Thirteen Days Page #10

Suddenly out of the house totters Adlai, highball in hand.

Glassy-eyed, he grins at Kenny and joins him.

ADLAI:

Just can't get away from you guys.

Escaping for a night on the town, eh?

KENNY:

As the town's most popular playboy, the

President felt my presence would be

sorely missed. So in the interests of

National Security...

Kenny shrugs. Adlai takes a long drink, closes his eyes.

ADLAI:

Gotta keep up appearances. Of course, I

don't care anymore. I'm a political

dead man. You ever seen a man cut his

own throat like I did today?

Kenny has no answer to that. He looks down, pained for

Adlai.

ADLAI (CONT'D)

Well, it's all right.

(beat)

I came to tell you, just talked to a

friend. Reston and Frankel have the

story. It's going to run tomorrow.

INT. BEDROOM - JIM ROWE'S HOUSE - LATER

Kenny, shut in the bedroom, paces on the phone.

KENNY:

We're not going to make it to Monday.

I'll try to lean on Reston, but you're

going to have to call Orville Dryfoos.

This is the sort of decision the

publisher makes himself.

INT. ORVILLE DRYFOOS' KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

New York Times publisher ORVILLE DRYFOOS sits at his kitchen

table in his underwear, still half-asleep, phone to his ear.

DRYFOOS:

Yes, sir, I understand. But we held on

Bay of Pigs and it was the biggest

mistake of my life. What makes this any

different?

INT. PRESIDENT'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS

The President, on the phone, stops pacing by his bedside

table and exhales.

THE PRESIDENT:

I'm asking you to hold the story until I

can present our course of action on

Monday night.

INT. ORVILLE DRYFOOS' KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

DRYFOOS:

All right. But I need a reason to give

my boys. They're going to be screaming

for my head on a plate.

INT. PRESIDENT'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS

THE PRESIDENT:

Orville. I want you to tell them this:

they'll be saving lives. Maybe even

including their own.

INT. ORVILLE DRYFOOS' KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS

At that, Dryfoos sits up. Serious. All resistance gone.

DRYFOOS:

Yes, Mr. President.

INT. ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH - DAY

SUPER:
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21ST. DAY 6

AVE MARIA soars over the communion meditation at a crowded

Sunday mass. Kenny, in a pew, glances off to his left.

The President sits nearby, head bowed. But Kenny knows he's

not thinking about the mass. And when the President at last

lifts his head, Kenny sees the calm poise.

The President has made up his mind...

INT. KENNY'S OFFICE - DAY

Bobby barges into Kenny's office. Kenny, knowing his unique

entry, doesn't bother to look up.

KENNY:

Acheson called, DeGaulle's with us;

haven't heard from anyone else yet.

Kenny finally looks up. Bobby's grim. And an icicle forms

in Kenny's gut as Bobby relays.

BOBBY:

He wants to talk to LeMay again.

INT. OVAL OFFICE - DAY

Kenny, Bobby, McNamara, Rusk, Bundy and half of EXCOM stand

to the side of the room. General Sweeney and LeMay stand in

front of the President's desk.

The President, bowed in the window, is care-worn, a thousand

years old. The shadow, the composition of the SHOT tells us

all. It's down to what's in the heart of one man. Kenny is

deeply moved at his friend's Gethsemane.

THE PRESIDENT:

Cam, can you guarantee me you'll get all

the missiles?

Sweeney glances at LeMay. LeMay's stern, frozen look wills

him to say, very simply, "yes."

But then the President turns around, looks Sweeney in the

eye. It would make Machiavelli himself tell the truth.

GENERAL SWEENEY:

Sir, I can guarantee we'll get all the

missiles we know about.

The President holds Sweeney in his gaze. Thank you.

LEMAY:

Mr. President, we can get better than

ninety percent of them.

The President doesn't respond to LeMay's last-ditch appeal.

Ninety-percent isn't good enough with nuclear weapons. He

moves to his desk, signs a paper, hands it to General

Sweeney.

THE PRESIDENT:

As of seven o'clock Monday night, all

United States armed forces world wide

will stand up to DEFCON 3.

EXT. BARKSDALE AFB - SUNSET

SUPER:
MONDAY, OCTOBER 22ND. DAY 7

A DEAFENING WHINE. And INTO FRAME yawns the enormous

spinning mouth of a B-52 bomber jet engine. It closes on us,

sucking us in like a maelstrom, but at the last second the

CAMERA SLIPSTREAMS OVER IT --

-- carrying us over the aircraft's wing. The CAMERA pivots

and the vast war machine crawls away underneath joining --

-- a long LINE of identical behemoths, in single file inching

down a taxi way which vanishes into the distance. As the

plane's immense vertical tail WIPES OUR VIEW:

EXT. MISSILE SILO - NIGHT

The CAMERA races toward a spotlighted concrete emplacement,

over the immense BLAST DOOR which is sliding open, and DOWN --

INT. MISSILE SILO - CONTINUOUS

-- into the depths of a missile silo. The CAMERA speeds down

the side of the Titan missile, through CLOUDS of steaming

liquid hydrogen, past FUELING HOSES which clamp one by one to

the rocket's side, past GANTRY ARMS pulling away. The CAMERA

hurtles all the way to the bottom, SMASHING THROUGH THE FLOOR

TO:

EXT. CARRIBEAN SEA - NIGHT

The dark ocean, whitecaps whipping luminous around the

aircraft carrier, U.S.S. ESSEX and her escorts. Running

lights flash red and green.

The carrier's SIREN begins a lonely, eerie WOOP WOOP WOOP

WOOP like some immense creature which has lost its mind. The

ship FILLS THE SCREEN, CUTTING US INTO:

INT. WEST WING - CONTINUOUS

The doors to the Cabinet room. A beat. Then they SWING

WIDE. The President emerges, livid fury on his face, leaving

chaos behind:
the Congressional briefing. Kenny comes out a

beat later, catches up with him.

KENNY:

You'd worry that something was wrong if

Congress offered you unconditional

support.

THE PRESIDENT:

They want this f***ing job, they can

have it. It's no great joy to me.

The President exhales, getting control.

THE PRESIDENT (CONT'D)

The elected representatives of the

people have spoken...

(beat; determined)

Now let's tell the people...

INT. OVAL OFFICE - NIGHT

Kenny stands there in the doorway, arms folded. As we PULL

AWAY FROM HIM, we REVEAL the three NETWORK T.V. CAMERAS

staring straight at us. Their red lights go on as one, and

we swing around REVERSING TO:

The President at his desk: telegenic, powerful.

THE PRESIDENT:

Good evening, my fellow citizens. This

Government, as promised, has maintained

the closest surveillance of the Soviet

military build-up on the island of

Cuba...

EXT. BARKSDALE AFB - NIGHT

The first B-52 trundles to a stop at the end of the runway.

It begins to throttle-up, the ROAR of its engine mounting...

THE PRESIDENT (V.O.)

...unmistakable evidence has now

established the fact that a series of

missile sites is in preparation on that

imprisoned island. The purpose of these

bases can be none other than to proved a

nuclear strike capability against the

Western Hemisphere...

-- AND DROWNING OUT the President's speech as the plane

lurches forward, down the runway into the night.

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