Inherent Vice

1 OVER BLACK 1

A sweet, young woman’s voice narrates.

SORTILEGE (V.O.)

She came along the alley and upthe back stairs the way she alwaysused to. Doc hadn’t seen her for

over a year. Nobody had. Back

then it was always sandals, bottomhalf of a flower print bikini,

faded Country Joe & the Fish T-

shirt. Tonight, she was all inflatland gear, hair a lot shorterthan he remembered, looking justlike she swore she’d never look...

FADE IN:

2 INT. DOC’S APARTMENT (GORDITA BEACH) - DUSK (1970) 2

DOC SPORTELLO sits half awake on his couch. He looks up,

notices someone standing at his door: SHASTA FAY

HEPWORTH (20s).

DOC:

Is that you, Shasta?

SHASTA:

Think you’re hallucinating...?

DOC:

No... just the new package, I

guess...

SHASTA:

... I need your help, Doc.

DOC:

Come in. (... you know I have anoffice now and everything? Just

like a day job.)

She walks in, Doc gets a slow rising BONER in hispants... casually tries to cover it up.

SHASTA:

I looked in the phone book andalmost went over there, but then Ithought better for everyone ifthis looked like a secret

rendezvous.

DOC:

Somebody keeping a close eye?

2.

SHASTA:

... I just spent an hour on

surface streets trying to make it

look good.

DOC:

How about a beer?

Doc moves to the fridge, Shasta looks around, they sit

down at the kitchen table:

SHASTA:

So there’s this guy...

DOC:

Gentlemen of the straightworld

persuasion?

SHASTA:

Okay, Doc. He’s married.

DOC:

And the wife -- she knows about

you?

SHASTA:

But she’s seeing somebody, too.

Only it’s not just the usual -- I

think they’re working on some

creepy little scheme.

DOC:

To make off with the hubby’s

fortune? I think I’ve heard this

one once or twice...

SHASTA:

They want me in on it... they

think I’m the one who can reach

him when he’s vulnerable, or as

much as he ever gets.

DOC:

Bare-ass and asleep?

SHASTA:

I knew you’d understand.

DOC:

Are you still trying to figure out

if it’s right or wrong?

SHASTA:

Worse than that. How much loyalty

I owe him.

3.

DOC:

I hope you’re not asking me.

Beyond the usual boilerplate,

people owe anybody they’re f***ing

steady...?

SHASTA:

Dear Abby said the same thing.

DOC:

Emotions aside, let’s look at the

money. How much of the rent’s he

been picking up?

SHASTA:

All of it.

DOC:

Pretty hefty?

SHASTA:

For Hancock Park.

DOC:

You’re giving him IOUs for

everything, of course...

SHASTA:

You f***er, if I’d known you were

still this bitter I wouldn’t have

come --

DOC:

Me? I’m just trying to be

professional. How much are the

wifey and boyfriend offering to

cut you in for...?

BEAT...

DOC:

So, this... this isn’t just a

couple of X-rated Polaroids, then.

Dope planted in the glove

compartment, nothin’ like that.

SHASTA:

It isn’t what you’re thinking,

Doc.

DOC:

Don’t worry, thinking comes later,

what else?

SHASTA:

I’m not sure, but it sounds like

they want to commit him to some

kind of loony bin.

4.

DOC:

You mean legally? Or a snatch of

some kind?

SHASTA:

Nobody’s telling me, Doc, I’m just

the bait...

CLOSEUP - SHASTA’S FACE

Looking at Doc.

ANOTHER ANGLE:

He looks at her. Can’t read her face.

DOC:

Are you still taking those acting

classes?

SHASTA:

Thing is:
I heard you’re seeing

somebody downtown.

DOC:

Oh, you mean Penny. Seeing?

Well. Nice flatland chick out in

search of hippie love thrills,

basically.

SHASTA:

Also some kind of junior D.A.?

DOC:

You think somebody there could

stop this before it happens?

SHASTA:

There’s not too many places I

could go with this, Doc.

DOC:

Okay, I’ll talk to Penny, see what

we can see. So your happy couple.

Do they have a names?

SHASTA:

It’s Mickey Wolfmann.

DOC:

Mickey Wolfmann who’s always in

the paper? The real estate big

shot?

SHASTA:

You can’t tell anybody about this,

Doc.

5.

DOC:

I won’t. Deaf and dumb. That’s

part of my job. You have any

phone numbers you wanna share?

She gets a pencil, writes a number down, he watches

her...

SHASTA:

Try to never use it.

DOC:

How do I reach you?

SHASTA:

You don’t. I moved out of my old

place. Staying where I can

anymore...

DOC:

You could stay here...

CUT TO:

3 EXT. DOC’S - STREET - EVENING 3

He walks her down to her car, ‘59 CADILLAC EL DORADO

BIARITZZ --

SHASTA:

Don’t come any further, somebody

might be watching by now.

DOC:

Well, call me or something...

SHASTA:

You never did let me down, Doc.

DOC:

Don’t worry, I’ll...

SHASTA:

No, I mean really ever.

DOC:

Oh, sure I did.

SHASTA:

No... you were always true...

She backs away, gets in the CADILLAC and drives off into

the night. MUSIC STARTS. He watches her go... HOLD WITH

DOC. DENIS (rhymes with penis) walks up, says hi, they

walk up towards town, away from the beach...

DOC:

Hey, Denis, you hungry?

6.

DENIS:

Like Godzilla sez to Mothra, man,

‘let’s go eat someplace.’

SORTILEGE (V.O.)

When Doc came in that night, it

wasn’t just the usual hungry-doper

thing -- it was something else --

and with Neptune moving at last

out of the Scorpio death-trip and

rising into the Sagitarrian light

of the higher mind -- it was bound

to be something love-related and I

thought I knew what it was...

CUT TO:

4 INT. PIPELINE PIZZA - NIGHT 4

DOC and DENIS and a bunch of locals, eating pizza.

Sitting here are some SURFERS, a friend named ENSENADA

SLIM and a lovely young girl, our narrator: SORTILEGE

(20s); she speaks in the flesh...

SORTILEGE:

Was that Shasta’s car I saw down

the drive?

DOC:

She stuck her head in for a couple

minutes...

SORTILEGE:

Are you broken up?

DOC:

Kind of weird seeing her again.

Figured next time I did it’d be on

the tube not in person...

SORTILEGE looks at DOC with sweetness, then at HIS HAIR:

SORTILEGE:

Better do something about that.

DOC:

Again?

SORTILEGE:

I can’t say it enough -- change

your hair, change your life.

DOC:

What do you recommend?

SORTILEGE:

That’s up to you. Follow your

intuition.

7.

(ETC. -- Pizza talk here.)

CUT TO:

5 INT. DOC’S APARTMENT 5

He sits on his couch. THE MUSIC PLAYS. He’s on the

phone, it’s ringing to no answer. His hair is rolled

into plantation-style knots. He’s rolling a joint.

SORTILEGE (V.O.)

There was an ancient superstition

at the beach, something like the

surfer belief that burning your

board will bring awesome waves,

and it went like this: Take a Zig-

Zag paper and write your dearest

wish, and then use it to roll a

joint of the best dope you can

find and smoke it all up, and your

wish would be granted. Doc’s wish

was simple... (just that Shasta

Fay be safe...)

He writes on the rolling papers a small note in pencil:

“To Shasta’s Safety. With Love, Doc.” Smokes it and

calls his AUNT REET (50s) who lives down the street --

INTERCUT WITH:

INT. AUNT REET’S HOUSE

She’s applying ten tons of various makeups, spraying some

on, applying with ten gallon brushes and dipping her face

into other paints.

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