Killing Zoe Page #7

JEAN:

Do you want heroin?

ZED:

No, I want to be sharp for tomorrow.

Jean and Claude laugh at this.

JEAN:

No. A little bit of heroin, some hash, a

beer...and you're just right.

Jean snorts a line.

Claude offers Zed the spliff. Zed shakes his head "no".

CLAUDE:

Okay.

JEAN:

(recovering from the snort)

That's good.

Eric, Francois, Ricardo, and Oliver come out of the kitchen

laughing.

Eric, Ricardo, and Oliver take a seat on the couch opposite

Zed. Francois sits on the floor.

Eric rolls up his sleeve.

ERIC:

(to Ricardo in French)

[Hold my arm.]

(then to Zed)

My vein is like a rock.

Ricardo takes hold of his arm and squeezes. Eric inserts the

needle into his vein and draws out a little blood. It mixes

with the heroin, then he pumps it in...then back into the

syringe, then all the way back in.

He withdraws the needle.

Ricardo lets go of his arm.

Eric is in bliss. His eyes roll back into his head. He

looks like he's on the verge of falling asleep.

Then Jean takes another snort.

Pretty soon everyone is smoking and getting high, shooting

up, and drinking more beer.

Then Jean holds out a piece of folded aluminum foil with some

heroin in it.

JEAN:

(to Zed)

Try some. It's called chasing the

dragon. The Chinese have been doing it

for centuries.

ZED:

I don't think so.

JEAN:

Oh, but you must. It will make you feel

as though the rest of the world is in a

bubble of glass and that you're rubbing

up against it like a bad windshield

wiper.

They stick the aluminum foil with the heroin in it up next to

his face. They then light the bottom of the foil with a

lighter. Before Zed knows it, he's inhaling a silky ribbon

of smoke.

Suddenly our plane of focus wildly shifts and we...

FOCUS DISSOLVE TO:

INT. ERIC'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT

Ricardo is racing Eric's car through the streets of Paris

weaving in and out of traffic. Next to him is Oliver, and in

the back seat is Zed and Eric. They're giving the very

stoned Zed a whirlwind tour of the sights.

A car speeds up next to them. In it is Francois, and Claude,

with Jean driving. They are racing with Ricardo through the

streets.

The Patrick Hernandez song "Born To Be Alive" is blasting

away on the radio.

ERIC:

There. That's Notre Dame.

But before Zed can even look it has past by.

RICARDO:

Do you like French cars?

All Zed can notice is that the speedometer is at 160

kilometers per hour. He tries to calculate what that is in

miles per hour.

ZED:

(answering Enrique's question)

Yes.

RICARDO:

I like the Cadillac. Fifty-two to

seventy-five. Very nice.

ERIC:

Up here you can see the Eiffel tower.

Zed is in too much of a blur. He leans over to Eric.

ZED:

Is tomorrow really Bastille day?

ERIC:

Yes, tomorrow we pull the biggest job in

French history. And spend the rest of

our lives in Monte Carlo.

The drunken Englishman, Oliver, belches and then cheers.

EXT. PARIS STREET - NIGHT

The two cars are franticly racing through traffic.

INT. JEAN'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT

Jean is very intent on beating them to whatever location it

is they're going to.

Claude, in the seat next to him, gives him some advice.

CLAUDE:

[Faster, faster...go faster. Let's beat

them!]

Francois laughs and coughs out a cloud of smoke.

EXT. PARIS STREET - NIGHT

Jean's car makes a dangerous lane change across traffic and

cuts off Ricardo.

INT. ERIC'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT

Ricardo swerves as he passes a joint to Eric.

RICARDO:

[Sh*t! That bastard.]

ERIC:

(to Ricardo)

Watch it! Don't crash my car.

Eric takes a big hit.

ERIC:

Over here is where the male prostitutes

sell themselves. Do you see?

No, Zed doesn't see.

Suddenly, everyone in the car is shouting out the windows.

OLIVER:

(out the window)

F***ing fags!

ERIC:

(also out the window)

Suce ma bite?!

RICARDO:

Perverts d'homosexuels!

Eric laughs.

ERIC:

(into Zed's ear)

This is good to have you here. We could

not do this without you.

Zed nods.

ERIC:

Everyone has agreed to give you double

shares. That's good.

Zed nods, delirious.

ERIC:

You know I have AIDS. From the needle.

Zed can't believe this. He's not sure if what he heard was

what he thought he heard.

ZED:

Really?

Then Eric sees something.

ERIC:

Okay, up here is the Arc de Triomphe.

They take a sharp turn.

CUT TO:

INT. CELLAR - NIGHT

Eric, Zed, Francois, Ricardo, Jean, Claude, and Oliver are

all walking down some dank stone steps into a cellar.

Somewhere crazy Raymond Scott Toy Jazz music is playing.

An old wine cellar has been converted into a Toy Jazz club.

Nothing fancy...dirt floors, chairs and small tables

scattered about...but the arched brick ceilings make for

great acoustics.

ON STAGE:

a BAND is playing away. In the audience sit about TWELVE

FRENCH PEOPLE, all enjoying the music.

AT THE BUFFET:

In the back of the club near the doors some tables have been

set up with a buffet of local cuisine on it. Behind the

tables are two rotund but happy French women MIRELLE and

JOSEPHINE.

Eric, Zed, Francois, Ricardo, Jean, Claude, and Oliver walk

in and immediately start blabbing away in French to Mirelle

and Josephine.

Eric hands them some money.

ZED'S TABLE

Everyone enters and takes seats at various parts of the club.

Oliver sits next to Zed.

OLIVER:

So, how long have you known Eric?

ZED:

Well, Eric's mother is American.

OLIVER:

Yeah, and his dad's French.

ZED:

They're divorced. And she and his father

had some kind of six month split plan set

up. So every six months he would come

back to the states. We were best

friends. Eventually he and his mother

had a falling out and he stayed here.

It's been...years.

OLIVER:

Well, it's good to have you here. Eric

speaks fairly highly of you. Say, he

says you're a big fan of Viking films.

ZED:

Well...I suppose. I used to be, when I

was young.

OLIVER:

Oh they're the best. Helmets with horns

on them. Sh*t. That's f***ing genius.

He starts laughing.

OLIVER:

How 'bout Toy Jazz? You like it?

Zed watches the players on stage and then nods.

ZED:

Yeah...I guess.

OLIVER:

I love it. It's really good, you know?

Like real music. It has a heart and

culture all it's own. It's, like, jazz

for dwarves...or guys in Leiderhosen.

Total purity of essence.

ZED:

Yeah.

OLIVER:

Hungry cannibals'd like it.

Then Claude comes up to them with some glasses and a bottle

of red wine.

CLAUDE:

Here, you must drink some of this wine,

it's good.

He pours Zed a glass.

Oliver passes on the wine.

OLIVER:

(to Claude)

Non merci, c'est de la merde.

CLAUDE:

(to Oliver)

La ferme. C'est du bon vin.

(to Zed)

The f***ing English.

Zed sips some. He's in no real shape to tell if the wine's

good or not.

ON STAGE:

Suddenly, it seems as though the bands music gets louder.

The horns really start to scream and the room becomes a

delirium of music.

The band stands up.

IN THE AUDIENCE:

The people watching start to dance, if not in their seats

then right in front of everything.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes