The Fisher King Page #17

PARRY changes the subject.

PARRY:

What a beautiful night.

HE walks deeper into the open field. This makes JACK nervous.

JACK:

Don't you think we should be

getting out of here - it's getting

late...

PARRY starts to take off his clothes.

JACK:

...What are you doing?

PARRY:

Have you ever done any

cloudbusting? See, you take your

clothes off, you lie on your back

and you concentrate on staring

at the clouds...and you try to

break them apart with your mind.

It's wild.

He is now naked. HE lies down.

JACK:

Parry, you can't do this. It's

dangerous.

PARRY:

Well, that's stupid. This is my

park just as much as it is theirs.

You think it's fair they keep us

out just because they make us

think we'll get killed or

something?

JACK:

Yes. I think that's very fair.

PARRY:

Come on, try it. Ya feel the air

on your body - ya little fella's

flappin' in the breeze...everybody

in the city is busy with their

business an no one knows we're

bare assed in the middle of it.

Come on!

JACK:

NO! I'm leaving! I mean it...this

is nuts.

(walking O.C.)

You're going to get yourself

killed. I'm leaving. I mean it!

JACK starts walking away from PARRY, talking to himself...

Ha...little fella? I mean,

what do I expect? The man talks

to invisible people - he sees

invisible horses - and he's naked

in the middle of Central Park.

I should be surprised. I'm

f***ing out of my mind to even

be here!

(turns back and yells)

YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR F***ING MIND!!

HE walks O.C.

CUT TO:

EXT. GREAT LAWN - TEN MINUTES LATER.

JACK, naked, is lying next to PARRY looking up at the clouds.

JACK:

They're not moving.

PARRY:

Sshhh.

THEY stare up. JACK raises his head.

JACK:

You sure no one's coming?

PARRY:

Why do you care?

JACK:

I don't know how I would explain

this. "JACK LUCAS FOUND DEAD NAKED

- BESIDE ANOTHER DEAD, NAKED

MAN...THE TWO WERE DEAD...AND

NAKED"...It'll probably boost my

biography sales. People have a

fascination for murdered naked

celebrities.

PARRY:

You're a celebrity?

JACK realizes his opportunity. HE faces PARRY.

JACK:

Listen...it was a little over a

year ago...Something happened...

I...

(with great difficulty)

I caused...I was responsible for--

PARRY:

Man, you are wound up so tight,

Jack. I venture to say if I stuck

a coil up your ass I could roast

marshmellows. You oughta relax

a bit.

JACK:

(heartfelt)

How do you do it? How do you get

through every day the way you do?

PARRY:

Did you ever here the story of

the Fisher King?

JACK shakes his head. CAMERA focuses on PARRY.

PARRY:

It's all about this king who lived

in the castle where the Holy Grail

was kept. Now this king was a

good man, but he'd been through

some awful times - tragedies,

betrayals, disappointments,

abandonment...So much so, that

the older he...got, the more

bitter about life he became...

CUT TO:

JACK, listening...

...He had no faith in any man.

No trust in himself...he could

no longer truly love, or feel

loved - And so he started to die.

CUT BACK TO:

PARRY...

And the only thing that could save

him was the Holy Grail, but see,

he forgot where he put it. Then

it goes...on about - how all the

knights in the land try to find

it - they brought him gold and

jewels...but they never worked.

The King was still dying. Then

one day, a fool came to the

village. And he knelt beside the

King and sang him some songs.

Told him some jokes...But the

King felt weak and needed a drink.

So the fool took a cup form beside

the bed, filled it with water and

handed to the King. When the King

took the cup, he suddenly felt

better. And he realized, it was

the Holy Grail the fool had handed

to him...the cup that was right

beside his bed all along.

(BEAT)

The King said, "How could you find

what I could not find?"...and the

fool said, "I didn't know I

couldn't. I only knew you were

thirsty."

JACK doesn't know how to respond. HE's never known PARRY to

be eloquent.

JACK:

Is that who you are...my fool?

PARRY turns to face JACK and smiles.

PARRY:

(suddenly a professor)

The Fisher King myth has a lot

of derivations...I remember I was

at this lecture in Princeton once.

It was this awful weekend seminar

in occidental Mythology but there

was this one speaker Dr...uh...

Doctor...uh...um...

HE stops. As if this memory escaped with any warning.

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