The Crow: City of Angels Page #5

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Just as the Crow is about to reach the campanile, it banks away.

We, however, continue to rush onward, right through one of the

dark openings in the scrollwork...

INT. JUDAH'S TOWER, CAMPANILE - NIGHT

SCRITCH! SCRITCH! All we see is black, then some vague, shiny

reflections...

CAMERA PULLS BACK to reveal a stag beetle, imprisoned within

a box, leashed to a nail with a piece of thread. We were tight

on its shiny carapace. The beetle strains at its leash, moving

in a perpetual circle around the nail.

CAMERA MOVES UP:

over the side of the box. Although mere inches in height, this

enclosure might as well be the Great Wall as far as our little

member of the Coleoptera is concerned.

AS THE CAMERA CONTINUES TO PULL BACK

we see crime lord Judah Earl's lair in all its sepulchral glory...

Dark, filled with shadows. The decor is a cross between ruinous

palatial splendor and a SoHo industrial art installation. The

upper reaches of the campanile are laced with a spiderweb network

of steel girders.

Look close enough and you might see PEOPLE bound to the supporting

pillars, like the half-glimpsed shapes crouching at the foot

of your bed in the middle of the night.

VOICES draw our attention to an area partitioned off by chain-mail

curtains. CAMERA MOVES IN towards a break in the curtains. We

linger there for a tantalizing moment...

JUDAH (V.O.)

Talk to me, Sibyl. Tell me what you see.

SIBYL (V.O.)

I see Death returning from the veil of tears. He has your name

on his tongue.

Now we plunge in through the curtains...

The "camera" consists of a series of lenses and mirrors which

project images from the outside world onto a circular table,

offering the ultimate voyeuristic view of the crumbling cityscape.

TWO FIGURES stand with their backs to us, studying the camera's

view. The first is...

JUDAH EARL,

A sinewy, slash-mouthed Byronic figure with a guttural voice.

Old before his time, touched by childhood visions of his own

death. The tower is Judah's prison in more ways than one.

SIBYL, Judah's blind oracle, waits by his side. Attractive, though

of indeterminate sex. His/her dour features are hidden beneath

a black cowl.

JUDAH:

(FATALISTIC)

It's finally beginning, isn't it? What mask will Death wear,

can you tell me that?

SIBYL:

I see the face of one of your victims.

Judah lifts his head up and we see his luminous amber eyes for

the first time. A kind of madness dances within them.

JUDAH:

All my sins remembered.

CUT TO:

INT. SARAH'S LOFT - NIGHT

Sarah sits in bed, cigarette burning in one hand, a half-filled

wine glass in the other. She turns out her light, looks to the

window and the cityscape beyond - as if the answers were lying

out there in the steam-cloaked streets.

CUT TO:

SOMEONE'S SPEED-INDUCED POV. Performers flaunt their flesh on

a raised stage. CROWDS OF SEXUAL LIBERTINES and CUTTING EDGE

FETISHISTS writhe as one on the dance floor. Lots of rubber,

latex strap bodices, Victorian hoop skirts - it's a modern-day

De Sade's wet-dream.

REVERSE ANGLE:

on Curve as he pushes his way upstairs and through the tangle

of flesh.

He pulls up to a bar, takes a seat alongside Kali and Spider

Monkey (who's amusing himself with a Viewmaster). CLICK, CLICK

- we see

MONKEY'S POV - as the 3-D tableaus rotate into position

THE BARTENDER,

a barrel-chested Samoan, sets a drink down in front of Curve,

nods a greeting. Curve sits back, opens his shirt, nudges Spider

Monkey.

CURVE:

Spider Monkey, what's this tattoo look like to you?

SPIDER MONKEY:

This a test?

CURVE:

Come on, man, just tell me what you see.

Spider Monkey inspects Curve's chest.

SPIDER MONKEY:

A bird.

CURVE:

(ANNOYED)

Think about it a minute. Don't you see two demons?

SPIDER MONKEY:

Nope. I see a bird.

CURVE:

Ah, f*** you, then.

Curve lifts up his beer bottle. ECU from within the beer as the

amber liquid rushes towards us...

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. UNDERWATER REALM - NIGHT

Air bubbles escaping, blood. Ashe is drowning again, the orbs

of his eyes bulging outwards. Over this we hear a WOMAN'S SCREAM

and...

INT. SARAH'S LOFT - NIGHT

Sarah bolts up in bed, knocking her wine glass to the floor,

SHATTERING it. She's choking, gasping for breath. Her heart is

hammering within her chest.

SARAH:

...ohgodohgodohgod...

Suddenly she catches sight of a shadow on the wall before her

- a GIANT BIRD slowly spreading its black wings.

Sarah turns to the window. The Crow is perched just outside.

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