Strange Days Page #27

MAX:

This dink hires me a month ago to

eyeball her, right? But Faith knows

me from you, right, so she comes up

to me and says, 'Hey Max why you

following me?' I say, 'I'll buy you

a drink and explain.' And she says...

FAITH:

'So, do you enjoy watching me?'

Max turns and sees her in the doorway.

MAX:

You were supposed to go downstairs,

baby.

FAITH:

I know. I don't always do exactly

what I'm told.

(she walks slowly

toward them)

So I said, 'Do you enjoy watching

me?' And you said -- come on Max.

MAX:

I said, 'Yeah. I'd even do it for

free.'

FAITH:

Uh huh. And I said, 'That's good,

because I like the feeling of

someone watching me. I acquired

the taste from Lenny.'

Lenny looks between Faith and Max, feeling like the

a**hole of the western world. Faith moves up close to

Max. She puts her hands lightly on his shoulders,

caressing them. Max grins, realizing she is 100% with

him.

MAX:

(to Lenny)

And then she said, 'Since we're

going to be spending so much time

together--'

FAITH:

'We might as well make the best of

it.'

LENNY:

(crushed)

Jesus, Faith.

Faith runs her hands appreciatively over Max's shoulders

and arms. Then, in an eyeblink, she grabs his forearm in

both hands and deflects the gun.

FAITH:

Lenny!!

Lenny jumps in, wrestling Max for the gun. Faith pulls

the Glock out of Max's waistband and throws it across the

room.

MAX:

F***ing b*tch!!

BLAM! BLAM! Max fires wildly, trying to hit Lenny, who

is just barely keeping the muzzle out of his face. Faith

grabs Max's hair, trying to pull him away...

His "hair" comes off in her hands. A prosthetic wig,

containing the squid-net array. Max's head is shaved to a

Sinead O'Connor stubble. He looks demonic, grimacing with

effort as he struggles with Lenny.

He continues firing. The shots hit the mirrors. ANGLES

of the reflected images of them shattering. Faith,

screaming, reflected, her face fragmenting into shards.

The crystal chandelier shatters, reigning glassy snow on

them from above.

Max is stronger and heavier than Lenny, but Lenny has one

advantage:
Max has managed to make him really angry.

Lenny gives a guttural cry and drives Max backward into

the doorframe. They tumble together into the living room,

falling together over the couch. Lenny pounds Max's hand

against the glass coffee table, shattering it. He forces

Max's hand along a glass edge, cutting it, and Max drops

the gun. Lenny reaches for it, but Max kicks it away a

split-second before his hand touches it. It skitters

under the couch, out of play.

Max punches Lenny brutally in the face, then in the gut,

and grabs him with both hands. He hurls him against the

wall. Lenny staggers off the wall into several vicious

punches from Max. We feel the tide turning. Lenny goes

down to one knee.

Max pulls out his knife and flicks it open. Lenny throws

a lamp. Max ducks and charges through. Lenny spins away

from the downthrust.

The knife embeds itself in his shoulder blade, sunk into

the bone. Lenny punches Max in the throat and jerks away,

pulling the knife handle out of Max's hand. Max tackles

him and they crash together through a sliding glass door

onto the balcony. Explosion of flying glass.

Max pulls a dazed Lenny to his feet and rushes him

backward toward the railing. At the last instant, Lenny

twists with all his strength and spins Max into the

railing, using his weight against him. He pushes hard and

Max topples.

As he is going over, Max grabs Lenny's tie, pulling him

over. Max is dangling 12 stories above the oblivious

crowd, his entire weight hanging from Lenny's tie. Lenny

has one arm and one foot hooked around the railing, and he

is being strangled by the tie.

Lenny is starting to black out. In agony he gropes with

his free hand to his own shoulder blade, finding the

handle of the knife. He jerks it out of himself. Max

sees it coming a split second before it happens.

Lenny slashes the knife across the tie, just above Max's

hands.

Max takes the express elevator to Hell. He hits 12

stories down, on top of a video truck.

Lenny stands there panting, bleeding down the back of his

jacket. Faith runs to the railing and looks down. All

the strength goes out of her legs. She sags to the floor.

Fireworks continue to boom across the sky.

Lenny looks down at her, gazing at the object of his

quest. She looks up at him, her wet eyes seemingly at the

bottom of a deep well from which he cannot save her.

He turns and walks away. It's hard. But he keeps

walking.

CUT TO:

EXT. STREET - NIGHT

DOWN BELOW, in the madness of the crowd, we move with

Spreg as he searches for Mace. He sees her from behind,

walking near one of the stages. He moves up behind her,

aiming his pistol at the back of her head. She turns

and...

... it isn't Mace. Another girl in a similar dress.

Spreg curses and looks around.

Engelman catches a glimpse of Mace running. He points to

her position and Spreg charges after her. He has his

baton laid back along his forearm and is clubbing people

out of the way as he runs.

Mace sprints barefoot through the crowd, pushing people

out of her way. Strobe-lights from the stage and flashes

from the fireworks give the crowd a nightmarish look.

Spreg fires at her. People drop, their screams drowned

out by the pandemonium. The gunshots don't register above

the concussions from the fireworks. No one notices the

shootings. Spreg continues to fire, missing her as people

block his shots. Mace won't fire back in the crowd.

ON SPREG, coming to a stop at the base of a lighting

tower. He has lost sight of her. He starts to reload his

pistol. Mace comes up to him silently from behind the

tower and hammer punches him behind the ear with the butt

of her pistol.

Spreg comes around with a roar, slamming the baton across

her forearm. Her .380 clatters to the ground. Mace

bodyslams him back against the steel tower, smashing her

palm up under his chin. His head raps off the metal.

Mace is like a she-panther. She rips the baton out of his

hands and cracks him once across the windpipe. He drops

to his knees, gagging and unable to breathe.

A shot hits the metal space-frame next to her head. She

spins to see Engelman, charging toward her. Before he can

fire again she drops behind the kneeling, gasping Spreg,

using him as a human wall. She clamps an arm around his

neck, controlling him, and pulls his tazer from his belt.

She shoots Engelman in the chest from 8 feet. He

convulses and drops instantly to the pavement, flopping

like a fish. She holds the current on him while she goes

over and kicks his gun away.

She takes Engelman's cuffs from his belt. Spreg glares at

her through the blood running into his eyes. She raises

the baton.

MACE:

All the way down! RIGHT NOW!!

He slowly drops to the pavement, face down. Now that

she's got them both proned out, she quickly handcuffs one

of Spreg's hands to one of Engelman's.

The crowd of partiers stares. Can't believe what they're

seeing. Mace takes Spreg's cuffs and attaches his other

wrist to the base of the tower. That's when THREE LAPD

COPS in riot gear burst through the surrounding crowd and

see a black girl crouching over two of LA's finest with a

police baton. The cops advance toward her.

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