Hero Page #14

GALE:

What did he look like?

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - LATER (DAY)

MR. SMITH is being interviewed in his bed. He's emotional...

MR. SMITH

It was just this face, all dirty,

it just appeared. I really thought

I was going to die.

GALE:

Did he say anything to you?

MR. SMITH

He... asked if I was "Fletcher."

INT. OFFICE/CARPET CARE - DAY

A man named ROBINSON, fifty, sloppy, screams apoplectically...

ROBINSON:

ONE WORD! ONE WORD, LAPLANTE, AND

YOU'RE FIRED! GOT THAT? ONE WORD!

Exhausted, shoeless BERNIE follows ROBINSON in the cluttered

Carpet Care Office...

BERNIE:

Bill, I...

ROBINSON:

DON'T SAY "BILL," BERNIE! DON'T

SAY ONE WORD! DIDN'T I SAY "ONE

WORD AND YOU'RE FIRED?"

BERNIE:

I...

ROBINSON:

YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE IT'LL BE AN

EXCUSE! IT'LL BE "BERNIE LAPLANTE

EXCUSE NUMBER FOUR THOUSAND ONE

HUNDRED AND SIX." NO, FOUR THOUSAND

ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE. THAT'S HOW

MANY EXCUSES YOU HAVE GIVEN ME, I

KEEP TRACK OF THEM ELECTRONICALLY.

I HEARD THEM ALL, BERNIE.

BERNIE:

Bill, I got some legal problems and

I...

ROBINSON:

THAT'S IT! YOU TALKED! YOU'RE

FIRED! OUTTA HERE! GET OUTTA HERE!

BERNIE:

Bill, listen...

ROBINSON:

OUT! I TOLDJA. JESUS CHRIST, I

GOT CUSTOMERS WAITING! AN' YOU WERE

GONNA GO OUT LIKE THAT? AN' MEET

THE PUBLIC IN STOCKING-F***ING-FEET?

BERNIE:

Bill, I got financial problems

and...

ROBINSON:

I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS,

I'M GONNA THINK ABOUT MY PROBLEMS.

YOU'RE ONE A MY PROBLEMS. GET OUT!

OUT! OUT!

EXT. CITY STREET - MINUTES LATER (DAY)

BERNIE is trudging wearily up the busy sidewalk, dirty, tattered

and shoeless, BERNIE doesn't notice BUBBER staring in the window

of an electronics store where dozens of television screens show

the burning fuselage of Flight 104.

INT. LIVING ROOM/FLETCHER HOME - DAY

CHUCKY shoots over GALE'S shoulder as she interviews FLETCHER

in his living room.

GALE:

He was asking for Mr. Fletcher...

FLETCHER:

My son and I got separated in the

confusion and smoke. The very

courageous stewardess at the exit

told me my boy had got out so I got

out too. But my son had already

told this... man that I was still

in there.

EXT. APARTMENT HOUSE/CITY STREET - DAY

Disheveled, in stocking feet, BERNIE trudges wearily up the

front steps of the shabby apartment house where he lives,

enters.

INT. RICHIE'S ROOM/FLETCHER HOME - MINUTES LATER (DAY)

Posters, youthy icons. CHUCKY shooting GALE interviewing RICHIE.

RICHIE:

I thought my dad was still... still

in there. So I asked the man to save

my father.

GALE:

What did the man say, Richie?

RICHIE:

He said... uh... he said...

(not sure, thinking,

then... )

"I'll save him." He said, "I'll

save your father."

INT. BERNIE'S APARTMENT - DAY

The door opens and BERNIE enters. He pulls the contents of

GALE'S wallet from his pocket and tosses them on a table... the

plastic windows full of credit cards and cash. Then he pulls

off his jacket, ruefully inspecting a tear in the muddy sleeve.

He's about to toss it on the ratty sofa when he notices it felt

funny. He reaches in another pocket and pulls out the Silver

Mike Award, considers it for a moment. What's it worth?

Sitting on the sofa, he leans back... and starts to doze off.

VIDEO IMAGE/EXT. "EXPLODING" PLANE - NIGHT

FRAME BY FRAME the image inches forward, sweeping off the fire

that fills the screen to the riverbank... frame by frame... fire

... fire... fire... then faster as the riverbank is darkening

the frame and then LESLIE and the THIRD FIREMAN sweep into the

foreground as the camera discovers them... the dramatic shot we

remember of them coming up the riverbank.

GALE'S VOICE (O.S.)

Back. Go back. You missed it.

Zip zip zip the image highspeeds back to the exploding plane.

Again the screen is filled with fire...

GALE'S VOICE (O.S.)

Now. Go forward again.

Frame by frame the blossom of fire blooms consuming the plane.

GALE'S VOICE (O.S.)

Keep going.

INT. EDIT BAY - DAY

REVEAL:
GALE in an editing bay at Channel Four, peering

intently at the fiery scene on the video monitor while the young

tape editor, JOAN, operates the controls.

CONKLIN, DEAKINS, PARKER, CHUCKY flank GALE.

GALE:

There! Right there.

ON THE SCREEN (EXT. AIRPLANE - NIGHT)

A tiny silhouetted FIGURE appears in the far right corner of

the frame. Then, as one more frame clicks off, the FIGURE

appears near the center of the next frame of the pan.

The picture freezes there, a startling dramatic image of an

UNRECOGNIZABLE FIGURE (BERNIE) in silhouette, dwarfed by the

gigantic explosion. IT'S AN AWESOME IMAGE. NO ARTIST OR AD

MAN COULD DO BETTER... A TINY, ANONYMOUS FIGURE, ALONE, AGAINST

A GIGANTIC MOUNTAIN OF PURE FIRE. AND FROM NOW ON IT WILL BE

REFERRED TO AS "THE IMAGE."

INT. EDIT BAY - DAY

DEAKINS:

That's him?

GALE:

Who else? We've accounted for

everyone else. That's our hero!

She stares at "The Image." It's powerful, stirring.

CHUCKY:

I didn't see the guy when I shot

it. I thought I was getting the

last survivors when I panned over.

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