Brazil Page #19

SAM:

Oh. But ... Look, I'm sorry I shouted

at you.

JILL:

(mainly to herself)

Why are they all pigs at Information

Retrieval?

SAM:

I don't know.

(realizing that this

includes him)

Hey, that's not a very nice thing to

say.

JILL blows smoke in SAM's direction.

SAM:

(waving the smoke away)

You know, smoking's bad for you.

JILL:

It's my f***ing life.

SAM:

(winding down the window)

Yes, of course. Sorry.

JILL:

(lighting up another

cigarette)

I know you. I saw you through the

floor, didn't I?

SAM:

Yes. Ceiling. Why did you run away?

JILL:

I didn't run away. I left the flat.

SAM:

Why?

JILL:

I didn't like it.

SAM:

Why not?

JILL:

It had a hole in the floor. Where are

we going?

JILL:

Where are you taking me?

SAM:

What?

JILL:

Where are you taking me?

SAM:

Ah ... Er ... It looks as if you're

taking me.

JILL:

It does doesn't it?

SAM:

(slightly worried)

Where are you taking me?

86 EXT. TRAVELLING LORRY 86

We PULL BACK and lift off to see that the beautiful

countryside through which we've been travelling is in fact

a solid wall of giant bill-boards, advertising all sorts

of wonders like pine scented lavatory paper, sea spray

flavored cigarettes - you name it - These advertisements

form an unbroken corridor down which the road travels.

From a bird's eye POV we see that the land behind the

hoardings is blasted and blighted with garbage etc.

87 EXT. POWER PLANT DAY (LATE AFTERNOON) 87

The power plant is an extensive, brutal, Dante's Inferno

of a landscape made mainly of steel ... towers, chimneys,

huge pipes, buildings which look like bomb shelters ... It

is still daylight but the whole scene is murky and

forbidding because of the swirling steam and smoke. In the

murk can be seen sinister-looking FIGURES in protective

clothing and hard hats.

This is the world which is now entered by JILL's lorry ...

The lorry halts at a despatching hut near the crane and

JILL jumps down from the cab. SAM stays inside, looking

around. Something catches his eye.

CUT to facade of house. Window boxes with flowers and

shrubbery surrounded by a white picket fence provide

domestic charm, however, in the doorway stands a MAN with

protective clothing and something like a gas-mask over his

face. He is waving to someone. Slowly the house rises out

of frame.

In a WIDER SHOT we can see the house is suspended from and

a giant crane that swings it through the air - air filled

with stead, smoke, evil-smelling fumes. It is lowered onto

the back of a lorry and we can see that the house is one

of many prefabricated houses used in the construction of

the power plant.

88 INT. LORRY CABDAY 88

SAM watches JILL walk away from the lorry and enter the

despatcher's hut. He looks around uneasily and then he

start examining the inside of the lorry and opens a

compartment which seems to be full of maps, rags, etc. He

gets grease on sleeve of his suit. In the space behind the

seats he finds the pieces of luggage which JILL had

carried away from the flat. He starts to examine this

cautiously and is startled by the sudden opening of the

cab door.

JILL:

Don't act guilty. Act like me. I'm

just getting on with my job. Or, are

you just getting on with yours?

JILL gets into the cab and closes the door and drives to a

forward looking position.

SAM:

What's going on here?

JILL:

What does it look like ... I'm

collecting empties.

The lorry stops and JILL gets out. From SAM'S P.O.V., the

house suspended from the crane starts moving through the

sky towards the lorry. He glances back to see JILL slip a

package out from behind the seat. She glances

surreptitiously over her shoulder and slipping the parcel

inside her jacket she walks away.

89 EXT. LORRYLATE AFTERNOON 89

SAM climbs down from the cab trying to keep an eye on

JILL. He ends up standing next to a rusty Kodak Photospot

standard. The picture on it - though faded by pollution -

is of the beautiful valley that has now been replaced by

the murk and mess of the power plant. JILL has made her

way over to a rather SHADOWY FIGURE lurking around the

corner of one of the metal structures. They appear to be

exchanging parcels. SAM is worried by this suspicious

behaviour - reinforced as it is by a Ministry poster on

the side of the building that illustrates, almost

identically, the action we have just seen along with the

warning:
"MIND THAT PARCEL. EAGLE EYES CAN SAVE A LIFE".

CUT to the house being lowered and secured onto the lorry.

90 INT. LORRY CABLATE AFTERNOON 90

JILL is starting up the lorry. SAM is glancing over her

shoulder at the suspicious parcel which is tucked behind

her. They move off. The last view of the power plant is of

a group of MEN all in protective clothing and masks

happily playing a game of volleyball.

91 INT. TRAVELLING LORRY LATER AFTERNOON91

SAM:

OK. What's in the parcel?

JILL:

What parcel?

SAM nods knowingly in the direction of the parcel.

JILL I don't know. Christmas present.

SAM picks it up.

SAM:

It's heavy.

JILL:

A heavy Christmas present.

He glances at her suspiciously.

JILL:

Open it if you don't trust me.

SAM hesitates and puts the parcel down.

SAM:

I'd rather trust you.

JILL gives him a quizzical look and smiles slightly, in

spite of herself. She turns away so that he won't notice.

92 INT. TRAVELLING LORRY IN CITY TRAFFIC DUSK 92

JILL:

What are you doing in Information

Retrieval?

SAM:

Looking for you.

JILL:

No, really.

SAM:

Really.

JILL:

I mean, it doesn't suit you.

SAM:

(looking at his jacket)

Suit me?

JILL:

Don't you know the sort of thing that

Information Retrieval does?

SAM:

What do you mean? Would you rather

have terrorists?

JILL:

We've got both.

SAM:

Things would be worse without

Information Retrieval.

JILL:

They couldn't be worse for the

Buttles.

SAM is at a loss.

JILL:

Why don't you say, no system is

perfect.

SAM:

Well, no system is.

JILL:

Say, all wars have innocent victims.

SAM:

Well, all wars do -

JILL:

Who is this war against, Sam?

SAM:

Well, terrorists of course.

JILL:

How many terrorists have you met?

Actual terrorists?

SAM:

Actual. terrorists? Well ... it's

only my first day.

JILL bursts out laughing. SAM joins in. They are both

laughing hysterically as they approach the Central

Supplies depot.

93 EXT. CENTRAL SUPPLIES DUSK 93

The impression is that the place could be an abandoned

airfield out to the use of a vast open air warehouse whose

contents is arranged in a grid pattern of "streets", all

the streets being lined by stacks, piles, ranks, jumbles

of goods and objects which seem at first to be arbitrarily

grouped, some of them (like the stacks of prefabricated

houses) standing in the open others protected under simple

areas of roofing. Each group of Assorted Supplies lies

inside the squares of the grid of streets. The streets are

eerily lit by lights just being switched on, and each

square is also lit by harsh localized lighting. The effect

is a nightmarish gigantic Aladdin's cave of black shadows

and garishly lit mountains of stuff.

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