Three Kings Page #9

The tanker truck careens sideways toward them, 50 feet away.

An Iraqi soldier fires a grenade-launcher off his shoulder

which explodes the container on the back of the truck --

Milk explodes everywhere, gushing around the wheels of the

Humvee and the feet of Archie and the others.

Shiite women with plastic containers and ceramic jugs rush

out from alleys and try to scoop up the milk. Other Shiites

crowd the Humvee and climb in.

Iraqi soldiers drag two bodies from the cab of the truck.

Troy and Doc point their guns in the crowd.

ARCHIE GATES:

Move. Out of the way.

Archie shoves Shiite peasants out of the Humvee.

SHIITE WOMAN:

Hos-pital.

She holds a SHIRTLESS BOY of 7 with a bandage around his

entire chest. Doc pushes her off the Humvee.

SHIITE MAN:

America help.

He grabs Archie. Troy shoves the man off the vehicle. Vig

starts the engine.

ARCHIE GATES:

Give them MRE's.

Troy rips open a large duffel and starts handing out Army

Meal Rations to the crowd -- Vig leans on the horn.

The friendly Iraqi jumps into the rear of the Hummer as it

starts to pull away. Archie shoves the friendly Iraqi out,

and he lands on his ass in the swarm of chasing Shiites.

Archie and Troy look back at the debacle as they pull away.

EXT. DESERT MARSH - DAY

Raging oil fires, 50 feet high -- billowing black smoke.

Walter drives the motorcycle through the smoke. Paco the

Cameraman sits on back. Bill Smithson sits in the sidecar.

BILL SMITHSON:

This is boring, I already did this

damn story, goddamn it, where the

hell is the gold?

WALTER:

How about rare pelican migration

out by the marshes?

BILL SMITHSON:

What?

WALTER:

These brave pelicans are migrating

in spite of massive pollution --

BILL SMITHSON:

F*** that. Stop the bike.

Walter keeps driving.

EXT. DESERT - DAY

Doc gets out of the stopped Humvee, shaken, and walks around.

DOC:

I'm all right, I'm cool.

He lies down and breathes heavily with a hand on his chest.

Archie gets out and walks around, agitated, clearly upset.

ARCHIE GATES:

What is the art of war, because it

is not for killing people, it's a

stratagem to give life to many by

killing the evil perpetrated by a

few -- I am burning up in this

goddamn suit --

He angrily takes off his gas suit; boxers and sweat-drenched

green T-shirt underneath. Troy and Vig guzzle water.

ARCHIE GATES:

Discriminating use of violence as

a last resort, and even then,

carefully, surgically, that's what

I learned, that's what I'm good

at. But now they underestimate all

this, bomb the same towns for six

weeks and still leave the scumbag

dictator to starve and butcher his

own people.

The others, all drenched in sweat, take off their gas suits.

TROY:

(agitated)

I don't even know what happened

back there. Civilians were

spitting on their own soldiers;

the soldiers were shooting the

civilians and ignoring us --

DOC:

They already surrendered to us.

Now they're after Shiites.

VIG:

What exactly is a Shiite?

ARCHIE GATES:

They make up the ethnic majority

but they don't have any power.

When Bush pulled us out, he told

them to start a civil war to bring

Saddam down, and now they're

getting wasted.

VIG:

(totally puzzled)

The civil war? How could it be the

civil war?

FANTASY - STOCK FOOTAGE: UNION SOLDIERS FIGHT DIXIE REBELS

BACK TO THE SCENE

Vig looks puzzled.

TROY:

It's a war inside the same

country, Conrad. That's a civil

war.

Archie chucks each of them MARINE UNIFORMS without name tags

which everyone puts on, except Troy.

ARCHIE GATES:

Put these on, we are now U.S.

Marines.

TROY:

I can't do this, OK? Because I've

got a family and if I sh*t in a

bag the rest of my life cuz I got

shot after the war's already over

that would be pretty f***ing

stupid, wouldn't it?

ARCHIE GATES:

What is the most important thing

in life?

TROY:

What the f*** are you talking

about?

ARCHIE GATES:

What is it?

TROY:

Did you hear anything I said.

VIG:

Respect is the most important.

ARCHIE GATES:

Too dependent on other people.

DOC:

Money.

ARCHIE GATES:

Comes and goes, man.

TROY:

What is this bullshit?

DOC:

What's the most important thing?

ARCHIE GATES:

Necessity. That's what dictates

what will happen at any given time

in life. Necessity says we don't

spend American lives taking out

Saddam, which leaves Saddam the

necessity of taking out the

Shiites so he can stay in power,

which leaves us to take the gold.

TROY:

We could've been shot.

ARCHIE GATES:

Did you notice they didn't touch

us? We decimated their entire

country. They're scared shitless

of us. [looks at his watch]

There's time to try another

bunker. I say we go.

DOC:

Let's do it.

VIG:

Rock and roll.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes