Concussion Page #4

30 INT./EXT. CHEVY PICK-UP/PARKING LOT - HOSPITAL - MORNING

Webster - hideously unclean, mouth a cesspool - wakes in an

entirely different location. Forehead-down into the steering

wheel. Security Guard, 60, knocking at his window. He opens-

SECURITY GUARD:

Mike Webster, right? Iron Mike?

Webster isn’t entirely sure. Of that, or how he got here.

Looks up to see he’s parked in front of medical offices.

The guard thrusts his electric bill at him.

SECURITY GUARD (CONT’D)

Can you sign this? My wife’s gonna.

Freak. Out.

Some part of Webster remembers what to do. He scribbles

something. Then-

31 INT. OPERATING ROOM - DAY

TIGHT ON A SURGEON peering through magnifiers into the

sheeted window into an open skull. Fingers probe, snip,

suture with the precision of a watch repair. The brain a

living breathing seeping organism. Now surgeon’s done. And

slips down his mask, and we’ve met DR. JULIAN BAILES, 46.

A NURSE - “Dr. Bailes” - whispers in his ear, and-

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 16.

INT. OFFICE OF CHAIRMAN, DEPT OF NEUROSURGERY - CONTINUOUS

Bailes - still in scrubs - following his ASSISTANT to his

door. Louisiana Methodist. Wrapped tight. Big gold watch.

Steelers Superbowl ring on his hand.

Office draped in family, God and football: bible; framed

photos of southern-belle WIFE, five KIDS; Bailes as college

linebacker; shelf full of helmets: Steelers, Cardinals.

Everything else is Steelers: framed photo of LYNN SWANN midair.

Others of Bailes on game-time sidelines. With the

Lombardi Trophy. Under the same post-game confetti as

Webster.

To find Webster pacing in his manic shambles-

WEBSTER:

What do I do I am freakin

overwhelmed-

BAILES:

We’re going to get you some

help. What are you taking?

BAILES:

What about Dexedrine? The

Prozac? Klonopin? Still

taking all that?

BAILES:

WEBSTER (CONT'D)

Ritalin.

*

WEBSTER (CONT'D)

Superglue.

Call Pam. Tell her we found him.

Tell her he’s worse.

WEBSTER BAILES (CONT'D)

You -- you were my doctor--Team doctor, Mike. I was

everybody’s doctor.

Webster punching the side of his head. Bangs his fists

against his prodigious chest.

WEBSTER:

Fix it! In here! In here! I’m dying

in here!

Bailes’ Assistant is in with a loaded syringe -- “Haldol 50

cc’s” -- Webster sweaty -- waving his arms. Bailes injects.

As the giant body pours into a chair--

BAILES ASSISTANT *

**

What am I missing? Tumor? *

**

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 17.

BAILES:

His scans are normal-(

and as he stares at

Webster, stumped--)

INT. COURT ROOM - PITTSBURGH - DAY

The gallery standing room only. The accused, THOMAS KIMBLE

40, hulkish in his orange jumpsuit.

CROCKETT:

(to the court)

The state has asked, after a

lengthy trial, a death sentence,

and two appeals, why would we learn

something new about this case from

you?

(then)

Dr. Omalu. Do you have a medical

degree?

BENNET:

Yes. From the University of

Nigeria, in Enugu, Nigeria.

(and then)

I did my residency at the Columbia

University Medical School in New

York. I have masters degrees in

Public Health and Epidemiology. In

addition, I am a certified

physician executive, and a

specialist in Emergency medicine.

And I am of course board certified

in Forensic Pathology, Clinical

Pathology and Anatomic Pathology.

My specialty is Neuro-pathology,

the examination of the brain-

Crockett about to move in-

BENNET (CONT’D)

So sorry-

(not done)

And I am completing my MBA at

Carnegie Mellon University.

CROCKETT:

While working as a Medical Examiner

at the Allegheny County Coroner?

BENNET:

Yes.

(and)

(MORE)

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 18.

BENNET (CONT'D)

And, oh yes, before I arrived in

America, a masters in Theory of

Music from the Royal School of

Music in London.

(big easy smile incongruous

to where he sits, then)

To answer your question, my

specialty is the science of death.

I think more about why people die

than I do about the way people

live.

(room quiet, awestruck)

I very carefully re-studied the

interviews with the defendant, Mr.

Kimble. And of course the autopsy

reports on the victim, who was

killed quite brutally with bare

hands.

Reaches for a stack of blown-up photos. Top photo: hands

shredded, bone-crushed. Grey with death.

BENNET (CONT’D)

Hands of the deceased. Broken

nails. Blood under the nails. Bite

marks. Contusions. The hands of a

woman who fought wildly for her

life - and lost.

Now a set of male hands. Splashed in blood.

CROCKETT:

Are these hands not Mr. Kimble’s?

BENNET:

They are indeed Mr. Kimble’s.

CROCKETT:

Doesn’t that suggest that the state

has the right man?

BENNET:

I thought so. Until I heard hour

two-hundred seventeen of Mr.

Kimble’s police interview. He was

speaking quietly, and off-mic, but

I clearly heard him say

(reads from notes)

“I don’t like blood. When I was a

kid I had a tooth pulled and I

wouldn’t stop bleeding. My parents

wouldn’t let me play outside

somtimes--”

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 19.

And we REVERSE on the Prosecutor. On the cusp of realization-

BENNET (CONT’D)

I saw no reference to this in any

trial transcript. I got curious.

CROCKETT:

What about?

BENNET:

Hands.

Bennet holds up the victim’s hands alongside Kimble’s hands.

BENNET (CONT’D)

Mr. Kimble’s hands had the victim’s

blood on them. But no bruising, or

bites, or scratches.

(--)

I started to wonder if these two

pairs of hands could have been in

the same fight.

(--)

So my mind went somewhere new.

(--)

If Mr. Kimble’s family had a

history of hemophilia. His father

said no, and medical records

support that. But there is a strain

of hemophilia -- hemophilia A --

that is not hereditary, and almost

unheard of, so never tested for. I

couldn’t think of any other

explanation. I ordered the test.

(and)

Mr. Kimble tested positive for

hemophilia A.

Prosecutor again. The humiliation upon him.

BENNET (CONT’D)

If his hands were the murder

weapon, he would have bled

profusely for a long period of

time. He might have even bled to

death.

(and now)

Mr. Kimble’s hands may have touched

the victim, to aid her, as he

claims, but there is no scenario in

which they killed her.

(--)

(MORE)

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 20.

BENNET (CONT’D)

There is no question in my mind

that if the state of Pennsylvania

executes Thomas Kimble, it will

kill an innocent man.

INT. BENNET’S CONDO - NIGHT

Bennet on the phone. After a long pause-

BENNET:

Did you hear what I told you?

(a silence, then-)

BENNET’S FATHER/PHONE (OVER)

(simply)

Have you finished your schooling?

Heavy Nigerian. Weary, perhaps with the time difference.

BENNET:

I will have the MBA completed soon.

BENNET’S FATHER/PHONE (OVER)

And what are you going to do with

all your degrees?

BENNET:

Collect knowledge. I need

knowledge. To run my clinic.

BENNET’S FATHER/PHONE (OVER)

Your clinic again (?)

(tired of this already)

A clinic requires a physician.

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