Soul Page #18

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JOE:

Yeah!

(beat)

So, what happens next?

DOROTHEA:

We come back tomorrow night and do

it all again.

Joe looks confused, slightly disheartened.

DOROTHEA:

What’s wrong, Teach?

JOE:

It’s just... I’ve been waiting on

this day for my entire life. I

thought I’d feel... different.

Dorothea studies him knowingly. Finally:

DOROTHEA:

I heard this story about a fish. He

swims up to this older fish and

says “I’m trying to find this thing

they call the ocean.” “The ocean?”

says the older fish, “That’s what

you’re in right now.” “This?” says

the young fish, “This is water.

What I want is the ocean.”

She hails a cab.

DOROTHEA:

See you tomorrow.

©2020 DISNEY•PIXAR -

--PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

7/17/2020 Soul Academy Draft 113.

Dorothea leaves.

Joe watches her go, alone and confused. The marquee behind

him flicks off.

INT. SUBWAY.

Joe ponders Dorothea’s words as he rides the train. It

lurches. He bumps into someone.

COMMUTER:

Hey man!

JOE:

Sorry.

Joe looks into the train. SUBWAY RIDERS stand motionless,

looking at their phones. He looks at his reflection in the

window, feeling alone and empty.

INT. JOE’S APARTMENT. NIGHT.

Joe closes the door behind him and stares at his all-toofamiliar

apartment.

Around him, nothing has changed. He walks into the empty

silence.

He turns on a dim lamp and sits down at the piano.

A CRUNCH of stuff in his pocket gets his attention. He pulls

out the things 22 “found”: a pizza crust, a bagel, a

lollipop, a spool of thread, and a helicopter seed.

He absently dumps it on an end-table and puts his head in his

hand, mournfully fingering the piano keys.

Joe’s eyes fall back onto 22’s mementos. It triggers

something in Joe.

JOE REMEMBERS:

OUTSIDE THE HALF NOTE, the helicopter seed twirls into his

hand. But it is 22’s memory.

BACK AT HIS PIANO, Joe is startled. He looks at the pizza

crust.

JOE REMEMBERS:

©2020 DISNEY•PIXAR -

--PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

7/17/2020 Soul Academy Draft 114.

AT THE DOOR STOOP, Joe thoroughly enjoys the pizza slice

moments after leaving the hospital. Again, this is 22’s

memory.

BACK AT HIS PIANO, Joe scoops the objects and places them on

the music ledge of the piano, studying them.

After a moment, he begins to play. Each item triggers other

specific MEMORIES:

-The BAGEL falling to the Busker’s guitar case.

-The LOLLIPOP segues into Dez’s sharp haircut.

-The THREAD SPOOL reminds him of his mother, Libba, passing

his dad’s suit onto him.

Joe smiles as other MEMORIES start to flow, inspiring the

music:

-Joe lies on the subway grate, feeling the wind beneath his

back.

-Watching Connie go into the zone while playing her

trombone.

Then deeper MEMORIES of Joe’s life emerge:

-A younger Libba gives her toddler-aged son Joe a bath.

-His father, Ray, drops a needle onto a jazz record, while

10-year-old Joe watches. They enjoy the music together.

-A teenaged Joe pedals a bike through the park, feeling the

freedom of summer.

-The morning light fills the streets of his Queens

neighborhood.

-Teenaged Joe watches a Mets game from a rooftop with his

parents. Fireworks explode against the city skyline.

The memories bring tears to Joe as he plays. More recent ones

start to come:

-In a diner, Joe sits alone eating a piece of pie, deeply

satisfied.

-Joe gives a young Curley his first pair of drumsticks,

inspiring him with a Max Roach record.

-Joe plays his piano for his ill father. Ray smiles as he

listens, lost in his son’s music.

©2020 DISNEY•PIXAR -

--PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

7/17/2020 Soul Academy Draft 115.

-Joe and his mother are alone at the beach, letting the

water wash over their bare feet.

The memories overwhelm Joe as he continues to play. He smiles

as tears fall. Slowly his perspective alters, lifting out of

himself, out of the city, off the Earth, and into the cosmos.

Suddenly another memory comes, as just voices:

22 (O.S.)

Maybe sky watching could be my

Spark. Or walking! I’m really good

at walking.

JOE (O.S.)

Those aren’t Sparks, 22. That’s

just regular ol’ living.

This snaps Joe back to Earth.

A disturbing thought takes hold. He picks up the helicopter

seed, gazing at it as he thinks about 22.

Joe makes a decision, puts the seed in his pocket, closes his

eyes, and begins playing again.

The room fades away as the music takes him into the zone.

EXT. THE ASTRAL PLANE.

Joe opens his eyes, now in the zone. He plays an astral piano

in his soul form, floating above the plane. Other souls in

the zone float on the horizon.

MOONWIND (O.S.)

Joe!?

Joe looks to see Moonwind aboard his ship, sailing toward

him.

MOONWIND:

Joe! Good heavens, man! What are

you doing in the zone!

JOE:

Moonwind!

Joe jumps onto the deck.

JOE:

I messed up. I need to find 22.

©2020 DISNEY•PIXAR -

--PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

7/17/2020 Soul Academy Draft 116.

MOONWIND:

I’m afraid she’s become a Lost

Soul.

JOE:

What? How is that possible?!

MOONWIND:

I’ll explain on the way.

Moonwind speeds the ship across the Astral Plane.

MOONWIND:

When neither of you returned to the

Half Note, I suspected something

had gone wrong.

CUT TO:

EXT. ASTRAL PLANE -FLASHBACK.

Moonwind steers the ship.

MOONWIND (V.O.)

I came back here, and that’s when I

spotted her.

Moonwind spots 22, now covered in astral dust --DARK 22. He

waves at 22. But the Lost Soul runs off.

CUT TO:

BACK TO SCENE:

Joe scans a field of Lost Souls with a telescope as Moonwind

continues:

MOONWIND:

Lost Souls are obsessed by

something that disconnects them

from life. And now that 22 has

technically lived, she’s become one

of them.

Joe finds Dark 22 in the distance.

JOE:

There she is!

MOONWIND:

Good show!

©2020 DISNEY•PIXAR -

--PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

7/17/2020 Soul Academy Draft 117.

Moonwind steers the ship and pursues.

JOE:

22!

Dark 22 HISSES at Joe and rockets off.

MOONWIND:

Ready the net!

JOE:

I’m on it!

Joe c*cks the harpoon net and FIRES. The net wraps around

Dark 22 like a lasso. They try to reel 22 in.

But Dark 22 dives below the surface, forcing the bow of the

ship straight down into the dust.

MOONWIND:

Oh no! She’s got us!

As the ship sinks, Joe jumps off.

JOE:

Moonwind!

MOONWIND:

(salutes)

A captain always goes down with the

ship. It has been a pleasure

serving with you--

Moonwind and the entire ship is pulled down, vanishing into

the dust.

CUT TO:

EXT. NEW YORK --14TH & 7TH. DAY.

Moonwind is spinning his sign. He is suddenly jolted out of

his trance.

CUT TO:

BACK TO SCENE:

Dark 22 pops up in the distance, HISSING at Joe. The soul

runs off again.

JOE:

22!

©2020 DISNEY•PIXAR -

--PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

7/17/2020 Soul Academy Draft 118.

Joe chases 22.

JOE:

Come back, 22! It’s me, Joe!

Joe corners 22 between some astral rocks. 22 paces, animal-

like, cornered and scared.

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