Gold Page #13

He moves to a massive workbench covered with crushed rock.

ACOSTA (CONT’D)

This building is guarded 24/7 and kept

under lock and key.

Acosta pulls the leather thong around his neck from his shirt,

see a huge GOLD NUGGET and a key -

ACOSTA (CONT’D)

This is the key.

With that, he hoists up a diamond blade CIRCULAR SAW and it

hums to life. He brings the blade down on the rock,

OBLITERATING the rock, and our hearing, as it cuts a three-

foot section of core. Again, he shouts over the noise -

ACOSTA (CONT’D)

The cores are cut into sections and

then crushed!

He heaves the cut section into a CRUSHER which AUTOMATICALLY

ACTIVATES the mechanism -- adding insult to aural injury.

ACOSTA (CONT’D)

The pulverized cores are then bagged

and sealed!

65.

He produces a WAX-SEALED CANVAS SACK as an example. Starts to

heave it toward the bankers who dance out of the way -

EXT. KENSANA VILLAGE - DOCKS - DAY

The SAME SACK lands on a freighter canoe with other sacks. All

labeled and sealed, and under GUARD.

ACOSTA:

Under guard, the samples are sent down

river to independent labs in

Kalimantan. If a seal is broken or

damaged in any way, the lab, by law,

has to discard the entire sample.

(beat)

The bottom line is every safeguard has

been put in place to assure the

security of the process.

The Bankers nod, impressed. But that’s not really what they

came all this way for. They’re not quite sold.

WELLS:

Diamond tipped saw blades, rock

crushers and core samples ripped from

the guts of the earth... It all sounds

great, but that’s not what you came to

see. Am I wrong?

JACKSON:

No, you’re not.

Wells and Acosta exchange a knowing look.

WELLS:

You boys want to see some gold?

EXT. KENSANA RIVER - TRIBUTARY - AFTERNOON

Late afternoon sun filters through the canopy. This could be

Eden. A few of the bankers, knee deep, pan the rocky bottom.

BINKERT:

No one’s gonna believe this sh*t.

Owens swats at a bug. He looks more annoyed than impressed.

OWENS:

So, what do you think?

BINKERT:

Not sure. What about you?

66.

OWENS:

Acosta seems to know what he’s talking

about but, I don’t know...

Jackson, working the river a few yards away, calls out!

JACKSON:

Hey, come here - check it out!

Acosta heads out to him. Wells gestures to the pan.

WELLS:

Looks like it might be the stuff.

Acosta holds the pan of mud up to the light -- glimmers of

gold are seen in the fading sun.

WELLS (CONT’D)

What do you think?

ACOSTA:

Give me a minute.

The Bankers all watch, rapt -- Acosta takes the pan and moves

back to the river bank, dumps the mud into a waiting SLURRY.

He takes a bucket of river water and starts pouring the water

SLOWLY over the mud. Then, right before their very eyes...

ACOSTA (CONT’D)

Keep your eyes peeled...

Like magic...

A HUGE GOLD NUGGET appears! Acosta holds it up into the light,

reveling in its sparkling quality.

ACOSTA (CONT’D)

(tosses it to Jackson)

A few more like that and you can pave

Wall Street.

The Bankers are f***ing speechless. Wells looks at the

converted Owens...

WELLS (V.O.)

Pay dirt.

CUT TO:

INT. DIMLY LIT ROOM - NIGHT

Jennings, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, paces. Wells rattles

the ice cubes in his empty glass.

67.

WELLS:

Now, I honestly don’t know if that was

just a stroke of luck or an amazing

piece of showmanship or both. But

when Jackson pulled that nugget out...

CUT TO:

INT. JAKARTA HOSTESS BAR - NIGHT

INDONESIAN GIRLS dance, somehow more naked than naked. It’s

Wells, Acosta and the Bankers -- everyone getting loaded.

WELLS (V.O)

...We had ‘em.

Acosta shouts out to the BARTENDER in Bahasa. MUSIC UP. Girls

dancing together. Acosta passing drinks to the bankers...

ACOSTA:

It’s called a convex dome. What every

geologist dreams of finding and that’s

what I think we’ve got at Kensana.

Basically, it’s a volcano that’s

collapsed in on itself, forming an

inverted shell...

Wells cups his hands.

WELLS:

...or a bowl full of all the stuff

we’re looking for.

BINKERT:

How much “stuff” you think we’re

talking about?

Acosta smiles, throws back his drink and shouts out to a

waitress, holding up his empty glass, signalling for drinks.

ACOSTA:

Our current assays point to a deposit

of anywhere from ten to thirty-five

million ounces. When we find the

dome, and we will find it, I wouldn’t

be surprised if we prove eighty to one

hundred million ounces...

Jackson still has the presence of mind to do some calculations

on his calculator. He looks at the number.

JACKSON:

...Is that right?

68-69.

He redoes the calculations. They all wait. He looks again.

JACKSON (CONT’D)

You’re talking over thirty billion

dollars.

They all freeze. This is bigger than anyone imagined. Even

Wells suddenly has the queasy look of a man starting to look

at the drop on a roller coaster. He raises his glass.

WELLS:

May we all be in heaven an hour before

the IRS knows we’re dead.

They laugh and, right on cue, out come the girls. Two for each

Banker. As one of the girls runs her fingers through

Jackson’s hair, her breasts pressing against his face, he

turns to Owens...

JACKSON:

The business trips are going to be

outstanding.

OWENS:

Hell of a write-off.

Wells and Acosta stand off together, watching as the magic

takes hold --

WELLS:

Not a bad day.

Acosta smiles. And as the party rages, WE GO:

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. AMERICAN HOME - DAY

Bright sun. As a car drives by and pulls into a sparsely

crowded parking lot, hear a phone STARTING TO RING from the

perspective of the caller. Then hear -

KAY (O.S.)

Hello?

70.

INT. JAKARTA PALACE HOTEL - WELLS'S SUITE - DAWN

WELLS with a phone in one hand, drink in the other.

WELLS:

What are you doing, baby? It’s me.

From halfway around the world.

KAY (V.O.)

Kenny!

(to someone OS)

It’s Kenny --

(to Wells)

I was just telling some people the

story of how we met.

(continuing the story)

I’d run off from home, didn’t finish

high school--I had a couple teachers

who were real d*cks--anyway, I was

working for a magician --

Wells is twenty floors up, smiling at the dazzling fairy

lights of nighttime Jakarta.

WELLS:

Not-So-Amazing Cecil -

KAY (V.O.)

Cec had this one trick, his only

trick. Kenny came...

(to Wells)

How many shows in a row, Kenny --?

Wells looks inside the suite where a last dancer sways in

front of Acosta. The bankers have gone to bed.

WELLS:

Twenty -

KAY (V.O.)

Twenty shows in a row. And the trick

was?

WELLS/KAY SIMUL

I wanted your number, baby/He wanted

my number -

Hear OS LAUGHTER through the phone.

WELLS:

I love that story.

INTERCUT:

70A.

INT. AMERICAN HOME - DAY

Kay on a white phone in the La-Z-Boy area. A few coworkers are

chuckling, heading back to their respective areas.

KAY:

How’s it going over there?

71.

WELLS:

They’re all in, baby. Everything we’ve

been waiting for. Everything --!

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