Carnage Page #11

MICHAEL:

Pen.

PENELOPE:

It's all right. We're set up to

handle this now.

ALAN:

"...the stock price and destabilize

my client," according to TW Pharma

attorney Alan Cowan.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

OK, I’ll make these corrections

and we’ll put it out there.

ALAN:

AP, Reuters, major newspapers, trade

journals, the whole shebang.

He hangs up.

ALAN (CONT’D)

What is wrong with you?!

MICHAEL:

She's going to throw up again.

NANCY:

You're so caring, it's touching.

ALAN:

I'm worried!

NANCY:

I didn't get that. My mistake.

ALAN:

Oh come on Nancy, will you! You and

I don't have to do this.

(MORE)

72.

ALAN (CONT'D)

Their marriage is going downhill, we

don't have to try to compete with

them!

PENELOPE:

What gives you the right to say our

marriage is going downhill? What

gives you the right?

ALAN’s cell vibrates again.

ALAN:

Walter.

WALTER (O.S. - TEL)

Is the press release ready, Alan?

ALAN:

I just had it read back. They're

sending it over to you.

WALTER (O.S. - TEL)

And you do say this is an attempt

at...

ALAN:

Manipulation. Manipulation of the

stock price. I'll call you right

back.

(hangs up)

I didn't say it. Steven did.

PENELOPE:

Michael.

ALAN:

Michael, sorry.

PENELOPE:

I won't let you judge our family.

ALAN:

Then don't judge our son either.

PENELOPE:

That's different! Your son brutalized

our son!

ALAN:

They're young, they're just kids.

Kids roughhouse in the playground,

always have always will. It's a rule

of nature.

PENELOPE:

No! No it isn't!

73.

ALAN:

Sure it is. It takes a little

education to substitute the rule of

law for violence. The origin of law,

of course you know, is brute force.

PENELOPE:

Maybe for cavemen it was. Not in this

world.

ALAN:

In this world? Tell me about this

world.

PENELOPE:

You're boring. This whole

conversation is boring.

ALAN:

Penelope, I believe in the god of

carnage. The god whose rule has been

unchallenged since time immemorial.

You're interested in Africa, right?

NANCY is retching.

ALAN (CONT'D)

What's the matter?

NANCY:

Don't worry about me.

ALAN:

Nancy.

NANCY:

I'm just fine.

ALAN:

See, I just got back from the Congo.

They got kids there, trained to kill

at the age of eight. In the course of

their childhood, they might kill

hundreds of people. They'll kill with

a machete, a shotgun, a Kalash, a

thumper. So obviously when my son

busts some other kid's tooth, even

two teeth, with a bamboo switch by

the sandbox, I'm not quite as shocked

and indignant as you are.

PENELOPE:

Well you should be.

74.

NANCY:

(exaggerating themilitary sound of the

jargon:
)

Thumper!

ALAN:

Yes, that's what they call a grenade

launcher.

NANCY spits into the pail.

MICHAEL:

You all right?

NANCY:

I'm just fine.

ALAN:

What the hell is wrong with you?

What's wrong with her?

NANCY:

It's bile. It's nothing.

PENELOPE:

Don't tell me about Africa. I know

all about suffering in Africa.

ALAN:

I don't doubt it.

PENELOPE:

That’s all I’ve been thinking about

for months...

MICHAEL:

Don't get her started with this!

Please!

PENELOPE charges her husband and strikes him, several times,

wild with despair and irrational abandon.

ALAN pulls her off.

ALAN:

You know I'm actually starting to

like you.

PENELOPE:

Shut up!

MICHAEL:

Talk about commitment to world peace

and stability.

PENELOPE:

Shut the f*** up, Michael!

75.

NANCY wretches again.

She takes her glass of scotch and brings it to her lips.

MICHAEL:

You sure about that?

NANCY:

Very sure. This will do me some good.

PENELOPE:

We live in New York City. We don't

live in Kinshasa! We live in New

York, with the customs of western

society. What happens in a Brooklyn

playground is about western values!

To which, like it or not, I happen to

subscribe!

MICHAEL:

Beating your husband must be one of

those customs then...

PENELOPE:

Michael, I am warning you.

ALAN:

She was all over you like a bad rash!

If I were you it would melt my heart.

PENELOPE:

I might finish the job soon.

NANCY:

He's making fun of you, do you

believe it?

PENELOPE:

I don’t give a sh*t about him.

ALAN:

No, really. Morally, we're supposed

to overcome our impulses but there

are times you don't want to overcome

them. I mean, who wants to say a Hail

Mary when you're having sex? Can youbuy this scotch around here?

MICHAEL:

This stuff, not very likely!

NANCY:

Thumper! Ha, ha!

PENELOPE:

Thumper, really!

76.

ALAN:

Yes. Thumper.

NANCY:

Why don't you just say grenade

launcher?

ALAN:

Because that's the term. Just like

they say "kalash" and not Kalashnikov

or AK-47.

NANCY:

Who is they?

ALAN:

That's enough, Nancy. That's enough.

NANCY:

Hotshot firebrands like my husband,

you got to understand, it's hard for

them to get excited about what

happens down the block.

ALAN:

Exactly.

PENELOPE:

I don't see why. I don't see why.

We're all citizens of the world. I

don't see why we shouldn't have some

sense of community.

MICHAEL:

Oh Penny! Give us a break with the

highfalutin clap trap!

PENELOPE:

I'm going to kill him.

The cell vibrates.

ALAN:

Yes.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

We read it to him. He has a

problem with “barefaced”.

ALAN:

So take out "barefaced".

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

What should we..?

ALAN:

"Brazen". A brazen attempt to...

77.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

Manipulate the stock price.

ALAN:

There you go.

PENELOPE:

She's right, it's unbearable after a

while.

ALAN:

He signed off on the rest?

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

Yeah.

ALAN:

Good. That's fine.

(hangs up)

What were we talking about? Thumpers?

PENELOPE:

I was saying that, whatever my

husband thinks, whether it happens

here or thousands of miles away, we

must be equally concerned.

ALAN:

Equally concerned... Yeah... Nancy,

it's absurd to drink in your

condition.

NANCY:

What condition? I’m perfect.

ALAN:

It's an interesting idea...

(picks up cell)

Yes.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

We’re saying nothing before the

release, right? Interviews?

ALAN:

No, no interviews before we get this

release out.

DENNIS (O.S. - TEL)

He wants to appear humane. He

thinks the stockholders may be

sensitive to an expression...

PENELOPE:

Mr. Cowan, would you please put an

end to this nerve-racking

conversation?!

78.

ALAN:

(on phone:
)

No way. The stockholders won't give a

sh*t. Just remind him that...

NANCY walks to ALAN, tears his cell phone away and, after

briefly looking around for where to put it, dunks it in

the tulip vase.

ALAN (CONT'D)

Nancy, what are you..!!

NANCY:

There.

PENELOPE:

Ha, ha! Way to go!

MICHAEL:

(horrified:
)

Oh my god!

ALAN:

Are you out of your f***ing mind?

Sh*t!!

He rushes to the vase. MICHAEL, who has gotten there first,

fishes the phone out. It's soaking wet.

MICHAEL:

The blow-dryer! Where's the blow-

dryer?!

He finds it and plugs it back into the socket. He

immediately turns it on and points it at the cell phone.

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