Captain Fantastic Page #14

98 CONTINUED:
98

BEN:

Their mother just died. They were inshock. They were devastated. Theyneeded something to distract them. Itwas for Noam Chomsky Day.

JACK:

Noam Chomsky Day. Right. That's when

you gave the children real weapons.

BEN:

Tell Rell that we're going. Right

now.

JACK:

How did he break his hand?

Ben pauses.

BEN:

He fell. And it's not broken.

JACK:

Climbing a rock face. In the rain.

BEN:

It was an accident. And it wasn’t

raining.

JACK:

He has bruises all over his body.

BEN:

They're scratches. It's nothing.

JACK:

It's child abuse. Even if they makeit through whatever it is you'redoing to them, they'll be completelyunable to survive as adults, totallyunprepared for the real world.

BEN:

And I think the opposite is true.

Are you going to get him or do Ihave to?

JACK:

Rellian is legally old enough tochoose. Perhaps you didn't knowthat. But I intend to honor his

wishes.

(CONTINUED)

GREEN (9.2.2014) 84A.

98 CONTINUED:
98

Jack hands Ben a business card.

(CONTINUED)

GREEN (9.2.2014) 85.

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JACK (CONT’D)

My lawyer's card. Abby and I have

decided to file for the custody ofthe children. I know you don't havea phone. But I strongly suggest youcall him immediately so we're notforced to issue a warrant for your

arrest.

Ben rips the card in half.

BEN:

He is my son. I'm not leavingwithout him.

Jack picks up the phone and dials.

JACK:

Who's this, please?

(pause)

Hello, Bill. It's Jack Bertrang, up

in Coronado. Listen, I think I just *

saw someone prowling around outsidethe house. Could you send a car overright away?

(pause)

Thank you very much.

Jack replaces the phone and stares at Ben.

JACK (CONT’D)

Perhaps you'd care to explainRellian's injuries to the police.

I'm not sure I could.

99 INT. STEVE - STOPPED/MOVING. NIGHT. 99

Ben starts the bus and peels it out of the gravel parkinglot.

BODEVAN:

Where's Rell?

VESPYR:

Why are we leaving without Rell?

Ben says nothing, barreling down the driveway.

GREEN (9.2.2014) 86.

100 EXT. GRANDPARENT'S HOUSE. NIGHT. 100

In the darkness, Ben and the kids, lie in the brush,

surveilling their grandparent's home.

Ben - looking through binoculars - watches as Jack shakeshands with a POLICE OFFICER in the driveway. The officer getsin his squad car, drives down the gravel driveway, anddisappears.

Ben passes the binoculars to Vespyr.

BEN:

Prisoner located. Second floor.

Middle window over the garage.

Vespyr peers through the binoculars.

VESPYR:

Target locked.

BEN:

Mission is a go.

Bo slaps Vesp on the shoulder.

ZAJA:

Don't fall.

VESPYR:

Yeah. Thanks.

ZAJA:

You'll fracture your cranium. Or the

impact will cause an acute subdural

hematoma. Or your vertebra could pop

out off your back in an axial

compression fracture

BEN:

Zaj.

KIELYR:

Bring him home, Vesp.

Vespyr jumps up.

101 EXT. GRANDPARENT'S HOUSE. NIGHT. 101

Vespyr stares at a dark wall of Jack and Abigail's house.

It's about a twenty foot climb straight up to the roof.

(CONTINUED)

GREEN (9.2.2014) 86A.

101 CONTINUED:
101

She bolts - full speed - toward the wall.

She plants a foot on a water spout, grabs a tree branch, and -

in one swift motion - swings herself up to the lip and flipsonto the roof.

(CONTINUED)

GREEN (9.2.2014) 87.

101 CONTINUED:
101

She kneels in the dark, scanning. Planning.

Like a trapeze artist, nimble and moving swiftly, Vespyr

shimmies across a long, narrow section of the roof.

She leaps, landing in a crouch on a flat section of the roof

and pauses, again analyzing her trajectory.

She pounces, gripping a drain pipe and flings herself upward.

It's steep, it's slow going, but she's strong.

Now at the very top of the house, fifty feet off the ground,

she shuffles over a cupola and drops onto another section of

the roof.

She hovers over a second story window, the light on, now only

5 feet away.

She turns and gripping a tile, she lowers herself.

CRACK.

The tile snaps and - in an instant - Vespyr tumbles down the

roof.

She bumps and somersaults, head over heels, her hands

grasping at the roof as she falls, but there's nothing to

hold.

And she flips over the edge...

Dropping twenty feet...

Until her body slams - with a sickening thud - against an SUV

parked in the gravel driveway. She rolls off, a rag doll, and

flops to the driveway.

NAI:

Vesp!

Everyone leaps up and races to her.

The lights of the parking perimeter FLASH on.

102 INT. AMBULANCE - MOVING. NIGHT. 102

In the back of an ambulance, Ben kneels next to Vespyr, who

lies on a gurney.

Her eyes are closed and an oxygen mask is on her face.

An EMT PARAMEDIC monitors her vitals.

GREEN (9.2.2014) 88.

103 INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR. HOSPITAL. NIGHT. 103

Ben runs, helpless, next to the EMTs as they race Vespyr on

the gurney down the hallway.

104 INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR. HOSPITAL. NIGHT. 104

Ben paces the hallways.

The kids sleep on hallway benches and on the floor.

105 INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR. HOSPITAL. NIGHT. 105

It's the middle of the night. The corridor is now dimly lit

and empty.

Ben sits against a wall on the floor.

A DOCTOR comes out of Vespyr's room and Ben leaps up to meet

him.

DOCTOR:

She has a decent concussion. But we

did a CAT scan and there's absolutely

no damage to the brain. A simple

fracture across the tibia and fibula

on her left leg. She'll need a neck-

brace and a cast. But she's fine.

Ben can't help but cry, but he's doing everything he can to

pretend like he's not.

DOCTOR (CONT’D)

I'd like to show you something.

106 INT. X-RAY ROOM. HOSPITAL. NIGHT. 106

The doctor clicks on a light on a wall-mounted light box and

illuminates an X-Ray. He touches it.

DOCTOR:

Top vertebrae. That slight

discoloration? That's a bruise. What

was she doing on a roof?

BEN:

Just... playing.

(CONTINUED)

GREEN (9.2.2014) 88A.

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106

DOCTOR:

Exactly how far did she fall?

(CONTINUED)

GREEN (9.2.2014) 89.

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BEN:

Twenty feet or so.

Ben leans in. An infinitesimal gray line, about the width ofa hair and no longer than a finger nail, is barelyperceptible across the top vertebrae.

DOCTOR:

She a gymnast?

Ben shakes his head no.

DOCTOR (CONT’D)

But she plays a lot of sports.

Ben shakes his head no again.

DOCTOR (CONT’D)

Hmm. For a girl her age, she's

unusually strong. Physically.

It's... remarkable.

The doctor points to the bruise on the X-ray.

DOCTOR (CONT’D)

We have seven vertebrae in the neck.

A break in any of the first four, a

tear to the spinal cord, I'm talking

even a millimeter more than what

happened here - a millimeter. Your

daughter would be dead. You are a

very lucky man.

107 INT. VESPYR'S HOSPITAL ROOM. HOSPITAL. NIGHT. 107

In the dark room, Ben sits next to a sleeping Vespyr, holdingher hand. He watches the EKG monitor. Watches as her heart

beat bounces up and down, up and down.

108 INT. GRANDPARENT'S HOUSE. DAY. 108

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