The Manchurian Candidate Page #11

ROSIE:

Yeah. Crazy French pronunciation and

all.

MARCO:

It’s pretty.

ROSIE:

Thanks.

MARCO:

I guess your friends call you Jenny.

ROSIE:

Not yet they haven’t, thank God. But you

can call me Jenny.

MARCO:

What do your friends call you?

ROSIE:

Rosie. My full name is Eugenie Rose.

I’ve always liked the Rosie part better.

Eugenie is, well, fragile.

MARCO:

Still. When I asked you your name, you

said it was Eugenie.

ROSIE:

Yeah. Well. Maybe ’cause I was feeling

fragile. At the time.

Beat. Their eyes lock. Marco blinks --

FB94

FLASH:
PFC. BOBBY BAKER -- stares back at him from where FB94

Rosie was sitting. Bullet hole in his forehead and a small,

lost smile. Reaching out to him --

BLINK.

ROSIE -- as before. Slight look of puzzlement, because --

MARCO -- is on his feet, rattled, moving out to the aisle --

MARCO:

Excuse me.

-- and LURCHING toward the back of the train, nearly losing

his balance as he goes through the sliding doors.

95

INT. TRAIN CORRIDOR - AS BEFORE 95

-- Marco catches himself, hands against the bulkhead wall

near the bathroom. Another PASSENGER squeezes past him,

headed in the opposite direction. Marco tries the bathroom

door. Locked. OCCUPIED.

8/18/03 52.

Marco reaches into his pocket for a plastic vial of

medicine. Tries to shake one of the TINY PILLS OUT, but --

A BURLY PASSENGER in the bathroom emerges and the door

SMACKS Marco hard across the back --

-- THE PILLS scatter onto the floor --

MARCO:

OW dammit --

Sorry.

were --

BIG MAN:

I didn’t know you

MARCO:

It’s okay. It’s okay.

-- Marco’s DOWN ON HIS KNEES, struggling to gather the pills

together and put them back in the plastic vial. The big man

goes.

ROSIE:

sinks down next to him. Calm. Deftly plucking the pills

from the floor.

ROSIE:

My mother would tell you to wash these.

Marco looks up at her blankly. She takes the vial, caps it,

gives it back.

ROSIE:

I didn’t mean to upset you.

MARCO:

It’s not you, it’s me. I’m not -- my

head --

(gestures uselessly)

-- nothing’s ...

(stares at her)

I wish I smoked.

ROSIE:

It’s way overrated.

They stare at each other. Then:

MARCO:

Rosie, I’m gonna go in here, wash my

face, take my pill, and get myselftogether.

Marco ducks into the bathroom and shuts the door.

8/18/03 53.

96 INT. TRAIN MEN’S ROOM - DAY 96

Marco cups water in his hands and smears it on his face,

wiping it away with a paper towel. He comes up looking in

the mirror, avoiding his own gaze as --

IN THE MIRROR:
THE DOOR OPENS

and a man comes partway in -- now it’s Dr. Noyle.

Marco pivots -- no Noyle. The door is shut, locked.

all alone. Losing his mind.

He’s

97 INT. TRAIN CORRIDOR - ROSIE 97

Lost in thought. Faint smile. She puts her hand flat

against the door, then turns and heads back to her seat.

98 INT. TRAIN MEN’S ROOM - MARCO 98

Turns to the mirror again ... and again SEES Dr. Noyle

behind him, smiling:

NOYLE:

Hello Captain. Do you remember me?

KNOCKING at the door, a pass-key rattling in it --

99 INT. TRAIN CORRIDOR - MARCO 99

emerges from the bathroom to find an irritated CONDUCTOR now

awkwardly trying to extract his key from the door, and Rosie

waiting.

CONDUCTOR:

Are you okay, sir? Ben?

ROSIE:

... Yeah.

MARCO:

ROSIE:

Jesus. You’ve been in here twentyminutes. I thought you’d fallen off.

Marco stares at Rosie.

to a halt --

Twenty minutes? The train SHUDDERS

100 INT. PENN STATION - DAY 100

Marco comes up the escalator, into a SEA OF COMMUTERS.

Momentarily lost. Rosie is behind him, a moment later with

her bag, and --

ROSIE:

I’m gonna get a cab, you want me to drop

you somewhere?

8/18/03 54.

MARCO:

No. I’m okay, thanks.

ROSIE:

Your friend gonna meet you here?

MARCO:

No.

Beat.

ROSIE:

El Dorado 59970.

(off Marco’s frown)

My cell phone, in case you -- you know.

I like to say it the old way -- can you

remember the number, or should I write it

on your chest with a sharpie?

MARCO:

(small smile)

I’ll remember.

Beat.

ROSIE:

You’re sweating.

MARCO:

What?

Marco feels his shirt -- soaked. Long beat. She reaches

out and feels his forehead. No fever. Sizing him up.

ROSIE:

Listen. You got a place to go and get

freshened up?

101 INT. ROSIE’S COUSIN’S APARTMENT - NIGHT 101

Rosie lets Marco in. It’s incredibly cramped, everything in

one room, window facing a brick wall, lots of play posters.

ROSIE:

-- It’s my cousin’s apartment. She’s in

Cleveland with the road company of ’Mamma

Mia.’ There’s ... a view of the park ...

if you go out on the fire escape and

kinda ... tilt your head ...

Marco puts down the suitcases and waits in the middle of the

room while Rosie takes off her coat, turns on some lights.

ROSIE:

I’m nervous. I’m sorry. I yak when I

get nervous.

8/18/03 55.

MARCO:

Me, I get quiet.

Another awkward beat. She stands there. Studying him.

ROSIE:

You okay?

MARCO:

Dreams, I’ve been having these --

Catches himself. That’s just how Melvin said it.

ROSIE:

Is that what happened on the train?

MARCO:

Sort of.

Beat.

MARCO:

I could be dreaming you.

ROSIE:

What if you are?

MARCO:

You’d be the best dream I’ve had in a

long time, Rosie.

Beat. Rosie smiles at him.

ROSIE:

If that’s a line, Ben Marco, it kinda

worked.

102 INT. BATHROOM - SHOWER - MARCO 102

The water cascades down on him. He feels around on his back

where the door on the train whacked him -- feels something

on his shoulder -- a bump -- CAMERA CURLS around as he

twists, contorts, can’t see it, but feels it and --

FB102 OMITTED FB102

ROSIE’S VOICE

(distant)

Ben?

TIGHT - MARCO’S HAND

turning off the shower, hard --

8/18/03 56.

103 RESUME - ROSIE’S COUSIN’S APARTMENT 103

She’s sitting, watching the closed bathroom door. No noise

from the shower.

ROSIE:

Earth to Ben -- how’re you doing in

there?

104 INT. BATHROOM - MARCO 104

hyper, rummaging through the vanity, searching for -- pair

of cuticle scissors, tweezers, anything sharp -- a little

basket of sample perfumes CRASHES into the sink --

ROSIE (O.S.)

(KNOCKING loudly)

Ben, what’s going on -- are you okay --?

Marco finds a razor blade -- twisting it clumsily in his

fingers to reach the slight bump on his back he can only

barely see in the mirror --

105 INTERCUT - ROSIE - OUTSIDE THE DOOR 105

-- Rosie’s KNOCKING HARDER, NOW.

ROSIE:

Ben, I need you to open this door. Okay?

Just for a sec.

(beat)

You’re scaring me. Ben --?

106 INT. BATHROOM - MARCO 106

He SLASHES at the lump. Blood blossoms. SLASHES again,

oblivious to pain.

ROSIE:

BEN MARCO!?

PUSH IN as Ben presses the blade sharply down into his skin

... cutting a slit through which the blunt edge of

AN EXTREMELY TINY OBLONG THING

appears, like a grain of rice. It slides out into Ben’s

bloody fingers.

107 Rosie’s PUSHING against the door, trying to force it open. 107

108 MARCO 108

puts his trembling hand under the faucet, grips the thing

between two fingers, turns on the water --

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