Dreamwalk (1)
FADE IN:
EXT. NEW YORK (NIGHT)
PACO and ILLIANE are in a glass walled elevator on
the outside of midtown hotel The city is spread below
them and receding at an alarming rate. All the scenes
including Paco are dark and glitzy, every curved surface
gleaming a sexual innuendo. THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
lighting.
Illiane is a brassy Park Avenue lady, an older,
sleeker, well-corseted version of Gillian Andersen.
Paco is a less innocent looking version of Brad Pitt:
thin, a little soft looking and much too pretty, only
it doesn't seem to reflect his personality. It's more
like he was caught in a masquerade costume after the
party was over. Sound fades in:
ILLIANE
And you blame Jesse for everything?
PACO
I blame him for enough. Is that what this
is about? That�s why I get a ride in the
night with a pretty lady?
Tell him the only thing on my mind is
finishing law school. I�m not going to
do anything that might jeopardize that.
ILLIANE
And after you graduate?
PACO
Someone�s going to kill him. It doesn�t
have to be me.
ILLIANE
How do you know?
PACO
I�m paranoid schiz, remember? We can see
the future a little, sometimes. Not through
choice. I cant go into a trance and see the
lottery numbers.
It just descends on you. It�s one of the
things that makes us so crazy. Because it
cant be changed. The future is unchangeable
as the past.
I know that�s philosophically untenable and
all that so, we learn not to talk about it.
ILLIANE
And you see him killed?
PACO
Heard him. Burned alive, slow roasted
like a turkey. Nothing I can do to him
can compare with that so, Bon Voyage.
ILLIANE
When?
PACO
I don�t know. All I see are dancing
women with their hair on fire.
ILLIANE
You�re not taking your medicine.
She strokes his hair.
PACO
Turns me into a zombie and makes me blow
up like a balloon. I�d rather be crazy.
Anyway, I�m alright as long as I�m getting
laid.
ILLIANE
I�d like to, but I cant.
PACO
Why, is it sewn up?
She laughs.
ILLIANE
And you wonder why.
The elevator stops at her floor. The door opens
and a multitude of hands reach in and grab Paco
and drag him out and throw him to the floor and
give him a shot from a huge hypodermic full of
something purple.
CUT TO:
Paco is being hustled down the back stairs by
2 HEAVIES. It�s an over-the-shoulder shot and
the center of vision is the gentle churning of
Illiane�s tautly girdled behind.
HEAVY #1
That�s an incredible behind, a little
baggy, but comfortable, a soft flowing
form when uncorseted. Splish, splash,
I�d like to paddle around in that myself.
ILLIANE
Do you have to be so vulgar?
HEAVY #1
No, but it�s fun.
A STONE GAROYLE is standing by and watching all
this. He looks somehow like Noel Coward and he�s
smoking a stone cigarette in the Hungarian, manner.
It fizzes stone smoke that piles up and then
collapses into pixie dust.
GARGOYLE
The thing I don�t understand is: If I�m
a Figment Newton of your imagination,
why am I so much smarter than you are?
CUT TO:
EXT. STREET (NIGHT)
Suddenly everything is a little grimy. We�re out
of THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and into RAW DEAL.
The 2 heavies are carrying Paco out the door and
into the street. He's drugged, but they're acting
like he was drunk in case anyone is watching. Each
of them has one of his arms over their shoulders,
gripping it by the wrist.
He is vaguely aware of what's happening, but unable
to do anything about it. Film Noir lighting. It's
a Sherlock Holmes looking cobble stoned street in
the meat packing district.
1ST HEAVY
Come on Paco, dont act that way,
people are watching.
MURRAY and JOEL come out from behind a car.
They both have shotguns.
GARGOYLE
If they entered an Ernest Borgine look a
like contest, Ernest Borgine would place
3rd.
Murray points with his shotgun and the 2 heavies
put Paco in the car. More gestures and the heavies
produce his watch, his wallet, his gun and his money.
Then their own guns, watches and money. more gestures
and grunting conversation and they take off their
shoes and throw them in the car.
MURRAY
Drop the knife!
The 2 heavies look at each other. Neither has a
knife. Then, somewhat belatedly, They realize that
Murray is preparing to shoot them. They run wildly.
Murray laughs then he and Joel get into the car and
drive off.
CUT TO:
INT. ELEVATOR (DIM YELLOW LIGHT)
It's an old cage elevator. Joel has Paco over
his shoulder, holding him around the knees.
THE ELEVATOR OPERATOR is A VERY CRAZY, VERY OLD
MAN. He giggles and nods approval, giving Joel
a Black Power salute.
JOEL
Having a good time in there?
CUT TO:
INT. JOEL�S OFFICE (NIGHT)
The office has the raw look of an industrial loading
dock. The walls are painted concrete, the floor is
steel and the ceiling is 20 ft. high. A set of heavy institutional looking stairs leads straight into a
blank wall.
High up on each wall is a large screen TV showing
soft core bondage porn: GIRLS IN BLACK PATENT LEATHER
STRAITJACKETS and looking smug about it. The usual.
Half the script takes place here and it's been difficult
to open up so, use the TVs to bring in the outside images.
He dumps Paco on the couch then sits down at the desk
and begins to deal a game of solitaire. But it's a
Tarot pack and the 1st card is the 10 of Cups inverted.
The gargoyle enters the frame and leans against
the wall, still smoking. The smoke has lightning
flashes in it.
CUT TO:
INT. HOSPITAL WARD (BRIGHT)
We are in the world of day-time soap opera: big hair
and too perfect teeth and cheap voice lessons. And
everything is shadowless and flat.
The dialysis machines look like bondage contraptions
designed to keep your date strapped into a convenient
position. Descriptions are difficult so, rely on the
equipment catalogues. They don�t need much exaggeration.
It's New Year's eve. PATIENTS ON DIALYSIS are watching
a TV ANNOUNCER give accident statistics and cheering
like it was a football game.
TV ANNOUNCER
...a tractor-trailer jack-knifed
off a highway overpass and fell
through the top of a school bus.
Three other vehicles were also
crushed and the death toll may
reach 150.
The patients are cheering, thumbs up
and high 5-ing each other.
PATIENT 1
What's that? 680?
PATIENT 2
730 dead and it's only 7 PM.
PATIENT 1
If it's 1 in 20 is an
organ donor...
PATIENT 3
On the average.
PATIENT 1
That's 15 1/2 kidneys. We
might get out of here yet.
JESSE
If that's the way you feel, why
dont you shoot your own?
A DOCTOR is unhooking Jesse from the
dialysis machine: Buckles and straps.
PATIENT 1
That's cheating.
DOCTOR
Jesus, we have to talk.
JESSE
(to patient 1)
No one in his right mind wants a
fair fight.
(to Doctor)
Call me Jesse, it makes me happy.
Capt. Jesus sounds like a rock
group.
DOCTOR
I can tell you're under a strain.
JESSE
(to PATIENT)
You sell his corneas too and make a
tidy profit besides.
DOCTOR
Skip the hymn to the food chain,
I have to talk to you.
The doctor drags Jesse out through a maze
of Alphaville corridors. Strange things
are seen through half opened doors or in
the edge of vision. You're not sure of
what you've seen until it's already gone:
All those funny citizens that scuttle by on the
edge of your vision when you�ve been a couple
of days without sleep.
A JACK RUSSELL TERRIER runs by with
a human hand in its mouth.
DOCTOR
I got the tests back. You've been
on dialysis for 6 years with the
usual result: septic arthritis
and cardiac arrhythmia.
You need a transplant, it will buy
you maybe 5 years before you start
dying of something else.
JESSE
So, I fly to Rio, kidneys are the
major export after coffee: Give us
back our internal organs, Gringo
exploiters of the Poor.
DOCTOR
You need a 7-point tissue match
to have any chance at all.
JESSE
No, I read...
DOCTOR
Cops shouldn't read, you'll
only get confused. I'm trying
to save your life.
CUT TO:
INT. JOEL�S OFFICE (DAY)
Joel is completing a bail bond contract with an
ELEGANTLY DRESSED BLACK COUPLE. Joel and the
Black man are smiling at each other like 2 old
faggots in love. The TVs are showing MTV Super
Model videos.
BLACK MAN
Yes, well, I like to do business
with one bondsman.
BLACK WOMAN
What?, did you say you were going
to need a bondsman again?
They exit arguing. Joel looks around
slyly. He pulls a .25 automatic from
a watch pocket.
JOEL
Now, you little bastard, I've
been after you for weeks.
He fires. Paco opens his eyes. Joel fires
again. Paco sits up, but Joel is across the
room leaping around and blazing away in the
opposite direction.
He bends over and comes up with the .25 in his
teeth and holding a stunned rat by the neck.
He sees that Paco is awake then Joel tucks the
dead looking rat under his arm, the tail hanging
down his sleeve.
He pours a cup of coffee from a silex and holds
it out to Paco. Paco looks at the rat tail peeping
out of Joel's armpit.
PACO
You're beautiful.
JOEL
You're supposed to be saying:
Where am I? What happened?
He drops the rat into the waste basket.
It immediately wakes up and climbs out.
PACO
I know what happened. What
I dont know is how I keep
tripping over you.
JOEL
Have some coffee.
Paco takes it and sips. He spits it out.
PACO
Decaffeinated!
JOEL
Yeah, that's your problem, not
enough drugs! Hey, old buddy,
why dont you tough it out?
Pull out your gun, wave it around:
"Let's see who's got the stronger
magic." I guess you found out.
PACO
I didn't expect it because
there was no reason for it.
JOEL
Whadya do? screw her and take
a liking to her?
PACO
That's half your conversation.
I cant take this early in the
morning.
JOEL
It's afternoon.
PACO
I cant take this right after I wake up.
She was just trying to scare me.
JOEL
I dont believe this. I even got to
tell him when he's being murdered.
PACO
You think like I fuck.
JOEL
Tell me another way.
PACO
The man gets on top.
JOEL
Let's get out of here.
PACO
Yeah.
TV shows a quick shot of A ROUTINELY BEAUTIFUL
WOMAN going up a flight of stairs on crutches.
She's wearing 5-inch heels and a blindfold. She's
smiling. The stairs lead to an open door. Beyond
it is nothing but sky and drifting clouds. Rene
Magritte, eat your heart out.
INT. HOSPITAL (BRIGHT AND SCARY)
They're in an examination room but the door is half
open and THE PATIENTS going by have the kind of faces
you see in a cancer hospital: impossibly malformed in
inhuman shades of orange and purple and red.
Unlike a horror movie, these people are trying to
maintain their dignity and act as though nothing
were wrong and that makes it all much worse.
Most of the medical jargon is drowned out by screams,
music and machine noises, and Jersey accents, but it
has to be there.
JESSE
With drugs like cyclosporine
to prevent organ rejection,
you dont need a tissue match.
DOCTOR
It prevents organ rejection by
suppressing the immune system.
It gives you an artificial case of AIDS
and the worse the tissue match the more
of it you have to take.
Besides which, it does catastrophic
kidney damage. It prevents the body
from rejecting it, then kills it itself.
JESSE
There are other drugs.
DOCTOR
Cyclosporine is used because it's the least
destructive of the immuno-suppressants
JESSE
The statistics I read�
DOCTOR
You believe that shit?
JESSE
Well, no.
DOCTOR
You fly to China for a kidney, it's going
to kill you. You might as well die here
and save the air fare.
CUT TO:
INT. COFFEE BAR (CHEERY)
Joel has a large smoked fish. He's holding it 2 handed
and eating it like it was corn on the cob. The fish
blinks twice.
This is in a New Age place with lots of hanging vines.
A huge spider, 2-eyed like a crab, scrambles down a vine,
looks back and forth between Joel and his fish, then
scuttles back up.
TYPICAL NEW YORKERS go by:
A LESBIAN DWARF IN A CRASH HELMET,
A 48-D CUP WOMAN WITH A BLOND CREW CUT
AND MAKE UP OUT OF A RICHARD LINDNER PAINTING,
A TEENAGE GIRL IN A MINI-SKIRTED NURSE COSTUME
AND CARRYING AN ENEMA BAG AND A WHIP
and so on. Joel is watching the parade.
PACO
Whatever you do, dont make eye
contact. It might be taken as
an attempt at communication and
therefore grounds for murder.
Joel scowls.
You're still pissed?
JOEL
Of course, I'm pissed. You got
two women in love with you, and
another one trying to kill you,
why shouldn't I be pissed?
PACO
I'm almost impotent.
JOEL
Almost!
PACO
How much grief do you want
to wish on me?
JOEL
You're supposed to kill your
self cause you're afraid you're
going gay.
PACO
That would be shrewd.
JOEL
Sure.
PACO
I think you're supposed to do
more than hate yourself, I think
you're actually supposed to be
attracted to men and I'm not.
JOEL
Nobody's perfect.
CUT TO:
INT. HOSPITAL (FLOODLIT)
They're talking across a gurney, the kind used in
executions by injection. Leather manacles hang off
it in all directions.
A picture of J. Edgar Hoover is on the wall hung
with black crepe and a pair of pink ballet slippers.
JESSE
You're telling me I got to die?, I'm
telling you I'm going to take you
with me!
DOCTOR
I'm telling you that you need a 7 point
HLA match. You have a brother, right?
A twin.
JESSE
We hate each other.
DOCTOR
He's still your brother.
JESSE
What are you?, an only child? That
brother thing isn't like you think
it is.
DOCTOR
Fine, you hate each other. But, if you
die, how is he ever going to get even?
JESSE
That part makes sense.
DOCTOR
Well, he's going to give up a
kidney or you're going to die.
JESSE
Yeah.
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR IN THE HALL OF JUSTICE (MURKY)
It's easy to tell the perps from the lawyers. The
lawyers have sharp race track faces and a steady leer.
The perps are usually a foot shorter and look morose.
A PERP is carrying a huge TV set trailing a complex
of multi-colored wires.
Another PERP is carrying a machine gun and a grinning
severed head.
A 3RD is dragging a large suitcase with something
inside that's trying to get out.
A TROUPE OF WHORES WEARING FETISH COSTUMES goes by,
handcuffed to a chain and carrying can openers and
corkscrews. They take turns reading aloud from a
script. It seems to be an open casting call.
The cops are huge and appear to have brain damage:
severe brain damage like it's hard for them to
point both eyes in the same direction.
Paco and Joel are striding along determinedly.
Paco is talking on a cell phone.
PACO
Yeah...I understand that...No, thanks...
I'm not going to do it....No...The harm
is, if I say we'll talk about it, you think
it means I cant change my mind all at once
because it would undermine my authority
but, I dont want to talk about it because
I'm not going to change my mind because I'm
not going to do it...alright, we'll talk
about it.
He hangs up.
He wants my kidneys.
JOEL
That's true love.
CUT TO:
INT. THE GENTLEMAN LOSER (BRIGHT)
The store sells guns, motorcycles, fashion magazines
and sex toys with a collection of pinball machines
to play while you wait. Joel is playing an antique
and complicated pinball machine.
The score board shows a picture of Diana Rigg in
a leather cat-suit. Paco is reading the British
edition of VOGUE.
White and red neon scribbles across the floor and
up the walls looking like a time exposure shot of
night time city traffic.
JOEL
I can understand looking at the
pictures, but you're actually
reading that thing. That's sick.
PACO
There's a thing in here on Antonia
Frazer. I wanted to see what Pinter's
lady looked like.
JOEL
She looks alright. He looks
like her pet poodle.
PACO
He is, but she says something interesting
about fashion, that fashion should always
have some element that's self-mocking,
something that says: Dont take this too
seriously, it's all an act but it's fun,
that's what role playing is for.
JOEL
You act like that's important,
like I'm supposed to thank you
for it.
PACO
You dont like fashion?
JOEL
I liked it better when I
thought God designed it
and it just descended.
A COP goes by with a John Wayne walk
wearing a riot shield and carrying a
shock baton. Sparks dance on the tip.
COP
How's the sporting life?
JOEL
You dont want to know that, you'd have
to make out the forms in triplicate.
COP
Whadya do? Guys And Dolls in summer stock?
PACO
See, that's what I mean, every one's
auditioning. No one believes that any
of this is really real.
JOEL
Shut up and read your picture book.
PACO
Let's get out of here.
JOEL
Yeah.
CUT TO:
INT. MEN�S ROOM OF THE CRIMINAL COURT (DIM)
Paco and Joel and THE 1ST MURDERER who has the
genial look of a neighborhood bartender. He
almost sings as he talks.
The place is the size of an airplane hanger with
high vaulted windows like a cathedral but covered
with spiky looking bars. There is a sign on the wall:
LOADING OR UNLOADING GUNS
ON THESE PREMISES
IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN
There is a spray of bullet holes across
the walls, as though the place had been
used for executions, and the graffiti:
PROSECUTORS WILL BE VIOLATED
Clicking whirring surveillance cameras point into
each toilet stall. Paco is shucking the wadcutters
out of an S&W combat magnum and reloading with Glazer
Blue Dot. Joel is listening to the 1st murderer.
Sound fades in.
1ST
The genitals are always the first to go.
They ask me what sex it was, I have to
look at the knees or the Adam's apple
because all that's down there is ...
PACO
Stop it.
1ST
Big sturdy maggots like the
Michelin Tire Man.
PACO
Stop.
JOEL
He means, why are you here? This is the
Hall of Justice. I am a bondsman. That's
why I am here.
This, he's a lawyer. He's trying to get
disbarred, that's why he is here. Now,
we told you why we are here, why wont
you tell us why you are here?
A COP enters wearing a gigantic .44 magnum with
a telescopic sight in a strap down holster
COP
(pointing to the .357)
When are you going to get
yourself a real gun?
PACO
(pointing to the .44)
That's not to shoot with,
it's a symbol of authority.
COP
Your mother is a symbol of authority.
PACO
You bet your sweet ass.
The cop finishes at the urinal.
COP
(pointing to the Blue Dots)
Those explosive bullets are
illegal under federal law.
PACO
Thank you for pointing that out,
sometimes it is the obvious that
is being overlooked.
The cop snarls and leaves.
1ST
Look, I'm going to have to start
over from the beginning.
PACO
No.
JOEL
No, no, skip ahead, now try to remember:
why are you here. What happened that
brought you here. And it's something
you wanted to tell us about, that's why
you're here, to tell us. Now, tell us
what it is.
1ST
Did I tell you about the baby?
JOEL
Baby?, no you didn't tell us about the baby.
1ST
Okay, I can start there, but I
might have to go back.
PACO
Start there.
2 COPS walk in dragging A VERY CONVINCING
TRANSVESTITE IN A DOLLY PARTON DRESS.
COP
You still got a schvance,
you use the men's room.
TV
Pervert!
But they let her piss sitting down. Then the
surveillance cameras flash red lights. They're
whirring and clicking double time. The 1st
murderer looks hopelessly confused.
PACO
The baby: start there.
FLASHBACKVISUALS here contradicting the story
as the 1st murderer continues
1ST (V.O.)
Yeah, well, I am embalming this baby,
maybe 2 months old, when the telephone
rings. So, I turn the compressor on
real low, 2 1/2 pounds per sq. inch.
That's low for an adult, but low for
a baby would be about 1/2 pound per
sq. inch and, ah, it's my girl friend.
PACO (V.O.)
The baby?
1ST (V.O.)
No, on the telephone. And by
the time she gets through telling
me all the things her sister said
about me, I get back to the table
and the baby is 4 feet tall.
Copyright © 2001 Angel Obregon |