
eyes youve got. Its the bruises
around them.

BACK TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Danny looks back at the detective.

DANNY
She just let me fill in the blanks.

DET. MARTIN
I imagine she hooked up with Spider
as a way to get to Pruitt. Hed
represented him on a couple of
drug beefs. Once Spider laid a
hand on her, his fate was set too.

Danny holds eye contact with Det. Martin a long beat.

DANNY
Does this mean you believe me?

The detective swivels his LAPTOP around to face Danny.

ON THE SCREEN

we see the FOOTAGE taken by Dannys camera in the tenement

room that night. We see the partial view of Carls body.

DANNY LOOKS

up from the computer screen, back at Det. Martin.

DANNY
So, you knew all along.

DET. MARTIN
(noncommittally)
Be nice if we could see the rest
of the room.

DANNY
Ill be more careful next time
I drop my camera.
 87.

DET. MARTIN
You will get me the footage youve
been collecting?

DANNY
Im free to go?

DET. MARTIN
(a beat)
I am curious, though. Earlier
you mentioned something about
that couple, the Herzmans?

Danny looks back at him.

DET. MARTIN
(continuing)
Something you never told her.

CUT TO:

THE HERZMAN HOME

as Danny points his camera at the couple, now sitting on the

sofa. Theyre dressed differently from the other interview.

RINA
I didnt want him to do this. Never.

THROUGH DANNYS CAMERA

we see both Herzmans, side by side on the sofa.

HERMAN
I was in the camps, just as I said.

RINA
And I saw many trains pass by with
prisoners. But I never even saw
Herman.

HERMAN
That day on Coney Island was the
first time we met. We fell in love
and were married. The important
parts are true.

ACROSS THE ROOM

Danny interviews them from behind his camera:

 88.

DANNY
But the story of the girl with
the cross? Your angel?

HERMAN
That I made up.

Rina holds up the little cross.

RINA
It was just a trinket he was
selling. I thought it was so
funny, you know, a Jewish boy
selling crosses. Ive worn it
ever since.

DANNY
Its not even real?

RINA
Of course its real! Its just
not real gold.

BACK TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

where Det. Martin looks at Danny in disbelief.

DANNY
When the book publisher did its
fact checking, it turned out that
the dates and places didnt jibe.
Herman came clean, but of course
the book and movie deal were gone.

DET. MARTIN
Whyd he do it? For the money?

DANNY
Not exactly.

CUT TO:

THE HERZMAN HOME

as Herman tries to explain himself.

HERMAN
It was a wonderful story. It made
people happy.
 89.

DANNY
But it wasnt true.

HERMAN
(dismissively)
Ach! It made them feel good. Do
you care when you read a novel that
it didnt really happen? Are you
angry at Shakespeare because Juliet
never said those words? Our love
is real -- fifty years -- that part
is real. So whats more important?

THROUGH DANNY CAMERA

Mr. Herzmans face is filled with intensity.

HERMAN (DIGITAL)
(continuing)
I gave them something beautiful, and
now its gone. Is there too much
beauty in the world? Believe me,
where I was, there wasnt so much
beauty. A story like this would
have given those poor souls more
hope than a hundred gold crosses.

BACK TO:

INTERROGATION ROOM

as Danny looks back at Det. Martin.

DANNY
That was why I was on the train
when I saw Lexi that second time.
I was going up to do my follow-up
interview with the Herzmans.

DET. MARTIN
(nodding)
You be sure to get me that footage.

DANNY
Youre welcome to it. But she
never let me shoot her.

DET. MARTIN
Maybe she was right after all.

Danny looks at the detective quizzically.

 90.

DET. MARTIN
About it capturing your soul.

On the two mens look at each other we

CUT TO:

DANNYS OFFICE

in the MORNING, as Danny ENTERS, goes to his desk carrying

a bundle of mail, and sits down.

DANNY (V.O.)
Shed asked me if Id choose the
great love or the great story.
But is there a difference, really?

FLASH TO:

DIGITAL FOOTAGE

from Dannys CAMERA. We see the huge girth of the big man
Danny encountered in the tenement -- but this time it doesnt
go to the Herzman footage. This time we find ourselves

INSIDE A TAXICAB

looking THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD at NIGHT...as we FOLLOW

another cab making its way downtown.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
In the end, you arent who you
think you are; youre who I
perceive you to be.

The other cab PULLS OVER -- and Lexi gets out.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
In the world of matter, you are
uncontrollable, unpredictable,
a babble of random motion. I
capture you in a net of words and
you are known, if only for a moment.

Lexi seems to be waiting impatiently, checks her cell phone.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
We imagine we create words, but
what if they create us? This is
(MORE)
 91.

DANNY (V.O.) (CONT'D)

the secret poets know: words are
incantations, weaving magic spells.

Finally, she looks up -- as Spider saunters down the street.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
If the Word initiated the universe
into existence, what will close it?

Lexi and Spider kiss, and go off together into a building.

DANNY SITS

in the backseat of the cab, watching everything through

his camera....

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Why didnt I tell Det. Martin?

FLASH TO:

THE TENEMENT ROOM

as Lexi squats close to Spiders body.

DANNY (V.O.)
I guess I was never purely victim
or suspect. But you could say I
was an accomplice of sorts.

She gets up, puts the St. Jude medallion around Dannys neck.

DANNY
Better check my heart....

She looks at him curiously and he nods down to

THE BREAST POCKET

of his shirt...where she finds the small plastic memory card.

DANNY (V.O.)
Why did I go back there, knowing?

CUT TO:

A FREEZE FRAME

of Lexi and Spider about to enter the building together.

 92.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Sometimes, you just have to find
out how the story ends.

PULL BACK TO REVEAL

we are now INSIDE DANNYS OFFICE -- and the image is ON

the MONITOR in his EDITING BAY.

DANNY (V.O.)
(continuing)
Of course, I did back it up to
my hard drive....

DANNY SITS

in front of his monitor. The phone RINGS.

ON THE MONITOR

we watch as he finally drags the ICON for this bit of

footage into the TRASH BIN -- and it DISAPPEARS forever.

DANNY GRABS

the phone, looks down at the pile of mail on his desk.

He notices a small envelope, with no return address.

DANNY
(on phone)
Hello?

DET. MARTIN (FILTERED)

She wasnt lying about the warm
weather.

INTERCUT WITH:

DET. MARTINS OFFICE

where the detective sits at his cluttered desk.

DET. MARTIN
Turns out her mother insisted Carl
set up a blind trust for Lexi
before shed marry him.

FLASH TO:
 93.

THE ROOF TERRACE

and Lexi saying:

LEXI
She always wanted me to be provided
for, so he agreed to put something
aside for me.

BACK TO:

THE CONVERSATION

INTERCUT between DANNYS OFFICE and DET. MARTINS OFFICE.

DET. MARTIN
He stipulated it wouldnt take
effect unless both of them died.
And he is most certainly dead.

DANNY
Where?

DET. MARTIN
Costa Rica. She knew we wouldnt
get to that piece of the puzzle
for a while. She cleared out
the trust two days ago.

Danny looks at the small envelope with no return address.

DANNY
Good talking to you, Detective.

DET. MARTIN
You have a good day.

Danny cant help smiling as he hits the OFF on his cell.

HE OPENS

the small envelope -- and a blue plastic rectangle falls out:

a memory card. He inserts it into a reader in his computer.

ON THE MONITOR

FOOTAGE comes up: we know by the silhouette that its Lexi,

but shes standing in front of a window looking out on an
ocean, and her face is in deep SHADOW against the brightness.
 94.

LEXI (MONITOR)
I really do miss our conversations,
Danny, but this time Im just going
to have to imagine your side. In
a way, its just as well, since we
cant ever really know each other,
can we? Men and women, people and
people? Were all alone, in the
end, but maybe thats okay; its
what makes us hope and fear and
sometimes love each other.

DANNY WATCHES

from his seat at the EDITING BAY.

LEXI (MONITOR)
(continuing)
Its what keeps us awake at night
and makes us pull the blankets
over our head against the glare
of morning. Its the throbbing in
your brain at four a.m. as you look
for the bathroom in some strangers
apartment to piss out the chemicals
of the night before. Its fingers
scratching across tiles, its my
knees pointed at the ceiling,
my back arched like a cats.

CUT TO:

DET. MARTINS OFFICE

in the AFTERNOON, where the detective is looking at his

LAPTOP SCREEN

watching Dannys DIGITAL FOOTAGE from Grand Central Station.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Love is a religion, a denial of
death, a descent into fiction
and improbability, a lighting
of candles, our only chance
of salvation, a bridge to the
impossible, a creeping madness, a
coiled snake, a fathomless pit, a
lunatic babbling on the uptown IRT.
 95.

DANNYS FOOTAGE

shows the MORNING commute, as passengers crowd the PLATFORM.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
It is this tenement basement with
its stink of cockroach and death,
it is Jesus above Rio, it is hope
and the death of hope, it is sex
and its withering, it is blood on
the floor.

AT HIS DESK

a slow smile creeps across Det. Martins face.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
You will kill for it and die for
it; you will open its shroud and
see your face etched in dirt and
sweat. It fills you and empties
you in the same heartbeat.

ON THE LAPTOP SCREEN

Det. Martin plays with the IMAGE: FORWARD...PAUSE...BACK....

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
What it most certainly is not is
sentiment, flowers on Valentines
Day, holding hands on a spring
walk in the park. Those are its
funhouse projections, the sad
earthbound kitsch of love: love
without danger, without accident.

THE IMAGE FREEZES

on LEXIs FACE just as shes about to get on the train.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Better to throw yourself under the
train for that girl youll never
see again, better to incinerate in
(MORE)
 96.

LEXI (V.O.) (CONT'D)

a supernova of futility than hand
her that Valentines bouquet.

AT HIS DESK

Debt. Martin smiles...having found the girl on the train.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Love without sex is life without
death; sex without danger is God
without the devil. If you cant
risk being damned, dont imagine
you can ever love.

CUT TO:

A TRAIN

BARRELING north along the Hudson River on a bright MORNING.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
Love straps your arms to the cross,
drives nails through your hands and
feet. It is the spear that pierces
your side and the blood and gall
that splashes to the ground.

INSIDE THE TRAIN

we FIND Danny looking contemplatively out the window.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
It is the rag of vinegar pressed
to your lips and the thorn pushed
into your scalp. It is the heavens
darkening and your last seven words
spilling across the horizon.

CUT TO:

THE MONITOR

in Dannys EDITING BAY, where we see Lexis silhouetted

face against an impossibly bright glare of OCEAN and SKY.
 97.

LEXI (V.O.)
(continuing)
It is a desert mirage, an echo in
a cave, your own words returning to
mock you. Its every great painting
youve ever seen and the way we know
art from the scratchings an elephant
can make with his trunk.

CUT TO:

THE TRAIN STATION

at Westport, as Danny steps down onto the platform.

He looks up at the clear blue MORNING sky.

CUT TO:

THE GROUNDS

OUTSIDE the ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY. LATE MORNING.

WE FIND DANNY

sitting on a bench alongside a wheelchair. The old man from

the earlier scene sits beside him, staring off into space.

THE TWO MEN

look at each other, though its unclear what the old man
is registering. Then Danny reaches down and we notice

THE PLASTIC BAG

sitting at his feet. He reaches in and pulls out a box

of chocolates. He opens the box and holds it out and

THE OLD MAN

reaches a shaky hand to grab a chocolate. He nods.

DANNY NODS BACK

and begins to turn away -- then notices something.

 98.

HE LOOKS

at the mans arm, as his pajama sleeve slides up to reveal

THE INSIGNIA

on his forearm, tattooed there a lifetime ago: the lightning

bolts of the S.S., positioned where a concentration camp
inmates numbers would usually go.

DANNY LOOKS

at the fading tattoo, looks just about to laugh as we

HARD CUT TO BLACK.

THE END