Miss Sloane Page #9

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RODOLFO SCHMIDT:

You’re going to try to be normal?

LAUREN:

(sotto voce)

This I have to see.

ELIZABETH:

You can work in this sanitized

sardine can if you want. I’ll be at

America’s favorite pastime with

40,000 of our marks.

INT. CAMDEN YARDS BASEBALL STADIUM - SKYBOX - SUNSET - PAST

An Orioles game is well underway as sunset crayolas the

Baltimore skyline. The ten members of the team look out on

40,000 spectators from a private skybox.

ELIZABETH:

Campaign contributions don’t create

binding obligations, they’re debts of

honor. If, on polling day, a

Congressmen thinks a vote against

will be political suicide, he’ll

betray the Gun Lobby to save his ass

even if they funded surgery to whiten

his teeth.

RODOLFO SCHMIDT:

A skybox? At a hundred times the

price of an average ticket? This is

your attempt at being normal?

ELIZABETH:

We can talk shop in relative privacy.

I’m compromising.

ESME:

However much we spend to get the

public on our side, the Gun Lobby can

afford to drown us out.

39.

ELIZABETH:

And here’s the beauty of it; the

reason we have any chance at all: we

don’t need to spend to get the public

on our side. They already are. There

are 40,000 people in this stadium.

Polls show that 32,000 of them favor

gun control, just not vehemently

enough to change their vote over it,

and further objurgate the painfully-

obscure language of the Second

Amendment.

FRANKLIN:

So we spend to make gun control the

deal-breaker.

ELIZABETH:

Exactly. America has endured 31

school shootings since Columbine,

more than double the amount in the

rest of the world put together. Yes,

Franklin. We make guns a deal-

breaker. We start a movement, build a

consensus, do everything we can to

make it snowball. That’s how we win.

Down on the field, players trudge off for a time-out.

Sixpence None the Richer’s Kiss Me BOOMS around the stadium.

ROSS:

This is moot, but just so you know,

baseball isn’t America’s favorite

pastime anymore. Statistically, I

mean. The NFL has polled-

ELIZABETH:

I already knew that, and it’s not

moot. The NFL season kicks off little

over a month before Heaton-Harris

goes to vote. Average attendance of

67,000, tens of millions watching on

TV.

The romantic music has the effect of making Elizabeth more

aggressive.

ELIZABETH (CONT’D)

This is where Jane and Joe reside. I

want pro-Heaton-Harris ads on the big

screen, I want TV spots; the public

don’t pay heed to politicians, they

listen to their heroes. We get hold

of sports agents and brow-beat them

into having their charges pledge

support for increased gun control-

She stops, as some of her team become distracted.

LAUREN:

(to Clara)

Ah, guys...

Horror washes over Clara’s face, as she looks to -

40.

THE JUMBOTRON. KISS CAM has homed in on her, standing beside

Alex. He smirks, relatively unruffled. Clara pleads with the

big screen as though it can understand her.

CLARA:

No, no, we’re not - we just met!

The crowd grow restless as Alex and Clara stand, not kissing.

Playful BOOS begin to ring out. This is awkward.

ALEX:

Ah, what the hell...

Alex grabs Clara and pulls her close in front of him, tilts

his head to the right. From the camera view on the giant

screen, they appear to be kissing.

NEW ANGLE - they are, in fact, not quite touching. Alex closes

his eyes and expertly caresses her cheek with his fingertips.

ALEX (CONT’D)

(whisper)

Tilt your head ever so slightly to

the right.

She does. The crowd GOES NUCLEAR. Alex pulls back, smiles.

Kiss Cam moves on to the next unsuspecting couple.

FRANKLIN:

Very well saved.

Clara, despite her best efforts, looks genuinely impressed.

ALEX:

(cocky bastard)

You wanna try the real thing.

ELIZABETH:

Are you done? Can we get back to it

now?

ROSS:

So much for ‘relative privacy’.

RODOLFO SCHMIDT:

Should’ve stayed in the office.

INT. GUN LOBBY - BOB SANDFORD’S OFFICE - DAY - PAST

GUNS. Pictures of guns. Model guns. A golden gun. He’s a 200pound

bull and you wouldn’t mess with him anyway, but Bob

Sandford’s office isn’t designed to make you feel welcome.

He leans back in his executive chair, King of his empire. Even

the hardened Connors is unusually subdued.

BOB SANDFORD:

We’re a powerful institution, Pat.

There’s over five million of us. And

we’re armed. Now I’m not saying we

set out to intimidate, but when the

Gun Lobby wants to meet you, you damn

well meet.

41.

CONNORS:

Who are we talking about here?

BOB SANDFORD:

Wickman, Democrat, Wisconsin. Always

seems to be unavailable to take our

call.

INT. COLE, KRAVITZ AND WATERMAN - STRATEGY ROOM - DAY - PAST

ECU ON A FLAT-SCREEN TV: News coverage of a press conference.

A grief-stricken father, JOEL PATTERSON, sniffles and fights

tears as he speaks.

JOEL PATTERNSON (ON TV; FILTERED)

We’ve seen this a million times

before. This speech. This situation.

It seems so far away. You never think

this is going to be you giving it. My

girls died...

He takes a long pause, trying to compose himself.

Connors, R.M. Dutton, and Jane watch the TV. There is genuine

sympathy in the eyes of the latter.

CONNORS:

(rolls eyes; to himself)

Jesus Christ.

JOEL PATTERNSON (ON TV; FILTERED)

We could have stopped this...

On the TV, Joel breaks down in tears. It’s rather

heartbreaking. However, R.M. Dutton is nonplussed.

R.M. DUTTON

We get the idea.

Jane clicks off the TV.

JANE:

Joel Patterson, high school history

teacher. There was a renewed wave of

anti-gun sentiment in Wisconsin after

his wife and two children were shot

dead in a mall.

CONNORS:

That was months ago-

JANE:

It hasn’t died down. Big media still

runs coverage on him. Mothers against

guns marches, there was an online

pledge to vote against anyone who

opposes gun control-

CONNORS:

This is her. Public outrage after a

gun attack lasts around a week per

casualty, this whole Pattinson story

should be in the ground by now.

42.

JANE:

Patterson.

CONNORS:

Huh?

JANE:

Their name. The Patterson family.

CONNORS:

I don’t give a sh*t if they were the

Partridge Family. She’s revived this.

JANE:

Actually, she’s cultivated it. Public

support for gun control’s up 8% in

the last two weeks alone. Wickman’s

avoiding the Gun Lobby ‘cause if he

gives them what they want, there’s a

very real chance he won’t make it

through fall.

R.M. DUTTON

Why didn’t we close him earlier?

CONNORS:

It’s Wisconsin, it’s not exactly...

Where is she now?

INT. PETERSON WYATT - STRATEGY ROOM - DAY - PAST

The team hard at work, making calls, crunching numbers.

An entire wall is dedicated to bio mugshots of Congressmen,

with red slashes over some and green ticks over others. Some

have no markings. This is their vote count.

Ross stands and admires it with Cynthia, Franklin and Esme.

ROSS:

217’s the magic number. 217 gets us a

majority-

CYNTHIA:

I thought 218 is a majority-

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