Carnage Page #10

MICHAEL:

What does he care? He could care

less.

PENELOPE:

One needs to believe. To believe in

some possible correction, right?

MICHAEL:

He's the last guy on earth you should

be telling all this to.

PENELOPE:

I'll talk to anyone I damn well

please!

The LONGSTREET family’s phone rings.

MICHAEL:

Who the f*** is that now?

(reading the caller

ID and picking up:)

Yes, Ma.

MICHAEL'S MOTHER (O.S. - TEL)

Mikey, it’s me again. I forgot to

ask, how is Ethan?

65.

MICHAEL:

He's fine. Well I mean he got his

teeth knocked out but he's fine.

MICHAEL'S MOTHER (O.S. - TEL)

He’s in pain?

MICHAEL:

He’s in pain. It hurts, it’ll pass.

Ma, I'm busy. I'll call you back.

He hangs up.

NANCY:

He's still in pain?

PENELOPE:

No.

NANCY:

Then why do you worry your mother?

PENELOPE:

He can't help himself. He always has

to worry her.

MICHAEL:

OK, that's enough Penelope! What is

this drama queen bullshit?

ALAN:

Penelope, nobody cares about anything

outside himself. Sure, we'd all like

to believe in some kind of possible

correction, one we could author

ourselves, completely free of selfish

consideration. Like you're writing

this book about Darfur, and that's

great. I understand how you might

say, OK, I'll pick a massacre,

history is full of them, and I'm

going to write a book. Everybody has

to save himself somehow.

PENELOPE:

I'm not writing this book to save

myself. You haven't read it, you

don't know what's in it.

ALAN:

Whatever.

PENELOPE:

That smell of Kronos is killing me!

MICHAEL:

It reeks!

66.

ALAN:

You didn't exactly skimp.

NANCY:

I'm so sorry.

PENELOPE:

It's not your fault. I'm the one who

sprayed like a madwoman. And why

can't we just take it easy once in a

while? Why does everything always

have to be so exhausting?

ALAN:

You think too much. Women think too

much.

NANCY:

(sarcastic:
)

There's an original response!

(to Penelope:
)

Which must be pleasantly

disconcerting to you.

PENELOPE:

I don't know what that means, to

think too much. And I don't

understand how you can go on living

without some moral sense of the

world.

MICHAEL:

Look at me, I'm living!

PENELOPE:

Shut up! I detest that miserable

complicity of yours! You disgust me!

MICHAEL:

What happened to your sense of humor?

PENELOPE:

I don’t have a sense of humor. And I

don't want one.

MICHAEL:

If you ask me, the couple is the most

terrible ordeal God ever inflicted on

us.

NANCY:

Marvelous.

MICHAEL:

The couple and the family.

67.

NANCY:

No one's forcing you to air this out

in front of us, Michael. And I might

add, it's a little indecent.

PENELOPE:

That doesn't bother him.

MICHAEL:

Don't you agree?

NANCY:

This is all off point. Alan, say

something.

ALAN:

He has a right to his ideas.

NANCY:

That doesn't mean he has to advertise

them.

ALAN:

Yeah, all right, maybe...

NANCY:

We don't care about their marriage.

We're here about a problem with the

kids. We don't care about their

marriage.

ALAN:

Yeah, except...

NANCY:

Except what? What are you saying?

ALAN:

It is related.

MICHAEL:

It's related! Of course it's related!

PENELOPE:

Ethan's getting two of his teeth

broken is related to our marriage?!

MICHAEL:

Of course it is.

NANCY:

We don't follow you.

MICHAEL:

Take a step back and look at the

situation we're in. Children suck the

life out of you and leave us old and

empty. It's the law of nature.

(MORE)

68.

MICHAEL (CONT'D)

You see these young couples, laughing

all the way to the altar, and you

think they don't know. Poor f***ers

don't know a thing. They're happy.

Nobody briefs you in the beginning.

This army buddy of mine is going to

have a kid with his new girlfriend. I

say to him, a kid at our age, what

are you stupid? You got ten, fifteen

good years left before you get cancer

or have a stroke and you're going to

saddle yourself with a f***ing kid?

NANCY:

That's not really what you think.

PENELOPE:

Yes it is.

MICHAEL:

Of course it's what I think. Look, I

think even worse.

PENELOPE:

Yeah.

NANCY:

You're debasing yourself, Michael.

MICHAEL:

Is that right? Ha, ha!

NANCY:

Stop crying, Penelope. It only makes

it worse.

ALAN hands him his empty glass. MICHAEL refills it.

MICHAEL:

Of course, of course. Excellent,

isn't it?

ALAN:

Excellent.

MICHAEL:

Could I interest you in a cigar?

PENELOPE:

No! No cigars here!

ALAN:

Too bad.

NANCY:

Were you going to smoke a cigar now,

Alan?

69.

ALAN:

I do what I want, Nancy. If I want to

smoke a cigar, I smoke a cigar. I

won't smoke it because I don't want

to upset Penelope who's already on

edge, to put it mildly.

(to PENELOPE:
)

She's right, quit snuffling like

that. When women cry, men are pushed

to a breaking point. Although

unfortunately, I must say that

Michael's point of view is completely

justified.

The cell phone vibrates.

ALAN (CONT’D)

Yes, Dennis.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

Can I read it to you?

ALAN:

Go ahead.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

TW Pharma Corporation...

ALAN:

Put New York, and a specific time of

day.

NANCY:

It's unbearable!

ALAN moves away a little and keeps his voice down, to escape

NANCY’s ire.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

What time of day?

ALAN:

The time you send it. It has to be

hot off the press.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

TW Pharma Corporation questions...

ALAN:

No, not "questions". "Deplores".

Questions is wishy-washy.

NANCY:

I live with this night and day! He's

glued to his cell phone! Our lives

are chopped up by the cell phone.

70.

ALAN:

Uh... One second.

(covering the phone:)

Nancy, this is very important.

NANCY:

It's always very important. What's

happening somewhere else is always

more important.

ALAN:

(back to call:
)

Go ahead.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

...deliberately deceitful

allegations...

ALAN:

Yeah.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

...forming part of a strategy two

weeks from the company’s

posting...

ALAN:

Not "strategy". "Scheme". A scheme

surfacing two weeks from the

company's posting, etcetera.

NANCY:

In the street. At the dinner table.

Everywhere.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

The company has serious doubts

about the source and funding of

this study coming as it does...

ALAN:

"A study" in quotes. Put the word

"study" in quotes.

Dennis continues reading the press release on phone, but

only portions of what he says are audible.

NANCY:

I don't even protest anymore.

Unconditional surrender. I feel like

I'm going to vomit again.

MICHAEL:

Where's that bucket?

PENELOPE:

I don't know.

71.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

At the eve of the annual

stockholder’s meeting. This may

indeed be a barefaced attempt at

manipulating the stock price and

damage TW Pharma’s reputation. Now

Walter thinks that line is a

little dicy.

ALAN:

Then just quote me. "This is a

barefaced attempt to manipulate the

stock price..."

PENELOPE:

It's over there. Go stand near it,

please.

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