Awakenings Page #8

64. INT. DAYROOM (C) -DAY 64.

Miss Costello sitting with a post-encephalitic man. (FRANK)

MISS COSTELLO:

There's something else that

reaches them.

She touches the man's hand, holds it, and his head slowly turns

to face her.

MISS COSTELLO:

Human contact.

She pulls him gently to hisifeet and walks with him a few

steps. .

MISS COSTELLO:

He can't walk without me. If I

letgo-;

(to the patient)

I won't let go of you'

(to Sayer)

-if I let go, he'll fall. He'll

walk with me anywhere.

They walk a few more steps and tears begin to form in Miss

Costello's eyes.

MISS COSTELLO:

It's like the ball . . . only it's

my will he's borrowing.

Sayer, too, is moved. But as he watches Miss Costello and her

patient walk away, his expression changes; something she has

said or done has struck a chord, or unlocked a door:

Close on their hands . . .

65. OMITTED -65.

66. INT. BAINBRIDGE -NIGHT -66.

Empty corridor. Echoing footsteps.

67. INT. LEONARD'S WARD -NIGHT 67.

Leonard. Tucked in but "awake." Staring at the ceiling.

REV. 10/13/89 p.39

SAYER O.S.

Leonard?

68. INT. LEONARD'S WARD -LATER -NIGHT 68.

In a far corner of the darkened ward, in a pool of lamp light,

two silhouetted figures. Sayer and Leonard. Sleeping patients

all around them.

Sayer carefully, awkwardly, places his hand on Leonard's.

After a moment, the contact brings the useless appendage "to

life." As it slowly turns over and grasps the doctor's hand, a

glimmer of life seems to appear in Leonard's eyes as well.

Sayer, unfamiliar, it seems, with the feeling the contact

produces in him, nonetheless places his other hand on Leonard's

other. Soon it too turns and holds onto Sayer's.

The doctor draws both of Leonard's hands toward him and sets

them down on the pointer of an Ouija Board.

SAYER:

I'll begin moving the pointer

toward the "L." For "Leonard."

Once I feel you beginning to move

it, I'll stop and you'll take .

over. Do you understand?

Leonard, of course, cannot say whether he does or not. The

look on his face is "thoughtful." The look on Sayer's, hopeful

and foolish.

SAYER:

I'm beginning ...

The pointer begins to slowly move past stars and moons.

Judging from Sayer's expression he begins to feel Leonard's

movement of it and, presumably, stops his own.

SAYER:

Yes, good ...

The pointer moves across the letters, but passes the "L"

without stopping. It stops on the "R."

SAYER:

No. No, I didn't make myself

clear. My fault. I . .. .

The pointer begins moving again, "interrupting" Sayer. It

passes the "L" again, reaches the "I" and stops.

.. .

SAYER '".,

No NoI

REV. 10/13/89 p.40

But the pointer is moving again. It stops on the "L."

SAYER:

Yes. Yes. That's what I meant. .

"L." Good. Now the "E."

It begins moving again. But not to the "E." To the nK," where

it hesitates briefly before moving again.

SAYER:

(realizing, to

himself)

... you'respellingsomething

else...

Keeping one hand on the moving pointer, Sayer fumbles a pen

from his shirt pocket and scribbles on his lab coat what

Leonard has and is continuing to "write":

RILKESPA:

69. INT. EXAMINATION ROOM -NIGHT

Sayer alone in the examining room, standing over his desk. The

lab coat is on it. And on it is scrawled:

RILKESPANTHERILKE

He has to study it only a moment before he sees the meaning of

it; he quickly scratches out the last four letters,and adds a

slash between the "S" and the "P," so that it reads:

RILKEs/pANTHER BmBJUP*

69A. EXT. PUBLIC LIBRARY. -ESTABLISH -DAY 69

70. INT. PUBLIC LIBRARY -DAY ' 7

A card catalogue. Cards flipping by, stopping on one that

.reads:

831 R Rilke, Rainer Maria .

German poet and fiction>fwriter;

1875-1926; Collected Poems

tr. fr. German by -

71. INT. PUBLIC LIBRARY -LATER -DAY . . , 7

Moving slowly in on Sayer at one of the library tables with a V .

book. , •..

REV. 10/13/89 p."

(continuity onxy;

SAYER'S VOICE

"His gaze from staring through the

bars has grown so weary that it

can take in nothing more . . .

72. INT. LEONARD'S WARD -DAY 72.

Moving slowly into the Western painting.

SAYER'S VOICE

"For him it is as though there

were a thousand bars, and behind

the thousand bars, no world . . .

72A. EXT. BRONX ZOO -DAY 72A.

Moving in on a panther, limbs weakened, spirit broken, slowly

pacing back and forth before the bars of a small cage.

SAYER V.O.

"As he paces in cramped circles,

over and over, his powerful

strides are like a ritual dance

around a center where a great will

standsparalyzed . ..

Moving slowly away from Sayer watching, moving high above him;

the place is virtually deserted.

73. INT. LEONARD'S WARD -DAY 73.

Moving slowly in on Leonard as, in bed, flannel pajamas, as his

mother diapers him for the night.

SAYER V.O.

"At times the curtains of the eye

lift without a sound . . .

Moving slowly. ..

96. INT. STAFF CAFETERIA -LATER -DAY 9

A tray of truly awful cafeteria food. The group, minus Sayer

and Miss Costello, watches Leonard dip a fork into some mush-

like concoction and manipulate it, with difficulty, to and into

his mouth. He seems amazed by its flavor.

LEONARD:

It's delicious.

FERNANDO:

I wouldn't go that far, Len.

Sayer and Miss Costello, at another table, glance over to the

others who are all laughing. Sayer smiles.

MISS COSTELLO:

I don't think I could deal with

losing 3D years of my life. I

can't even imagine it.

REV. 10/13/89 p.53

Sayer's smile fades. The possibility that Leonard might not

have realized the extent of the passage of time had not, until

this moment, occurred to him. He stares blankly at Miss

Costello.

MISS COSTELLO:

He does realize it, doesn't he?

Sayer nods uncertainly.

SAYER:

He must.

97. INT. EXAMINATION ROOM -LATER -DAY 97.

(NOTE:
CONSULT SACKS ON THIS SCENE:)

Sayer demonstrates a clapping motion. Leonard repeats it more

slowly but with decent motor control.

SAYER:

Splendid.

Sayer makes a note. They are alone in the examination room

which, like most of the hospital, has little in it to indicate

that it is not the 1930's.

SAYER:

Can I see you walk the length of

the room? *

Leonard walks slowly across the room past the perception tests

and notes and Polaroids cluttering the wall. Coming back, he

pauses. He's looking at a picture of himself taped there.

Sayer watches him slowly reach his hands to his face to feel

his features. He stares at the photograph of himself, trying

to comprehend that which cannot be comprehended.

He's not younjg anymore.

98. OMITTED 98.

99. INT. LEONARD'S WARD -NIGHT 99.

Sayer and Mrs. Lowe at Leonard's bedside..

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