The Truman Show Page #8

TRUMAN:

You think I imagined it, don't you?

MARLON:

I think you're missing your dad.

(trying to be delicate)

The anniversary was yesterday, wasn't it?

Truman is surprised Marlon remembered. Marlon nods to the

sidewalk.

MARLON:

You got sand in your cuffs.

Truman looks down at his feet. A small, tell-tale pile of sand

has poured out of his tight trouser cuff.

TRUMAN:

Maybe you're right. If only the old

woman hadn't left her dog behind.

We see a flashback in Truman's head of the earlier scene in the

Lower Manhattan street. It confirms that the old woman's DOG

was abandoned on the sidewalk.

INT. TRUMAN'S MOTHER'S APARTMENT, QUEENS. DAY.

TRUMAN stands in the corridor of his mother's cramped, fussy.

doilyed apartment with his older sister, RAQUEL, late forties,

prematurely grey. Through a doorway, the figure of his MOTHER

is visible asleep in bed, despite the early hour. Truman and

Raquel speak in hushed tones to avoid waking her.

RAQUEL:

Don't you dare go in. Truman. I just

got her off to sleep.

TRUMAN:

It was Dad. I swear.

Raquel fixes Truman with a contemptuous stare.

RAQUEL:

Well, the next time he shows up. bring

him over. Until then, I'm not saying a

word about this to Mom and neither are you.

TRUMAN:

If it wasn't him, it was his twin. Can you

think of a reason he'd want to hide from us?

RACQUEL:

I know a reason he'd want to hide from you.

Look at how you treat us. You live ten minutes

away, we hardly see you from year to year and

then you turn up with this story so insane you

don't even believe it yourself. Haven't you

hurt her enough, Truman? She already blames you.

TRUMAN:

(incredulous)

I was seven years old!

RAQUEL:

But you're here and he's not. Has it really taken you

this long to invent a story to ease your conscience?

TRUMAN:

I'm telling you he's alive!

RAQUEL:

(snapping back bitterly)

And I'm telling you he's fish food!

Truman meets her unforgiving eyes. Without another word, he

walks out of the apartment.

Truman safely departed, the figure in the bed, rolls out.

CHRISTOF, fully clothed, relishing the danger of being so close

to Truman without being detected. Raquel's demeanor immediately

changes, all trace of bitterness gone from her face, she appears

younger, posture more upright, almost a different person.

Christof hugs Raquel.

CHRISTOF:

You did well.

INT. DRESSING ROOM SOMEWHERE. NIGHT.

A cavernous dressing room contains a long row of identical

mirrored make-up tables. At the only occupied table, Truman's

contrite father, KIRK, is having what's left of his homeless

disguise cleaned from his face by a MAKE-UP ARTIST under the

watchful eye of two DARK-SUITED BODYGUARDS.

From a mezzanine floor out of Kirk's vision, CHRISTOF and CHLOE

also take in the proceedings. Behind their heads, a monitor

shows a surveillance picture of an agitated TRUMAN sitting in

his car, trapped in rush-hour traffic.

CHLOE:

We've tightened security.

Christof nods indifferently, knowing the damage is already done.

CHLOE:

(referring to Kirk)

Why would he do this to us?

CHRISTOF:

Old age. Sentiment. You play someone's

father all those years, you are someone's

father...He sees the way Truman is. He

feels responsible.

Christof turns and enters an office adjacent to the balcony,

containing a state-of-the-art monitor and VCR. Chloe follows.

Christof plays the cued recording without comment. We focus on

the screen.

EXT. LONG ISLAND SOUND. DAY, TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS EARLIER.

A younger-looking CHRISTOF sits in a motorboat in the calm

water of Long Island Sound. Truman's father, KIRK, twenty-seven

years younger and a DARK HAIRED BOY, Truman's age at the time,

acting as a stand-in, sit in the stern of a sailing dinghy.

Two SCUBA DIVERS in the ocean.

YOUNG CHRISTOF:

(barking instructions to Kirk)

...as soon as we give the cue, tack to windward...

Kirk rehearses turning the tiller in the instructed direction.

YOUNG CHRISTOF:

The freak wave will strike from the

starboard side. Remember, you don't

go to the diver. The diver goes to you.

To simulate the wave, one of the divers puts his full weight on

the side of the dinghy to capsize it. Kirk and the boy are

tossed into the water. While the boy immediately bobs to the

surface in his life jacket, Kirk fails to surface. After a long

moment, he reappears with the second diver some distance away.

now wearing a spare aqualung.

YOUNG CHRISTOF:

...Good! Good!...of course, on the day you

only surface once you're safely beyond the

cove...Try it one more time...You okay?

Kirk is staring at Truman's stand-in, clinging to the upturned

boat. Kirk's expression suggests he is not a totally willing

participant in the masquerade.

The present-day Christof freezes the monitor on Kirk's uncertain

face.

INT. TRUMAN'S GARAGE. DUSK.

A cluttered garage, dimly lit by a single work lamp. TRUMAN

looks over his shoulder before turning his attention to a dusty

trunk under a canvas sheet. The trunk is fastened with a

combination lock. He deftly dials the correct combination and

opens the lid.

Inside, mementoes from his youth. A "HOW TO SAIL" book, a

stack of "GREAT EXFLORERS" magazines, and beneath it all, a

garment in a drycleaning bag. Truman carefully lifts up the

plastic to reveal a schoolgirl's lavender cardigan decorated

with pearl beading. He puts the cardigan to his nose and

breathes deeply.

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