Rushmore Page #2

DR. GUGGENHEIM

We're putting you on what we call sudden death academic

probation.

MAX:

(pause) And what does that entail ?

DR. GUGGENHEIM

It entails that if you fail another class, you are going to

be asked to leave Rushmore.

MAX:

I see.

(raises an eyebrow)

In other words, I'll be expelled.

DR. GUGGENHEIM

Right.

Silence.

MAX:

Dr. Guggenheim. I don't want to tell you how to do your job.

But the fact is no matter how hard I try, I still might

flunk another class. And if that means I have to stay on for

a post-graduate year, then so be it. But if --

DR. GUGGENHEIM

We don't offer a postgraduate year.

MAX:

Well. We don't offer it yet.

(pause)

And what about the fact that I'm probably dyslexic?

DR. GUGGENHEIM

You're not dyslexic.

MAX:

Well, I'm a terrible speller.

DR. GUGGENHEIM

Just bring up the grades.

Max sighs. He looks out the window and says quietly:

MAX:

Do you remember how I got into this school?

DR. GUGGENHEIM

Yeah, I do. You wrote a play.

MAX:

That's right. A little one act. And my mother read it and

felt I should go to Rushmore. And you read it, and you gave

me a scholarship, didn't you ?

Dr. Guggenheim nods.

MAX:

Do you regret it?

DR. GUGGENHEIM

No, I don't regret it. But I still might have to expel you.

Max nods. He smiles sadly and whispers:

MAX:

Couldn't we just let me float by? For old times' sake?

DR. GUGGENHEIM

(grimly) Can't do it, Max.

EXT. QUADRANGLE. DAY

Max and Dirk come out the door into the cold. They head

across the grass.

MAX:

They want to kick me out, Dirk.

DIRK:

(concerned) Oh, no. Not again. What are you going to do?

MAX:

The only thing I can do. Try and pull some strings with the

administration, I guess.

DIRK:

(pause)

Maybe you ought to get a tutor.

MAX:

I don't have time for a goddamn tutor. You know my schedule.

INSERT SIGN WRITTEN IN CALLIGRAPHY:

BACKGAMMON CLUB.

Founder:
Max Fischer.

INT. LIBRARY DAY

A long table in the Rushmore library. Max is reading a

library copy of a book about Jacques Cousteau. He is also

playing backgammon with a freshman named ALEX.

ALEX:

Did you hear they're teaching Japanese next year?

MAX:

That's the rumor.

ALEX:

And they're canceling Latin.

MAX:

What? I tried to get Latin canceled for five years. "It's a

dead language," I'd always say.

ALEX:

Well, I guess they finally heard you.

Max shakes his head as this sinks in.

MAX:

At least I saved Dirk from the horror.

Max turns the page of his book. There is a little note

written in the margin in pencil with an arrow pointing to

the text. Max frowns. He turns the book sideways to read it.

INSERT FRAGMENT OF NOTE IN BOOK:

which reminds me of a quote from Henry James: Try to be one

of the people whom nothing is lost.

Max's frown disappears. A change comes over his face. His

eyes glaze over dreamily. He looks to Alex.

MAX:

Who's Henry James?

ALEX:

I don't know.

Max looks back at the book. He studies the quote. He gets up

and goes to the check-out counter. He shows the book to the

LIBRARIAN.

MAX:

What does this mean?

The librarian reads the Henry James quote.

LIBRARIAN:

It means try to be worldly.

MAX:

You mean like smart.

LIBRARIAN:

More or less. Yeah.

MAX:

I'd like to see a list of all the people who've checked out

this book in the past year.

The librarian goes through the cards in a little wooden box.

INSERT SCRAP OF PAPER:

Miss. Cross, 1st grade, room 121

INT. HALLWAY. DAY

Max walks down a hallway in the lower school. He is carrying

the little scrap of paper, checking room numbers as he

walks.

He looks in some of the rooms. He sees kids sitting at

tables with scissors and paste. Kids watching a movie on

science. Kids curled up on mats during naptime.

And then he sees room 121. He goes up to the door and looks

through the window.

A class of first graders is sitting Indian-style in a little

circle on the floor. The teacher is in a tiny little kids'

chair, reading aloud from Kidnapped. She is twenty-eight.

She wears a cardigan sweater and her hair pulled back like a

ballet dancer. She is MISS CROSS.

Max's eyes are glued to the glass. He cracks open the door

an inch to listen to her voice.

MISS CROSS:

I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and

I believe they both get paid in the end.

(darkly:
)

But the fools first.

She looks up mysteriously. She turns the page and continues:

MISS CROSS:

Chapter fifteen. The Lad with the Silver Button.

INT. BLUME INTERNATIONAL CONCRETE. DAY

Mr. Blume has a gigantic office with paintings of battle

scenes and Viking ships, a coat of armor and a statue of a

discus thrower. The concrete plant is outside the window.

A portrait of the Blume family hangs on the wall behind Mr.

Blume's desk. His wife and twin sons are all fair-skinned

redheads. Mr. Blume is dark and sullen. He is smoking a

cigarette in the painting.

Mr. Blume sits at his desk with a silver military issue. 45

automatic disassembled in front of him. He is cleaning it

and drinking a Bloody Mary. His SECRETARY buzzes him on the

speakerphone. Mr. Blume pushes a button on it.

MR. BLUME

Yeah?

SECRETARY:

Mrs. Blume wants you to pick up the twins from school at --

MR. BLUME

Tell them to take the f***ing bus.

SECRETARY:

OK.

INT. CAR. DAY

Max is sitting in a parked Jaguar with Dirk's mother, MRS.

CALLOWAY. She is beautiful. She is dressed in tennis clothes

and wears a terrycloth visor.

Max is wearing a fluorescent orange crossing guard's belt

with a badge at the shoulder that says Patrol Chief. He

hands Mrs. Calloway his phone number.

MRS. CALLOWAY

Thank you, Max. I told Mr. Calloway the other day how

fortunate we are to have someone like you looking out for

Dirk.

MAX:

My pleasure. I'm just trying to impart some of the

experiences I've accrued to help Dirk. There he is now. Nice

talking with you, Mrs. Calloway.

They shake hands. Max gets out of the car and puts his hand

on Dirk's shoulder.

MAX:

How'd the math test go?

DIRK:

What math test?

MAX:

I thought you had a math test today.

DIRK:

No. Did you turn in your paper on the Berlin Airlift ?

MAX:

Yeah, I got an extension.

Dirk gets in the car and drives off. A seventh grader named

BOBBY goes over to Max.

BOBBY:

How'd it go?

MAX:

I shook hands with her.

BOBBY:

Big deal.

MAX:

And I gave her my phone number.

BOBBY:

Buchan said he'd have already banged her by now.

MAX:

He said that?

Max looks across he yard at MAGNUS BUCHAN, the burly foreign

exchange student from Scotland. He is seventeen. He has a

straw in his mouth and he shoots a little blowdart at a

little kid's neck.

Half of Buchan's ear was blown-off in a hunting accident.

MAX:

That's a really crude thing to say. That's Dirk's mother.

BOBBY:

But I thought that's why you picked Dirk as your chapel

partner.

MAX:

(looks at Bobby, pause)

What are you, a lawyer? All I'm saying is that gorilla is a

guest at our school for the year, so respect our women the

say way we would in his jerkwater country.

Mr. Blume pulls up in a brand new black Bentley.

MAX:

Mr. Blume!

Max goes over to Mr. Blume's car.

MAX:

It's Max Fischer.

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