Knives Out Page #8

HARLAN (V.O.)

Now, go downstairs.

INT. SECOND FLOOR LANDING - NIGHT OF PARTY - FLASHBACK

Marta, in Harlan's robe and cap, creeps down the creaky

stairs, then keeps going down.

HARLAN (V.O.)

Walt and Jacob are smoking outside.

They'll see you...

INT. FOYER - NIGHT OF PARTY - FLASHBACK

Marta come down the stairs, and sees the outline of Walt and

Jacob outside through the glazed window windows.

HARLAN (V.O.)

...through the glazed window.

She holds her breath, a deer in the headlights.

WALT:

Dad, go to bed.

Marta heads right back up the stairs.

HARLAN (V.O.)

You were seen leaving, the security

cameras show you driving off, and

twenty minutes later I am seen alive

and well by my son.

INT. SECOND FLOOR LANDING - NIGHT

Marta climbs the creaky stairs.

HARLAN (V.O.)

You've gone from suspect number one

to an impossibility.

INT. HARLAN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Marta ducks in, ditching the robe and cap on the bed.

EXT. THROMBEY ESTATE SIDE YARD - NIGHT

Marta shimmies down the last of the trellis.

48.

HARLAN (V.O.)

Leave the way you came. And don't.

Be. Seen.

She hops to the ground, then FREEZES and almost shouts.

She's facing a darkened first floor window. Wide open. And

inside it, staring RIGHT AT her, is Greatnana.

Marta is frozen. Greatnana isn't moving either. Just has

her eyes locked on Marta.

After what seems like forever, Greatnana c*cks her head

slightly and asks...

GREATNANA:

Ransom? Are you back again already?

Marta breathes. And backs away. Then turns and goes,

quickly, down across the lawn.

HARLAN (V.O.)

Drive home. Sometime in the next few

days the police will question you.

INT. HARLAN THROMBEY'S STUDY - NIGHT

Back to Harlan and Marta.

MARTA:

Harlan I can't lie I'll puke

HARLAN:

Don't lie. Tell fragments of the

truth. In this exact order:

INT. LIBRARY - LATE AFTERNOON

Blanc catches his coin. Lieutenant Elliott and Trooper

Wagner look up at Marta, expectant. Just a brief moment has

passed since we left them.

MARTA:

I took him upstairs. We played our

nightly game of GO, at some point he

knocked the board over and Joni came

up to check on us. Then I gave him

pain medication, he pulled his

shoulder last week, and left him in

his study. At midnight. Said bye to

Walt, went home.

49.

LIEUTENANT ELLIOTT

What medication did he get?

Marta chooses her words very carefully:

MARTA:

Since his injury I've been giving him

a 100 milligram IV push of Toradol, a

non narcotic analgesic. And to help

him sleep, 3 milligrams of morphine.

LIEUTENANT ELLIOTT

Anything unusual about his demeanor?

Uh oh. Marta keeps it solid. Superhuman effort.

MARTA:

No.

The three men nod. Blanc holds Marta's gaze. She holds it

right back. Then he smiles.

BLANC:

Well that sounds about right. Thank

you Ms. Cabrera.

INT. FOYER - MOMENTS LATER

Marta walks calmly out of the library. Then across the

foyer into a small door.

INT. HALF BATH

Marta walks in, closes the door behind her, locks it, turns

on both the taps, and PUKES into the toilet.

INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

HARLAN THROMBEY - his portrait, with an ambiguous look on

his face.

Marta. Soda water in hand at the reception that night.

Staring shell shocked at Harlan.

The reception for friends of the family. Tables of food.

Twenty or thirty people milling, in dark tasteful clothes,

with the whole Thrombey family.

A tearful Fran has cornered Marta, talks through sobs:

50.

FRAN:

I don't think he killed himself I

don't. I don't. There's this

Hallmark movie Deadly By Surprise

where Danica McKellar plays a wife

who gets poisoned by her husband but

bit by bit so she thinks she's going

crazy and she ends up killing

herself, and my cousin who's the

receptionist at the medical examiners

office says that kind of thing can

totally happen, she says it's not

even like 3% as crazy as stuff she's

seen come through the -

As Fran's talking, Marta looks at the room of family

members, gathered around talking. She FLASHES BACK to:

INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT OF PARTY - FLASHBACK - NIGHT

NIGHT OF THE PARTY

Harlan and Ransom go off together to have a private talk,

leaving the family having a heated conversation in the

living room.

RICHARD:

I don't like him no he's an

a**hole but maybe an

a**hole's what we needed

oh uh huh yeah there you go

JONI:

Oh god. Yeah an a**hole's

what Germany needed in

nineteen thirty ever

Marta stays on the outskirts. Fran, with a tray of

champagne flutes:

FRAN:

Jesus. I'm gonna disappear until the

politics talk is done. You want some

champers?

MARTA:

No I'm technically working. Thanks.

Marta checks her watch. Meanwhile Donna, who's had a few, is

tearing into the family fight.

51.

DONNA:

We're losing our way of life

and our culture, there's

millions of Mexicans coming

and this isn't Joni don't

make this a race thing, I'd

say the same thing if they

were European immigrants -

we allow them in and they

think they own what's ours

JONI:

Oh god really - yeah it's

not a race thing yeah

Oh yeah, if the Swiss were

clogging in the streets -

They're putting. Children.

In cages. I mean these are

camps.

RICHARD:

Nobody's saying that isn't

bad, but I blame the parents

JONI:

For wanting a better life

for their kids, isn't that

what America

RICHARD:

For breaking the law. You're going

to hate hearing this but it's true,

America is for Americans. Marta, come

here.

Richard beckons her over, waving his cake plate. We've seen

this moment before, silent, during Richard's questioning.

LINDA:

Oh god don't.

Marta is drawn over next to Richard, very uncomfortable.

RICHARD:

No, Marta your family came from

Uruguay but you did it right, she did

it legally, I'm saying. You work

hard, and you'll earn your share from

the ground up just like dad and all

of us did - Marta I bet you agree

with me.

LINDA:

Leave the poor girl alone.

RICHARD:

No Marta do you agree, I'd like you

to answer - you wanna become an

American, there are legal ways to do

it, but if you break the law it

doesn't matter if you have a good

heart, you gotta face the

consequences.

52.

At that moment booming shouts begin behind the study door -

Harlan and Ransom going at it. Ransom bursts out.

Marta takes the opportunity to slip into the hallway, alone.

She breathes hard. Takes a champagne flute from the tray.

Drinks it in one gulp.

INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

END FLASHBACK. Marta in the same spot, Fran still talking

her ear off. The room sways. Marta sucks in breath, sways,

and braces herself against the wall.

FRAN:

Oh my god Marta, what?

Meg runs over, rubs her back.

MEG:

Whoa hey, c'mere, hey. What do you,

you want water? Breathe. Hey. Fran

have you still got your stash?

INT. DRAWING ROOM - NIGHT

Empty and dark, fireplace blazing. Above the fireplace is

an ornate mantle clock. Fran uses a key to unlock one of

several tiny drawers hidden in its face, takes out a joint

and hands it to Meg.

FRAN:

Take em whenever you need em -

they're just drying out since you

gave me that Juul.

MEG:

Thanks Fran.

Fran leaves them alone.

MARTA:

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm

sorry

MEG:

Stop saying you're sorry

Jesus

Meg lights the joint.

MARTA:

God my heart won't stop, I can't -

it's just everything, no, thank you

she refuses the joint, then realizes where it came from.

53.

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