Concussion Page #9

THIS WHOLE SEQUENCE STOPS NOW. We slow. We’re-

64 INT. AUTOPSY CHAMBER - NIGHT

Clock says 4AM. We’re DOLLYING SLOW THROUGH the autopsy

chamber. Silhouettes of fresh bodies on the slabs.

Light spills out of the lab. We follow it to Bennet at a

significantly bigger microscope than he has. Rubbing the back

of his neck.

Prema has put a couple chairs together and is asleep under a

blanket, between Bennet and the corpses. Keeping guard.

Against everything. Her really astounding beauty.

Now TILT UP to Bennet standing over her. Really seeing her

for the first time. Prema stirs. Eyes open huge dark almonds

right up into Bennet’s face. He is clear-headed, suddenly.

As if she’s heard something. Her eyes shift to a cadaver. Its

perfect stillness.

BENNET:

That is not who they are.

(then; his expression)

I think I found a disease no one

has ever seen. Not once. Not ever.

PREMA:

Isn’t that good?

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 41.

BENNET:

It’s a terrible disease.

PREMA:

So what do you do? (So what does

one do in this country when one

discovers a terrible disease.)

BENNET:

I have to be sure.

(but then--)

O.S., the SOUND of a door opening. Footsteps approach. The

fluorescent lights bounce on in the autopsy chamber.

REVEALING the row of dead faces, and-

SULLIVAN:

Who’s back there?

(Bennet comes out)

What are you doing?

BENNET:

Working.

SULLIVAN:

You’re not on the schedule.

BENNET:

I’m using personal time. I needed

the microscope.

SULLIVAN:

In here is county time.

Prema appears. Sullivan leers. Her clothes. Her unkempt hair.

He spots the blanket on the chair.

SULLIVAN (CONT’D)

You banging prostitutes in here,

Omalu?

Bennet takes three big steps toward Sullivan. Fists clenched.

Prema - “Don’t” - slides between them, shoves Bennet back. As

Sullivan walks away-

SULLIVAN (CONT’D)

They deport you weirdos for sick

sh*t like that.

And now we rise up to-

65 OMIT

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42.

66

OMIT:

67

SOARING GIANT BLACK ST. BENEDICT

Atop St. Benedict’s. Arms spread out over Pittsburgh. Now

across the river to-

68

EXT. PRESBYTERIAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL - UNIV OF PITTSBURGH -

DAY - ESTABLISHING - AERIAL

BIRD’S-EYE POV of the sprawling 10-story complex. Abutting

Pitt’s Coliseum-like football stadium. The dual-chambered

heart of the sprawling city of higher learning.

69

INT. ELEVATOR - PRESBYTERIAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL - DAY

Bennet cradles the box.

70

INT. HALLWAY - PRESBYTERIAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

Bennet walks an endless hallway with a hundred doors, where-

DR. RON HAMILTON - 49, academic, cropped beard - is watching

him approach from his office doorway -“Chairman,

Neuropathology Program, Univ. of Pittsburgh Medical School” -

HAMILTON:

What did you bring me?

BENNET:

I need you to look at this cold.

(as they go into--)

71

INT. NEUROPATHOLOGY LAB - PRESBYTERIAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

And leads Bennet into his office, digging out the slides.

Bennet steps to the window, looks down on massive Heinz

Field.

HAMILTON:

Bennet.

Relax. I can hear you

breathing.

(another look, then--)

Hamilton slowly lifts his head. Pause.

HAMILTON (CONT’D)

This is a really really terrible

brain.

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43.

And we SLAM to-

72

INT. HALLWAY - PRESBYTERIAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

Office of “Dr. Steven DeKosky, Chairman, Dept of Neurology”.

Out strides DEKOSKY, a fit 55. Pissed-off to be interrupted.

And back to-

73

INT. HAMILTON’S OFFICE - PRESBYTERIAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL -

PITTSBURGH - DAY

HAMILTON:

Ever met the great man before?

(Bennet shakes, No)

Tough. One of the top brain guys in

the world. Expect two minutes tops.

DeKosky blows in. Gives Hamilton a “this better be good”

look.

DEKOSKY:

That him?

(Hamilton nods)

So you’re our prize graduate.

And crosses straight to the microscope. Great focus, long

moment of this. Then-

It’s very obvious. And he faces them. In the presence of

something monumental and knows it.

HAMILTON:

Tell him.

BENNET:

That is Mike Webster. The

Pittsburgh Steeler-

DEKOSKY:

(get to the point)

I know who Mike Webster is.

HAMILTON:

Steve. He was fifty.

(and that’s the point and-)

DeKosky looks to the window, mentally shuffling through his

decades of study, toil, research. The tens of thousands of

hours. Then reaches for the phone-

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 44.

DEKOSKY:

(into phone)

Cancel the rest of my morning-(

hangs up; then)

You have my attention.

Hamilton nods, Go.

BENNET:

Diving birds hit the sea at 200

MPH, generating 1,000 g-force at

impact. Each peck of a woodpeckers

produces a g-force of a thousand.

12,000 pecks a day, 85-million

times over their lifetimes. Big-

horned sheep-

(DeKosky gives Hamilton an

impatient look)

HAMILTON:

Bennet-

BENNET:

All these animals have shock

absorbers built into their bodies.

The woodpecker’s tongue comes out

the back of the mouth through the

nostril and goes around the top of

its head. Basically, it’s one big

safety belt for the brain.

(then)

Humans? Not one piece of our

anatomy protects us from those

kinds of collisions. A human being

will get concussed at 80 g’s. The

average head-to-head contact on a

football field? 120 g’s. God did

not intend for us to play football.

HAMILTON:

Let’s keep God out of this.

And Bennet goes to a white board and draws the S’s/O’s

coach’s diagram of football squads. Offense. Defense. The

backs. The quarterback. And circles the center--

HAMILTON (CONT’D)BENNET *

**

What’s the ‘S’? The Steelers. *

**

HAMILTON DEKOSKY *

**

The ‘O’s--? The ‘others’. Obviously. *

**

BENNET:

The others, yes.

CHERRY PAGES 1.21.15 45.

DEKOSKY:

Do you even watch football?

BENNET:

Not at all-

(back to the board)

But I studied Mike Webster’s

position. The one int he middle.

The most violent on the field. The

slaps and the choking, the head as

a weapon on every play of every

game, of every practice. From the

time he was a boy, then a college

man, through a professional career.

The thousands and thousands of hits

that weren’t concussions.

Now circles the wide-outs, running backs and safeties-

BENNET (CONT’D)

But these? They are the fastest.

BENNET (CONT’D)

Their speed multiplied by the speed

of the men who hit them, and the

trajectories at which they hit

them, the g-force created - the

same as getting hit on the head

with a sledgehammer -

HAMILTON:

Slow down. The brain. Get to the

brain part-

BENNET:

(distinctly not slowing)

Mike Webster played eighteen years

of professional football. 90

thousand blows to the head during

just his professional career, by my

calculation.

(and now--)

All this triggered a cascading

series of neurological events that

unleashed killer protein upon Mike

Webster’s brain. The tangles

invading and then strangling his

mind from the inside out. Leaving

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