The Italian Job Page #7

EXT. 7TH STREET -NIGHT

A fender bender in the middle of an intersection has traffic

backed up for miles.

INT. RENTAL CAR

Handsome Rob checks the latest time on the stopwatch.

INT. U-HAUL -NIGHT

Through night-vision binoculars Charlie sees a (different)

security guard open the gate as Steve returns.

He watches Steve go inside his house. Through the windows,

he sees him use a remote to turn on a TV.

EXT. 101 FREEWAY -THE NEXT DAY

A freeway sign says: UNION STATION 1/2 MILE

INT. RENTAL CAR

HANDSOME ROB can see the exit up ahead, but traffic is so

backed up and going nowhere that it feels like it's a hundred

miles away. And it's not even rush hour. Just life in L..A.

Idling on the freeway, he looks at the drivers in the cars

beside him. He sees a businesswoman reading the Wall Street

Journal. Sees a man with his finger deep, deep up his nose.

HANDSOME ROB:

Where's a grenade launcher when you need

one?

EXT. YAMASHIRO RESTAURANT -DAY

Our crew walks along the pathways of Japanese gardens that

wind along outside the restaurant. It's a breathtaking view

from high in the Hollywood Hills. Some tourists take in the

vista.

HANDSOME ROB:

Doesn't matter what time it is. It's

either bad traffic, peak traffic, or slityour-

wrists traffic.

HALF-EAR

You gotta ride the Metro-Rail, man.

HANDSOME ROB:

I'm sure it's ideal for carrying a ton of

gold, genius.

CHARLIE:

What's your guesstimate?

HANDSOME, ROB

If we had all green lights, fourteen

minutes. But in the twenty times I've

done it, the average is thirty-two

minutes, with a top time of fifty

minutes.

CHARLIE:

Then we'll travel like Rockefeller.

They don't know where Charlie is going with this, but they've

been around him long enough to know it's going somewhere.

CHARLIE (CONT'D)

When cars first started catching on,

workers on tall ladders would use these

swiveling colored boards for traffic

signals. Now whenever Rockefeller would

take the drive from his mansion to his

office on Wall Street, the workers would

make sure that he got green boards all

the way.

HANDSOME ROB:

How do we get all green lights?

CHARLIE:

Lyle?

LYLE:

Let me see what I can do.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

HALF-EAR

Did you know that the first traffic

signal to be patented was invented by a

black man named Garrett Morgan?

(to Charlie)

You're not the only one who watches the

History Channel.

HANDSOME ROB:

We still need an in to get the video

blueprint.

LYLE:

Carpet cleaners? Gutter cleaners?

Flower delivery?

CHARLIE:

We'll never get by the guard unless

they're certain it's legit. I'm thinking

cable TV. We cut his cable, he calls the

cable company. We show up. Send a cable

technician into the house with a pinhole

video camera while we get a feed.through

an RF antenna.

HANDSOME ROB:

Who plays cable technician? Steve thinks

we're all dead.

But Stella knows that's not exactly true. He doesn't think

Stella is dead; he doesn't know her at all.

STELLA:

If you're all dead, I guess I'm the man

for the job.

CHARLIE:

Are you up for it?

STELLA:

In for a penny, in for a pound.

EXT. ADELPHIA CABLE -PARKING LOT -EVENING

Service trucks pull into the lot. Technicians are getting

out, finishing their shifts.

INT. RENTAL CAR (PARKED NEARBY)

Handsome Rob behind the wheel. Lyle shotgun, aiming his

digital camera at the exiting workers.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

LYLE:

I'm telling you. He claims he named it

Napster because his hair is so nappy

underneath that cap of his. But I know

the real reason. It's because I was

NAPPING when he stole the idea from me.

I should've been on the cover of P/ired

magazine.

HANDSOME ROB:

Would you clam up. You'd give a

woodpecker a headache.

LYLE:

I'm the Napster.

HANDSOME ROB:

Okay. You're the Napster. Heads up:

cable chick.

They see a female service tech getting out of her work truck.

Lyle zooms his camera lens in on her Adelphia Cable work

shirt. It has BECKY sewn in above her right breast.

LYLE:

Becky. Nice name. I wonder what she

calls the other one.

HANDSOME ROB:

And it's such a mystery why you don't

have a girlfriend.

LYLE:

I had a girlfriend. Unfortunately even

though the relationship ceased in an

objective reality, it's still going on in

my mind.

(tapping his head)

That woman's lived in here rent-free for

four years.

Lyle takes a few more pictures of Becky.

LYLE (CONT'D)

Okay. All we need now is a work shirt

like this one and a service truck like

that one. You think Stella will be able

to pull it off?

HANDSOME ROB:

I have my doubts, but there's no talking

to Charlie.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:
(2)

LYLE:

Maybe he's been inserting his hard drive

into her software. Clouds the judgment.

HANDSOME ROB:

He knows better than to mix business with

pleasure.

(getting out of the car)

Only I'm allowed to do that.

LYLE:

Where you going?

HANDSOME ROB:

To get a work shirt and a service truck.

Lyle watches him stroll over to Becky and strike up a

conversation in the parking lot. Lyle can't hear what's

being said, but Becky smiles, and lest we forget, his name is

Handsome Rob for a reason.

INT. BECKY'S APARTMENT -NIGHT

OUR CAMERA FOLLOWS a trail of clothes, hastily littered, that

lead to the cable chick's bed. Lit candles are on the

bedside table. The couple is asleep under a tangle of

sheets. Handsome Rob has clearly mixed business with

pleasure. His eyes flash open.

He slips out of bed. Pulls on his pants. Reaches into her

pants and removes her key chain.

He selects the key to her service truck and does an old

trick:
he blows out one of the candles and presses the key

against the warm wax, making a clear impression of the key's

ridges.

He returns the key chain. Takes a couple more steps, past

her panties, past her bra and.

He snags her work shirt. Then he's gone.

INT. HANDSOME ROB'S HOTEL ROOM -NIGHT

Using locksmith equipment, he cuts a key that matches the

impression on the candle wax.

EXT. ADELPHIA CABLE PARKING LOT -DAWN

Stella, wearing Becky's work shirt, arrives before any other

workers. Using the key Handsome Rob made, she unlocks the

door to the cable truck and gets in.

EXT. NEARBY STREET -MORNING

The cable truck pulls over. Charlie and Lyle climb into the

back where they can't be seen.

EXT. OPORTO DRIVE -MORNING

The cable repair truck pulls over, parking down the street

from Steve's house.

Charlie gets out. He quickly uses a crowbar to lift up a

sidewalk cement grate that says CABLE on it. Inside are

cable wires that feed the street. He crouches over and uses

pliers to disconnect one of the cables.

INT. STEVE'S HOUSE -MORNING

He drifts into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. He hits the

remote control for a TV. It turns on but there's nothing but

snow.

He goes into the living room and checks out the plasma TV.

The cable's not working in here, either. He hits an intercom

button on his telephone.

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