Batman Page #13

CUT TO:

INT. SMALL BACK ROOM - NIGHT

A poker game. A CRIMELORD from the JOKER's board meeting

picks up his hand and fans out the cards. FIVE JOKERS.

He looks up, puzzled. The last thing he sees is a HIRED

KILLER bursting in through the door, GUN IN HAND.

EXT. GOTHAM PARK - DAY

A COSTUMED CLOWN with a wheeled cart, filling balloons from

a helium tank, passing them out to the kids. CRIMELORD #2

strolls past. The CLOWN offers him a balloon, which be

politely refuses.

THE CLOWN reaches into his cart for a RED METAL TANK. But,

as we quickly find out, it's not a helium tank -- it's a

FLAMETHROWER.

EXT. HALLIDAY PLAZA - DAY

A sunny, landscaped quad surrounded by corporate

skyscrapers:
trees, grass, marble fountains, flags of many

nations. Amid the pedestrians we catch BRUCE and VICKI, all

smiles, cutting through the plaza on the way to lunch.

VICKI:

... To tell you the truth, I'd just

about given up waiting.

BRUCE:

I said I'd call you the minute I got

free. And I did. -- And here we are.

VICKI:

(teasing him)

Hm hmm. Lunch. Not even dinner.

He stops in his tracks, takes her by the shoulders.

BRUCE:

Vicki. Do you want the whole truth?

All coyness aside?

(long pause)

I wish I had more time to give you.

Every day I don't see you, I miss

you.

(beat)

Now. Are you going to waste this

lovely afternoon being all mad at

me?

All this, of course, is delivered with devastating

sincerity. VICKI finds herself totally disarmed.

VICKI:

Okay, I'm a sucker. You sound so

much like someone I used to...

(stopping suddenly)

Bruce? I know this is silly, but --

you're not married, are you?

He stops and laughs. She smiles crookedly, takes his arm.

ANOTHER ANGLE - ACROSS PLAZA - THAT MOMENT

PHILLY RICORSO -- another CRIMELORD from the boardroom --

enters the plaza flanked by a cadre of PAID BODYGUARDS.

ON BRUCE AND VICKI

A PAINTED STREET MIME walks alongside them, feeling his way

along an imaginary wall. VICKI groans.

VICKI:

All street mimes should be executed.

BRUCE:

... Looks like a convention.

And indeed, there are HALF A DOZEN STREET MIMES converging

on the center of the plaza.

RICORSO and co. approach the mirrored-glass entrance of a

skyscraper. In the lobby, A MIME -- who's been annoying the

passersby -- THROWS A BOLT, LOCKING THE DOORS from inside.

A BODYGUARD bangs on the glass. Nearby, ANOTHER MIME

reaches into a trash bin -- and pulls out a MACHINE GUN.

SUDDEN SCREAMS OF TERROR from the onlookers.

VICKI turns to BRUCE. Before she can get his name out, he's

HOISTED HER BODILY and THROWN HER behind a marble fountain.

SERIES OF SHOTS:

BRUCE'S EYES darting birdlike around the plaza -- INTERCUT

with the following POV SHOTS, ALL IN SLOW MOTION:

- TWO MIMES with machine guns. One of them lining PHILLY

and co. up against the glass doors, the other holding

the CROWD at bay;

- A WOMAN in the crowd fainting. A THIRD MIME gleefully

imitating her swoon, to no one's amusement;

- PHILLY and his goons, COWERING, hands in the air, as

OTHER MIMES cruelly mimic their terrified poses...

... and suddenly BRUCE is RUNNING FRANTICALLY, looking for

a secluded spot, an alleyway, anything. No go. He's out in

the open, with onlookers everywhere. In his civvies, he's

just another citizen... TOTALLY IMPOTENT.

He darts around a corner, backs against a wall. WOMEN,

CHILDREN, GROWN MEN race past. No privacy. He's

practically quaking now, in the throes of some terrible

anxiety. He looks up at the sky overhead, terrified.

A BRILLIANT SUN bears down on him as MACHINE GUNS CHATTER.

ANGLE ON PHILLY AND BODYGUARDS

BODIES JERKING as GLASS rains down in shards.

ANGLE ON BRUCE:

his back arched, his mouth agape, his face drained of blood

as the sounds of carnage echo through the plaza. It's

almost as if the bullets are striking him.

A moment later, it's all over but the screaming. VICKI

emerges from the crowd and finds BRUCE slumped against the

wall, nearly catatonic. She moves to touch him.

As if by reflex he reaches out and GRABS HER BY THE ARMS --

with a grip so strong it could crush bone. She GASPS, looks

up -- and sees, in his traumatized EYES, a look so raw, so

desperate, that it virtually defies comprehension.

VICKI:

BRUCE!!

He blinks rapidly. He relaxes his grip. Before VICKI's

eyes, he's changing... becoming the BRUCE she knows.

BRUCE:

Oh my God... are you all right?

He reaches for her. Involuntarily, she steps back.

He sees her reaction and his face goes slack -- frightened,

pleading. This time she lets him embrace her... but her

face is full of bewilderment and doubt.

INSERT - TELEVISION SCREEN

ANCHORWOMAN:

... live from Halliday Plaza, where a

gangland-style execution claimed the

life of racketeer Philly Ricorso.

Ricorso's death is the third in a

rash of underworld killings...

CUT TO TWO-SHOT:
the ANCHORWOMAN and COMMISSIONER GORDON.

ANCHORWOMAN (cont.)

Commissioner, you've heard the

rumors. Are these murders the work

of the mysterious 'Batman'?

A PIERCING CACKLE fills the air. CAMERA PULLS BACK from the

TV, placing us in the JOKER's boardroom. Behind the big

desk he SWIVELS INTO VIEW, phone in hand.

JOKER:

All reet! I think it's about time

we called another meeting, huh?

CUT TO:

INT. WAYNE MANOR - DAY

ALFRED on the phone, a feather duster in his hand.

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