Strange Days Page #19

They pull up to the front of Cecile's apartment building

and get out.

There are some homeboys chillin' on the front steps who

give Mace the local hand-sign. She returns the sign

automatically as she carries Zander past them.

ONE OF THE BOYS:

Yo, Mace. Whatup wit you, homegirl?

You never come roun' here no more.

Lenny follows with his wardrobe bag. The homeboys give

Lenny the eye as he brushes past them. Mace chills them

with a glare.

MACE:

He's with me.

CUT TO:

INT. CECILE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

A small and dingy place. Cecile has done her best to make

it a home.

Mace and Lenny go into the kitchen and shut the door.

He quickly sets up his playback deck on the table. He

puts on the trodes and pulls the tape out of his pocket.

Then he pauses, looking at it apprehensively... knowing

that it contains the answer to all this madness.

He puts it into the deck. The deck closes. He punches

PLAY.

CUT TO:

INT. APARTMENT/LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

Mace watches Zander lighting bottle rockets with Curtis on

the balcony of the apartment... visible through the

window. Staccato fireworks nearby sound like automatic

weapons, making her flinch. She goes back into the...

KITCHEN. Where she sees Lenny sitting at the table,

trodes in his hands. Stunned. Face the color of old

cement. Hands shaking.

MACE:

Tell me.

LENNY:

I can't tell you. You've got to

see.

MACE:

Uh unh. I won't do it.

LENNY:

Mace. I know what you think about

the wire. But I'm asking you to do

this. It's that important.

Mace sees how serious he is. She nods: OK. He puts the

trodes on her.

LENNY:

Sorry this has to be your first

playback.

He hits play and Mace reacts as the sensory input hits

her. She opens her eyes...

LENNY:

Keep your eyes closed, or you'll see

double.

She bites her lip as the sensation of being another person

floods through her.

POV SEQUENCE:
We are Iris. Riding in a car. Fixing our

makeup in a mirror on the passenger side sun visor. Iris

flips the sun visor back up, revealing the moving street.

It is night.

We look down, and recognize the dress Iris was wearing

when we first saw her, two nights ago. She puts her

lipstick into a purse which is belted to her waist. Iris

turns her head and we see the driver.

It is JERIKO ONE. He is laughing, talking to someone in

the back seat. Iris looks and we see REPLAY, Jeriko's

sideman, and another woman, DIAMANDA. They are amorously

entwined. Then they are all laughing and passing around a

bottle of Jim Beam. The car stereo is thumping loudly.

Iris' POV swings around and looks down, seeing Jeriko's

hand caressing her thigh. She puts her hand on his chest

and leans close to him. Jeriko grins, then looks up and

swears at a wash of red/blue cop flash.

JERIKO:

Sh*t. F***in' Five-O

Our POV swings to the rear-view mirror and we see an LAPD

car behind us, with the gumball machine on. A spotlight

hits us and we hear a single whoop on the siren. Jeriko

pulls over, but they are on an overpass... no shoulder.

COP VOICE:

(on bullhorn)

Go to the bottom of the ramp.

Jeriko and Replay are both swearing. He pulls the car

down the ramp, stopping on a deserted street in a

warehouse district. Our POV looks around nervously.

Black shadows and concrete pillars. No-one around. Cars

whoosh by on the bridge above but they might as well be on

Mars. The car is stopped next to a train yard. We hear

the rumble of diesels nearby, the clank of freightcars.

We see the outlines of TWO COPS advancing through the beam

of the spotlight, their guns drawn.

JERIKO:

(jumping out of the

car)

Goddamn, now what you pull me over

for? If I was going any slower I'd

be parked--

COP VOICE 1

Get down on your knees and put your

hands on your head. Now!

COP VOICE 2

Everyone else, out of the car and

down on the ground.

Our POV comes up and out of the car. Jeriko is

righteously pissed off. He's not following orders.

COP VOICE 1

Put your hands behind your head

right now!

He goes along, madder than ever. The cops get Replay down

on his knees as well, in the wet gutter next to the curb.

The cops are closer now. We see that they are SPREG and

ENGELMAN.

ENGELMAN:

(to us)

Put your hands on the hood of the

car and don't move.

We exchange a look with Diamanda. F***ing cops. But

Jeriko is winding them up. Not giving them the pleasure

of the humiliation. You can see it escalating.

JERIKO:

I suppose you stopped us cause you

had suspects fitting our description

in the area, what you're gonna tell

me. What was the description? Two

black males in a car? Yeah, right,

I heard that one before...

As Engelman pulls out Jeriko's wallet, looks at his ID,

Jeriko checks name tags.

JERIKO:

Well you stopped the wrong black

male tonight officer... what is it?

Spreg. Officer Spreg. Cause I'm

the 800 pound gorilla in your mist,

f***er. I make more in a day than

you make in a year, and my lawyers

love to spend my money dragging

sorry-ass Aryan robocops like you

into court. Get a man down on the

ground with no probable cause. F***

you!

SPREG:

Shut the f*** up!

He kicks Jeriko down on his face. Jeriko hits the ground

hard.

DIAMANDA:

(yelling)

Leave the f*** off of us, we weren't

doing anything...

SPREG:

Shut up! Don't make me walk over

there.

Engelman shows the ID to Spreg, saying something we can't

hear.

SPREG:

You're that rap puke? Jeriko One?

You're the one getting all the

gangbangers to form citizens groups

and go downtown... trying to rake

the LAPD over a cheese grater?

JERIKO:

That's right. And you're gonna be

in my next song, motherf***er, it's

called Robo-Spreg.

Replay starts laughing. Diamanda stifles a giggle. Spreg

is white-lipped with rage. Years of frustration coming to

a head. Too many disciplinary actions, too many

suspensions, too little appreciation of the tough job they

do.

JERIKO:

It's a song about a cop who meets

his worst nightmare, a n*gger with

enough political juice to crush his

ass like a stink bug. You're gonna

be famous.

Spreg looks around the empty street. Looks at Engelman.

Down at Jeriko, proned out on the pavement. Replay's

laughter in his ears.

SPREG:

I don't think so.

And shoots him BLAM! BLAM! Twice in the back of the

head. Just like that.

Diamanda screams. Replay tries to roll to his feet.

Spreg shoots him twice in the stomach. Replay is

screaming. Rolling around, holding his guts.

SPREG:

(shouting)

Hey... I don't hear you laughing!

Engelman's yelling something at him we can't hear. Spreg

turns, eyes wide with adrenaline.

SPREG:

Get the b*tches.

Engelman hesitates and then spins toward us. Diamanda is

screaming, backing away from Engelman. Spreg shoots

Replay four more times.

We spin one-eighty and start to run. Hear shots... BLAM!

BLAM! BLAM! Spin back... to see Diamanda dropping to her

knees. Engelman shoots her again. Then raises his gun

toward us.

We spin away. The world becomes a kinetic blur. The

sound of shots. We see puffs of dust on the ground in

front of us. Missed shots. We tumble over a guardrail

and roll down an embankment... get up and keep running.

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