The Manchurian Candidate Page #17

ROSIE:

What are you ... oh God.

Sees the hard look on Marco’s face. Newspapers over all the

vents. Opens her mouth to explain but Marco SWINGS HARD,

and hits her -- she partially blocks it with her forearm --

backhands her onto the floor --

MARCO:

You’re part of it.

-- then he’s moving, out the door --

ROSIE:

Don’t --

8/18/03 84.

She leaps at him -- SHOVES him hard into the wall, and when

he whirls to shake her off, slips down and uses his weight

and momentum to toss Marco crashing halfway back across the

room.

Now she’s between him and the door.

ROSIE:

Don’t do this, Ben. It’s not what you

think.

MARCO:

How can you know what I think?

He tries to get past her again --

THEY FIGHT:

Rosie can’t beat him, but she’s extremely skilled -- Marco

gets stung twice by hard rights -- but whirls, all-defense,

an improvised rope-a-dope that gives him the opening he

needs --

-- he SMACKS Rosie sharply, stunning her -- and as she rocks

backward he flies out the door --

ROSIE:

BEN!

136

EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - DAWN 136

Marco bursts out of the doorway, into the grey light of

morning, and runs, the files fluttering under his arm.

137 OMITTED 137

138 INT. SKYBOOTH OF DELP’S LAB - DAY 138

A CARETAKER rattling keys impatiently behind him, Marco

stands looking down into the pit of the abandoned lab.

Delp and the monkeys are gone. Empty cages and unplugged

equipment are all that remain of Delp and his fear project.

The utter quiet is deafening.

139 EXT. NEW YORK STREETS - DAY 139

Marco moving, head down, eyes everywhere -- anybody could be

following him. Anybody could be watching him. Anybody

could be part of this.

PRELAP sound of a tape fast-forwarding and:

8/18/03 85.

ROSIE’S VOICE

(audio surveillance tape)

You said you "loved" me ...

140

EXT. NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY - ESTABLISHING 140

141

TIGHT - A MICROFICHE SCREEN 141

scrolling old newspapers in a BLUR.

ROSIE’S VOICE

... Not to scare you. Out of nowhere,

but more than once.

MARCO’S VOICE

I remember.

WHIR of rewinding audio --

142

INT. NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY - DEEP IN THE STACKS - DAY 142

Marco deep in research, at a small table covered with books

and paper -- a crazy man’s kind of chaos.

The file he stole from Rosie’s is disemboweled across the

desktop. A library tape machine plays one of the

surveillance tapes he’s stolen from Rosie’s:

MARCO’S VOICE

(bleeding through earphones)

What else did we talk about?

INTERCUT - MICROFICHE

stories flip past ...

ROSIE’S VOICE

Raymond Shaw. And about what happened to

you, after you were captured. Black

helicopters, secret laboratories, mind

drugs, mad scientists, shock-torture ...

MARCO’S VOICE

You don’t believe any of it.

ROSIE’S VOICE

It’s crazy. It sounds crazy.

MARCO’S VOICE

-- maybe that’s what they want. Maybe

that’s what they want.

INTERCUT - TAPE MACHINE

143

Marco pops out one tape, pushes in another. WHIR of the 143

tape rewinding again, then:

8/18/03 86.

MARCO’S VOICE

-- I watched Raymond Shaw kill someone.

I watched him kill Private Eddie Mavole.

Like it was nothing.

FB143 FLASHBACK:
ROSIE’S APARTMENT FB143

Marco, on the bed, numb.

MARCO:

And I think they made me kill someone

too. One of my people. Kid named Bobby

Baker.

Rosie puts her arms around him --

ROSIE:

Or they want you to think that you did.

-- Marco doesn’t react -- WHIR of audio fast-forward --

144 RESUME - LIBRARY 144

Marco takes his thumb off the shuttle button and --

MARCO’S VOICE

... We were all hooked up to IV tubes and

wires and equipment -- heart monitors,

head monitors, electroshock -- and a lot

of stuff I’ve never seen before ...

... Finding, finally, an inside page of the SCIENCE &

TECHNOLOGY section of the Times, with the headline:

MANCHURIAN HOPES NEW IMPLANTS SAVE LIVES

... and a p.r. PHOTO of Managing Director David R. Donovan,

smiling, flanked by a TEAM OF SCIENTISTS. The caption only

mentions Donovan by name -- in the picture his hand is

extended, he’s got a tiny implant device cupped in his palm.

ROSIE’S VOICE

Did he have a name?

MARCO’S VOICE

What?

Marco stares at the photograph.

PANNING TIGHT - ACROSS THE SCIENTISTS

in the b.g. of the photograph. HOLDING on one, half-hidden,

just slightly out of focus.

It’s Noyle.

8/18/03 87.

ROSIE’S VOICE

The doctor, Ben -- what was his name?

Can you remember?

A long beat. Marco racks his memory. Then --

MARCO:

Noyle. They called him Dr. Noyle.

PUSH in until Noyle is just a mass of pixels --

CRASH:

145 TIGHT - COMPUTER STATION - ANOTHER SECTION OF THE LIBRARY 145

A Google search. Marco types the name: NOYLE.

INTERCUT - COMPUTER SCREEN

A GOVERNMENT website:

SOUTH AFRICAN TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMITTEE

Thumbnail photos of "25 SCIENTISTS ACCUSED OF HUMAN

EXPERIMENTATION ON POLITICAL PRISONERS."

SCROLLING DOWN ... UNTIL a photo of Atticus Noyle is center-

screen. Smiling out at us.

CLICK:
HEADLINES -- "Capetown U. Scientist Expelled: AllegedCIA Ties" -- "Genome Researcher Sought for Questioning byThe Hague" --

ON MARCO -- energized by what he’s seeing -CLICK:

SLIDE OVER NOYLE’S FACE -- key words like "genetic

memory enhancement," "behavioral modification" ... a

QUICKTIME VIDEO that Marco activates, and -146

IN STREAMING VIDEO: NOYLE 146

His sanitized, early sales pitch, all digitized and degraded

-- an old web interview:

NOYLE:

... we really can reinvent ourselves, you

know, by the remapping of the human

genome. Strengthen character, enhance

personality, not unlike tummy tucks and

breast augmentation. Generate

extraordinary abilities in math, music,

athletics. Tweak the sympathy gene,

boost self-confidence --

8/18/03 88.

CLOSE - ON MARCO

staring, excited -- the freak from his nightmares is real --

NOYLE (O.S.)

(streaming audio)

-- broaden the very parameters of memory,

to offset the ravages of dementia -- or

virtually liberate an individual from the

limitations imposed by damaging previous

experiences -- literally freeing them

from the burden of their past ...

147 EXT. PENN STATION - DAY 147

Raining, hard. Marco hurrying toward the station entrance,

his research jammed under his arm, and in a grocery bag he’s

found somewhere.

Collides with a guy in a suit. Papers go everywhere --

Marco YELLS at the guy and scrambles to pick up his

documents, shoving people out of the way --

FREEZE FRAME.

SERIES OF STILL SURVEILLANCE PHOTOS - SAME

Marco scrambling to get his stuff back together. He looks

like a crazy street person.

CRASH:

148 EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - CAPITOL HILL - DUSK 148

A sun throws yellow across the Mall, and the Senate Office

buildings are ribboned with shadows.

149 INT. SENATOR JORDAN’S OFFICE - DUSK 149

Jordan behind his desk, staring at a white business card

while a high-strung AIDE leans in, talking low:

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