The Manchurian Candidate Page #10

8/18/03 47.

FB88 FLASH:
DREAMSCAPE FB88

Noyle turning toward us, eyes bright --

RESUME - MARCO

-- under the headline WHAT HAPPENED, extremely small,

cramped handwriting that goes on for pages --

"The recon ends without incident, and we are

heading back to forward command."

RAYMOND (V.O.)

(fades up:
)

... we’re heading back to forward

command. The night is clear. Stars but

no moon -

Marco closes the book, opens another journal. Same

drawings. Same title page. Same cramped writing, that

begins exactly the same way --

89 TIGHT - RAYMOND (STREAMING VIDEO) 89

The video feed from Noyle’s hidden hotel room cameras,

digital, herky-jerky:

TV89 RAYMOND (VIDEO) TV89

-- We’re engaged unexpectedly by ground

forces with helicopter support. In the

ensuing firefight, Bobby Baker gets

himself separated to the left. Mavole

goes after him ...

90 INT. MELVIN’S ROOM - NIGHT 90

Marco reading these same words, which Melvin has scrawled in

his journals:

RAYMOND (V.O.)

... An incoming mortar shell kills both

of them instantly, before I am able to --

FB90 FLASH CUT:
A GIANT MONITOR FB90

Marco’s whole squad, staring at a digital screen animation

of Raymond’s one-man military fire-fight -- a CGI Hummer

with a flaming tire, Raymond heroically spewing machine gun

fire at the enemy, exactly as we’ve seen it in Marco’sretelling:

THE TEAM:

(reciting together:)

-- instantly before Sergeant Shaw is

able to locate and eliminate the source

of the ordnance ...

8/18/03 48.

FB90A SHOCK CUT:
REFLECTED IN A MIRROR - MARCO FB90A

Strapped to a chair back in the dreamscape, head back, his

mouth pried open and a hypodermic needle plunged deep up

into his palette -- thin electrode wires splayed across his

face and neck -- Noyle’s just behind him --

TAPED VOICE:

(distant, foreign, precise:)

... locate and eliminate the source of --

BLINK.

91 INT. MELVIN’S ROOM - MARCO 91

flips compulsively ahead through the notebook, lit by the

harsh beam of the penlight. Endless, repetitive writing.

FEVERISHLY RENDERED IMPRESSIONS of the dreamscape, medical

apparatus, choppers, guns -- MORE and MORE images of Raymond

Shaw -- of Raymond strangling Mavole --

-- and A DRAWING OF A MAN WHO MIGHT BE MARCO, unfinished,

uncertain except for the eyes -- Marco with a GUN in his

hand --

FB91 FLASH:
BOBBY BAKER FB91

-- as a bullet hole is punched in his forehead -- FALLING

AWAY -- with a look of astonishment on his face -- blood

just beginning to seep from the wound --

RESUME - MELVIN’S ROOM - MARCO

he drops the notebook like it’s on fire --

TIGHT - ON THE FLOOR - THE NOTEBOOK

-- SKETCHES of Bobby Baker with a bullet hole in his

forehead --

MARCO:

-- topples the chair as he stands up -- and then:

THE BARE, OVERHEAD LIGHTBULB IN THE ROOM

shudders to life -- dies -- glows again -- brighter -- AND

NOW MARCO SEES:

THE WALLS OF MELVIN’S APARTMENT

are COVERED with DRAWINGS and SCRAWLINGS and newspaper

clippings and patterns made with paper plates and empty

Noodle containers -- the crazy patterns of the tiles from

Noyle’s dream lab -- it’s as if Marco has entered the mind

of a mad man -- everything from the notebooks, and more,

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much more -- dominated by tormented, repeated images of

Raymond Shaw --

-- Marco is stunned --

PUSHING IN -- as a painstakingly rendered DRAWING OF RAYMOND

SHAW fills the screen: wild-eyed with SNAKES writhing out of

his head, Medusa-like, EVOKING THE WIRES AND TUBES FROM

MARCO’S NIGHTMARE DREAMSCAPE --

92 TIGHT - NOYLE (VIDEO STREAMING) 92

Pixels blown out and distorted, streaming insanely -- Noyle

stares right into camera, intent:

TV92 NOYLE TV92

Questions?

SCREAM OF A TRAIN.

93 INT. BULLET TRAIN TO NEW YORK - DAY 93

Marco sits at a window, eyes closed, head pressed to the

glass, the world just a blur beyond him. He opens his eyes,

SEES:

LAURENT TOKAR:

sitting down across from him. Smiling.

LAURENT:

(French accent)

Is this seat taken?

SKIP:

94 INT. BULLET TRAIN TO NEW YORK - DAY 94

Marco opens his eyes -- head pressed to a window, the world

a blur beyond him -- SEES:

Nothing. An empty seat opposite him. Laurent was a dream.

Marco looks around, self-conscious, and --

THROUGH THE SEATS - A WOMAN’S FACE

staring back at him. Not enough to tell much more than

she’s pretty. Marco looks away, out the window. Then back.

She’s gone. Another dream?

WOMAN’S VOICE (ROSIE)

Maryland’s a beautiful state.

Marco jumps -- looks. The pretty woman is sitting down

opposite him, folding and pushing aside a newspaper with the

headline:
WHITE HOUSE INSISTS WAR ON TERROR IS STILL

WINNABLE. COST OF PERUVIAN CAMPAIGN HITS $100 BILLION.

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Below the fold:
ANGRY MOB KILLS MUSLIM STUDENT AT YALE.

MARCO:

This is Delaware.

ROSIE:

I know. But, Maryland, it’s a beautiful

state anyway.

He’s staring at her, trying to figure out -

ROSIE:

Paper or plastic.

MARCO:

What?

ROSIE:

From the grocery store. You were

wondering where, we, you know -- and

right at the check-out stand, "paper or

plastic," that’s me. I see you all the

time. Bennett Marco. Checks from the

First National Bank, and you always put

your spare change into the March of Dimes

thing.

(beat)

Romance novels, instant noodles, No-Doz

and tomatoes.

(Marco frowns)

Anyway, I’m on vacation, holiday in the

City and so forth, I saw you sitting here

... I thought, okay, girl -- it’s now or

never.

Beat.

ROSIE:

You headed to New York City?

MARCO:

Yeah.

ROSIE:

Business?

MARCO:

No. Guy I knew ... in the Army. He’s in

politics now. We’ve kinda lost touch.

(awkward beat, then)

What’s your name?

ROSIE:

Eugenie.

MARCO:

’Scuse me?

8/18/03 51.

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