State Of Play Page #9

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
1,991 Views


and then he's

not gonna want her,

and he's not

gonna want the baby...

She got so wrecked

about it that she burned

thousands of dollars

worth of paychecks.

Who does that?

And I tried

to get her to just relax

and to think

about the publicity,

or think about an abortion, or

think about, you know, her word.

"Just keep your word.

And what about how

"your decisions

are gonna affect me?"

And then she's dead, you

know? I hear it's a murder,

and so I don't

want anything more

to do with this thing,

you know?

I'm just terrified, and I

want to go someplace warm,

and I want to come

back to a clean slate.

And you guys write your article

and just get them off me.

I'm nothing.

I'm nothing to those guys.

So you were right, man. Okay?

And now we can prove it.

I get you on the record. We can

nail these mothers to the wall!

Sliberty? We can nail them to

the wall, all right? We win!

Yeah. Just...

All right?

Just... Will you just

give me a minute?

Okay.

He just needs

a minute.

Sh*t!

Get off... Get off of me!

You f***ing...

Help!

Stephen!

Get up!

What are you doing?

Hey, stop!

No!

Come on, man!

Get off!

What the hell are

you doing to him?

Stephen!

Stephen! Stephen! Stephen!

Hey, I'm trying to help you,

man. Yeah. She was pregnant, Cal.

Did I need

to hear that?

Yeah. Huh? You couldn't tell me yourself?

You had to do it like that?

Was that important to you...

I thought you'd want

to hear the truth.

That's right.

You were just seeking

the truth, that's all.

You're just...

You're a truth seeker.

That's all.

You can't help it.

It's who you are.

You're such a hypocrite.

You're not

interested in me.

Me coming here was all about

you and getting your story.

I trusted you.

You're my friend!

You were supposed

to be my friend

when you were

screwing my wife!

You're my friend, Cal.

I never would've

done this to you!

I'm sorry, Stephen, okay?

I'm sorry

about all of it.

Please, look,

I've been an a**hole,

and I can understand

why you hate me for it.

You've just gotta put aside

how you feel about me

and stay with this.

We're so close.

Every single part of this,

I have put myself on the line.

Stephen.

Stephen!

I need a minute with

Congressman Fergus.

Tell him it's Cal McAffrey from

the Globe, and I'm on a deadline.

F*** him.

A**hole.

It's all right. I saw that.

Just give him this card

and tell him it's an issue

that directly concerns him.

Sir? He asked me

to give you this.

Excuse me.

Congressman.

That Cal McAffrey.

What's up?

How'd you find me?

I followed the trail

of crumbs, Congressman.

I need

a confirmation from you

for an article that

we're running tomorrow.

I have been told

that you recommended

to Greer Thornton

to hire Sonia Baker,

is that correct?

So?

So if it turns out

that Sonia Baker was,

in fact,

gathering information

on Stephen Collins'

committee findings

and passing that

information back

to the very company

that was being investigated

and that company is

complicit in her murder,

well, Jesus Christ, it's not

gonna look too good for you,

is it, Congressman?

One, never use the Lord's

name in vain with me.

Two, how could you

even assume

that a bright, naive,

was what, a double agent?

Mr. McAffrey, I went

to bat for a young girl

whose family I met

and respected,

a family that

seemed like

the wholesome ideal upon

which this country was founded.

And Sonia Baker's

mother's first name is?

Pardon me? You heard me, family friend.

Do you really think

that your new owners,

these responsible

corporate citizens,

are going to allow

you to publish this

speculative drivel?

You are gonna be

out of a job before

the devil can even

say your name, son.

Janine.

Sonia's mother's

first name is Janine.

You're missing the point.

You didn't see his face.

I saw his face. Fergus is

at the heart of this story.

This story is dead, Cal.

One way or another,

PointCorp pushed

Sonia Baker in

front of that train.

Really? The trouble is,

our new corporate owners

won't let me print any of this

unless I have one of the

major players on the record.

On the record, Cal!

And the only person

who could do that won't.

Would you like

to tell me why?

Or is it just that

you shagged his wife?

Maybe you'd like to

explain to me how, when

and why MediaCorp

chopped off your balls.

This is as big and as

connected as it gets.

You follow any fissure of

this, it's a massive story.

You got Fergus,

you got PointCorp,

and now you got MediaCorp,

all connected,

all in collusion, all playing

for the same country club.

I didn't realize you'd

taken up the game.

Oh, Cal, if there's any corruption

involved here, it's coming from you.

You have injected yourself in this

story right from the beginning,

and we all know why.

It's over, Cal,

as far as you're concerned.

I can't protect you anymore.

And right now, I'm not too sure I'd want to.

You want the story?

Yeah. Come on.

I was first introduced

to Sonia Baker

in April of 2007.

She was hired as a research

assistant on my staff.

She was recommended

by the Majority Whip,

Congressman from West Virginia, George Fergus.

Three months into her time

there, Sonia and I began

a romantic relationship.

I have e-mailed copies of

documents to you, which show beyond doubt

the corruption between

members of my own party.

I now know that she had been

placed in my office as a spy.

PointCorp's tentacles reach

into every corner

of the ever-growing

private security industry,

both at home and abroad.

Not only does

this pose a great...

But it is

a violation of our laws.

A monopolistic business...

...obstruct and

otherwise destroy

my investigation

into PointCorp.

Sonia was paid to make

regular reports to PointCorp...

Left unchecked, I believe

that within five years,

PointCorp will have its own

standing army on US soil.

...into their

fraudulent practices...

It will control our

intelligence-gathering apparatus...

What happened in committee... She

had access to everything we were doing

and effectively crippled

our investigation.

It is a frightening vision

and one which must be stopped.

However, when

my relationship with her grew,

she ceased her spying

on their behalf,

and I believe

they killed her for it.

For people like this,

who I've spent

the last year and a half

of my life investigating...

Innocent civilians are really

little more than disposable lives,

thought of as

collateral damage.

And I believe it was simply the

public nature of my position that

saved me

from a similar fate.

So, as political suicides go,

how was that?

Thank you, Congressman.

You okay?

Yeah.

He was set up.

She was sleeping with him

for $26,000 a month. I mean...

Sliberty.

Cal.

You all set? Okay

Let's go.

You still here?

Yeah.

I thought you would've been down

at your desk blasting it online.

Well, you know,

a piece this big,

people should

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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