Gold Page #3

He drinks with a shaky hand. Steadies, and downs the rest.

WELLS (V.O) (CONT’D)

...It only took me five years to run

it into the ground.

He’s blind drunk, struggling to get his mouth around the

words. The fight has gone out of him...

WELLS (CONT’D)

If you could just let me know when a

good time would be for us to sit down,

I’m sure you would see...

But that’s as far as he gets. The hum of the dead line. He

sets the phone down, leans his head against the cold window

and closes his eyes. His breath fogs the glass instantly.

11A.

WELLS (V.O) (CONT’D)

At the close of that day, Washoe was

trading at four cents a share - if it

was trading at all...

He pulls a cig, last in the pack. Fire flares in his eyes.

12.

INT. DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY (PRESENT)

Hand, cigarette, fire, a deep inhale. Wells's eyes -- turning

his attention back to the off-screen voice.

WELLS:

Rock bottom, as they say. Pun

intended.

VOICE (O.S.)

You’re avoiding the question, Mr.

Wells. How was the Indonesian venture

with Acosta initiated?

Wells leans back in his chair, a challenge in his expression.

If we want the story, we’re gonna have to indulge him awhile.

WELLS:

Relax. I’m getting there.

INT. KAY’S HOUSE - NIGHT

Kay walks into the house, still in her sales vest, with its

name tag - “Hi! I’m Kay!” - looking for Wells...

INT. KAY’S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS

...who she finds passed out on the sofa. She takes in the

prospectus papers all over the floor, the bottle of

Seagrams, mostly drained.

She stores her tips. Lights one of Kenny’s cigarettes. Pours a

drink. Puts on some music. Through thin curtains sees a

neighbor dragging a trash can around the side of the house.

Kay flops back on the couch next to Wells. He realizes she’s

home and sorta half sits up.

WELLS:

Oh Kay. What are we gonna do? Kay?

KAY:

Just shush...

And he sags against her, head on her shoulder.

WELLS:

What are we gonna do?

KAY:

We’ll get by, baby. We always do.

13.

His eyes have eased shut. Which she looks sideways and sees.

She sighs, leans her head back, takes a sharp pull on her cig

and blows smoke up at the ceiling. And we look down at the

tableau through the smoke.

WELLS (V.O)

I had a half a gallon of Seagrams in

me. I should’ve been dead. But I

wasn’t. Instead, what happened was I

had a dream. I mean, literally. I had

a dream.

Camera pushes down, tightening on Wells...

WELLS (V.O.)(CONT’D)

Indonesia...

Closing on Wells's sleeping eyes. And suddenly WE ARE -

EXT. JUNGLE - DAY

WE SOAR above the jungle canopy, diving down through the lush

foliage, emerging atop a jagged ridge overlooking -

A PRISTINE JUNGLE VALLEY. A shimmering river winds through.

Everything is bathed in BRILLIANT GOLDEN LIGHT, breathtaking.

WELLS (V.O)

I met Mike Acosta years earlier. That

was the first time. I still had a

little money then and Indonesia was

booming. I was looking for a way to

get in...

EXT. JUNGLE RIVER - DAY

Boots splashing through a shallow creek. A HAND scoops into

shallow moving water and pulls up a fistful of silt. A figure

silhouetted in jungle.

SUPER:
INDONESIA - 1982

WELLS (V.O)

...Back then, if you were aiming to

put a hole in the ground in Indonesia,

you wanted Mike Acosta telling you

where to dig.

TIGHT ON miners carrying bags of ore up wooden ladders.

WELLS (V.O.) (CONT’D)

He was what they called a “River

Walker.” A hands-on geologist. The

real deal:
Oxford college, MIT.

13A.

And AT THE TOP FIND MIKE ACOSTA, 30’s, giving orders,

squinting against the light, something regal in his bearing.

WELLS (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Mom was Venezuelan. Dad, English. Left

when he was little. That’s always

tough.

14.

INT. JAKARTA HOSTESS BAR - NIGHT

Diaphanously clad HOSTESSES lounge with businessmen. Racy as

hell for a Muslim country. Everyone sweating cheap booze.

Acosta holds court at a corner table. Prospectors hang on

every word. Chief among them Kenny Wells.

WELLS (V.O.)

He’d just discovered the largest

copper strike in Southeast Asia and

everyone wanted a piece of him. And

for a half-English guy, his teeth

weren’t all that messed up.

Acosta dumps an ashtray on the table, scatters the contents,

using ashes and burning embers to illustrate his point.

ACOSTA:

You got the Nazca plate off South

America, the Pacific plate, Juan de

Fuca, North American, South American.

You’ve got trenches, fissures and

fault lines - Aleutian, Marianas,

Tonga - the plates rubbing and

grinding up on each other - six

trillion kilobars of pressure, ten

thousand degrees Celsius kicking up

geothermic hot spots all along the

Pacific Rim.

He takes them all in with a rogue’s smile... An INDONESIAN

GIRL, who understands no English, hangs on his every word.

ACOSTA (CONT’D)

Pressure, heat and time. And there’s

no better cooker than right here.

Is he talking about geology now, or where his hand is resting

on the back of the thigh of the Indonesian girl?

15.

WELLS (V.O)

He called it the “Ring of Fire”

theory. And he definitely had

everyone’s attention.

ACOSTA:

It’s how I found the copper, and it’s

why I’ll find the gold.

Find Wells nodding along, smitten.

WELLS (V.O.)

I was too small-time to really get his

ear, but I kept tabs on him... And

then I had the dream.

CUT TO:

INT. KAY’S HOUSE - VARIOUS - MORNING

Still drunk, Wells digs through junk piled in a disused room

that houses an old broken down jacuzzi. An empty pool outside

in a concrete yard. He searches a milk crate with items from a

long ago move. Finds an old business card -- MICHAEL ACOSTA.

WELLS:

Okay, okay. Here we go.

Now he moves to a dresser, a JEWELRY BOX sits on top. A glance

to the sleeping Kay. And he opens the box. He pulls out an

ANTIQUE PAVE DIAMOND AND GOLD LADIES PENDANT WATCH.

Kay stirs and Wells slips the watch into his pocket.

KAY:

(sleepy)

You’re up early.

He gives her a kiss goodbye which turns into a real kiss as

she pulls him down.

KAY (CONT’D)

You wanna talk about yesterday?

WELLS:

I’ve got a plan. I’ve gotta go.

KAY:

Kenny, listen. Carl had an idea...

WELLS:

Carl? American Home Carl?

15aA.

KAY:

He said he could get you on, for a

while, if you wanted.

15A.

WELLS:

I... I don’t know... I’m not really -

KAY:

I bought everything you’re selling and

I’m no fool. You could sell ice to

Eskimos.

WELLS:

I don’t know, babe. Let me get back

from this trip.

KAY:

It’d be temporary. Just til the market

turns.

(a real proposal)

We could fool around in the warehouse.

16.

A moment as he looks at her. All sorts of things going on in

there. It’s love. And the certainty she’s with him. Always.

WELLS:

I'll be back soon, a week at most. If

it doesn’t pan out, I’ll talk to Carl.

KAY:

Wait. What? Back from where?

And he’s gone. Kay gets up, mystified, about to go after him

when she sees the open jewelry box. Her watch is gone.

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