Arlington Road Page #2

Synopsis: In suburban Reston, Virginia, George Washington University American History professor Michael Faraday is still mourning the death of his wife, FBI agent Leah Faraday, after three years. His inside knowledge of the agency colors what he teaches in his classes. Although on good terms with Leah's ex-partner, Whit Carver, and the agency in general, Michael wants the agency at least to acknowledge their responsibility in her death in the line of duty. Michael is moving on with his personal life, he being in a serious relationship with his former teaching assistant Brooke Wolfe. Although he likes Brooke, Michael and Leah's nine year old son, Grant Faraday, may not yet be quite ready for Brooke to be a permanent part of their lives. It is only in helping adolescent Brady Lang who he sees in medical distress that Michael meets his new neighbors, Oliver and Cheryl Lang, Brady's parents. In the process, Michael and Brooke becomes friends with the Langs, as Grant and Brady become friends. However
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Director(s): Mark Pellington
Production: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
  5 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.2
Metacritic:
65
Rotten Tomatoes:
62%
R
Year:
1999
117 min
Website
790 Views


Building a compound.

- Compound?

- Soldiers' compound.

Stop, Dad.

You have to know

the secret handshake.

Should we tell him?

All right. Well...

just so I know you're not gonna

use any fireworks in there, Brady.

General Brady, Dad.

Yeah?

No fireworks, General Brady.

That's classified information.

You don't know the secret handshake.

- I'm serious, Brady.

- Come on, Grant.

Get washed up, guys.

We're gonna get dinner on.

- Come on in.

- Got something for you in my mailbox.

What's that?

"University of Pennsylvania"?

-I thought you hadn't lived East before.

-I haven't.

I went to Kansas State, class of '78.

Must have me mixed up with someone else.

- Same class, huh?

- Yeah, but at K State.

It's a reunion.

Must've lost track of some guy,

sent it to me instead.

Sorry about the mess. Cheryl and the

girls are at a church group tonight.

I'm trying to catch up

on a little work.

- How are ya?

- Good.

- How's Grant?

- He's doin' great.

Excuse me a minute. Hello?

Why don't I call you back?

What do you mean?

Okay.

Well, we should really talk

in person about this.

Yeah.

I could work on this tonight.

Okay. All right.

Listen, hold on a second.

This project is taking forever.

Client can't seem to make up his mind.

- This the Reston Mall?

- Yeah. We're getting it on track.

I'm sorry, I have to--

- We'll see each other this weekend.

- Yes, the Junior Ds.

- Brady keeps talking about it.

- Yeah, he's gonna love it.

He's gonna make more friends

than he'll know what to do with.

They do camp outs, trips.

Give you the house to yourself...

every now and then.

You and Brooke, I mean.

- I thank you, neighbor.

- For what?

For having

a ten-year-old next door.

- What do you know about shopping malls?

- Huh?

Shopping malls. I was over at

the Langs', talking with Oliver.

He had this blueprint on his counter.

He said it was the Reston Mall.

- That's what he's workin' on.

- Yeah, but it wasn't.

- What do you mean?

- I looked.

It was a building.

It wasn't a mall.

- Right, it's an addition.

- No.

It was an office building.

It wasn't stores at all.

Oh, so, it's some other project

that he's working on.

Why would he tell me

it was a mall if it wasn't?

Why would he lie?

When you took engineering in college,

what kind of grades did you get?

I didn't take engineering.

What I saw was an office building.

Fourteen months ago

on a Monday in January...

over 60 federal employees

went to work like they always did...

at the Roosevelt Federal Building

in downtown St. Louis.

Except on that Monday

they didn't come home.

In a truck parked in front...

was hidden 50 pounds

of C-4 plastic explosive.

When it was detonated, it disintegrated

the street side of the building...

obliterating dozens

of government offices...

the building's day care center...

and the St. Louis branch

of the Internal Revenue Service...

which was ultimately determined

to be the target of the attack.

The truck was leased by

this 33-year-old electrician...

Dean Scobee.

Scobee had served some prison time

for tax evasion...

and surveillance videos showed

that he was inside the vehicle...

leaving him among the 63 dead.

Does anyone not remember this?

You all remember the results

of the investigation?

- They said Scobee acted alone.

- One man, no conspirators.

Right?

He cheated the IRS. They caught

him at it, so he blew 'em up.

This is a guy who people

described as average.

Friendly.

He'd been in the army,

but as a radio man.

He had very little experience

with munitions.

His parents considered him

a moderate conservative.

Two weeks prior to this, he received

a pay raise at his electrician's job.

Does that sound like a man who's

on the edge or a man who needed a push?

Huh?

Come on. I don't know.

I'm just asking.

Come on, Professor.

The Feds did this huge investigation.

That's right,

an investigation, I forgot.

Well...

the investigation

didn't satisty me.

Miss O'Neill,

when you first heard the news--

terrorist attack in your own country--

how did that make you feel?

- Come on.

- Well--

What did you feel?

Angry.

Scared and stressed.

- Did you feel safe?

- No.

And then the next day,

when they found Scobee dead...

did you feel some relief?

Did safety return?

The people in that building,

they felt safe...

secure, just like you feel now.

And then an instant later--

In an instant...

they were gone forever.

We needed to have

this man to blame.

We don't want others.

We want one name...

and we want it fast...

because it gives us

our security back.

We can say,

"Here was the one man...

unlike the rest of us.

We named him,

and he's no more.

And his reasons,

they're gone too."

But the truth is,

we don't know his reasons.

We don't know why Scobee did it,

why it came to this.

We can pretend we do--

the ten grand in taxes--

but we don't know...

and we'll never know.

And still, we feel safe...

because we know his name.

As God is my witness...

I promise to give...

friendship to those in need.

Help to those in trouble.

I will work with faith and honor...

to uphold the Discoverer code.

To respect myself...

my family...

and my country.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome

Junior Discovery Troop 474.

This is Oliver's study...

where he, you know,

gets away from the kids...

and me, I suppose.

These are all projects

you've worked on?

I wish.

No, I collect sketches...

blueprints,

designs of old buildings.

This is a front view of Monticello.

- Down there is the Woolworth Building.

- It's his hobby.

- The St. Louis Arch.

- Yes, correct.

So, then all of these drawings,

these buildings...

they're not just

for your job, then?

Oh. So they're not

all shopping malls.

No, I don't know of any architecturally

significant shopping malls.

Oh, honey, you just

haven't built them yet.

- Who's hungry?

- I'm famished.

Come on. I've got some

really delicious putt pastry.

They've got to work so hard

when they're there.

You've gotta keep 'em

in the seats.

You know?

Politically, there's something

to be said for that.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Here we are leaving the church.

Everyone thought we were

going to Mexico.

- Where were you going?

- We were going there...

but the plane

never left the ground.

Some kind of engine trouble.

Couldn't leave till morning, so we spent

the night at the Wichita Airport Motel.

How romantic!

- Well, for $19, it was wonderful.

- How long you two been married?

- Well, 12 years in August.

- What kind of example is that?

Well, I don't think we learn

responsibility from politicians.

We really learn it from family.

It's the people that we care about.

- It's what they care about.

- He died when I was a teenager.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Farm accident.

-Where would you say you get yours from?

-My what? My values?

- Probably from my wife.

- Values?

What values?

Michael and I were talking about

where you get your values from...

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Ehren Kruger

Ehren Kruger is an American screenwriter and film producer. He is best known for writing three of the four films in the Transformers film series which are Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Arlington Road" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Jul 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/arlington_road_3091>.

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