The Distinguished Gentleman Page #15

LORETTA:

Oh, Armando? Could you come outfront, please?

Tommy enters, carrying an enormous tennis trophy.

TOMMY:

Look what I won! Must be that

new racket.

Armando has come out to hear this.

ARMANDO:

There a problem, congressman?

MRS. JUBA

Congressman? You?

Armando tries to escort her out.

MRS. JUBA

Get your hands off me!

Mickey tries to block Armando.

MICKEY:

Let go of her, you creep!

(CONTINUED)

THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 75.

109 CONTINUED:
(2) 109

SIXTH LOBBYIST:

Careful, she may be armed!

MICKEY:

Stop it! Get away from her!

Armando, defending himself from Mickey, manages to knockher hat off. With the hat comes her (apparently false)

pony tail.

ON MICKEY. She's bald. Her skull bears the mark of surgery.

Everyone stops. It's quiet.

Mickey's eyes burn into Tommy's. Then she picks up herhat.

MICKEY:

Come on, Ma. It's okay. Let's go.

TOMMY:

Wait. What happened to you?

MICKEY:

Not just me.

110 INT. TOMMY'S OFFICE - DAY 110

Tommy and his staff listen to the Jubas.

MICKEY:

I was lucky. They said they got it

all. I'm going to be okay. But

what about the others?

TOMMY:

The others?

MRS. JUBA

They call it a "cancer cluster."

Oh, at first, none of us in the

neighborhood wanted to believe it,

but then we all saw it -- for me,

it was when the two-year-old across

the street developed a brain tumor,

same as Mickey. We looked at

everything -- the water, the air,

dump sites, insects, you name it.

But we didn't have to look that far.

It was staring us in the face.

TOMMY:

What?

(CONTINUED)

THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 76.

110 CONTINUED:
110

MICKEY:

Power lines.

MRS. JUBA

High-voltage power lines. The

wires cause magnetic fields -- and

the magnetic fields cause cancer.

Especially in children.

TOMMY:

I never heard of that.

Mickey pulls a stack of journals and xeroxes from herbook bag and gives it to her mother, who in turn givesthe materials to Tommy.

MRS. JUBA

The studies, the numbers -- it's

all there.

MICKEY:

(to Tommy, skeptical)

You're not actually going to read

those, are you?

TOMMY:

(caught)

Oh, they'll be read...

MICKEY:

Why don't you come see for

yourself?

Tommy has no quick answer.

111 EXT. PARK/SCHOOL - FLORIDA - DAY 111

Children playing on swings and seesaws in a small public

park. TILT UP. A pair of electric power derricks

carrying 225,000-volt lines almost directly overhead.

The derricks cast shadows across a nearby school.

We SEE the neighborhood. Quite a few FOR SALE signs.

A house with a moving sale in progress on the front lawn.

ON Tommy taking it all in. With him are Celia and the

Jubas.

MRS. JUBA

Five children in the neighborhood

have cancer. One more has

precancerous lesions. Pregnant

women around here are scared to

death.

(CONTINUED)

THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 77.

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111

TOMMY:

This is Mickey's school?

MRS. JUBA

Turns out a lot of schools are near

power lines. The land's cheap, sothe schools tend to buy it from thepower companies in the first place.

TOMMY:

But isn't the school district

responsible?

MRS. JUBA

We asked the superintendent tomeasure the magnetic field insidethe school. He said, Okay, onlyit'll cost forty thousand dollars,

and what program did we want him tocut that from?

TOMMY:

Nice.

MRS. JUBA

We're nobody, congressman. You're

somebody. We need your help.

Tommy takes Celia aside.

TOMMY:

Do you believe it?

CELIA:

It's impossible to know. No one's

really looked into it hard enough.

TOMMY:

But why isn't it being investigated?

CELIA:

Why didn't they investigate breastimplants all those years? What

about those side-effects of that

sleeping pill, Halcion? Why isn'tanything being investigated? It's

always the same.

TOMMY:

Money talks.

CELIA:

You got it.

(CONTINUED)

THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 78.

111 CONTINUED:
111

TOMMY:

There must be something I can dofor those people.

CELIA:

Don't tell me you're actuallydeveloping a conscience.

TOMMY:

Sh*t, I hope not -- it'd be afucking nuisance in Congress.

CELIA:

No, that's not fair. Some peopleon the Hill actually believe inthings, and try to do a decent job,

and don't forget why they went toWashington, and who sent them.

TOMMY:

(amazed)

No sh*t.

(remembering)

Oh, yeah, I met one of thosegeeks. So what can I do?

CELIA:

Make a stink. Round up someMembers and hold a pressconference. Get that committee of

yours to hold hearings. Haul in

in the Environmental Protection

Agency, the Surgeon General, theNational Academy of Sciences. Get

the issue on every breakfast tablein America.

112 OMITTED 112

112A INT. POWER AND ENTERPRISE COMMITTEE - DAY 112A

A press conference. Half a dozen congressmen, Tommyamong them. Iowa is speaking to the few Cameras andReporters. Beside him, Mickey Juba and her mother.

Reinhardt and Ceila among the handful of staff andonlookers.

IOWA:

This goes beyond personal tragedy.

It goes to a public health hazardof unknown proportions. It goesto the right of ordinary people toknow all the facts -

(CONTINUED)

THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 79.

112A CONTINUED:
112A

TOMMY:

Yeah, right -- people ought toknow if their neighborhoods arekilling them.

DODGE (O.S.)

Amen, gentleman. Amen.

They turn, somewhat surprised to see Dick Dodge, whojoins Iowa at the microphones, a natural leader.

DODGE:

What a fine effort this is. I am

totally sympathetic. Congressionalhearings should be scheduled assoon as possible. The American

people deserve no less.

He puts an arm around Mickey.

DODGE:

Message:
we care.

112B INT. TOMMY'S HOUSE - NIGHT 112B

Tommy and Celia are watching the press conference on TV.

CELIA:

Well, congratulations. You've

found yourself your own hopeless

cause.

TOMMY:

Speaking of hopeless causes...

They kiss, and slide OUT OF FRAME.

113 OMITTED 113

&&

114 114

115 INT. DODGE'S OFFICE - NIGHT 115

An impressive THUNDERSTORM pounds on Dodge's windows.

DODGE:

(pouring)

On the rocks, or neat?

TOMMY:

Whatever you're having.

(CONTINUED)

THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN - Rev. 4/3/92 80.

115 CONTINUED:
115

DODGE:

Well, why ruin good bourbon withthe taste of some shitty Searsicemaker, that's what I always say.

(handing Tommy a glass)

Cheers.

TOMMY:

Cheers.

Dodge downs his drink. Tommy follows suit.

DODGE:

Son, you're a real comer. I

wouldn't be surprised if you endedup in the leadership. I'll saythis: if I were Speaker, I'dsleep better with you as alieutenant.

TOMMY:

Why, thank you, Mr. Chairman. You

know, to tell you the truth, Ididn't know you'd be on my side onthose power lines.

DODGE:

But I'm not.

TOMMY:

But you said you were sympathetic -

DODGE:

Of course I did. We're all

sympathetic to little girls with

cancer. But I'm not sympatheticto holding an inquiry.

TOMMY:

But you said -

DODGE:

I know what I said. But that was

just a press conference, son. I

wasn't under oath.

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