Room Page #9

OFFICER PARKER:

Did this Nick guy hurt you?

She goes to touch his lip, but he flinches away.

JACK:

I bit me by accident. And the, the,

the -

He pats the ground to remember the word.

JACK (CONT'D)

The hard of the street. I jumped

and smasheded my knee.

(CONTINUED)

37 CONTINUED:
(4) 37

He remembers Bad Tooth and takes it out of his mouth.

OFFICER PARKER:

What’s that, Jack?

JACK:

A bit of Ma.

Both officers peer at Bad Tooth, and exchange a dark look.

38 INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT 38

Inside the moving police car. Jack's head jerks as he tries

to make sense of the passing images. He flinches as a car

passes in the other direction. Bewildering signs: YIELD,

HIDDEN DRIVEWAY.

OFFICER PARKER:

So, Jack? You see anything?

JACK:

Everything.

(CONTINUED)

38 CONTINUED:
38

OFFICER PARKER:

No, but anything you recognise?

Your room, Jack, is it in a

bungalow - all one level? Or

stairs? What's outside the room?

JACK:

Space.

(corrects himself)

The world.

He plucks at the seat belt, which is too high for him and

pressing uncomfortably on his neck.

OFFICER GRABOWSKI

You reckon the kid's on something?

OFFICER PARKER:

Jack, when you step out the door -

Jack shakes his head anxiously.

OFFICER PARKER (CONT’D)

You don't like to go outside?

JACK:

We don't know to open the door.

OFFICER GRABOWSKI

My money's on some kind of cult.

The tooth, the long hair...

OFFICER PARKER:

Is there daylight in your room?

Jack nods.

OFFICER PARKER (CONT’D)

How many windows?

JACK:

Zero.

He makes a circle with his finger so she'll understand.

(CONTINUED)

38 CONTINUED:
(2) 38

OFFICER PARKER:

Then how does the sun come in?

JACK:

Through Skylight.

OFFICER PARKER:

Excellent.

(on her walkie-talkie)

Check the satellite. Sounds like

his mother's being held in a house

with a skylight.

OFFICER GRABOWSKI

Needle in a haystack...

JACK (OVERLAPPING)

Room's not a house.

OFFICER PARKER:

OK.

JACK:

It's a...

OFFICER PARKER:

Yeah?

JACK:

It's a...

OFFICER GRABOWSKI

Might get more out of him when he's

had some sleep.

OFFICER PARKER:

(to Grabowski)

Tom, give me a break.

JACK:

(overlapping)

Room's a... a shed.

OFFICER PARKER:

A shed! You're doing great, Jack.

Now, after you got in the truck -

Jack shakes his head.

JACK:

He putted me - I wasn't meant to be

alive.

(CONTINUED)

38 CONTINUED:
(3) 38

OFFICER PARKER:

What made you jump out of the

truck, Jack?

JACK:

Ma said in my head.

He taps it.

OFFICER PARKER:

What did she say, exactly?

JACK:

Jump when it Slows Down. But I

couldn't, I was all...

He's remembering being trapped in the rug.

OFFICER PARKER:

So what did you do?

JACK:

The third time, I got banged.

OFFICER PARKER:

The third time of what?

JACK:

The third slow, everything went

sideways -

(mimes being flung across

flatbed)

-and then it stopped and I jumped

and -

OFFICER PARKER (OVERLAPPING)

Gotcha!

She closes her eyes and fixes the geometry of Jack’s journey

in her mind.

OFFICER PARKER (CONT’D)

(on her walkie-talkie)

Control. Listen carefully. South on

Maple, three stop signs from the

junction with Beach, look for a

garden shed with a skylight.

Officer Grabowski, impressed, swings the car around.

39 INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT 39

Minutes later. Outside an unlit house, with a Police van and

a back-up, unmarked car parked facing the other way. A plain

clothes OFFICER is knocking on the front door of the house.

Jack watches through the car window as Officer Parker

consults with an OLDER WHITE MALE OFFICER, also plain

clothes. Parker and the older officer start to poke around

the side of the house, disappearing for a moment before

running back. Officer Parker takes what looks like a crowbar

from the trunk of the car. She draws her weapon. Grabowski

moves to leave the car.

OFFICER PARKER:

Stay with the boy.

She disappears around the back of the house. Jack

hyperventilates, thinking about Old Nick and Ma.

OFFICER GRABOWSKI

(eyes Jack in mirror)

You OK, kid?

We hear shouting, a crack of splitting wood. Jack starts

clawing at the car door, can't find the handle.

OFFICER GRABOWSKI (CONT’D)

Hey, hey, take it easy.

A figure hurtles towards the car: Ma. She can't get the door

open either because of the lock.

Faces pressed to the glass, she and Jack almost touch. Then,

at last the door is open and Jack is in her arms.

40 INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT 40

A little later. Jack and Ma, in blankets, hold each other as

the police cruiser moves through the night.

Jack does a huge yawn, utterly exhausted now the adrenalin is

gone.

JACK:

Can we go to Bed now?

MA:

We can do anything. They'll find us

somewhere to sleep soon.

JACK:

No, but Bed. In Room.

(CONTINUED)

40 CONTINUED:
40

Ma realizes he thought their escape would be temporary. She

hugs him as he drifts off to sleep.

40A INT. HOSPITAL - EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT 40A

Still in Ma’s arms, Jack half wakes to find himself carried

through a hospital emergency room. They are being bustled

along by Officers Parker and Grabowski, A FEMALE PLAIN

CLOTHES DETECTIVE, a DOCTOR, a NURSE and a HOSPITAL SECURITY

GUARD. A woman in her 50s, is beside them, her arm around MA.

This is NANCY, Ma’s mother. It’s like a strange dream to

Jack. Through the group around him he can make out other

figures waiting in chairs. He can hear a drunk shouting,

phones ringing.

JACK:

Ma.

Ma shushes him, stroking his hair. He drifts back to sleep.

41 OMITTED 41

42 OMITTED 42

43 OMITTED 43

44 OMITTED 44

45 INT. HOSPITAL - MA AND JACK'S SUITE - DAY 45

Next morning. A bright hospital room. Jack and Ma share the

fancy hospital bed. A cot bed, unused, has been set up to one

side. Jack is awake but content to lie close to Ma for a

while - studying the dials and switches on the wall above his

head. He looks at Ma, asleep, bruises fading to yellow-green.

He sits up and pulls back the sheet. He's wearing only a pair

of underpants from Room which look particularly wretched in

this new antiseptic environment. He touches the part of the

mattress he’s being lying on. It’s damp. He examines a

bandage on his knee. He gets up. On a side table, he sees a

plate with the remains of some toast on it and a half drunk

cup of tea. He sniffs at the food. There are two surgical

masks there, also. He walks slowly to the opposite wall, his

little figure silhouetted against the translucent blinds. He

stops in front of the one window which has its blind drawn.

The hospital suite is high up and the view is spectacular.

(CONTINUED)

45 CONTINUED:
45

From the back we study Jack's small figure and beyond it the

vast world below.

(CONTINUED)

45 CONTINUED:
(2) 45

Coming around on Jack's face we see that he is trying to make

sense of what he’s seeing. It takes him a moment to realize

what he’s looking at and how high above ground he is. His

breathing quickens and he turns and scurries back to bed.

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