The Night Manager Page #3

She glances at him. How well he lies.

12 INT. CAIRO. NEFERTITI HOTEL. PINE’S OFFICE. NIGHT. 12

They enter the office, shut the door. She watches as he handfeeds

the papers into the machine.

And as he does he reads.

Letters. From Ironlast Limited, Ore and Precious Metals

Company of Nicosia, Cyprus. To Hamid Interarab Hotel and

Trading Companies of Cairo. Invitations to drinks and dinner.

11th February 2011. Kind regards. Assurances of sale.

Assurances of personal regard.

Then a stock list. Available as of Jan 17th 2011.

A list of arms. Tanks. Missiles. Guidance systems. Chemicals.

Guns and ammunition. Automatic weapons. Full specs. Names of

manufacturers.

Then a phrase at the end: “Available for immediate use”.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 1212.

PINE’s steady hand continues to hand-feed the documents.

SOPHIE:

You have an envelope?

PINE:

Yes.

SOPHIE:

Seal it and put it in your safe.

And Mr Pine, if an accident was to

happen to me, as accidents do

happen, more and more these days,

you should feel free to take it to

Mr Ogilvey.

She stares at him. He nods, writes his name on the envelope,

places them in his safe.

SOPHIE (CONT’D)

Have you always been the night

manager?

PINE:

It’s my profession yes.

SOPHIE:

You chose it?

PINE:

I think it chose me.

SOPHIE:

It’s a shame. You’d look fine by

daylight.

She walks out across the hall.

PINE looks to the office TV to see more and more satellite

footage of the demonstrations in Tahrir Square.

13 INT. CAIRO. NEFERTITI HOTEL. STAIRS/KITCHENS. NIGHT. 13

JONATHAN PINE walks down to the kitchens that sit in the

basement of the hotel.

Steam and grease. Heat. Sweating bodies, pans frying and

bubbling.

PINE walks through the huge kitchens, filled with EGYPTIAN

CHEFS, SOUS-CHEFS and WAITRESSES. There are WOMEN, MEN, some

kids, it’s brimming with the Cairo real life that sits

beneath the hotel. He approaches a young man, 25 years old,

administrator of the hotel kitchens.

PINE:

Youssuf. New guest lists.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 1313.

He hands him print outs.

YOUSSUF:

Shookran, khawaaja. Kayfa halak?

PINE:

Takallam bibut' min fadlak.

YOUSSUF grins. His pupil is making slow progress.

PINE (CONT’D)

Listen, Youssuf, you know Freddie

Hamid?

YOUSSUF:

The Hamids own the hotel, Jonathan.

Of course I know who he is.

PINE:

What’s he like?

YOUSSUF:

Playboy and a gambler. More money

than sense. He spends most of his

time in Europe.

PINE:

Well, he’s in Cairo now, and he’s

meeting someone tonight.

YOUSSUF:

How do you know that?

PINE:

Doesn’t matter. Can you call round

the kitchens? See if anyone knows

where they’re having dinner?

YOUSSUF frowns.

YOUSSUF:

Be careful, Jonathan. The Hamids...

Suddenly two EGYPTIAN YOUTHS rush in. Phones in hand.

YOUTHS (IN ARABIC)

Hey Youssuf! Mubarak’s gone!

YOUSSUF (IN ARABIC)

What are you talking about?

YOUTHS (IN ARABIC)

Mubarak has resigned!

YOUSSUF (TO PINE)

President Mubarak has resigned.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 1414.

PINE:

I understood.

They all rush to turn on TVs. Check facebook. Check twitter.

It’s true.

YOUSSUF:

He’s gone. He’s bloody gone!

He hugs PINE. The chefs and waitresses cheer and dance. Other

HOTEL WORKERS enter. There is a frenzy of joy, with PINE at

its centre.

On the TV - Tahrir Square is a frenzy of joy, and we can hear

guns firing in celebration from the roofs, a whole country in

liberation.

ALL (IN ARABIC)

Mubarak’s gone! Mubarak’s gone!

14 INT. CAIRO. NEFERTITI HOTEL. NIGHT DESK/OFFICE. NIGHT. 14

PINE stands at his night-desk looking at the television

publicising the news of the resignation. Joyous scenes.

NEWSCASTER:

The Arab Spring continues to spread

across North Africa like wildfire.

Cairo tonight is a mass of

celebrating people...

PINE looks down at a slip of paper.

A handwritten note, slightly scrawled. Freddie Hamid booked

into the Ramses Hilton. 7.30pm for cocktails. Corniche Bar.

Youssuf.

PINE checks the clock. 8.30pm. He calls on the phone. A voice

answers.

VOICE ON PHONE:

Ramses Hilton.

PINE:

Corniche Bar please.

Click. Another voice.

SECOND VOICE:

Corniche Bar.

PINE:

Yes this is George Watts, I’m a pal

of Freddie Hamid’s. He’s taking

cocktails in your bar tonight. I

was supposed to meet them but I got

held up.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 1515.

SECOND VOICE:

They’ve already gone sir.

PINE:

Oh that’s a shame. Do you happen

to know where?

SECOND VOICE:

I believe Mr...

His words are drowned out by car horns and gunfire from the

street outside. PINE winces and jams a finger into his ear.

SECOND VOICE (CONT'D)

...took Mr Hamid to dinner on his

yacht sir.

PINE:

I’m sorry I missed that. I’m at a

party. Big celebration. What was

the name again?

SECOND VOICE:

Mr Roper, sir.

PINE:

Roper?

SECOND VOICE:

Yes sir.

Beat.

PINE:

Thank you I’ll call him there.

PINE hangs up. Writes the name. ROPER.

He walks back across the hall. Into the office. Shuts the

door.

Opens the safe. And takes out the envelope.

He studies the contents. The stock list of arms to blow up

half a continent. Ironlast Corporation. He goes on to the

internet. Into a search engine he plugs the name Ironlast

Corporation. Minerals and Ores.

A website comes up. But it’s incredibly thin. Just an address

in Switzerland and an address in Cyprus, some basic

information on shipping.

Nothing else. PINE thinks. He stares at the phrase on the

paperwork:
“Available for immediate use”.

He looks at the hotel key board. At the Hatshepsut Suite.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 1616.

He looks up at the TV. Tahrir Square. Celebrations in full

flow.

Then he stares at the SOLDIERS - with machine guns, grenades

hanging off belts.

And JONATHAN PINE makes his decision.

15 OMITTED 15

16 EXT. CAIRO STREETS. DAY. 16

PINE gets out of a taxi in a pleasant suburban area of the

city.

PINE stares round at the fine houses and colonial lawns. Not

a whiff of the revolution happening just miles away.

PINE walks up to the gates of a beautiful colonial mansion.

Passes through substantial SECURITY at the gates.

PINE:

Jonathan Pine to see Simon Ogilvey.

17 INT. CAIRO. OGILVEY MANSION. HALLWAY-LIVING ROOM. DAY 17

The door buzzes open and he is let in by an EGYPTIAN

manservant. A foreign office mandarin with clipped hair and

pressed trousers approaches. OGILVEY.

OGILVEY:

Jonathan? Wonderful to see you!

Come through.

PINE:

I’ve been calling the Embassy all

morning.

OGILVEY:

We shut it, I’m afraid. Got a

couple of bricks through the window

yesterday lunchtime, bit too close

to the action. Come through. Come

through.

18 INT. CAIRO. OGILVEY MANSION. DAY. 18

He and PINE are staring at the documents. The TV is showing

more scenes of the Arab Spring.

OGILVEY:

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