Concussion Page #17

Hands Bailes a short stack of slides.

BENNET (CONT’D)

Andre Waters.

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 85.

Bailes goes to the microscope. Bows, peers in.

Now Bennet hands him-

BENNET (CONT’D)

Justin Strzelczyk.

Long pause as Bailes looks and looks at the one slide.

Bennet stirs. Glances worriedly into the dark. Where the

bodies are waiting. As if he’s heard something. He mumbles,

“I’m sorry,” moves closer to the others, gives the angry

corpses room. (We see all this. And Wecht does. Bailes

doesn’t. Because he doesn’t know to.)

BAILES:

(in his own world)

I just kept sending him back out

there.

WECHT:

What were you thinking?

BAILES:

You have to be part of all that.

Down there on the sidelines with

them. Whatever it takes to keep

them in the game. To keep it all

going. Tape, needles, Vicodin,

Torodol, Lidocaine, Percocet.

(and)

Lexapro. Zoloft.

(they’re looking at him,

then--)

Tires. Oil. You’re a mechanic

keeping the race cars on the track.

Pause there. Then, hearing himself, how that sounded. Bailes

looks at Bennet. But-

WECHT:

That’s not medicine. I don’t know

what that is.

BENNET:

It’s business.

(they look at him)

It’s just business.

And there it is. And then what he’s been waiting for:

BENNET (CONT’D)

Three cases is the scientific

burden of evidence. We have four.

(MORE)

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 86.

BENNET (CONT’D)

(and now)

We are past what the NFL can and

cannot deny. It’s bigger than they

are. Now they have to listen to us.

Bailes. Conflicted. Resigned. Defeated.

128 OMIT (129 MOVED TO AFTER 130)

130* INT. ALTIUS RESTAURANT - PITTSBURGH - NIGHT

Atop Mt. Washington, perched high over the wishbone

confluence of the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. The

massive stadium where the Steelers play. And the Pittsburgh

skyline.

We find Bennet and Bailes at a four-top by the picture

window. Each has a drink. It’s 11pm. Bennet looking through

the reflections of staff cleaning up. Bailes off into space.

They’ve been sitting for a couple hours. Bailes looks to his

watch, Goddammit-

BENNET:

He wanted to do this two hours ago.

And now a reflection in the window turns Bennet. Joe Maroon

is crossing toward them. Hesitates at the table, takes a

chair on Bailes’ side.

A beat of them all together, silent. Maroon doesn’t

apologize.

BENNET (CONT’D)

Would you like a drink?

MAROON:

I said five minutes.

BAILES:

He doesn’t want a drink.

(and Maroon goes right into

it--)

MAROON:

Your conclusions are a total

misinterpretation of facts. To say

Webster and Long and Waters were

killed by football is-

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 87.

BENNET:

Fallacious reasoning. Yes, I know.

And maybe you haven’t heard, Dr.

Maroon. But the world is not flat.

Maroon vibrates with rage.

MAROON:

(to Bailes)

Where’s he going with this?

BAILES:

Just hear him out-

BENNET:

I want to propose a formal

controlled study. Bring together

the best minds in America. We

should be working together.

MAROON:

Who do you think you’re talking to?

BENNET:

Excuse me?

MAROON:

I was President of the Congress of

Neurological Surgeons.

BENNET:

Yes. And I was the doctor who

performed the autopsies of Mike

Webster and Terry Long. Your men.

Your men under your care.

(he has Maroon’s attention)

Do you know what Mike Webster’s

wife said? If she knew he was sick,

if she knew what he’d become was

this disease, she would have been

nicer to him.

(--)

But he died. Everything broken.

Their lives ruined.

(then)

You took an oath. Tell the truth!

MAROON:

The truth? The truth is the

National Football League is a

salvation! It employs hundreds of

thousands of people. We’ve sent

thousands of kids to school.

(MORE)

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 88.

MAROON (CONT'D)

We ship players to war zones to

entertain the troops-

(nods down at Heinz Field,

and crescendoing--)

The ownership of this football club

has given millions to charity. The

NFL runs clinics on child obesity.

You want me to go on?

BENNET:

It’s not necessary-

MAROON:

It is necessary. Some of our

players would be what without the

NFL? Where would their kids be? Do

you know where most of these guys

would be?

BENNET:

Alive.

Maroon looks at him, exasperated.

MAROON:

The NFL is the most popular sport

in America because it is goddamn

fantastic. You think they make

people play? People want to play.

(point outside, down there,

at Heinz Field, glowing)

Right there is the beating heart of

this city. Not the symphony. Not

the ballet. Every city the Steelers

play in, it’s the same.

(--)

What do you want us to do, end it?

Fold the National Football League?

BENNET:

(he’s not even answering

that question--)

Solve the problem. Solve. The

Problem.

MAROON:

Who are you?

(to Bailes)

He performs autopsies. He’s a

pathologist-

BENNET:

Yes, a mere pathologist. That is

so.

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 89.

Long heavy silence. Then-

BAILES:

And what if he’s right? What if

it’s true?

Maroon HOLDS Bailes in place with a glare. Then, back to

Bennet-

MAROON:

Do you understand the impact of

what you’re doing?

BENNET MAROON (CONT'D)

Yes--(forceful; angry again)*

Do you understand the impact.

Of what you are doing?

(because obviously

Bennet could not *

possibly) *

BENNET:

I said I did-

MAROON:

Let me tell you. Because you

clearly do not.

(now)

If just 10-percent of mothers in

America-

(and stops, gathers

himself)

Did you ever play football?

BENNET:

No.

MAROON:

It taught me everything I know

about loyalty, teamwork, endurance,

sacrifice.

(then, leaning in)

If 10-percent of mothers in America

decide football is too dangerous

for their sons to play, that’s it.

It is the end of football. Kids.

Colleges. Eventually, it’s just a

matter of time, the professional

game.

Pause, then-

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 90.

BAILES:

Joe. He’s not in the outcome

business.

MAROON:

He has no business-

BENNET:

And do you know what history does

to people -trained physicians -

who ignore science-- ?

Maroon tries to interject.

BENNET (CONT’D)

SIR, I AM NOT DONE--!

Maroon shocked to silence.

BENNET (CONT’D)

History laughs!

(then)

Deny my work, the world will deny

it. But men will continue to die.

And families will go on being

destroyed.

Maroon looks hard to Bailes, then Bennet. And his proposal-

MAROON:

Are you sure you want to do this?

BENNET:

I could ask you the same question.

(a pause, then--)

MAROON:

I’ll get back to you.

(and fast he’s out of his

seat and heading out--)

Leaving Bennet and Bailes alone. A long moment of silence.

BAILES:

Well, that went well.

And the two of them are left staring down at Heinz Field

rising massive like the Roman Coliseum out of the city’s

beating heart. Now we START TO HEAR IN PRE-LAP--

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 91.

JONES (PRE-LAP)

(reading)

--After examining the remains of

former National Football League

player Andre Waters, a

neuropathologist in Pittsburgh, Dr.

Bennet Omalu, is claiming that Mr.

Waters had sustained brain damage

from playing football and he says

that led to his depression and

ultimate death-

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