Klondike Page #25

EXT. DAWSON CITY STREETS - DUSK

Camera rises from the muddy, cesspool streets of downtown,

through buzzing insects, to Belinda, moving up the boardwalk

with Foley. She’s subtly surveying the Count ahead, visible

with his retinue. Surveying outlying lots of land.

FOLEY:

The hell’s he up to...

BELINDA MULRONEY (CALMLY)

Looks to me like he’s buying dirt.

And I don’t like people buying dirt

next to my dirt.

Belinda’s Accountant, DAN CONDON, approaches through the

crowd. Having come from the Count’s direction. Quietly:

DAN CONDON (RE COUNT)

He’s making offers. Talking about

putting up saloons, a hotel...

FOLEY:

He wants to piss away his money,

let him. Don’t matter if it’s now

or ancient Egypt--location’s

location. And that up there...ain’t

location.

A quiet, uneasy dawning in Belinda.

BELINDA MULRONEY

But it is dry.

EXT. DAWSON CITY STREETS - MOMENTS LATER

The trio moves back toward Front Street-

11.

BELINDA MULRONEY

Get the salesmen up to the mill.

Whoever reps that property.

FOLEY:

Look, real estate’s in a high

fever, but you got Front Street. 80

percent of the buildings. Those

prices go up too, even faster. It’s

like Park-front property in New

York Central Park--they’re not

building any more of it-

BELINDA MULRONEY

But they can move the Park.

(nods to streets)

Look around. People are tired of

living in the mud. He ain’t dumb.

He’s an a**hole...but he ain’t

dumb. Reckon he’s figuring a city-

a city built to last--needs

sanitation, hygiene. Which of

course I knew...just didn't think

it'd come on so sudden. Wasn't part

of this stage of the speculation.

She shakes her head. Like she should’ve known better.

DAN CONDON:

What're you getting at?

BELINDA MULRONEY

Front Street ain't exactly a model

of sanitation, is it now? That's

why he's buying up there.

Dan eyes her, reads her thoughts.

DAN CONDON:

You think he’s planning on making a

new downtown.

BELINDA MULRONEY

Yep.

(pains her to say)

‘Cause it’s exactly what I’d do.

EXT. MILL - LATER

Belinda enters, Condon & Foley following-

BELINDA MULRONEY

...wasn’t for nothing we beat down

every competitor these last 2 years

-levered em, cajoled, influenced

em.

(MORE)

12.

BELINDA MULRONEY (CONT'D)

(deciding)

We’ll do what we always do. Outbid.

DAN CONDON:

Not gonna be easy-

BELINDA MULRONEY

Oh yeah it is. He says 5, we say 6.

He says 7, we say 8-

DAN CONDON:

It isn’t just numbers now--that’s

what I’m trying to tell you.

(serious)

Sellers aren’t taking notes on the

properties anymore. No mortgages,

nothing. They’re demanding cash.

BELINDA MULRONEY

Ridiculous. Credit’s what this

entire economy’s built on. What

every economy’s built on. Pawn shop

over there.

(motions)

How do you think they keep moving?

Credit arrangements, with interest.

(motions to bank)

Bank:
credit arrangements, with

interest.

(saloon)

Saloon:
bartabs from here to

Saskatchewan. Hell, even the

whores’ll take it on lay-away if

you’re nice enough.

Condon nods. True. All of it. Still.

DAN CONDON:

Count pays cash. 100%.

Belinda eyes the millyard. The wood being planed, put onto

carts in the drizzle.

DAN CONDON (CONT’D)

You’re asset-rich...but you’re cash-

poor. You’ve taken too many notes

from miners. Too many IOUs.

BELINDA MULRONEY (FRUSTRATED)

Well maybe it’s ‘cause I’m a

goddamn softy.

Condon nods deferentially. Speaking quietly to power:

13.

DAN CONDON:

Unless you get those non-performing

loans off your books--convert em to

whatever cash they’re worth--you’re

not gonna have the firepower to

compete.

A MILL WORKER nods to Belinda. Hands her a clipboard.

MILL WORKER:

Load’s ready to go up to 152.

Haskell Claim.

(re weather)

Should we send em up, or wait on

the roads?

As Belinda eyes the clipboard--Condon quietly reminds her:

DAN CONDON:

You’ve never believed in the

claims, Belinda.

EXT. BILL’S CLAIM - DAY

Over Bill & Meekor--both men’s clothes covered in muddy slime

as they dig deeper into their bench mine--nasty work this,

and yet Bill & Meekor, somehow hopeful--

DAN CONDON (V.O.)

1 in 100 men pulls any real color

out of the ground. Rest of em just

keep paying you the chase their

dream. That's your own words.

Bill nods to Meekor, smiling through the mud--

DAN CONDON (V.O.)

The real jackpot's in feeding those

dreams. Sellin em shovels and wood

and food. Because men's hope and

folly is guaranteed. Finding gold

ain't.

Bill, trying to get to that vein he knows is there--but as of

yet--only a muddy mess that continually fills in on itself-

EXT. MILL - DAY

Condon nods solemnly, matter-of-factly:

DAN CONDON:

There's a reason you've put your

money in services. 'Cause you know.

You don’t invest out there in the

mud, on some longshot. You invest

here, where the money's guaranteed.

(beat)

(MORE)

14.

DAN CONDON (CONT'D)

Everyone in Dawson thinks 152 is a

whale. That there’s a motherlode

down there. Let em think it. Only

makes the price go up. Which is

exactly what you want...because

you're holding the whole note now.

Said with a vague nod to the wagon, wood. Belinda demurs:

BELINDA MULRONEY

Only as collateral. Haskell’s still

got a week to make good on his debt-

DAN CONDON:

He's already in arrears, according

to the books. Credit he's late

paying you for.

Which stops Belinda. A technicality she’d rather not

acknowledge.

DAN CONDON (CONT’D)

Legally, at this very moment, you

can sell that claim. It's yours.

Belinda, uneasy at where this is going-

DAN CONDON (CONT’D)

You have the right to sell it.

Truth is, you wanna compete with

the Count...you gotta sell it.

As Belinda’s eyes drift up the road, spy Count and his men

busily surveying, marking off the new lots he’s buying-something

on her face tells us...Condon’s right, and she

knows it...

END ACT ONE:

15.

ACT TWO:

EXT. KLONDIKE - VARIOUS

Time lapse:
weather coming in illimitable angry waves over

the land. A sequence of never-the-same phenomena: rain cells

backlit by distant sunlight; lightning fusing sky and earth

in jagged streaks; clouds in muscular columns all the way up

to Heaven.

JACK LONDON (V.O.)

Weather in the Klondike comes in a

thousand shapes. From a thousands

places. Just like the men. And they

all each have their own reaction to

it...

EXT. BONANZA CREEK / CLAIM - DAY

A MINER, drenched and pissed off, calling up out of his tent-

MINER (TO SKY)

Give a goddamn rest you son of a

b*tch!

INT. SALOON - DAY

SWIFTWATER BILL--center of the party--hoisting a glass to the

crowd as the rain pours outside-

SWIFTWATER BILL:

To Mother Goddamn Nature!

PATRON:

You outta yer mind, Swiftwater?

It's like the end of the world's

starting out there!

SWIFTWATER BILL:

Yeah and if the end of the world's

coming, I sure as sh*t don’t wanna

be sober when it gets here!

Laughter all around. Camera finds London, alternating between

a beer and writing in his journal. The young man: already

buzzed and in fine fettle. Swiftwater Bill grabs him.

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