Last Days

byGus Van Sant

First draftJune 8, 2002

1.

FIRST ACT:

EXT. FOREST DAY

A long drifting view over a forest, the topsof Douglas Fir trees forming pyramids ofgreen on a sloping mountainside that seem togo on forever and lead to a deep rivervalley with a gigantic hydro-electric dam inthe distance.

EXT. UNDER A BRIDGE DAY

Sawed logs jutting from a hillside, drippingwet, knurled branches and roots twist intothe earth and the rushing water of a stream.Fog drifts by a figure:

BLAKE

He sits on one of the logs under a colossalfallen tree overhanging the spray from awaterfall.

EXT. THE NEIGHBORHOOD LATE AT NIGHT

Blake is walking on a wet street passinglarge houses with gardens, spherical andconical shaped shrubs and amber front gatelights drift by slowly, we follow himsometimes down the middle of the road andsometimes on the edge near the sidewalk.

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The sky is growing brighter.

He walks off the road up a curved driveway.

At the end of the curve is an enormousScottish Arts and Crafts styled oversizedwooden lake house with a pleasantly slopingCascade roof.

GROWINGLIGHTER SO IT

IS MORNING

There is a parking area on the side of thehouse and a garage with a similar Cascaderoof with second story balconies above, anda glass roof.

Blake walks to the rear of the greenhouse,up the back stairs, and we can see himinside, he walks to the middle of the roomand looks up at the sky through the glassroof, then disappears and we hear himrummaging around our of our view, in whatsounds like gardening tools.

EXT. THE HOUSE MORNING

Blake walks out the greenhouse carrying along garden hoe he walks across a back yardto a tree. He has an easy manner about him,he is having fun, almost. He digs in theground next to the tree with the hoe.

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He finds what he is looking for, a smallbox, takes it under his arm and he walksinto the back door of the mansion.

INT. HOUSE MORNING

Continuing from outside, Blake walks intothe house, almost whistling, puts the boxdown, we can see now that it is a DutchMasters cigar hex inside a zip lock bag,very worn, he takes it out of the zip lockbag that is still covered with mud, throwsthe bag under the sink.

He places the box on the kitchen table andopens one of the kitchen cabinets, pulls outa box of Koko Krispies, pours some into abowl he finds in the kitchen cabinet. Opensthe refrigerator, puts the Koko Krispies onthe shelf next to a carton of milk and picksup the milk.

He hits his neck as if he has just been bitby a mosquito.

He pours milk into the bowl, then when heputs the milk back into the fridge he grabsthe Koko Krispies and returns the box backinto the cabinet.

Blake leans against the counter, opens adrawer next to him, we can see into thedrawer, there are plenty of knives, plentyof forks, but there are no spoons.

He opens another drawer, we see a few largespoons there.

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He picks one out, it is too large to beeating cereal with, but he uses it anyway.

Then he takes a seat at the kitchen tableand proceeds to eat his cereal one bite atafter another.

When he finishes, he puts the cereal bowland the spoon in the refrigerator and leavesthe room, walks down the hall ...

INT. HALL MORNING

Blake climbs a large dark wooden staircaseturning left twice and into the masterbedroom.

INT. LARGE MASTER BEDROOM MORNING

He stops to look around,order, neat, there is ancanopied bed.

everything is inexpensive looking

Blake lays across the bed and slowly risesup as if he were being pulled up by ropes,slowly.

He takes off most of his clothes, opens acloset and looks at the dresses hanging infront of him. He grabs one and tries iton.

He walks around the bed wearing the dress.He searches behind the bed where there is asmall closet. He pulls a GUN from thecloset.

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AS if hunting rabbits with the gun, Blakestalks through the room and stops in frontof a chest of drawers. He opens one of thedrawers, he finds a hunting cap with pulldown ear warmers. He puts this on andadmires himself in a mirror. He adjusts theear flaps and ties them around his chin.

INT. VANITY MORNING

Blake sits in front of a mirror, takes hiscap off, combs his hair for a few minutes,giving himself little looks in the mirror.Then puts the cap back on.

The phone begins ringing in another room.

INT. VARIOUS ROOMS IN HOUSE MORNING

Blake hunts around the house with the gun,room by room, pretending to hunt something,still wearing the dress and the red andblack plaid hunting cap with side ear flapsdown.

INT. HALLWAY DAY

Blake reaches the top of the stairs leadingto a finished third floor. There is amirror on the wall he notices moving slowlyone way and then the other way.

Alarmed, he avoids the mirror.

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INT. ONE BEDROOM UPSTAIRS MORNING

Blake finds a girl and boy, SUSAN AND MAXI,sleeping in their clothes in a double bed. Atelevision is on in the bedroom tuned to MTVthat is playing a Bette Midler video.

BLAKEWabbits ...

He pretends to shoot them, one at a time,taking careful aim.

The phone begins ringing in the room.

Satisfied he leaves the room.

INT. DOWNSTAIRS MORNING

Blake stands in a downstairs den. He closesthe doors behind him. He turns on thetelevision.

The television is already tuned to MTV.

Blake moves about the room, dancing to thesound of a Guns 'N' Roses song on his MTV.

After the song ends he puts the gun down andtries to sit with no chair near him. Heremains suspended in a crouched-serni-seatedposition for a minute in an apparent druggedstate.

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Then he finally makes it to the ground fullyseated on the floor, and slides back to leanagainst the closed doors, somewhat comatose,his eyes half shut, not paying attention tothe television.

But he, Blake, is on the television, we seea video clip, he is singing on MTV. He istoo stoned to notice or else it is anordinary enough occurrence for him to care.

The door he is leaning against opens andBlake falls out backwards and hits his headon the wood floor hard.

It is Susan from the bedroom, one of therabbits. She is nervous she might have donesomething wrong. She hesitates, then pushesBlake back upright enough that she can closethe door again.

Blakedoor.

now upright again leaning againstHe hasn't noticed anything.

the

Someone begins knocking on the front door inthe hallway near the room we are in.

There are VOICES from the "rabbits," somehurried and crucially important discussion.Then one of the RABBIT VOICES answers thedoor. There are questions, whether anyonehas "seen Blake? Where is he?"

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The rabbit's voices muttering through theclosed door they "haven't seen him." "Heisn't there." IIHe may have flown into town,but he isn't in the house." "They haven'tseen him." "Where is he?"

The phone is ringing again. There are shoesclumping fast over the wooden floor, morechatty sweaty discussion. Then we hear theFRONT DOOR CLOSE.

RABBIT VOICE 0.5.Want something ta drink?

GUY VOICE 0.5.No, I have to call her up andtell her he isn't here.

RABBIT VOICE 0.5.Right, right, right, yeah,yeah. I think that's probablyher on the phone right now.She's been calling all night.

There is a distant phone conversation for aminute. The voices grow less distinct,there are hurried footsteps around the frontdoor which finally we hear open and shut,and footsteps hurry away down the hall.

Blake opens his eyes and gets up, the voicesand noises have stopped entirely.

He opens the door and brings his gun withhim, hunting more rabbits in the house.

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We don't see any of the people that werespeaking in the hallway a moment ago.

Until Blake comes around the corner of thekitchen door and aims his gun at anothergirl, TERESA, who screams.

BLAKE(after a second)

Pesky wabbits ...

TERESA(regaining hercompcsure)

... still reading about Houdini,I hope, Blake? ..

BLAKEYes, I am, in fact ...

They stare at each other for a moment.

BLAKEamazing magician ...

EXT. HOUSE MORNING

He walks out of the house changed back intohis regular clothes but is still wearing thered hunting cap with the dangling ear flapsand carrying the gun, he stops in front ofthe hole he made in the ground with thegarden tool.

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He pushes some of the dirt back into thehole, looks around because he thinks he'sbeing watched, hears two guy voices in frontof the house, then sneaks up the stairs backinto the greenhouse above the garage beingcareful not to attract the attention of thetwo GUYS, MAXI and ALAN he now can seetalking in the driveway.

INT. GREENHOUSE MORNING

Blake enters. Hears a car ignition. Walksto the window at another end of greenhouseand looks down at the driveway.

He sees Maxi standing in the drive and a redToyota compact leaving. He aims his gun atthe car as it drives away.

Maxi waves goodbye to the car. Then looksup at the greenhouse. Blake lowers his gunand steps back from the window.

He puts the gun in a corner with thegardening tools.

He sits on a stool and nods a bit.

He begins looking through a shoulder bag,gets out a notebook and draws and writes init as he looks out the window.

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INT. GREENHOUSE DAY (LATER)

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Another person walks up the driveway. Blakecan see him out the window, it is DONOVAN.He knocks on the front door of the house.

The door opens, and Maxi sticks his headout. Then Maxi steps out onto the porch andcloses the door behind him.

Donovan talks with Maxi on the front porch,it is a cryptic, hurried and mostlyinaudible conversation, as if they don'twant anyone to hear them, but we catch wordslike "super, extra, responsible, rock star,and fuck ups" occasionally.

Donovan looks back over his shoulder at thegreenhouse for a second. Then they finishtheir conversation and Donovan walks backdown the driveway.

Blake draws in his notebook.

EXT. HOUSE LATER IN THE DAY

outside Blake can see the rabbits leaving,there are four of them. Maxi, Joe, Susan,and Teresa. They pack into a small whitecompact and buzz down the drive.

Blake sneaks out of the greenhouse again,and enters the back door of the house

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INT. HOUSE DAY

He walks through the first floor, heads upthe stairs and returns to the master bedroomwhere he found the gun.

He opens the closet.overcoat and a hat tohe has on already.

He puts on afit over the

bigone that

He hears a car coming up the drive.

EXT. HOUSE MORNING

Blake walks across the lawn avoiding Donovanand the Detective who are walking around theother way.

EXT. PARK DUSK TO NIGHT

Blake walks across the park, we can see hishouse in the distance over some shrubbery.

Two birds dive at him as he walks, defendinga nest nearby.

He sits on a park bench and looks over alake as the sun is beginning to go down.Cars drive on a street in front of him.

Blake hears a car pull into the drive, canhear people get out, and there is yelling inthe house, two voices, IIBlake!!" "Blake!!!/I

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He doesn't respond.

EXT. HOUSE NIGHT

He walks across the lawn and enters theback of the house.

INT. HOUSE NIGHT

Blake opens a kitchen cabinet and takes outa box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Hefills a pot with water and turns on thegas. He waits for the water to boil. Hepours the macaroni in the boiling water,waits a few minutes, drains the water. Headds the rest of the contents of the box,adding too much milk making it runny, andlight orange in color.

He tastes it.

Blake hears a car arrive and stop.his way to the back of the kitchenfor intruders.

He makespreparing

The rabbits come in the front door.

Blake listens to their slow conversation,and a song put on the stereo, a ThirteenthFloor Elevator song.

Maxi stops in the entrance to the kitchen.Stops in front of Blake. He puts his handon his hip and spits out a whole load ofinformation fast, sweaty-and-paranoid-like.

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MAXIDane's picking up the guitaristand a DHL package at theairpcrt that arrived from LA,she didn't tell me what was init, Alan told me there might bea group arriving in from LAsoon, the doctor isn't comingwith them, she might be justmaking it up, but I don't thinkshe'll corne with them.

Blake just listens raptly, staring at Maxi.Lots of sweat.

MAXIShe's staying in LA, she'sstaying down there for somereason - she says she reallywants to speak to you - I toldher I didn't know where youwere. Can I tell her where youare? I won't unless you wanther to know. What are youdoing here?

The phone begins ringing.

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MAXIShe's upset. The big reason'sshe feels all the excitementand media about your treatmentcenter escape may screw up heralbum release, she iscompletely bugged out aboutthat - she wants it to gosmoothly naturally - talksendlessly about it. I think ifwe just play it cool everythingis going to go alright. Juststay out of sight. It'll beokay. When did you get here?Why didn't you call?

Then he leaves as quickly as he came.

Blake takes the macaroni and cheese with himto the basement.

INT. BASEMENT NIGHT

He eats the macaroni and cheese sitting at adrum set among other musical instruments andsound equipment.

JOE, one more of the rabbits comes down thestairs and stops.

JOEOh, hey Blake.

Blake stares at him.

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Joe continues down the stairs until he isstanding in front of an amplifier.

JOELooks like Susan has beenplaying this guitar. She hasthe knobs turned down real low.

Blake takes a bite of macaroni and cheese.

JOENice down here, huh?

BLAKEYeah. It's like the only placeI can relax now.

Joe searches through a pile of records ...

JOENeil Diamond, that's not punkrock.

He throws the record away, in back of theamps on the floor.

Finds another non-punk record.

JOEBilly Joel ...mm...what are youdoing with these?

Throws the record on the floor again in backof the amps.

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BLAKEI was studying structure.

(laughs)I can sit down here studyingsong structure.

Joe finds a Slayer record.

JOEA thing that the guitarist usedto do when he laid down some ofthese tracks with Slayer ishe'd file down the frets of hisguitar until he'd get thatamazing buzz noise, you hear iton the Mississippi recordingsand usually no place else'cause he was the only one thatwould do that. It sounded realcool, though. But especiallyon the last few tracks of thethird album, that stuff reallywas fucking stiff, he's playingreally hard on those things.

BLAKEYeah. I like the last song onthe first side of the thirdone, that's my favorite one,they've got some kind of greatold ancient German fuzz ontheir guitar, A Persimmonsprobably, which are thosefucking great single effectfuzz boxes.

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JOEOh, yeah, really, those aregreat. Thor has a few signedoriginals ...

BLAKEHe does?

JOEYeah ...

BLAKECan you get me one? Get metwo, I'll pay for 'em... I'dlike to go myself, I could getin the car and go to Portlandor somewhere, but someone letthe air out of all the tires onme. Go an buy some records, orhear you guys practice.

JOEDonovan has been working onsome new shit.

BLAKEI promise I'm going to makethem sign you, I promise that,Joe. Because you are so fuckingcool. You are my favoriteband. They want me to work, soif they want me to work thenthey got to put my friends towork, Joe, if they want likemore albums and things, orconcerts. They may make mewrite some songs.

(MORE)

18.

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BLAKE (cont'd)That's why I have those NeilDiamond recordings. Sad, huh?writing songs - all the fansare going to buy that crap andlisten to it ... Joe, when youtap the world on its shoulderbecause you have a song thatyou want it to hear, and theworld turns around ... you betterhave something worth playin' ...

Joe blinks his eyes at this comment.

JOEYou can look out on the ocean.

(somewhere in here hehas an idea that he istalking about, and hesays, that it wasn'this idea, it wasdonovan's idea, butthe idea to doDonovan's idea, washis idea. )

BLAKEIt's a lake.

JOEI mean, yeah, the lake, you canlook over it •.

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BLAKEYou can't see the lake from thegreenhouse, but I can see youguys running around in thehouse, I can see in Maxi'sroom, it's fascinating.

JOEbut ...

BLAKEI'm not going to tell anyone.Who'd I tell? (Anybody canmove wherever they want. Ijust try to keep track of myown movements these days.That's enough. Have you evertried that? To follow yourselfaround? Like a spy. You canwind up anywhere.)

Blake gets out from in back of the drums andpicks up a guitar.

JOEWhat should we do?

BLAKEKill kittens.

JOENo, I mean what song?

Joe gets behind the drums.

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BLAKEIt's a new one called "KillKittens."

JOEOkay.

Blake strikes his guitar once.

Maxi is walking down the basement stairs.He walks over and whispers something inJoe's ear and then Joe obsequiously goesback upstairs with Maxi.

Blake finishes his macaroni and cheese, andputs the bowl down on an amp, starts therecorder, adjusts the microphone, and playsa Joni Mitchell song on the guitar

EXT. HOUSE NIGHT

Blake walks through the night in the rainand walks up the stairs. We can see afigure cross in back of him as he walks,someone that he doesn't see. Shadowy,ominous.

INT. GREENHOUSE NIGHT

Blake goes inside. He stands alone in themiddle of the greenhouse looking at the rainon the skylight. The rain is starting tocome down harder now. He is sweaty andnervous.

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The house is creaking and we can hear thewind and strange voices that are whisperingto him.

He gets his gun and sits in the middle ofthe room with it.

SECOND ACT:

INT. HOUSE MORNING

SUSAN is sleeping. The television is lefton with the sound turned low. Our viewdrifts to the television and we can see amusic video playing, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Behind the MTV video on the television wecan see Blake walk across the back yard ofthe house and pause at the tree as we sawearlier, and dig a hole as before, findingthe box, he found earlier and walks to thehouse.

Susan still sleeps in front of thetelevision. Our view roams around the room,sees Blake walk by at the end of the hallthrough an open doorway and frames back upon the television, which has begun an hourlynews update.

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NEWS REPORTER ON TELEVISIONBlake Torrance has been missingfrom his California treatmentcenter, the grunge rocker wasscheduled to spend a full monthin the American Day Rehabcenter for, drug use, but heonly made it for one day. Thefront man for the Seattle bandwas cleaning up so he couldconsider headliningLallapalooza this summer. Hiswife's album is due out in fourweeks, and she is beginning herpublicity obligations for itsrelease, but this morning wasunfortunately arrested for drugpossession following a 911 callfor help from the NepinsulaHotel in Beverly Hills, thedetails of that arrest have yetto be released. This will bethe first album for the wife ofBlake Torrance, and reportshint that there is a guestappearances by him on some ofthe recordings. Blackly Blackhas also been seen with Chicagorocker Bobby Doran, on theisland of Malta a few weeks agosuggesting that perhaps he alsowill appear on the new album.

The report on the television continues,

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BLAKE(in a televisedinterview)

I hope that we can just keep ittogether through some of thehardships of .... I don'tknow... I sound like thepresident, don't I? .. Justkidding ....we'll try reallyhard to make some good musicsometime soon. We just playedRome ha-ha ....

The telephone begins ringing

NEWS REPORTER ON TELEVISIONAnd that concludes MTV news fornow JOln us in another hour forup to the minute music newsreports, I'm Cal Worthingtonfor MTV news.

As Susan sleeps, a music video of BetteMidler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" plays.Halfway through the video a figure comesnear Susan and we can hear him say "wabbits"AS BEFORE.

The phone begins to ring, as before.

We do not however see the figure. Hepretends to shoot them and leaves thebedroom.

She stirs awake. Susan sits up and looks atMaxi next to her, then to the phone. Shewalks to the bathroom.

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INT. BATHROOM MORNING

Susan washes her face.

INT. FRONT HALLWAY MORNING

Susan comes down the stairs, hears thetelevision in the adjoining room, she opensthe closed door as before but this time isfrom her side of the door. Blake falls out.Nervous, she pushes him back in, closes thedoor. Doesn't know what to do.

The doorbell rings, Susan rushes back up thestairs without answering it.

INT. BEDROOM DAY

Susan walks past Maxi, who is just wakingup.

SUSANMichael is here.

MAXIWhere? Is that Blake ringingthe doorbell?

SUSANHe's downstairs in the den. Idon't know who's at the door.

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INT. BATHROOM MORNING

The tub fills with water, she gets in andsweats and soaks with a guilty look. Shehears a pounding on the front door downstairs.

INT. BEDROOM DAY

Maxi, gets out of bed in his clothes henever took off and walks downstairs toanswer the door.

INT. FRONT HALLWAY MONRNING

Maxi answers the front door.

26.

It is Alan. Lots of sweating.

MAXIHey, nice day, huh?

ALANIt's a beautiful clear morning,but a hundred years from nownone of us will ever know thedifference.

MAXII keep forgetting that, but,yeah, that is absolutely right,man. Yeah I guess we won't.But our kids and ancestorswill.

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ALANShe's sending a private Dick ona plane to look for theAmerican Icon.

27.

What? Adoing?

MAXIdetective? What's sheWhere'd she find him?

ALANI think she looked him up inthe yellow pages.

(shrugs and laughs)You know, she's an optimist,she sees something to gain inevery situation, she used to behard-core - the detective'll behere in about an hour -Donovan is going to ride aroundwith him and look for Blake atall the places he can think of.They'll drive by here. Youshouldn't be here when theycome. Donovan will warn youwhen they're going to arrive.She's uptight. Is he here?Where is Blake?

MAXINo. He's not around right now.He may be in town but he isn'tin the house. Haven't seenhim.

The phone starts to ring.

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MAXIWant something to drink?

ALANNo, I have to call her up andtell her he isn't here.

MAXIRight, good. I think that'sprobably her on the phone rightnow. She's been calling allfucking night.

Alan picks up the phone. Lots of sweating.

ALANHello? (cheery)Hi. No it'sAlan. I know, I know. Listen(he whispers the rest of it soMaxi cannot hear)

Maxi stands away, pretending that he isn'ttrying to listen.

ALAN(whisper, whisper) Don't worryit'll be alright. (whisper,whisper, whisper) Take it easyI think that it's going to beokay.

Alan rolls his eyes at Maxi.

ALANRight. Exactly. (whisper)Look, don't blame me for ...Okay. Okay.

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The voice on the other end is screaming, wecan almost hear everything squeaking throughthe line.

AIJ\N(voice is stillscreaming)

Bye.

Alan hangs up the phone and begins to leave,Maxi follows him out the front door.

EXT. HOUSE MORNING

Maxi and Alan out front. Both sweating.They are distracted and not really payingattention to each other. More to the soundsof the outside creepy daytime. Neighbors.Car by's. Birds!

MAXI(this could be better)

He's been under a lot ofstress, obviously, you'd be too

and one of the reasons he isup here is just to freak herout. And it's working. And hehe knows he's supposed to be intreatment and all this ...

AIJ\NYeah.

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MAXI(sees Blake leavinghouse and walking togreenhouse but Alandoesn't)

He's going to be fine I think,he was even joking aroundyesterday on the phone, he isdefinitely in hiding out mode,but he seems, well, happy even.

ALANLet me know when you hear fromhim. And Donovan will call,okay, he's going to ride aroundwith the private Dick. If shefound him in the yellow pages,should be fucking strange.

Alan gets in his car and backs down thecurved drive. Maxi looks up at thegreenhouse door windows as before, and goesback inside.

INT. HOUSE DAY

Maxi walks to the kitchen and sits down atthe table, where also sit TERESA and JOEanother couple that are living in the house.They don't talk, they just look afraid.

There is a knock on the door. He issweating.

Maxi gets up from the table and goes to thedoor.

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He opens it and sees Donovan.onto the front steps.

EXT. HOUSE DAY

Maxi steps

31.

Both guys are whispering, so it's hard tohear, they are very keyed up, nervous.

MAXI(quietly)

Hey man, what's up?

DONOVANWhat's up.

MAXIAre you with that privatedectective?

DONOVANHe's at the end of the drivewaiting in his rental.

MAXII thought you were going to letus know...

DONOVAN(he looks up at thegreenhouse)

I couldn't get away from himlong enough to call you, he isreally on my ass.

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MAXITell him that nobody's home andthe alarm is on, and thatyou've to go call her to gether to turn it off. Then we'llget out of here and you cancome and sneak around in thehouse and look for him,alright?

DONOVANHow is he?

MAXIFine.

DONOVANFine, I've never seen him lookfine before.

MAXIHe's okay. Maybe even happy.Bright eyed, you know.

DONOVANWow. Cool.

Maxi backs into the house.Hurries to get the others.things away.

Shuts the door.Quick, puts

MAXIWe're going to take a trip toScottie's.

Maxi runs to the top of the stairs and grabsSusan who is drying off in the bathroom.

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33.

They very quickly have sex.

Then she puts her clothes on and they headdownstairs, picking things up as they go,straightening things, the others arewaiting...

EXT. HOUSE DUSK

They pile into the little white car and headout the driveway.

INT. CAR DUSK

Driving, the four pass the two, Donovan andthe PRIVATE DETECTIVE, driving the otherway .

OUR VIEW follows Donovan and the Private eyeback to the house.

EXT. HOUSE DUSK

Donovan and the Ranger get out of the car,try the front door, it's locked. Theycircle the house looking for a way in.

We can see Blake in the background goingaround the other way, avoiding them.

The two find a cracked window by thekitchen. They open it with a push, andDonovan climbs in.

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The detective walks back to the front door,and Donovan opens it for him.

They comb through the entire house. Wefollow them from the outside, pausing indifferent rooms, turning lights on and off,climbing to other floors.

DONOVANBlake!

DETECTIVEBlake! !

They stand in Maxi and Susan's room, the bedis unmade.

DONOVANThis is Maxi's room.

They search all the way up to the attic,back down again, and out the front of thehouse.

DONOVANGuess he's not around.

They get back into the car, drive down thecurved drive and out of sight.

We remain in the drive looking at part ofthe house and some bushes. A shadowy figurehurries through our view.

Maxi and the others drive up again.get out and we follow them into the

Theyhouse.

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INT. HOUSE NIGHT

The FOUR enter the living room and sit inplaces that seem to be horne base. Maxiturns on a stereo, puts on an early RockyEricsson and the Thirteenth Floor Elevatorssong and begins to open a small valise thathe is carrying with him.

Maxi hears someone corne in the back door.He leaves the living room and we can see himdown the hall looking into the kitchentalking to Blake as before, but we can'tsee Blake.

Maxi is down the hall far enough away thatthe music pretty much drowns out anyconversation. Joe watches Maxi, realizes heis talking to someone. Is stoned, sweaty,but curious and affectionate. Like he knowswho it is.

Maxi comes back and puts on another record.A Greg Sage record. He looks out thewindows of the room, into the rainy night.

Then Maxi sits down and nods out. When heopens his eyes, no one is in the room.

Maxi returns to the kitchen, hears peopledownstairs talking, we see him go down thestairs and can hear Blake and Joe talkingas before ....

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36.

Maxi interrupts the discussion between Joeand Blake, whispering in Joe's ear, and thetwo climb up the stairs together.

Maxi leads Joe upstairs and they go intoMaxi's room.

INT. MAXI'S ROOM NIGHT

Maxi and Joe grab at each other, quicklytake each other's clothes off, take theirsocks off, and lay down in the bed and kissand roll, lots of sweat.

Then they lay spent and out of breath on thebed.

They can hear Blake playing Joni Mitchellsongs downstairs in the basement.

MAXIWe've got to get out of here.

JOEWhy?

Maxi is silent.

JOEIs the cop corning back?

MAXIThe ranger?

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37.

JOEYeah, I mean the ranger orwhoever he is, is he a realranger?

MAXIHe's not real.

JOEBut I saw him.

MAXII mean, Joe, he's real,but ..• he's a private eye not aforest ranger, or a Texasranger, or any other kind ofranger. And he's not a cop. Iassume she'll be back,though•..

JOEHerself?

MAXIMrnrnrnrn ••••

Maxi puts on his clothes.

He walks down the hall, and downstairs. Herounds up the girls. They each go differentdirections, picking up personal items tobring with them.

SUSANAre we, like, coming back youguys? Jesus Christ!

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•

MAXII don't know. Eventually wewill.

SUSANWhat about Blake?

MAXIHe's staying here.

SUSANWhat's he going to do allalone?

MAXII don't know.

SUSANHe can't take care ofhimself ... can he?

MAXII don't know, honey. I'm justdoing what I'm fucking told.Doin' my job, baby.

They walk out the front of the house,getting in the car.

Joe pauses before he gets in the car, helooks up at the door windows of thegreenhouse. He sees Blake dressed up, orsomeone in a red Victorian dress, standingin one of the rain spotted window panes ofthe French doors above the garage.

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I39.

Joe gets in the car and as they drive awayhe stares at the vision of the red dressuntil they round the corner and he no longercan see the house.

OUR VIEW REMAINS in the driveway. There arefigures going this way and that, indifferent parts of our shot, shadowy, fast,curious, sweaty, rainy wet figures.

EXT. GEENHOUSE LATER AT NIGHT

Blake exits and walks down the driveway andthen the neighborhood street in theglistening and wet night.

EXT. STREET NIGHT

Blake walks down the street, like thebeginning, sometimes in the middle of thestreet, sometimes on the sidewalk.

EXT. CITY ALLEY NIGHT

Blake walks down an alley that has VARIOUSNIGHT CLUB DENIZENS leaning against thebuildings, or standing.

INT. PUNK CLUB NIGHT

Blake enters the door of a club and looksdown from a balcony at a group that plays ona stage.

first draft6/8/02

There is a huge mosh pit below, and thereare kids jumping from the balcony all theway into the mosh pit.

EXT. CITY ALLEY NIGHT

Blake walks out of the club. A figureapproaches him.

GUYHey Blake! What're you doinghere?

Blake says nothing.

GUYWow I was just in LA man, I wasgoing to look you up! How areyou?

Blake just stares at him as if he werewatching a television, not unhappily.

GUYWow man, I went to this LA clubwhere all these kids weremaking the scene from Seattle,you know, you would have hatedit. And this Elton Johnconcert. He was playing in alike forty thousand seatstadium. Fucked up right?

BLAKEWhat?

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41.

GUYYeah, man, forty thousandseats.

Blake looks like he is living in a strangenew world.

GUYYeah, it's fucked right?

BLAKEIt's impossible ... thatshouldn't be allowed to happen... the hard work that we'vedone •.. oldie rock, that shouldhave been wiped out longago ...@%&#" &%$#@#

GUYYeah.

BLAKEI can't believe it.

Blake is strangely concerned about thisinformation.

GUYThere are some strange thingsgoing on in the rock world.

Blake looks at him and begins to walk away.

GUYHey Blake, don't shoot themessenger!

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142.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD NIGHT

Blake walking home alone.

INT. GREENHOUSE NIGHT

He hears the voices in his head again as hestands in the middle of the greenhouse.

He gets his gun.

Blake sits in the middle of the greenhouseholding the gun facing the rear doorway andlistening to the voices.

And then someone arrives at the doorway,they are wearing a long black fisherman'sraincoat and black rubbery rain hat but wecannot see who it is. They stand there on adoorstep on the other side of the frenchdoors, and Blake stays in the middle of theroom with his gun watching the figure.

THIRD ACT:

EXT. HOUSE DAY

It is raining mildly.

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43.

A small utility truck swings up thedriveway.

An ALARM TECHNICIAN gets out of the utilitytruck. He is alone. He calls in to hisoffice on a cell phone. We can't hear whathe says on the phone because he is too faraway from us.

The Technician looks up at the telephonewires then unloads his ladder. He climbs upthe ladder and splices into one of thetelephone wires.

The Technician moves his ladder across thedrive, and to the greenhouse. He places theladder on the front of the little houseclimbs up and begins to do some work on aplace where the electrical power andtelephone lines are connected to the house.

He stops because he sees something throughthe window of the little garage greenhouse.And we can see something too, a figure,lying on the floor.

He steps down the ladder, he is kind ofrattled.

He walks toward the safety of his truck andcalls the security alarm office on his cellphone.

ALARM SECURTIY WORKERHello, hay Steve, this is Jim,out at the Lake Washingtonresidence.

(MORE)

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44.

ALARM SECURTIY WORKER (cont'd)I'm putting a system in anupstairs greenhouse above thegarage to the main house, andthere's something super weirdlooking, I can see it throughone of the windowshere ...might·ve already been adisturbance ..... real calmFriday until nbw...

He wanders back in the direction of thegreenhouse, staying on the phone andoccasionally looking up at the ladder thatis still propped against the front balcony.

HE WITNESSES a VISION, an image of deadBlake rising through the top of thegreenhouse, and ascending into a cloud. Jimslowly goes down to his knees as he isovercome by the vision, but a few momentspass, and his knees hurt and he gets upagain and looks around in the yard anddriveway to see if anyone was looking athim.

A few sirens wail in the distance.

OUR VIEW rises up into the air so we can seeboth houses now. A FIGURE crosses the backyard mysteriously. A few police cars and aparamedic arrive, they speak with the alarmman, and walk up the back wooden stairs,cautiously, with their hands on their guns.

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)45.

OUR VIEW moves to see on the other side ofthe glass door, as the police have to breaktheir way through a glass pane, sending theglass flying into the room and over thebody, they make their way in slowly, one ofthem opens the near side glass door aftermoving a small stool with garden suppliesset on it.

OUR VIEW can reach inside the room.

TO SEE, the POLICE, looking over a note thatis stabbed into the soil in a planter underthe south skylight

TO SEE the shotgun that has fallen onBlake's chest.

TO SEE the police open a wallet that is nearhis body lying east-west in the room, andopening the wallet and pulling out a driverslicense.

TO SEE the picture on the drivers license,AND the dirty spoon and needle in a cigarbox that is also lying next to the body.

And to move through the milling figures, andseeing photographers on a hill in back ofthe house, and moving down the back stairs,and down back into the drive.

Then we can see The Ranger and Donovan atthe end of the drive with the multitudes andthe cameras. They turn and walk away.

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46.

INT. JOE'S APARTMENT DAY

Joe, Maxi, Susan and Teresa, are watching atelevision. They can't believe what theysee, in the front drive of the house thepolice cars as before being broadcast on alocal television channel.

LOCAL NEWS VOICE OVER... at about eleven fifteen thismorning, the call was receivedfrom a security installationworker who had seen a bodythrough the window of one ofthe houses of the residence.It still has not beenidentified but is believed tobe the putrefied body of therock star ... already, many havegathered in morning at thecenter square ...

Maxi is on the phone.

MAXII understand. I understand. Iunderstand.

INT. POLICE DEPARTMENT DAY

Two POLICE DETECTIVES are hovering over atypewriter.

They beat out a final report.

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,DETECTIVE ONE

Okay. There are no suspicionson the part of theinvestigating officers that thegun the victim held in his deadhands had been handled byanybody other than the suicidevictim.

Detective two pounds on the typewriter.

DETECTIVE ONEAnd that, when Officer Fujumoriarrived, the victim was laidout on the floor, a~d he lookedlike a rag doll.

DETECTIVE TWOYeah, a rag doll. A... rag ...doll.

DETECTIVE ONEThat's good.

Detective two types.

DETECTIVE ONELike a listless rag doll.That's even better.

DETECTIVE TWOThat's better .... listless ....

(MORE)

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DETECTIVE TWO (cant'd)There was an air ofcompleteness about theexpression on his face. Orwhat was left of it.

COP TWO... air ... of ... happiness ...

DETECTIVE ONEAnd furthermore, there were nowitnesses. At all.

DETECTIVE TWONone. .. at... alL ...

DETECTIVE ONEEven though, there wereapparently others in the houseat a previous time. Whoseidentities are well known.

DETECTIVE TWO... . others ....were ... in ...

DETECTIVE ONENo. There were other people inthe house within a twenty fourhour period.

DETECTIVE TWO... period ..•

DETECTIVE ONEInsignificant, however, friendsof the deceased.

DETECTIVE TWOInsignificant .... friends ....

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DETECTIVE ONE... They were believed to bedrug addicts and dealersaccording to the wife!

DETECTIVE TWOwere drug

addicts dealers ...

DETECTIVE ONEOne of them was balding, andhad signs of eczema on hisforehead, an unfortunately uglysmearing of jelly dripping outof sores that made him lookunintelligent.

DETECTIVE TWO... look... unintelligent .. uh ....

DETECTIVE ONEAs for the wife she looked likeshe had been up for days, and

DETECTIVE TWO... up ... for ... days ...

DETECTIVE ONETake that out.

DETECTIVE TWOOkay. How about we say shelooked like she was very tired,and disheveled?

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50.

DETECTIVE ONEAnd that she had thewherewithal to order detectiveYoshiro around like he was anerrand boy when she visited themorgue.

DETECTIVE TWOWhat did she say to him?

DETECTIVE ONEShe said she liked his uniform.At one point she ordered apizza over his police radio.She grabbed it out of hishand... Put that in too.

DETECTIVE TWO... pizza... over ... the ...police.radio ...

DETECTIVE ONEBut, even with theseinconsistencies, there was noreason to suspect foul play.

DETECTIVE TWO.•. suspect .... foul play.

INT. JOE'S APARTMENT DAY

The four still watching the video coverage,this time on MTV.

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51.

MAXIWe'd better go. Drive south,to LA.

Yeah,here.

JOElet's get the hell out ofI'm getting the creeps.

•

MAXIWe could somehow be implicated.Finding Blake drugs, or someshit. It's better to get thehell out of here.

SUSANBut, I don't have any of mystuff.

MAXIWe'll take the stuff we have,what do you have? .. We'll takeyour cat. Alan or someone cansend anything else. Let's go.

They hurry out of the apartment,

On the television is a video of Blakesinging with his band.

EXT. JOE'S APARTMENT DAY

The four surround the white compact car withtheir cat a rolled up sleeping bag, cram asuitcase in the trunk, climb in the fourdoors and drive down the street.

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52.

EXT. STREET DAY

We watch the confused little face of theirpet cat as it rides in the white car.

The car drives for a mile in the rainyweather down Interstate 5 while we listen toBlake's song on the sound track.

first draft6/8/02