STAY Page #15

Leon stands there, smiling in the rain, no longer wearing

dark glasses, looking directly into Sam's eyes.

Sam stares at Leon for a moment before speaking.

SAM:

Leon?

LEON:

I always thought you had brown

eyes.

SAM:

You can see me?

LEON:

I can see everything. For the first

time, I can see everything.

Sam cannot speak for a moment. Finally:

SAM:

How?

LEON:

Henry. It's all because of Henry.

Sam shakes his head in stunned disbelief.

SAM:

What's happening to us?

LEON:

The Buddhists had it right the

whole time. The world is illusion.

91.

SAM:

You're telling me we're dreaming?

LEON:

No. Henry's dreaming.

INT. CAR -- NIGHT

DRIVER'S POV

We watch a terrible accident from the driver's perspective,

through the windshield: the steel guardrails rush toward us

and it's too late to swerve.

The collision is utterly, eerily silent.

.

The CAMERA'S motion follows the head of the driver, slamming

forward and then back, a terrible confusion as the car begins

to roll, the windshield shattered.

In all this chaos we are thrown from the car, but it's

impossible to get any sense of our bearings before the SCREEN

GOES BLACK.

EXT. SEVENTH AVENUE -- NIGHT

Henry, soaked by the rain, stands outside a clothes boutique,

well lit to attract passers-by. He stares through the plate

glass window at the immaculately-attired mannequins.

A sign posted inside the window reads: EVERYTHING MUST GO.

BOY (O.S.)

Mommy, is that man going to die?

Henry, startled, turns and sees the same boy and mother we've

encountered several times before. The mother pulls her son

closer. They stare at Henry.

The boy holds a red balloon.

Henry looks down. Blood is dripping from his shirtsleeves,

down his arms, off his fingertips, splattering on the

sidewalk, mixing with the rainwater. He stares at his palms.

Somewhere nearby a BABY is howling.

When Henry looks up again everything on the crowded street

has stopped. The cars and trucks and buses have stopped, the

people on the sidewalk have stopped.

92.

Everyone stares at Henry. Riders on the city bus lean out the

window and stare at him. Bicycle messengers stare at him. A

woman walking her dog stares at him, and so does the dog. The

newspaper vendor stares at him. People sitting in a

restaurant look at him through the window.

Henry closes his eyes. The puddle of blood by his feet grows

larger and larger.

INT. COLUMBIA LIBRARY STACKS

INSERT LEATHER BOOK SPINE

.

The gold-lettered title reads: "La Vie de Tristan R.veur."

Lila pulls the book off the shelf and begins skimming through

the final pages. Her cell phone is wedged between her

shoulder and her face.

LILA:

Sam? You there?

SAM (O. S.)

Did you find it?

LILA:

Yeah. My French is a little rusty.

Let's see... oh, he was friends

with Marcel Duchamp... here it is.

She reads haltingly, translating as she goes.

LILA (CONT' D)

"At midnight on the fifteenth of

March, R.veur strolled calmly to

the center of the Brooklyn Bridge,

tossed a white rose into the East

River, and shot himself in the

head. He was taken to Bellevue

Hospital and pronounced dead on

arrival."

EXT. EIGHTH AVENUE -- CONTINUOUS

SAM:

(on phone)

Jesus, the Brooklyn Bridge.

(beat)

Listen to me. Lila?

93.

LILA:

I'm listening.

SAM:

I don't know where we are anymore.

I don't know-

LILA:

Baby-

SAM:

I love you. You hear? It's the one

thing I know is real. I was put on

this world to find you.

LILA:

But what's-

SAM:

No matter what happens, we'll find

each other.

INT. COLUMBIA LIBRARY STACKS -- CONTINUOUS

LILA:

Baby, I don't understand-

EXT. EIGHTH AVENUE -- CONTINUOUS

SAM:

(on phone)

We'll find each other.

Sam hangs up. Leon gazes with wonder at everything: the

headlights, the neon, the pedestrians.

SAM (CONT'D)

What time is it?

Leon presses a button on a black faceless watch he wears. A

synthesized voice speaks.

VOICE:

Eleven thirty three.

LEON:

If Henry dies in his dream, the

dream ends. And if the dream ends-

Leon spreads his open hands to indicate the street, the city,

the world.

.

94.

LEON (CONT'D)

All gone.

Sam pulls out his wallet, fishes a card from it and hands it

to Leon.

SAM:

Call the police and tell them

Henry's on the Brooklyn Bridge with

a gun. Then call Jeff Schlegel at

the Mobile Crisis Unit.

Sam runs to the curb and tries to hail a taxi. All of them

are occupied.

LEON:

Saturday night in the rain. You'll

never find a cab.

SAM:

Jesus...

Sam sees the subway station on the corner (we're on Eighth

Avenue and Fourteenth Street). He starts running toward it.

Leon watches him go and then drops Schlegel's card. It

flutters to the sidewalk.

Leon walks away, west on Fourteenth Street. He is the only

person on the sidewalk. As he walks farther from the camera,

we see for the first time that hi's feet are bare.

In the middle of the block, the streetlight above him

flickers and dies. The succeeding streetlights, lined up

parallel on opposite sides of the avenue, progressively

flicker and die.

Leon disappears into the darkness.

INT. SUBWAY CAR -- NIGHT

Sam's riding on the 6 (he took the L to the 6).

He's alone in the car, except for a MUSLIM WOMAN in full

veil. Sam looks at her. Is she the same woman he saw in his

building earlier in the day?

She resolutely keeps her gaze on the floor.

The express train passes by on the inside track.

95.

Sam watches it pass. Each fluorescent-lighted car is empty.

Except the last car.

Henry stands in the last car, holding onto a pole.

His eyes meet Sam's.

Henry waves goodbye as his train plunges into the tunnel

ahead.

EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE SUBWAY STATION -- NIGHT

Sam runs up the stairs of the station and begins sprinting

east. The streets are slick with rain.

.

EXT. SOUTH STREET -- NIGHT

Sam runs.

EXT. EAST RIVER -- NIGHT

The lights from the Brooklyn Bridge's suspension cables are

reflected in the dark waters of the East River.

A white rose floats beneath the bridge, pelted by the falling

rain.

EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE -- NIGHT

Sam finally reaches the great bridge. He runs up the walkway.

Henry stands alone on the walkway beneath one of the two

stone arches that rise above the bridge. The Manhattan-bound

traffic rumbles by behind him. He ignores the rain.

Henry stares at the giant clockface atop a building in

Brooklyn. The clock reads 11:57.

SAM:

Henry!

Henry turns and sees Sam running toward him. We now see that

Henry holds the revolver in his right hand.

The headlights of passing cars flicker over both men's faces.

Henry smiles.

96.

HENRY:

Dr. Foster. I'm glad you came to

watch.

SAM:

(gasping for air)

I didn't come to watch. I came to

stop you.

Henry c*cks the hammer of his revolver.

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