Suspect Zero Page #4

Synopsis: FBI agent Thomas Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart) is transferred to Albuquerque, N.M., after he mishandles the arrest of a serial killer (Keith Campbell). There he is called to investigate the gruesome murder of a salesman (Kevin Chamberlin), who turns out to be a serial killer himself. After two more killings, Thomas and his partner (Carrie-Anne Moss) conclude that Benjamin O'Ryan (Ben Kingsley), a former FBI agent with psychic abilities, is responsible for the deaths.
Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery
Production: Paramount Pictures
 
IMDB:
5.9
Metacritic:
37
Rotten Tomatoes:
18%
R
Year:
2004
99 min
$8,570,393
Website
551 Views


He takes out a VIAL, and scrapes some of the residue into it.

Then he sniffs it. Pauses...

MACKELWAY (CONT'D)

Smells like... clove.

He looks to Granger: now you can open the trunk.

DYLAN:

(re:
Mackelway)

Where the hell'd you find this guy?

CHARLTON:

Field Office. Dallas.

DYLAN:

(impressed)

Well now...

(Charlton shrugs)

So what the hell's he doin' here?

That one is left unanswered. Granger opens the trunk.

Mackelway and the others look inside...

There, they find restaurant supplies: napkin dispensers, salt-

shakers, ketchup dispensers, a short-order wheel... And a

fishing reel, tackle-box, a kid's bicycle helmet.

Mackelway eyes it all, but his instincts tell him there's

nothing significant here. So he returns to Speck's body.

He leans in, lifts Speck's head a few inches away from the

steering wheel. Gently.

...which is when we learn that Speck's EYELIDS have been torn

off. It's gruesome, but Mackelway notes it calmly. Charlton

leans in, gets a look.

CHARLTON:

Christ...

Mackelway is expressionless. But something about these LIDLESS

EYES draws him closer. He leans in, then BAM! We are rocketed

into a series of dark, disjointed images:

12 EXT. A WHEAT FIELD - NIGHT 12

Seems like we're standing in a field of TALL WHEAT; we can't

say for sure. Everything's wet, wind-whipped.

A MUZZLE FLASH... Someone just fired a gun. We slump hard to

the ground. Then we look up.

Mackelway stands over us, his face wet with rain. Then, just

as quickly, those IMAGES VANISH and we are:

13 INT. UNIDENTIFIED MOTEL ROOM - GRAHAM TEXAS - DAY 13

We start on the EYES OF O'RYAN. Cross-Dissolve to a pad of

paper, on a DESK. Scrawled on the pad is a WAVY LINE. He holds

the tip of that pen upon it, for a few seconds, as if

expecting to get some kind of pulse from it.

Here come those IMAGES again: wet wheat, a muzzle flash,

Mackelway. Choppy, disjointed, dark. Then they cease...

...and O'Ryan begins to DRAW, hurriedly. Only half of his face

is visible to us, but we can tell that his concentration is

total.

His pen continues its furious work, a spasm of activity, as

the SOUNDS of that vision bleed in: the gun-shot, the rain,

the wind. They're all alive in O'Ryan's mind...

And that DRAWING takes shape quickly: The wheat field, the

gun, Mackelway.

Then, the pen is set down. The drawing is complete.

O'Ryan eyes it calmly, then checks his watch, jotting down the

exact time and date on to the drawing. Then he slips it into a

folder marked, "MACKELWAY."

CUT TO:

14 EXT. SPECK'S HOME - ABILENE, TEXAS - ESTAB. DAY 14

Picket fence, a swing on the porch, a lawn that needs mowing.

A LINE OF PEOPLE file in, each bringing food... and tissues to

cry into.

15 INT. SPECK'S HOME - LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER (DAY) 15

Shocked faces. Food on unmatching trays. Speck's wife - JAN,

40 and frayed - sits in a chair, immobile. FRIENDS and FAMILY

mill about, tending to her.

KIDS hover. Two of them, a 4-YEAR-OLD BOY and an 8-YEAR-OLD

GIRL, sniff back tears as people offer condolences.

But the focus here is Jan - her grief. She's shaking...

O'RYAN (O.S.)

Mrs. Speck?

She looks up. O'Ryan crouches down, to eye-level, one of fifty

faces in here. Jan half-nods.

O'RYAN (CONT'D)

Just wanted to offer my condolences.

(takes her hand)

I didn't know him well but... I think

Harold was a much more complex man than

people realized.

Jan is so raw that anything about Speck touches her now.

JAN:

(through tears)

He was, wasn't he?

O'RYAN

I'm very sorry for your loss, ma'am.

She sniffs back a tear, thanks him with a smile. O'Ryan

extends his hand to her. She takes it. He moves off.

Beside her is a FRAMED PORTRAIT of Speck. We blow past it, and

into the BLACK CREPE that is adorning the corner of the

portrait's FRAME, and:

BAM! We're rocketed back into a set of odd IMAGES again:

16 EXT. DARKNESS - UNIDENTIFIED TIME 16

This time, everything before us is a blur of gray. We hear

that wet wind. We hear our own heavy BREATHING, as if we were

running somewhere... a VOICE, rising above the wind, seems to

be saying:

(O.S.)

Please...

The sound echoes oddly, as if bouncing off a satellite

somewhere, or a distance of time and space.

Then the sound and the soupy grayness VANISH. This vision just

ended. When we pop back out of it, we're TIGHT on Mackelway...

CUT TO:

17 INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - PARKING LOT - GAINESVILLE 10:30 P.M. 17

Mackelway sits behind the wheel of his Chevy Yukon, parked

between two big-rigs in the lot of the "All-American Diner."

Sky looks black tonight. It rumbles...

And that soupy gray vision we just heard and saw... It was all

his.

He pulls four more Bufferins out of a bottle in his pocket.

Slugs them down. This headache is a constant. Then he gets out

of the Yukon...

18 INT. ALL-AMERICAN DINER GAINESVILLE - CONTINUING 18

Mackelway enters, spots Charlton at a booth - sitting opposite

a WOMAN, her back to us.

19 INT. BOOTH - CONTINUING 19

Mackelway approaches. The Woman doesn't turn.

CHARLTON:

Agent Mackelway. I was 'bout to introduce

you, but I understand that won't be

necessary.

Mackelway doesn't get it... until the WOMAN turns. She is

AGENT FRAN KULOK. 35, sharp, pretty when she allows herself to

be. But with a guard that never comes down.

Mackelway has some history with her, so he tries not to react.

It takes some effort.

CHARLTON (CONT'D)

Seems your former office has decided we

might need some help on this one. So they

sent out Agent Kulok.

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Zak Penn

Zak Penn (born March 23, 1968) is an American screenwriter and director.[1] Penn wrote and directed Incident at Loch Ness and The Grand, and co-wrote the script for X2, X-Men: The Last Stand and the story for The Avengers. With Michael Karnow, Penn is the co-creator of the TV series Alphas on the Syfy network. more…

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