Interstellar Page #8

It got home too late.

Donald pulls his chowder off the boil and slides the pot

unceremoniously onto the table.

INT. DINING ROOM -- NIGHT

The boys have gone to bed. Cooper and Donald are alone at

the table. Donald hands Cooper another beer.

DONALD:

I heard your meeting at the school

didn't go so well.

Cooper shakes his head in disgust.

COOPER:

Maybe it's better for everyone to

forget what they did back then.

Reminds us how far we've fallen.

DONALD:

(looks down,)

When I was kid, it felt like they

made something new every day. Some

gadget or idea.

(SMILES)

Like every day was Christmas.

(BEAT)

But we made a lot of mistakes. Six

billion people. Just try to imagine

that. Every last one of them trying

to have it all.

Donald rolls the bottle of beer in his hands.

23.

DONALD (CONT'D)

The truth is this world isn't that

bad. In a lot of ways its better.

Tom will be all right, whether he

goes to college or not.

COOPER:

It doesn't bother me that he can't

go. It bothers me that he doesn't

care.

DONALD:

Tom isn't the problem. He fits in

this world just fine. You're the

one who doesn't fit, Coop. You don't

belong here. You were born forty

years too late, or forty years too

early -- I don't know. My daughter

knew it, god bless her. And your

kids know it, too.

Donald drains his beer. Walks to the screen door. Stops,

one hand on the frame.

DONALD (CONT'D)

You were good at something and you

never got a chance to do anything

with it. And I'm sorry, Coop. But

that's not your kids' fault.

Donald pushes out the screen door.

Cooper looks at his beer. The probe CHIRPS.

INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT

Cooper flops down on his bed, fully clothed, exhausted. He

stares up at the ceiling. This is his life.

INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT

The air is filled with a PIERCING NOISE.

Cooper BOLTS upright. Stumbles out the door.

INT. HALLWAY, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT

Cooper's boys are in the hallway, exhausted. Cooper, holding

a baseball bat, makes his way down the stairs.

Cooper uses the bat to open the kitchen door.

INT. KITCHEN, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT

Cooper steps in, Murph watching from behind him.

24.

The probe is clamped to the table, the chirp replaced with a

DEAFENING SCREAM.

Cooper, holding his ears, moves closer to the probe. He

hits it with the paddles. No result.

He SMASHES it with the bat. Nothing. He HITS it AGAIN and

AGAIN. Finally, the clamps break off chunks of the table

and the probe slams to the ground and ROLLS toward the front

door. As it rolls, it STOPS SHRIEKING.

Cooper and the others watch it roll toward the door. It

stops at the wall. After a second, it begins SHRIEKING AGAIN.

Cooper grabs it and rolls it toward the front door. Once

again, the movement shuts it up.

EXT. PORCH, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT

Cooper and his boys roll the probe out of the front door.

It BUMPS down the front steps and comes to rest in the dirt.

After a moment, the unholy RACKET starts up again.

Cooper keeps rolling it, but it doesn't seem to help. Murph

looks up, sees the stars overhead.

MURPH:

Try a different direction.

As they roll the probe in a circle, its SHRIEK stops, then

picks up again. Cooper zeroes in on the direction that keeps

it quiet -- southwest -- and pushes it along in the dirt.

COOPER:

It's a fail-safe. It's going to

annoy us into taking it home.

Cooper stops rolling the probe and, after a moment, it begins

SHRIEKING again.

TOM:

What are we going to do?

Cooper gets a rope.

COOPER:

We're going to get some sleep.

He begins tying the rope around the probe.

INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- DAY

Cooper wakes. He's been sleeping with a pillow wrapped around

his head. The SHRIEK can be heard, but it's muffled, distant.

25.

INT. KITCHEN, COOPER'S HOUSE -- DAY

Tom heads off for school with Donald. Murph, still suspended,

looks up at Cooper, smiling.

MURPH:

What are we doing today?

COOPER:

You're staying here and cleaning the

house.

Murph looks crestfallen. He looks out towards the yard.

Cooper follows his stare.

COOPER (CONT'D)

I told you, Murph. There's no one

to take it back to.

MURPH:

Rate this script:3.3 / 9 votes