Concussion Page #6

TV BROADCAST (OVER)

In recent years the dauntless

Webster had abandoned his family,

slipped into financial chaos and

homelessness,-

Then the TV cuts to a HIGHLIGHT REEL of Webster in his

football prime, guarding the quarterback like a Secret

Service agent. And Bennet grabs the remote, shuts it off-

BENNET:

Look, I don’t really watch TV.

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 26.

PREMA:

Then why do you have one?

BENNET:

One has a TV in this country.

(then)

I don’t usually eat breakfast.

PREMA:

One eats breakfast in this country.

(and clasps her hands in

prayer)

Dear God thank you for the gifts

you have so graciously bestowed

upon me--

Bennet, stunned, watching this, then closes his hands in

prayer, as-

PREMA (CONT’D)

Please help us to continue to be

deservant of our blessings.

EXT. ALLEGHENY COUNTY CORONER - PITTSBURGH - MORNING

The lot jammed with trucks and vans, satellite dishes. Dozen

REPORTERS and CAMERAMEN.

Bennet’s Mercedes finds a spot on the edges of the media

circus. Clueless, he heads down the ramp to the basement offloading

area.

Where he finds Sullivan and Annie arriving. Sullivan wearing

his “Webster/52” Steelers jersey. Gracie’s wearing Steelers

gold&black strung ribbon through her hair today. In Webster’s

honor. As they converge-

BENNET:

Who’s Mike Webster?

(Sullivan pauses,

disbelief, then--)

SULLIVAN:

Greatest center to ever play the

game. A true warrior.

BENNET:

What’s a center?

GRACIE:

The big guy in the middle.

They tumble inside-

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 27.

SULLIVAN:

My kid plays because of that guy.

He wears Webster’s number.

Bennet’s eyes go to Sullivan’s jersey. To the red-white-bluestars-

stripes logo of the NFL. Sullivan follows his gaze.

BENNET:

I’m very sorry. I just don’t know

who he was.

SULLIVAN:

(realizing)

You don’t know football. At all.

BENNET:

I don’t need to know football.

Now clocks Gracie’s ribbons.

SULLIVAN:

I freakin can’t believe it’s you.

Now Wecht arrives, joins them.

BENNET:

I was put on the schedule for

today. I’m on the schedule every

weekend.

WECHT:

(dad breaking up the kids)

C’mon, c’mon-(

and then they’re--)

INT. ALLEGHENY COUNTY CORONER

Bennet, Wecht, Sullivan, Gracie and the others huddled, grim,

around the slab.

WECHT:

I’m going to have to give a

statement.

SULLIVAN:

Let’s just do the external.

We’re TIGHT ON BENNET. He’s in his bubble, reading through

the EMT report, medical records. Quick probe. General

appearance. Fingernails. Scorched thighs-

BENNET:

He was Tasering himself.

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 28.

SULLIVAN:

The whole town was out of work. He

gave us hope when there was no

hope, ya know?

Bennet can see inside the mess of his mouth from here.

BENNET:

Full autopsy, please.

SULLIVAN:

Hey c’mon there’s no need. To cut

this man’s body.

BENNET:

I can’t figure out what went wrong.

SULLIVAN:

He died. Is what went wrong.

BENNET:

Look at his teeth. He was pulling

them out AND SUPERGLUING THEM BACK

IN. Why does an apparently wealthy

favorite son of this city become

self-mutilating and homeless at 50?

Cardiac arrest may be how he died,

but not why.

A beat. They’re all thinking. Wecht pulls Bennet aside.

WECHT:

What he’s saying is there are times

when life asks you to leave things

alone, and times when you can’t.

BENNET:

Do you think he’d want me to leave

things alone?

(meaning Webster)

For a moment maybe even Wecht isn’t sure.

WECHT:

No, I don’t. I never leave anything

alone. That’s why people hate me.

(--)

Just don’t screw it up.

(and leaves, and as Bennet

turns to the room--)

BENNET:

Let’s prepare the body, please.

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 28A.

INT. AUTOPSY CHAMBER - DAY

Bennet - Teddy in his/our ears - at the dissection table.

JUMP CUTS - the unpeeling. The washing. The crevasses, the

face. Ritual beyond respectful. Almost tender. Then-

TEDDY PENDERGRASS (OVER)

(”If You Don’t Know Me By

Now”)

All the things that we’ve been

through/You should understand me

like I understand you-

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 29.

Now STOP. Music stops. Bennet staring down at Webster.

BENNET:

(quiet, intimate)

Mike, you need to help me. I know

there’s something wrong. Help me

tell the world what happened to

you. I can’t do it alone.

SULLIVAN:

(from his desk, over

paperwork)

Heart. Attack.

Bennet performs the Y-incision.

BENNET:

Bone saw please.

BENNET (CONT'D)TEDDY PENDERGRASS (OVER)

Heart weight 327g. Mitral I ain’t gonna do nothing to

valve 10.4 cm; Aortic Valve break up our happy home/Don’t

7.1 cm; Pulmonary-get so excited-Handing

organs to Gracie one by one-

TECH #1 TEDDY PENDERGRASS (CONT'D)*

Right kidney 143g ... left If you don’t know me by

kidney 158g--now/You will never never

never know me-

JUMP TO:
Bennet at the dissection table. Peering down,

confused. Turning what he’s holding upside down and on its

side then over again. Holds it to the light. Dictating-

BENNET:

Regular folds of gray matter. No

mush. No obvious contusions. No

shrinkage or erosion from

Alzheimer’s-

GRACIE:

What’s wrong?

BENNET:

Hold up the CT again for me,

please.

He’s comparing what’s in his hands with the pictures. Gracie

holds up the MRI beside the CT.

BENNET (CONT’D)

How old are these?

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 29A.

GRACIE:

Six months.

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 30.

Bennet sets the brain down. Stares at it.

BENNET:

This should be a mess. It looks

completely normal.

GRACIE:

(paging into the records)

Records say severe head aches,

double vision. Voices.

(Bennet looks at her)

In his head.

(--)

Not seeing any documented

concussions.

(--)

He did complain of dizziness.

BENNET:

How often?

GRACIE:

Once.

(--)

In eighteen years of professional

football.

Bennet takes the file himself. Scans to the signature, team

doctor:
“Dr. Joseph P. Maroon.”

SULLIVAN:

Sign the certificate. Sew him up.

BENNET:

Let’s fix the brain.

SULLIVAN:

You know we don’t have the budget

for that.

Gracie glances at Sullivan. He’s standing up. 10 staff have

accumulated. Wecht reappears, but stays in b.g..

BENNET:

People do not go mad for no reason.

I’m going to keep looking.

SULLIVAN:

NO!

(and Bennet looks at him a

moment, and--)

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 30A.

BENNET SULLIVAN (CONT'D) *

Danny, you are out of line--You don’t speak to me like *

that.

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15

31.

BENNET:

And I am the pathologist on

duty! The pathologist of

record!

BENNET:

My hands on this body. If I

am wrong I am wrong.

BENNET:

Not you. Me-

SULLIVAN (CONT'D)

*

This is not your laboratory!

*

*

*

SULLIVAN (CONT'D) *

**

And you’re wrong. *

(loud; big; no one’s heard

his voice raised before)

Fix! that! brain!

SULLIVAN:

I’ll make sure they’re not going to

pay for it.

BENNET:

I will write my orders for the

tests I want.

A long tense beat. Bennet looks for Wecht. Wecht is gone.

He’s alone with Sullivan. Then--

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