State Of Play Page #10

Synopsis: A petty thief is gunned down in an alley and a Congressman's assistant falls in front of a subway - two seemingly unrelated deaths. But not to wisecracking, brash newspaper reporter Cal McAffrey who spies a conspiracy waiting to be uncovered. With a turbulent past connected to the Congressman and the aid of ambitious young rookie writer Della Frye, Cal begins uprooting clues that lead him to a corporate cover-up full of insiders, informants, and assassins. But as he draws closer to the truth, the relentless journalist must decide if it's worth risking his life and selling his soul to get the ultimate story.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director(s): Kevin Macdonald
Production: Universal Pictures
  2 wins & 4 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.1
Metacritic:
64
Rotten Tomatoes:
84%
PG-13
Year:
2009
127 min
$36,965,395
Website
2,001 Views


probably have newsprint

on their hands

when they read it,

don't you think?

I'll do Collins,

Fergus, PointCorp,

and corporate and

government malfeasance.

Okay.

You do Sonia Baker...

The murder, Mandi,

Rhonda Silver.

And the Dominic Foy

connection, all right? Yeah.

Retire to the neutral corner. Okay.

Gentle. Thank you.

Sir, it's Robert Bingham.

I'm sorry to

call you directly.

I want to assure you that I'm

ready to finish what we started.

Goodbye.

I won't be

more than an hour.

Hey, guys. Evening, sir. How you doing?

- Hello.

- Is it a night for it?

Yeah, yeah,

I think it is.

So, how old are you?

Actually, don't tell me.

It would just

make me sick.

You never ask

a girl her age.

Well, see, I look at you, and I don't

see a girl. I just see a reporter.

At last.

Anyway, back to the story.

Yes.

So I had this, uh, English

teacher in high school.

He was a kind of a longhaired

hippie kind of guy.

He had a pen problem. Yeah.

He solved it by

having a piece

of leather string

around his neck,

and that's where

he'd keep his pen.

Smart.

So I started thinking,

"My friend Della's

got a pen problem.

"How do I solve it?"

And I came up with this. What is it?

I call it the "Della

Frye Nubian Princess,

"'I'm never without a pen"'

celebratory necklace.

Oh, it's beautiful! I

always wanted one of these.

Cheers.

Cheers.

You know, I wanted to tell you

something about Anne Collins.

Okay.

I was just talking to her.

How does Anne

Collins know that

Sonia Baker was

earning $26,000 a month?

What?

How does she know how much

Sonia Baker was earning?

We know that.

Yeah.

How does Anne

Collins know that?

Well, I mean, Stephen must have

heard it in the Foy interview.

We played him a specific part of that tape,

and that figure

is never mentioned.

Cal. Wait,

what are you doing?

What are you doing? Cal?

You gonna fill me in?

Just tell Cameron, "Hold the story."

What? Cal? Cal!

Sh*t.

Who's Robert Bingham,

Stephen?

Who is Robert Bingham?

Are the police outside?

No.

I saved Robert Bingham's

life in Kuwait in '91.

He was a 17-year-old kid.

He was a good soldier.

He was proud

of what we did.

The Army was his life, and he had

problems when he got discharged.

So you had a guy that

you knew to be unstable

do what, exactly?

Scare her?

Maybe beat her up

a little?

No, Cal.

I had him follow her.

Why?

Because I knew she was

hiding something from me.

Because when I'd...

I'd be at her house

and a fax would come in,

she'd get nervous.

Because there were

phone calls late at night.

I was suspicious.

I asked Bingham to observe

her and report back to me.

That's all.

You're a liar, Stephen.

He was more upset about what

she was doing than I was.

You have to understand what

the military means to Bingham.

He hates PointCorp for what

they're trying to do to it.

In his mind,

she just had to stop.

But she did stop,

right?

She tore up her paychecks, and

she put her life at risk for you.

Yes, but I didn't

know that.

I didn't know that

he was gonna kill her.

I didn't know

he had killed her.

When I found out, my thought

was just the same as yours.

I thought PointCorp

had done it.

And when you did

find out?

What was

I supposed to do?

Tell someone.

I tried.

When? When I came to your house,

and I wanted to

talk to you about it,

and all you cared

about was the story.

No, Stephen,

I cared about helping you.

Bullshit. Bullshit.

All you cared about was clearing your

conscience over this little soap opera

you have with Annie.

So you used me.

No, Cal. The same way as you used Bingham.

I was suspicious of her.

I brought him in.

That's all it was!

It was a mistake!

It's my responsibility.

I should never

have done that.

But I never asked

him to kill her.

He owed you his life!

That's why

you called him.

You called him,

and you used him,

like you've been

trying to use me.

One to kill,

and one to cover it up.

If PointCorp and

Fergus hadn't hired her,

none of this would've happened!

No. This is not about Bingham

and PointCorp

and Fergus, man!

It's about you and the

decisions that you have made

that have led to four

people being killed.

One of them was delivering a pizza, Stephen.

Cal. What are

you gonna do?

You know

what I'm gonna do.

You know, it's laughable, your

sense of your own self-worth.

Why is that? 'Cause nobody

reads the papers anymore?

Is that it?

It's just another story,

a couple days of shitstorm,

and it's wrapping paper?

You know, in the middle of

all this gossip and speculation

that permeates

people's lives,

I still think

they know the difference

between real news

and bullshit.

And they're glad that

someone cares enough

to get things on the record

and print the truth.

Cal. Please, Cal, don't do this. Please.

I'm asking you

as your friend.

You got about three minutes

before the cops get here.

I thought you said

you didn't call them.

I lied.

A good soldier fights for

his country and his friends.

But these guys, they want to

make it all about the money.

You want to live

in a world like that?

Drop the weapon!

The story about Stephen comes

out, whether I write it or not.

Drop your weapon!

Drop it!

I'd rather be nothing.

I repeat, drop your weapon!

Well, aren't you gonna send it?

I've only been holding the front

page for four hours, after all.

You send it.

Good night, everybody.

See you tomorrow.

Yinzer.

Yinzer.

Put a candle in the window

'Cause I feel I've got to move

Though I'm going, going

I'll be coming home soon

Long as I can see the light

Pack my bag

and let's get movin'

'Cause I'm bound

to drift a while

When I'm gone, gone

You don't have to worry long

Long as I can see the light

Guess I've got

that old travlin' bone

'Cause this feelin'

won't leave me alone

But I won't, won't

Be losing my way, no, no

Long as I can see the light

Yeah

Yeah

Yeah

Oh, yeah

Put a candle in the window

'Cause I feel I've got to move

Though I'm going, going

I'll be coming home soon

Long as I can see the light

Long as I can see the light

Long as I can see the light

Long as I can see the light

Rate this script:3.7 / 3 votes

Matthew Michael Carnahan

Matthew Michael Carnahan (sometimes credited as Matt Carnahan) is an American screenwriter who wrote the feature film The Kingdom (2007), and the film adaptation of the hit BBC television drama serial State of Play. Carnahan also wrote the screenplay for Lions for Lambs for United Artists. His brother is Joe Carnahan, who wrote and directed Narc (2002), Smokin' Aces (2006) and The A-Team (2010). More recently, he worked on the screenplay for the zombie film World War Z (2013). He wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Nemesis with his brother Joe Carnahan. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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