Birdman Page #14

LESLEYEddie! Please!

Riggan climbs onto the stage. Exhausted. He goes to Mike and,

with a last effort, pushes him lamely.

RIGGANWhat's wrong with me? Why do I end

up having to beg people to love me?

LESLEYEd. Eddie. Please... Give me the gun.

We pan to the wings where Jake is staring in disbelief. His

cellphone begins to vibrate, and he answers.

JAKEYeah. (A beat.) What?... No no no no no no

no. Wait there. I'm coming out in--

He walks toward the hallway and we follow him...

INT. HALLWAY - THEATER - CONTINUOUS4545...through the corridor.

JAKENo. Wait. Wait for me. I'll be there in a

second. (Beat.) What is that, a threat?

(Beat.) What wheelchair? (Beat.) Wait.

Don't hang up. Mr. Roth, we can discuss--

Hello?... Hello?...

He goes out one of the exits and we are left with the silence of

the empty hallway. After a few seconds, the sound of the gunshot

from the scene echoes through the theater. The audience

applauds. The camera starts to move forward. A few seconds later

Riggan takes over the POV with his bloody long wig and the fake

gun. We follow up to...

INT. RIGGAN'S DRESSING ROOM - THEATER - CONTINUOUS4646...his dressing room. He puts on a robe. He walks to his

refrigerator without acknowledging Sam who is sitting on the

couch, scribbling her dashes on the toilet paper once again.

Riggan takes out a plastic container of bologna and a jar of

mustard. He sits in front of his dressing table, peels open the

bologna and opens the jar of mustard. Slice by slice, he dips

the bologna in the mustard and shoves it into his mouth.

SAMDad...?

10/29/14 / 86.

(CONTINUED)

RIGGAN(Looking up.)

Hey. How ya doin'?

SAMAre you okay?

RIGGANWhy?

SAMI don't know. You seem--

RIGGAN(Eating.)

I'm good. This is good.

(Holding out a piece.)

You want some?

SAMI'm good.

RIGGANGreat. Great.

He continues to eat. She tries to fill the odd silence.

SAMSo. Opening night, tomorrow.

RIGGANYeah.

SAMThat's exciting, huh?

RIGGANYeah. Well... I don't know. The previews

have been a train wreck. We haven't been

able to get through a performance

without a raging fire... or a raging

hard-on. I'm not really sleeping, you

know, at all. And I'm pretty much broke.

Oh, and also, this play feels like a

miniature, deformed version of myself

that keeps following me around, hitting

me in the balls with a tiny hammer.

(Beat.)

Sorry, what was your question?

SAM(Looking through phone.)

Never mind... Tonight wasn't bad. It was

weird. But that's sort of cool. People

seemed to like it.

10/29/14 / 87.

(CONTINUED)

Silence. Riggan notices the toilet paper.

RIGGANWhat are you doing? Some homework?

SAMNo. I don't-- When I was in rehab, they

made us do this.

RIGGANReally...

SAMYeah. These dashes, represent the six

billion years the planet has existed.

Each dash represents 100 years.

She unravels the roll and we see that there are thousands of

black marks running along the toilet paper. She takes the last

two panels and tears them off.

SAM (CONT'D)

And this... (Hands them to him.) ...is

supposed to represent the entire time us

humans have been here. One hundred and

fifty thousand years. That's it.

(Beat.)

I guess they were trying to remind us

that that's what all our egos and self-

obsession are worth.

Riggan stares at the paper, and then at Sam.

RIGGAN(Casually.)

I was a shitty father, wasn't I?

SAMNo. You were a-- (She stops herself.)

You were fine.

He stops chewing and stares out.

RIGGANFine... You're right. I am just

"fine". Adorably mediocre.

He smiles to her sadly, and then he wipes the mustard from his

face with the piece of toilet paper.

SAMDad!

RIGGANWhat?

10/29/14 / 88.

(CONTINUED)

Sam looks at the ruined toilet paper in his hands.

RIGGAN (CONT'D)

Oh... Sh*t. I'm sorry.

SAM(Smiling.)

It's okay. You just destroyed the entire

human race in one blow.

Riggan looks at her with the saddest of expressions.

SAM (CONT’D)

Dad. (She hesitates.) Do you know

you’re becoming a trending topic?

RIGGANReally? What does that mean?

Sam searches for something on her iPhone and then hands it to

Riggan. Riggan looks at the phone and sees a hand-held video of

himself in the streets in his underwear.

SAM350,000 views in less than an hour.

Believe it or not, this is power.

Riggan looks at more footage, seemingly confused. After a

moment, the phone vibrates and the video is interrupted by a

text message, which reads “Truth or Dare?”

RIGGANIt’s for you.

She grabs the phone and looks at the screen. Then at her

father. Riggan is staring at her. She looks down.

RIGGAN (CONT’D)

Go ahead...

SAM(Hesitant.)

Are you...?

RIGGANGo.

A sympathetic smile. An understanding. Sam exits.

Riggan stares into the mirror absently. His eyes locked on

his reflection trying to find himself in the image. Then he

spots a vase with dying roses, the same roses he flung to the

ground previously.

10/29/14 / 89.

(CONTINUED)

He gets up and goes into the bathroom. He pulls off the long

wig and the mustache. He washes his face. Then he opens a

small bottle and uses the liquid to scrub his goatee. The

dark dye begins to run out, leaving only white hair. For the

first time we see that Riggan has a white beard.

He puts on new clothes and comes out of the bathroom. He grabs

a beige raincoat and heads out of the dressing room and

into...

INT. HALLWAY - THEATER - CONTINUOUS4747...the hallway. As he passes by Mike’s door he can hear Sam and

Mike. They’re trying to be as quiet as possible, but we can hear

them flirting and laughing.

He pauses for a moment but continues on. After a few seconds,

his phone vibrates. He looks at it. A text from Jake reads:

“Have you seen this??? Awesome!!!” He clicks the attachment and

sees the, now infamous, video of his underwear escapade in the

street. We zoom in until the image fills the screen, when we

finally pull away, we discover that...

INT. RUM HOUSE - LATER4848...Riggan's video is being played now in a television in the

bar. We see the MTV logo on the bottom of the screen and a video

caption that reads: “Birdman goes viral, 930.000 views and

counting”. The camera pans to find Riggan sitting at the bar,

drunk. He is one of the few customers. He polishes off his

drink.

RIGGANLet me have another one.

BARTENDERYou got it.

The bartender pours another whiskey for Riggan. A waiter steps

up to the bar. The bartender points to a martini.

BARTENDER (CONT'D)

(To the waiter.)

That's going over to Ms. Dickinson.

Riggan's head tilts at the mention of the name. He looks over to

see Tabitha sitting at a table, scratching in her notebook.

RIGGAN(Hands the waiter a bill.)

I got it. She's a friend of mine.

10/29/14 / 90.

(CONTINUED)

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