12 Monkeys Page #5

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RESIDENT #2

Are you going to save us, Mr. Cole?

COLE:

Save you? How can I save you? It

already happened! I can't save you. I'm

simply trying to get some information for

people in the present so that someday...

(sees their eyes)

You don't believe me. You think I'm

crazy. But I'm not crazy. I'm a convict,

sure, I have a quick temper, but I'm as

sane as anyone in this room. I...

COLE stops, sees DR. FLETCHER tapping his pencil. COLE'S seen

that tapping before -- in the future! It disorients him.

DR. RAILLY

Can you tell us the name of the prison

you've come from?

COLE doesn't answer. He's staring at the tapping pencil.

DR. FLETCHER

Does this bother you, Mr. Cole?

COLE:

(recovering, new tack)

No! Look, I don't belong here! What I

need to do is make a telephone call to

straighten everything out.

DR. FLETCHER

Who would you call, Mr. Cole, who would

straighten everything out?

COLE:

Scientists. I'm supposed to report in

to them. They'll want to know they

sent me to the wrong time.

DR. FLETCHER

So you could talk to these scientists

and they do what? Send you to the future?

COLE:

No, no. I can't talk to them. It's called,

"voice mail". I'm supposed to leave messages.

They monitor it from the present.

RESIDENT #2

"From the present." We're not in the

present now, Mr. Cole?

COLE:

No, no. This is the past. This has

already happened. Listen...

RESIDENT #3

Mr. Cole, you belong in 1995 -- that's

the present, is that it?

COLE:

No, 1995 is the past, too. Look...

DR. FLETCHER

These scientists, Mr. Cole? Are they

doctors like ourselves?

Two of the residents exchange quick knowing looks.

COLE:

No! I mean yes, but... Look, I've been given

a lot of drugs but I'm still perfectly lucid.

You have to let me use the phone. One call!

COLE looks desperately toward RAILLY, pleading eyes meeting hers.

INT. LOW RENT APARTMENT - DAY

Four little KIDS SCREAM and SQUABBLE while the phone CHIRPS

insistently in the tiny, cluttered apartment and a harried MOTHER

lunges for the phone, answers sharply...

MOTHER:

Yes?

(listens, frowns, then)

Whaaaaat? "Voice mail"! I don't know

what you're talkin' about. ... Is this

a joke? I don't know any scientists.

James who? Never heard of you!

The MOTHER slams down the phone.

INT. RAILLY'S OFFICE/COUNTY HOSPITAL - DAY

A dismayed COLE still has the receiver in his hand. Sympathetically,

RAILLY takes it from him.

RAILLY:

It wasn't who you expected?

COLE is clearly agitated, starts to pace, upset. Nuts?

COLE:

It was some lady. She didn't know anything.

RAILLY:

Perhaps it was a wrong number...

COLE:

No. That's the reason they chose me --

I remember things.

RAILLY frowns, studying the distracted man with intense interest.

It's clear COLE is becoming a special patient and RAILLY'S cool,

detached demeanor is giving way ever so slightly.

RAILLY:

James, where did you grow up? Was it

around here? Around Baltimore?

COLE:

(lost in thought)

What?

RAILLY:

I have the...strangest feeling I've met

you before...a long time ago, perhaps.

Were you ever...?

COLE:

Wait! This is only 1989! I'm supposed

to be leaving messages in 1995. It's

not the right number yet. That's the

problem. Damn! How can I contact them?

RAILLY recovers her distance, her poise, as she takes a bottle,

pours out some tablets, and holds them out to COLE.

RAILLY:

James, take these.

(watching him step back)

Please -- I helped you like I said I

would. Now I want you to trust me.

INT. AIRPORT CONCOURSE - DAY (THE DREAM)

MR. PONYTAIL races past the startled YOUNG COLE.

MR. PONYTAIL

WATCH IT!

Was it JEFFREY wearing gaudy pants and a ponytail? It was

definitely JEFFREY'S VOICE.

TRAVELERS dive for cover as a WOMAN'S VOICE cries out...

WOMAN'S VOICE

NOOOOOOOOOO!

The TERRIFIED TRAVELER looks up at YOUNG COLE, makes eye contact, but

doesn't speak. The TERRIFIED TRAVELER looks a lot like DR. FLETCHER!

Just then, YOUNG COLE is distracted by a running figure. It's

the BLONDE MAN in the Hawaiian shirt, but he's not injured. He's

sprinting toward the gates, glancing back over his shoulder, his

moustache slightly askew!

A sharp CRACK of a GUNSHOT rings out! Then, DAZZLING LIGHT.

Everything goes white!

INT. DORMITORY (PSYCH WARD)/COUNTY HOSPITAL - NIGHT

COLE'S eyes blink awake, blinded by a flashlight.

He's lying in one of thirty beds in a darkened ward. Disoriented.

Which world is this? The room is full of BREATHING, SNORING,

occasional MOANS. He can barely discern the shadowy figures of

an ORDERLY and a NURSE, making their rounds, checking each bed.

His eyes adjusting to the darkness, COLE watches them exit.

He turns and sees a patch of moonlight coming in a barred window.

With a quick glance at the sleeping PATIENTS, he slips out of

bed, makes his way stealthily to the window, peers out.

COLE'S POV:
the moon, glowing in the sky, illuminating a single

tree. Under the tree, in silhouette, a COUPLE embraces, kisses.

ANGLE ON COLE, looking out the window, absorbed.

VOICE (o.s.)

It won't work. You can't open it.

Alarmed, COLE turns, sees JEFFREY in the next bed.

JEFFREY:

You think you can remove the grill but

you can't. It's welded.

COLE checks the grill anyway.

JEFFREY:

See? I toldja. And all the doors are

locked, too. They're protecting the

people on the outside from us. But the

people outside are as crazy as us.

COLE has become preoccupied with a small SPIDER creeping along

the window sill. He's staring at it when he's distracted by a

sudden SOUND. Grabbing the SPIDER, COLE scrambles back into bed

just as the door opens and an ORDERLY probes the dark room with

the blade of his flashlight.

ANGLE ON COLE, in bed, feigning sleep.

The flashlight clicks off and COLE hears the door close.

For a long moment the ward is silent except for BREATHING,

SNORES, occasional MOANS. Then, COLE hears JEFFREY'S hoarse

whisper, picking up right where he left off.

JEFFREY:

You know what "crazy" is? "crazy" is

"majority rules". Take germs for example.

Although COLE is preoccupied with the SPIDER struggling to get

out of his fist, he can't help reacting to the word, "germs"!

COLE:

Germs?!

JEFFREY:

In the 18th century there was no such

thing! Nobody'd ever imagined such a

thing -- no sane person anyway. Along

comes this doctor...Semmelweiss, I

think. He tries to convince people...

other doctors mostly...that there are

these teeny tiny invisible "bad things"

called germs that get into your body and

make you...sick! He's trying to get

doctors to wash their hands. What is

this guy...crazy? Teeny tiny invisible

whaddayou call 'em?..."germs"!

As JEFFREY warms to his subject, getting excited, COLE tries to

figure out where to put the SPIDER.

JEFFREY (cont.)

So cut to the 20th century! Last week

in fact, right before I got dragged

into this hellhole. I order a burger

in this fast food joint. The waiter

drops it on the floor. He picks it up,

wipes it off, hands it to me...like it

was all okay.

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