Midnight Express
- R
- Year:
- 1978
- 121 min
- 1,905 Views
PROLOGUE BLACK SCREEN - SUPERIMPOSE:
THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY.
IT OCTOBER 6, 1970 ISTANBUL,
TURKEY -
SOUND UNDER, SHARP: CRACKLE - RIP - SNIP...
FADE IN:
A SET OF CLOTHES ON A HOTEL ROOM BED -- trenchcoat, bulky
white turtle-neck sweater, T-shirt, jeans, Western style
boots. SOUNDS continue, Accentuated. MOVE Across open
TRAVEL BAGS On The bed. Clothes, possessions. CONTINUE
Across FURNITURE, WASHBASIN, TOILET...A large room, high
old ceilings And windows suggesting Ancient Europe & design,
A haunting greenish AFTERNOON light.
We MOVE to HANDS, TIGHT - drawing out a strip of adhesive
tape,
SCISSORS move in TIGHT...SNIP!
UNDERARM, TIGHT. Tape being laid over it.
BACK OF SHOULDER. TIGHT. Tape going on.
BELLYBUTTON, TIGHT. TAPE going Then: a harsh RIP! SOUND
and the tape comes off the bellybutton.
HANDS with new strip of tape. Moving to:
HASHISH PLAQUE. Four of them, thinly pressed. One on top
of the other. The HAND wrapping a portion of the TAPE around
them and:
BELLY, TIGHT. SOUNDS of BREATHING stop. The belly is sucked
in. The TAPE is pulled HARD across, then CLINCHED. We
hear F.X. of HEART BEAT--
MOVE UP THE CHEST TO:
BILLY HAYES - 21, baby-face, attractive, medium build an
aura of innocence. His eyes moving off his belly to:
MIRROR. FULL SHOT. Climax. A creature in a bondage of
his own devise, he is naked in his underpants, his body
criss-crossed by a network of TAPE and 40 tightly pressed
plaques of HASHISH in every conceivable crevice of his
body. The eyes are hard.
NIX THROUGH HEART BEAT, SOUNDS OF AIRPORT.
CUT:
INTERIOR:
ISTANBUL AIR TERMINAL dirty, crowded, wooden benches,
peddlers. Turkish flight instructions on LOUDSPEAKER,
followed by mediocre English translations. NOTE: ALL
DIALOGUE IN TURKISH TO FOLLOW WILL BE MARKED OFF BY
PARENTHESIS. A CERTAIN WILL BE SUBTITLED, BUT SOME NOT.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Pan American Flight 1 to Frankfurt,
London, and New York has arrived
and will be ready for boarding at
Gate 7 in 20 minutes.
REPEAT IN ENGLISH over:
BILL walking down a long CORRIDOR. He moves somewhat stuffly
in the clothes we saw laid out on the bed; his face
complicated by dark, rather ridiculous aviator sunglasses
and an increasing edge of nervousness to his actions. With
him is:
SUSAN 23, healthy outdoor looks, dressed casually colorful
like an American student abroad.
APPROACHING P.O.V. - a group of TURKISH SECURITY GUARDS,
in rumpled green uniforms, at a security CHECKPOINT inspect
the carry-on bags of several PASSENGERS.
BILLY tensely contemplating the guards as he walks.
SUSAN digging in her bag for her passport as she walks.
BILLY, looking from guards ahead to SUSAN. He suddenly
breaks stride, still a fair distance from the
checkpoint. SUSAN glances at him. He is holding his belly.
BILLY:
I think I've been poisoned.
SUSAN:
And you ate two baclavas, right? I
not to touch them, mine was awful.
BILLY:
(his voice strained)
Look, I think I'm going to have to
go to the john again. You go on
through, I'll catch up.
With a sense of panic, he turns and goes back down the
corridor without waiting for a response. SUSAN concerned,
moves on.
CUT:
BILLY in the WASHROOM MIRROR, again checks himself out.
His glasses are off, and he has just watered himself down.
But the SOUND of his HEARTBEAT is up, and his nerves are
visible in his eyeballs and he knows it. He dabs at the
sweat on his sideburns. He closes his eyes, takes a DEEP
BREATH. A pause. He puts his dark sunglasses back on.
Turns away from the mirror. No going back now.
ADVANCING P.O.V. - SECURITY CHECKPOINT. The GUARDS again.
Closer, closer, Guns in their HOLSTERS. SOUND of billy's
heartbeat,
CLOSE - GUARD smoking a cigarette, bored, uniform, looks
at BILLY.
CUT:
The GUARDS again.SOUND of Billy's in a tattered olive
GUARD:
Passport!
BILLY PASSPORT. The Guard's tobacco-stained FINGERS take
it open it. Basic information on Billy: Birth Date April
17, 1949. Birth Place: Babylon, Long Island. No wife, no
minors. Signature.
GUARD gives it back to BILLY.
GUARD:
Bag!
BILLY opens his shoulder bag, proffers it. The GUARD tosses
it, pushing aside books, grabbing a white plastic dish.
GUARD:
Nebu?
BILLY:
(Understand the
Turkish expression,
"What's this?")
It's a frisbee.
GUARD:
Nebu?
BILLY:
A Frisbee.
(makes a throwing
gesture of the
wrist)
You throw, catch it. Game!
Curious, one of the other GUARDS ambles over looking at
the frisbee.
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"Midnight Express" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/midnight_express_1061>.
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