The Manchurian Candidate Page #9

71 INT. SKID ROW RESIDENTIAL HOTEL - LOBBY - NIGHT 71

Marco checks a room number he’s written under an address on

a scrap of paper.

TV71 RAYMOND (T.V.) TV71

-- between true security and the notion

of feeling safe ...

8/18/03 41.

A NIGHT CLERK sits behind bullet proof glass, watching the

televised debates.

RAYMOND (T.V.)

... between what is real and what is not.

DESK CLERK:

(about Raymond)

Dontcha love this guy?

72 INT. SKID ROW HOTEL CORRIDOR 72

At the far end of a long and gloomy hallway, we can see

Marco arrive at the door to Melvin’s room. He hesitates,

then knocks --

Al?

MARCO:

Al Melvin, it’s Marco ...

Nothing. He looks at his watch, turns, walks back down the

narrow, high-ceilinged corridor -- haunting sounds of radios

and televisions and broken conversations -- he disappears

down the stairs --

73 INT. FANCY HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHT 73

Raymond comes down the brightly-lit, elegant hallway, tired,

trailing Anderson and his SECRET SERVICE entourage.

RAYMOND:

... The enemy is among us. The wolf is

at the door ... the fox is in the

henhouse ... the weasel is ... the weasel

is ...

They take his room keycard from him, open the door --

74 INT. RAYMOND’S HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT 74

Anderson and another AGENT move through the suite, securing

it -- Raymond losing steam:

RAYMOND:

The weasel is a weasel.

Are Friends.

Frog and Toad

-- returning to the door and handing Raymond his keycard.

The PHONE BEGINS TO RING --

ANDERSON:

Sir, we’ll be right outside.

I know.

RAYMOND:

Good night.

He closes the door after them. Breathes out.

his watch. Then crosses to answer the phone:

Glances at

8/18/03 42.

RAYMOND:

You have thirty seconds, Mother.

75 INTERCUT - ELLIE’S SENATE OFFICE - NIGHT 75

Ellie behind her desk.

ELLIE:

Am I this predictable?

RAYMOND:

You have no idea.

ELLIE:

I’m calling to compliment you, Mr.

Grumpy. I thought you were magnificent

tonight. So do all the network campaign

experts. "Presidential" was a word they

used.

Raymond’s second line flashes with another call.

ELLIE:

This compassionate vigilance thing is

working quite well for you. I might have

to convert.

RAYMOND:

I happen to believe in it.

ELLIE:

Of course you do. Now Raymond --

RAYMOND:

Goodnight, Mother.

ELLIE:

Raymond -Raymond

punches a button and puts his mother on HOLD.

76 INT. ELLIE’S SENATE OFFICE - NIGHT 76

Ellie listens to the dead air of the other end of her call.

Raymond?

ELLIE:

77 INT. RAYMOND’S HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT 77

Raymond stares --

THE PHONE:

Mom on hold, flashing red light.

fluttering --

The second call, light

8/18/03 43.

RAYMOND:

punches the line, lifts the receiver --

RAYMOND:

Yes?

VOICE ON THE PHONE

(British accent)

Sergeant Shaw?

RAYMOND:

(irritably)

Who is this?

CLOSE on RAYMOND’S EAR --

VOICE ON THE PHONE

Sergeant Raymond Shaw?

Beat. Raymond’s puzzled. C*cks his head, eyes searching

the corners of the room. SOUND: a distant desert wind,

building. Then:

RAYMOND:

Yes ...?

CLOSE on RAYMOND’S EYE --

VOICE ON THE PHONE

Raymond Prentiss Shaw?

-- Raymond’s senses appear to QUICKEN NOW, as the LIGHTING

in the room changes, morphing somehow -- even as SOUNDS of

steady percussion, and the zaghareet -- the wailing cry of

the Arab women -- rise out of the wind --

RAYMOND:

(eyes alight)

Yes.

-- everything is brighter, sharper, more luminous -- more

etched than it was just moments ago --

VOICE ON THE PHONE

Listen:

(then)

Enter the bathroom, and go to the closet

there.

WIDE - THE SUITE

Raymond moves with tremendous assurance across the living

room and down the hallway and into the bathroom --

8/18/03 44.

THE PHONE:

78

light flashing, Eleanor on HOLD -- stops --

INT. BATHROOM 78

79

Double sinks, walk-in shower, and a huge closet which

Raymond opens to reveal --

INT. CLOSET 79

A THICK PANEL in the back wall just being unmoored -- the

RUSHING ROAR of a sandstorm and --

A MAN IN BLACK:

80

steps through, gloves and soft-soled shoes. Raymond just

watching as he places a small clam-shell video screen open

on the counter -- we can SEE a B&W surveillance view of the

CORRIDOR OUTSIDE RAYMOND’S ROOM, with Anderson sitting the

night watch, reading.

The man gestures Raymond through the closet passageway --

INT. A HUGE ROOM BESIDE RAYMOND’S SUITE - CONTINUOUS 80

-- where Raymond is met by TECHNICIANS in sterile gear,

surgical gloves.

He’s entered some kind of portable, surreal operating

theater, filled with monitoring device and computers ... a

one-way video-conference camera is aimed at a big

examination chair in one corner, surrounded by I.V. racks

and more techno-medical equipment.

The man who is obviously in charge here, starts a digital

timer and turns to face Raymond. It’s NOYLE.

NOYLE:

Hello Raymond. Do you remember me?

RAYMOND:

No sir.

81

NOYLE:

Brilliant.

(to his group)

We have twenty minutes for our little

check up from the neck up.

EXT. PAY PHONE - NIGHT 81

Marco on a public phone, across the street from Melvin’s

residential hotel. Shaken.

8/18/03 45.

MARCO:

My God. I’m sorry to hear that. When

did it ...

(listens)

Yeah, I know. I know.

(deep breath)

Listen, Mrs. Wilson -- can you tell me if

Nathan was ever -- preoccupied -- with

his experience in Kuwait? Did he ever

mention dreams or nightmares ... about

what happened ... the firefight,

afterward ...

(beat)

-- uh-huh. Sure. No, I understand.

(beat)

Thank you for --

Dial tone. He hangs up. Exhales.

BLINK.

82 Marco listening to the phone on the other end of his call

ring, and ring and ring. Dull HISS of the city.

82

BLINK.

83 Another call. 83

MARCO (O.S.)

... no, Mr. Villalobos, I’m just --

Army’s got me running statistics on

stress disorders, I’m trying to gather

information on my old squad members ...

yes sir -A84

INT. NOYLE’S HIDDEN HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT A84

Raymond sits in a chair, rigged up with wires and tubes

(much like he was ten years ago) -- a TRANSLUCENT BOX around

his face overlaid with a METRIC GRID, his head held

motionless by a semi-circular BRACE, curved calibration

offering precise positioning for a MICRO-DRILL that Noyle

moves into place -- and then a long, tiny drill bit WHIRS

DOWN through STERILE LATEX stretched very tight across

Raymond’s head --

-- and plunges precisely and effortlessly through Raymond’s

skull, then STOPS -- he has no reaction, feels nothing --

LCD screens -- show a VIRTUAL MAP OF RAYMOND’S BRAIN, in a

full range of primary colors -- sections morphing as

thoughts and memories race through his mind, as

MINISCULE, INTERWOVEN WIRES -- are threaded down through the

HOLLOW core of the surgical drill, deep into Raymond’s

brain. Noyle plays to one of the cameras:

8/18/03 46.

NOYLE:

No decay, no slippage. Everything

appears to be in flawless working

condition.

(then)

Raymond can you remember the deaths of

Mavole and Baker?

Yes.

RAYMOND:

The LCD SCREENS show activity in areas of Raymond’s brain.

NOYLE:

Describe it.

84 INT. SKID ROW RESIDENTIAL HOTEL - NIGHT 84

Marco knocking at Melvin’s door again.

MARCO:

... Al? You in there?

85

Still nothing. He checks the hallway, takes an Army utility

knife from his pocket and forces the lock -INT.

MELVIN’S APARTMENT - NIGHT 85

The light switch doesn’t work. Click, click. Eerie shudder

of neon from the sign on the building, shapes crowd the

room, claustrophobic ...

... Marco has a PENLIGHT -- he turns it on, sweeps in front

of him with its weak beam:

THE ROOM -- stacked floor to ceiling with old newspapers,

magazines, and HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF NOTEBOOKS, covering

nearly every available surface.

Marco picks up a notebook. Moves to a desk and sits. Opens

the book --

86 OMITTED 86

87 OMITTED 87

88 BEAM OF THE PENLIGHT aimed down at pages filled with CRUDE

DRAWINGS OF BRAINS/TOMATOES -- number-gibberish (cross-

sections, size and weight parameters, and growth sequences)

-- AMERICAN FLAGS -88

-- in the margins, many attempts to capture likenesses of

DR. NOYLE AND THE MYSTERIOUS ARABIC WOMAN, repeatedly

crossed out, never right.

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