The Shape of Water Page #14

(beat)

Trivial means unimportant.

ZELDA:

I didn’t see nothing out of the

ordinary, no- Or trivial. My feetwere hurting too much-

STRICKLAND:

(to Elisa)

What about you?

Elisa signs.

ZELDA:

Neither did she.

STRICKLAND:

(sotto)

Hoffstetler- Dr. Hoffstetler- did

either of you see him coming in or

out of the lab?

ZELDA:

Well, he works there- doesn’t he?

STRICKLAND:

I mean in a different way- doingsomething different-

Elisa signs.

ZELDA:

(translates)

Something trivial? No, Sir- Mmhno-

STRICKLAND:

I want you to think. People get

loose, people pay the price.

He looks at Elisa who stares back at him. Her

imperturbability mocks him.

STRICKLAND (CONT’D)

(to himself)

What am I doing?

Guffaws. Beat.

STRICKLAND (CONT’D)

Interviewing the f***ing help- the

sh*t cleaners, the piss wipers- You

two- Just go. Leave.

Elisa fumes quietly and then signs violently.

STRICKLAND (CONT’D)

What did she say?

(straight at Elisa)

What did you say? What did she say?

She is clearly saying “F*** you.”

ZELDA:

I didn’t catch it. I wasn’t

looking.

Elisa nudges Zelda and signs again- even angrier.

ZELDA (CONT’D)

She said “Thank you.”

Elisa looks at Zelda angrily- goes for the pen and paper.

Zelda gets her up and out.

ZELDA (CONT’D)

Thank you, sir-

STRICKLAND:

You know, Elisa? For a mute, you

talk too much.

String Quartet No.1, Op.18 No.1 (Beethoven, Ludwig van)

Adagio affetuoso pre-laps.

171A INT. HOFFSTETLER’S APARTMENT - DAY 171A

A baquelite RADIO is playing the piece. Hoffstetler is

ironing his pants’ crease with mathematical precision.

Doorbell rings. Opens the door. BURLY RUSSIAN and MIHALKOV

stand there.

HOFFSTETLER:

Comrades. Please, come in.

TIME CUT:
Hoffstetler pours some hot tea.

MIHALKOV:

Your extraction papers... will beready soon.

HOFFSTETLER:

I am very grateful... Stupid as theAmerican are- it won’t be long for

them to find me.

MIHALKOV:

Nothing to worry about.

They come in, discreetly examine everything, open drawers.

MIHALKOV (CONT’D)

But I have a question, then- A

personal question. I am a littlecurious.

Hoffstetler spots the gun in Mihalkov’s waist.

HOFFSTETLER:

Yes? Go ahead. Would you like some

butter cake?

BURLY RUSSIAN:

Yes. Please.

Hoffstetler goes to the kitchen slices a home baked cake.

Discreetly pockets the knife.

MIHALKOV:

The asset... when you injected it,

how did it react?

Hoffstetler serves the cake.

HOFFSTETLER:

How did it-

MIHALKOV:

React. See? In humans the poisonworks instantaneously while for

animals there is a delayedreaction. I was curious...

HOFFSTETLER:

It was instant.

BURLY RUSSIAN:

This is very good cake. You made

it?

Hoffstetler nods.

90

BURLY RUSSIAN (CONT’D)

You are very good at this-

MIHALKOV:

What did you do with the corpus?

Hoffstetler readies the knife.

HOFFSTETLER:

I performed an autopsy.

Unenlightening. As Lenin said,

there is no profit in last week'sfish.

MIHALKOV:

Lenin said that?

HOFFSTETLER:

Um. Of course.

MIHALKOV gets up. Puts his hat on. Goes to the door.

MIHALKOV:

Perhaps. Perhaps you'remisremembering. Wait for our call.

Shouldn’t be much longer.

Canned laughter pre-laps

172 INT. STRICKLAND’S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 172

The family watches Dobie Gillis.

ELAINE:

That’s a gelatine parfait.

(beat)

Parfait-it’s a French word. Means

“perfect” You like it?

TIMMY:

Dad- Dad- can we watch Bonanza?

ELAINE:

Bonanza is much too violent.

(back to Strickland)

It has little pieces of celery and

walnut. Recipe’s right out of thebox- real convenient. They say it’sthe future of home cooking.

STRICKLAND:

Bonanza is not violent. It’s real

life. The way it was.

(MORE)

STRICKLAND (CONT'D)

The way it is. A man faces a

problem. It’s up to him to solveit.

ELAINE:

You know what I was thinking today?

We get settled maybe we could getthe kids a p-u-p-p-y.

TAMMY, playing with her Barbies- snaps-

TAMMY:

We can spell, Mom.

ELAINE:

We can go to the park- Do somethingtogether?

STRICKLAND changes channels; The NEWS. Martin Luther King

talks to a massive crowd.

STRICKLAND:

Puppy becomes a dog. Dog’s a wildanimal We never “domesticated” the

damn things-

ELAINE:

Language, Richard. Little pitchers

have big ears...

Strickland changes channels: Vietnam- Carson- Phone starts

ringing.

STRICKLAND:

They never learn their place.

Rover, Lassie, Spot... They’re

carnivores. We never strip them of

their nature... They’ll eat yourhand as soon as they’ll take a shitin your yard.

ELAINE:

Richard!

Phone rings. Strickland disconnects the phone-

STRICKLAND:

Don’t reconnect it. Don’t answer

it.

- walks away.

172A EXT. CADILLAC / STRICKLAND’S FRONT PORCH -NIGHT 172A

It’s raining like hell. Strickland exits the house drink inhand- enters the car.

Takes a cigarette, lights it.

He uncovers his fingers: they are black. He presses one- it

squirts a yellow liquid.

And thinks.

CUT TO:

173 INT. ELISA’S APARTMENT - BATHROOM - DAY 173

The tub’s filling up. The creature watches.

She opens and closes the HOT/COLD faucet. Tests the water.

She takes the box of algae that Hoffstetler gave her. She

opens the box. She gets an idea. Smiles and looks around thebathroom.

-opens the faucet on the sink.

The sink overflows

She takes the towels- sealing the cracks-and uses a towel to

stuff the space between the door and the floor. The water

continues to run

174 CAMERA GOES BELOW 174

-Into the theatre-

Water pours from above and onto the empty seats and-

onto the scattered customers’ faces.

They get up from their seats.

CUT BACK:

Elisa is floating, naked, next to the Amphibian Man- now the

entire BATHROOM is immersed in water.

She embraces him- Eyes closed, feeling him underneath her and

the water on her face. His markings move rhythmically like amelody.

She intakes and holds.

As the water goes above her head.

They float underwater. Contemplating each other.

CUT TO:

175 INT. GILES APARTMENT - DAY 175

Giles gets up. He absentmindedly puts on his robe- folds inhis MURPHY BED and heads to his drawing table. On it: the

large format sketch of the Amphibian Man (which is looking

beautiful) Giles takes Iodine and cotton and removes thebandage from his arm: the wounds are gone.

He catches his reflection on his reference mirror- and is

startled to discover-

SHOCK!!

-His head has hair. A lot of it. It’s growing from his

scalp... And his beard is darker, his skin tighter. He pullshis hair- It’s his.

Looks down inside his pajama trousers.

GILES:

Well, Oh, well- Hello!

He hurries

176 INT. HALLWAY -DAY 176

Across the hall.

MR. ARZOUMANIAN

What is going on? I’ve got waterpouring into the bible movie. I

have four paying customers. I can’tafford a refund.

GILES:

It’s a pipe. It’s a pipe. I’ll takecare of it. I’ll fix it.

MR. ARZOUMANIAN

I can’t have water pouring into thegoddamn bible movie.

GILES:

Alright. I’ll take care of it.

Elisa! Elisa!

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