The Stunt Man Page #7

CAMERON:

Very fancy.

He takes a running start and does the same. Not quite as well, but

well enough. As he rolls to his feet:

CAMERON:

Okay?

CHUCK:

Better.

CAMERON:

My speciality is Hopscotch.

Chuck turns on him enraged, overreacting.

- 33

CHUCK:

And Burt's specialty was drowning.

You know one goddamn daredevil on

this picture was enough! What the

hell was Eli thinking, giving me a

smart-ass, cocky, amateur kid when I

need a stunt man! It's a little

different running across that roof

when they're pumping tracer bullets

over your head.

CAMERON:

(eloquently pleading his

case)

I was running for twenty-six months

with guys shooting at me...not over

my head...at my head and I'm alive.

I knew daredevils. I got nothing

against them...it's just they're all

dead. So ease off and give me a

chance...

Cameron is surprised to see that Chuck is grinning.

CAMERON (CONT'D)

(genuinely)

Hey, were you putting me on?

CHUCK:

Me? I wouldn't know how to do that.

Chuck starts to walk away, then stops and looks at Cameron.

EXT. ROOFTOP MUNICIPAL BUILDING - CLOSE ON CHUCK - MINUTES LATER

CHUCK:

(pained)

Can you imaging Eli doing a World

War I picture without horses? Do

you know the gags I could do with

four runaway horses pulling a

caisson?

Cameron sailing into the SHOT. Chuck ducks slightly, catching

Cameron on his back and flipping him into a somersault. Cameron

lands on the sharply slanted slate roof of the municipal building.

Chuck stands beside him straddling the peak. The church steeple can

be seen in b.g. (and we now realize time has passed and we are no

longer in the graveyard of the previous sequence, but atop the

building).

- 34

CHUCK (CONT'D)

...Next time hit me higher.

CAMERON:

(climbing to his feet)

What's Eli got against horses? I

love horses.

CHUCK:

Don't butter me up.

Cameron goes running at Chuck and once again flies over his

shoulder. Sprawling on the slippery slate, he looks up to see Chuck

strolling down the hazardous incline like a mountain goat. Cameron

scrambles to follow.

CHUCK:

(as he walks)

We'll draw a sight line for you to

follow down the roof here, while

you're rolling. Now there's nothing

very difficult. But this is where

you gotta think. Your mind can't be

on snatch. It's gotta be on

grabbing that gutter.

They have reached the lower edge of the roof. Cameron looks down at

the drop.

CAMERON:

Or my brains are all over the

pavement again, right?

CHUCK:

(walking away)

You know a good falling horse makes

more money in four minutes than a

bank president does in a year?

CAMERON:

Picture's not over. Maybe you'll

still get your chance.

Chuck has stopped and they peer down through a skylight to where the

crew is setting up a shot in a room below.

CHUCK:

(sadly)

Naw, all they care about is story.

64A

- 35

They move to another edge of the roof overlooking a NARROW CENTRAL

COURTYARD. They gaze down at a WINDOW AWNING two stories below that

juts from the side of the building-wing across the court.

CHUCK (CONT'D)

Now here's where the scuffle ends.

When the pipe breaks loose, you fall

and hit that awning. Then Eli yells

"cut" and old Raymond takes your

place for the close-ups and the

glory. That's where the German

soldiers catch him and throw him in

the nuthouse. They're shootin' that

scene downstairs now.

CAMERON:

(staring at awning)

That's supposed to hold me?

Probably doesn't hold rain.

CHUCK:

It's not a real awning, it's a

catcher.

EXT. MUNICIPAL BUILDING ROOF - CLOSE ON CAMERON - DAY

Cameron's face is beginning to sweat and the veins are bulging from

the growing strain of some physical effort.

CHUCK'S VOICE

It's no harder up here than it is on

the ground...

CAMERA PULLS BACK to reveal Cameron dangling from a section of rain

gutter, four stories above the ground.

CHUCK'S VOICE (CONT'D)

It's the same gag...it's just a

little scarier. And that's what you

get paid for.

CAMERON:

(alert)

Yeah, how much?

CHUCK:

You're stealing candy with this gag.

You get six hundred bucks.

CAMERON:

(almost falling)

- 36

Jesus!...

CHUCK:

...Christ! Watch it, will ya?

(helping Cameron onto

roof)

What did you think a stunt man is?

He's a professional. If the camera

jams, that's another six hundred and

if Eli says "try it again," six

hundred more.

CAMERON:

(exultantly)

Yahooo! Six-f***ing-hundred-bucks!!

66

INT. MUNICIPAL BUILDING - ASYLUM SET

In a large vacant hall on the ground floor of the municipal

building, a movie set has been erected representing the ward room in

a World War I military asylum. In it, Eli's crew is filming a

sequence -- a dozen enraged INMATES in tatters, heads shaven, wild-

eyed, advance toward Raymond, shrieking (as though in echo of

Cameron's exultant yell).

67

CLOSER ANGLE:

Raymond, dressed as a British Flyer, his face bloodied, crouches and

retreats in terror, a man caught in a nightmare, as these mutilated

derelicts suddenly swarm over him. One, like a mad dog, goes fro

his throat, another wields his own artificial limb as a club.

Raymond (in character) breaks free and screams.

RAYMOND:

...STOP!...Get away!!

For an instant, the inmates stop in stunned silence --broken only

by a distant shout overhead.

CAMERON'S VOICE

(on the roof overhead)

...Six-f***ing-hundred, gorgeous,

beautiful dollars! I can't believe

it!

The slavering madmen look up, then out at the camera, madmen no

longer, simply bewildered actors.

ELI'S VOICE

All right. Hold it! Hold it!

- 37

ANGLE ON CREW:

Eli stands amidst the camera crew photographing the scene. He is

waving for order.

ELI:

...Save it, everybody.

A.D.

(storming in)

Jesus Christ, what the hell was

that? Somebody get their ass up on

that roof...

ELI:

(cutting him off)

...Never mind. I didn't like it

anyway.

As Eli steps down from the DOLLY, a solemn, quiet man approaches him

from among the onlookers. It is SAM BAUM (the writer).

SAM:

What's wrong?

ELI:

The scene's wrong.

(yells to the A.D.)

Call a break.

The A.D. Calls "Five minutes" and the crew moves toward the coffee

urn. Eli wanders toward the door, Sam pursuing.

SAM:

(fighting for his scene)

Eli, it played like a dream. My

God, it was Marat-Sade.

ELI:

(glumly)

It played like sh*t!

- 38

SAM:

(desperate)

Well, who was that on the phone in

the middle of the night when you

first read it, raving about the

magical madhouse scene, the upstairs

maid?

Eli rips the page with the "madhouse scene" from his screenplay as

they stride out of the building.

EXT. MUNICIPAL BUILDING

There, beside the rear entrance on a pile of construction sand, sits

Eli, cross-legged, staring morosely at some kids who play nearby.

He is absently folding a torn script page into a paper airplane.

Behind him, at a respectful distance, stand the Production Manager,

A.D., half a dozen assorted crew chiefs and Sam Baum, all looking

concerned. Sam looks at the others, shrugs and approaches Eli,

squatting beside him on the sand pile.

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