The Saint Page #2

(deafening CHEERS)

Join me then in the song of our forefathers.

Romanov begins to sing, ably, the first verse of "Mother Russia" (the Russian anthem before the Bolsheviks).

THE CROWD joins him. The Ploshchad rings with the voices of half a million Russians...

CUT TO:

EXT. ST. PETERSBURG - NIKKO HOTEL - CONTINUOUS

We're 12 stories up, outside the city's Nikko hotel. The rally across town is a distant glow. We hear the singing crowd.

TWO HANDS appear, gripping the nooks of the exterior architecture. A MAN IN BLACK climbs up, securing a sling to the window frame in which to sit. A bulky BACKPACK hangs from shoulder straps. He produces a diamond cutter; begins carving a man-sized aperture in the window. Below, in the foyer –

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - GRAND FOYER BALLROOM

-- A JAPANESE SECURITY MAN sits at his guard station, watching C.N.N. NEWS on a small television. Wolf Blitzer is reporting live from the rally.

WOLF BLITZER:

(on t.v.)

An extraordinary allegation, Bernard, that Russia's present leadership, including President Victor Karpov, is connected with the country's underworld.

Inside the foyer ballroom, Japanese businessmen are hosting a reception. The Nikko Hotel's core is hollow, like the Hilton in New York; thus, the ballroom's "ceiling" is 12 stories up.

CHAMPAGNE SERVERS are passing out glasses. A grey-haired Japanese businessman, HIRO MYAKI, clinks his glass. The guests pay attention. During this we focus on a CHAMPAGNE SERVER moving toward the lobby elevators with a full tray.

HIRO MYAKI:

Ladies. Gentlemen. The Myaki Corporation looks forward to many profitable days ahead. To our new manufacturing facility in St. Petersburg. To the new Russia!

As the crowd CLAPS...

EXT. NIKKO HOTEL - EXTERIOR WALL

...the Man In Black kicks at the cut section of window, pushing it into the hotel and plunging inside after it.

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - CEILING SUPERSTRUCTURE

The Man In Black catches hold of a steel girder and dangles, and, miraculously --

THE PIECE OF WINDOW doesn't fall.

It's stuck to his feet with suction cups.

The Man In Black moves, hand over hand, toward the mezzanine balcony, the window stuck to his feet.

IN THE LOBBY BELOW Everybody's beaming, toasting, congratulating, etc., totally oblivious to THE MAN IN BLACK, 12 stories up, inching hand-over-hand across the roof superstructure.

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - CEILING SUPERSTRUCTURE OVER MEZZANINE

The Man In Black has reached the mezzanine. TWO JAPANESE SECURITY GUARDS, armed with automatic rifles, walk their shift directly below him. They pass a wall mounted television, also carrying the NEWS:

WOLF BLITZER:

(on t.v.)

One thing's certain, Bernard: Michael Romanov, age 32, French born and Oxford educated, descendent of the last czar, is a political force to be reckoned with.

The guards move down the mezzanine; one jokes, the other laughs. They disappear around a corner. The Man in Black hangs from the girder with one hand; with the other he yanks the piece of window off his foot-mounted suction cups. He drops to the mezzanine. He rests the glass against the wall. He peers over the balustrade at the party below. Satisfied, he removes his hood, ENDING TITLES.

This is SIMON TEMPLAR. A hard, self-reliant, crafty man. You should treat him as such or be very sorry you ever met him. It is unfortunate that a man of Templar's various talents can be so lacking. How?

His journey has been through a tough world and he has come fast. This one gives no quarter. Ever. Though his outward self glows with life, he is dead inside.

Templar, focused utterly, steals inside a corridor.

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - INTERIOR CORRIDOR

A long corridor with a door at the end, on which is engraved: MYAKI CORPORATION. At the entrance, secured in a niche, is a BRONZE BUST OF HIRO MYAKI.

Templar stops cold. A RUG (an oriental runner) extends the length of the corridor.

Templar kneels, lifting an edge of the rug. Revealing ANTI -THEFT PRESSURE SENSORS. Templar produces a DARTGUN (the size of a flare gun, silenced, with a spool of steel cable attached to the top). He aims down the corridor and fires.

A STEEL DART explodes from the barrel, spooling out the cable, and imbeds above the door at corridor's end.

Templar yanks the other end of cable from the spool. He looks around for something to secure it.

TEMPLAR:

Sorry about this.

He ties the cable around Myaki's bronze neck. He hangs from the cable, testing it. It will hold. He pulls out an aluminum contraption with small wheels and two handle grips. It's A GLIDER for the cable. He attaches the glider to the cable, grips the handles, and glides the length of the corridor.

THE OTHER END OF THE CORRIDOR - OVER THE DOOR

Templar bumps up against the door. He pulls his knees up and over the handles of the glider, then flops over backwards, hanging upside down. HIS FACE is now right next to the door handle, over which is an ELECTRONIC LOCK (opened by punching a code).

Templar pulls out a BLACK BOX. It's a really small, really powerful computer and its job is to run through every possible number combination in about a minute and a half. Templar wires the computer to the lock with two needlelike ELECTRODE PROBES.

He activates the system. The little computer starts running through combinations of numbers. He waits, hanging upside down. Meanwhile--

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - MEZZANINE - ELEVATOR LOBBY

The Japanese guards are smoking by the elevator, joking, laughing. One of these guys is a riot... The elevator opens. The CHAMPAGNE SERVER comes out, tray in hand.

CHAMPAGNE SERVER

Compliments of Mr. Myaki.

JAPANESE GUARDS:

(delighted)

Ahh!

Beaming, they each take a glass. They clink and drink.

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - INTERIOR CORRIDOR

The computer BEEPS. It's finished. Templar turns the door handle; pushes open the door. He pulls himself up. Hangs from his hands again. He swings his legs back and forth, getting momentum up. He releases from the glider and lunges inside.

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - MYAKI CORPORATION OFFICES

A grand boardroom with Japanese furniture and art. At the end of a fifty-foot mahogany table is a PAINTING OF HIRO MYAKI. Templar walks over to it.

TEMPLAR:

Sorry again.

He RIPS the painting off the wall and heaves it aside. And here, where the painting was, is A SAFE. Templar unshoulders his backpack. He pulls out a 40-pound CARLSBAD & RINKER industrial diamond-tipped drill, as big as a jackhammer. No finesse here, people.

No, there's no time for high-tech. He's going to drill right through the b*tch, right through four inches of tungsten steel. He starts setting up the drill.

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - MEZZANINE LOBBY

Two CHAMPAGNE GLASSES lie shattered on the floor, and next to that mess lie the JAPANESE GUARDS, now unconscious. The champagne server's gone...

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - MEZZANINE

...because he's here, moving quickly toward the Myaki Corporation's office, and he's not a champagne server, but a thief and a killer, a blonde Russian named ILYA. Ilya stops just outside the interior corridor. With the GUARD'S KEYRING, he shuts off the anti-theft mats and moves around the corner into the corridor.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes