Redemption-A Spec Script - Patrick Sean Lee (best black authors TXT) 📗

MARVIN-SCRIPT

 

 

FADE IN:

 

EXT. AN ALLEY-NIGHT

 

A raggedly dressed old man is precariously perched on the edge of a dumpster, looking up at a starry sky. He holds a brown paper bag, the neck of a wine bottle visible, in one hand. The other is resting on the greasy dumpster edge. Several seconds pass in seeming reverie, and then he turns a foot inward toward the horizontal indentations of the dumpster body, grabs hold of the top edge with his free hand, and begins to lean outward. His foot slips. He falls headfirst.

 

                                                               FADE TO BLACK

 

INT. A HOSPITAL-NIGHT

 

MARVIN FUSTER, blood-soaked and semi-conscious, is rushed down a hall on a gurney toward the operating room. His vacant eyes open and close. He sees bright lights whizzing by, and hears snippets of comments.

 

                         UNIDENTIFIED NURSE (V.O.)

               Go! O.R.2!

 

                         MARVIN

                    (confused)

                         O.R. whaa?

 

                                                                             FADE

 

INT. A GLOOMY WAREHOUSE (DREAM STATE)-NIGHT-LIKE

 

Marvin Fuster lands on his back with a huge thud. Seconds pass. He stands, shaking his head. He gazes about the dreary room. Dark images of windows and doorways appear, then disappear. Suddenly a bright, back-lit doorway appears, and standing inside is a young, beautiful WOMAN with radiant, dark auburn hair. She beckons him with a motion of her hand, then turns and walks down a long flight of steps out of the warehouse.

 

                                                                                CUT

 

EXT. A BEACH-DAY (CONTINUOUS)

 

Exotic trees and birds and SOUNDS abound. Marvin follows the woman tentatively. He stops when she does at the base of a high dune. The young woman turns and looks at Marvin's attire.

 

                         AMY

               Gross.

 

Marvin lets his eyes leave her, and he gazes at his filthy trench coat, spotted tee-shirt, shitty trousers, and holey tennis shoes.

 

Amy turns again and begins to move athletically along the bottom of the dune. Marvin scrambles after her.

 

                                                                                   CUT

 

EXT. A COUNTRY LANE-DAY

 

Amy walks on a bucolic path, a wood-railed fence on her right. Beyond the fence, lovely, tall trees grow in profusion.

 

                         AMY

                    (indifferently)

               I've lost my friends. We have to

               find them,  Marvin Fuster.

 

                         MARVIN

               Huh? Frien...how dya' know my

               name?

 

                         AMY

               Oh, I know all about you. Just

              don't touch me, understand?

 

                        MARVIN

                    (frowning sadly)

               Yeah, I 'spose so. Don't really blame

               ya'...what's your name, I mean if ya'

               don't mind me askin'?

 

                         AMY

               It's Amy.

 

Amy suddenly darts across the path, climbs onto the center rail of the fence, reaches up, and grabs a word dangling among the leaves. The TREE rustles, then awakens. A pair of eyes and a woody mouth emerge.

 

                         TREE

               Fear. An interesting choice!

 

                         AMY

                    (giggling)

               No. Interesting is too high up

               in your branches! Bend down a

               little, please. I see one I like much

               better.

 

The Tree bends forward and down, nearly enclosing Amy with word-laden limbs. Amy picks several, tucks them into an arm, close to her breast.

 

                         AMY

               Thank you, kind tree. Now I'll sit

               and compose a lovely poem just

               for you!

 

                         TREE

               Not for me, child. For him.

 

The Tree shakes. It motions with a leafy-word arm across the road at Marvin. Amy turns her head as she jumps down, dropping the word "Desire".

 

                         AMY

                    (cruelly spoken)

               Hah! For him? He's horribly ugly

               and ready to die. You must be kidding.

 

Marvin scurries across the path to her feet, scooping up the word. He uses both hands to offer it to her. Amy snatches it from his hands, glances at it, and then stuffs it in with the rest.

 

                         AMY

                    (mocking)

               Well, we certainly can't do without

               desire, can we Marvin Fuster?

 

Not waiting for a reply, she turns and begins to walk up the winding path toward the distant crest. Marvin falls back onto his rear, watching her silently.

 

                         MARVIN

                    (Very lowly murmured)

               No...we can't.

 

Amy reaches the crest of the hill and crosses it. Marvin finally drops his gaze to his hands lying in his lap, palms unwashed, dirty, facing up. He stares vacantly at them for a second or two, then lifts his head once again and looks across the fence at the tree. It is now simply a normal tree.

 

                                                                                  FADE

 

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM-MORNING

 

FADE IN:

 

Marvin is lying in a bed, covered to his chest with a clean, white sheet. An IV is attached to the back of his left hand resting atop the sheet. His head is wrapped in thick layers of gauze from the eyebrows upward.

 

A NURSE enters quietly. Marvin's eyelids flutter open. He winces.

 

                         NURSE

               Well, good morning, sir!

               We're so glad to see that

               you're finally awake.

 

Marvin blinks, but says nothing. The nurse grabs the chart hanging on the end of the bed, scans it quickly, then rehangs it and walks to the IV container.

 

                         NURSE

               I see we don't have a name

               for you. How are we feeling

               this morning?

 

                         MARVIN

                    (groggily)

               We feel like somebody hit us in

               the head with a goddam'

               sledgehammer. How did I get

               here? Where the hell am I?

 

The nurse bends over, checks the IV in his hand, and then his bandages. She smiles and looks into his eyes.

 

                         NURSE

               Good. Good.

 

                         MARVIN

                    (confused)

               Good?

 

                         NURSE

               We aren't sure. You were brought in

               four...no, five nights ago. We didn't think

               a man your age and in your condition

               would even survive.

 

                         MARVIN

               Survive what? What the hell happened?

 

                         NURSE

               We aren't sure of that, either. A fall in an

               alley somewhere. Your head was split open.

 

                         MARVIN

                    (astonished)

               What?

 

                         NURSE

               That's about all the information we

               have. Can you tell us your name?

 

                         MARVIN

               Yeah, It's Marvin. Marvin Q. Fuster. An'

               I don't have no money if that's why you're

               askin'. When do we get outta' here?

 

                         NURSE

                    (chuckling)

               When you pay the bill. Do we have an

               address, or the name of a relative?

 

                         MARVIN

               I live at 1880 Wazee. South end of the

               loadin' dock. Don't have no relatives. An'

               what's this we shit? I don't see nobody else.

 

The nurse ignores Marvin's question, grabs the chart on the end of the bed, and scribbles on it. She returns to the bedside and raises three fingers of her hand.

 

                         NURSE

               Can you tell us how many fingers we

               have here?

 

                         MARVIN

               Yeah, ten. What the hell, you think

               I'm blind or stupid?

 

                         NURSE

               Certainly not.

 

The nurse scowls at the irascible old man, and then continues.

 

                         NURSE

               We think you're going to be fine

               in time.

 

The nurse shoots Marvin a look of dismay, then turns and begins to leave the room.

 

                         MARVIN

               Hey, wait a minute. When do I get

               outta' here?

 

The nurse stops and turns.

 

                         NURSE

               In good time, Mister Fooster. When

               you're physically able, we'll arrange

               to have you put into a hostel. You'll

               need a clean environment...

 

                         MARVIN

                     (cutting her off angrily)

               You go to a goddam' shelter. All of ya'!

               For just one fuckin' night...

                     (wincing)

               Shit!

               You go, all of ya'!

 

                         NURSE

               Rest, now, sir. The doctor will be in a

               little later. We're just glad you're alive.

 

Marvin's mouth opens as though he is about to answer the nurse, but stops when a nearly transparent shadow with wings flutters across the room near the windows beyond the bed. He blinks two or three times, and then squints.

 

                         MARVIN

               What...the...hell?

 

The SOUND of shoes squeaking on the tile floor outside his room. Marvin stares in the direction of the shadowy movement, his eyes shifting right and left.

 

                                                                         FADE OUT

 

INT. MARVIN'S HOSPITAL ROOM-EVENING

 

FADE IN:

 

Marvin is sleeping fitfully. The monitors on the wall above his head blink and flicker. The shadowy figure moves toward him from the windows, solidifying the closer it comes. Arriving at his bedside, it bends over, causing a set of enormous, beautiful wings to unfold. The creature draws its face to Marvin's ear and whispers.

 

                         ANSELM

               Wake up.

 

Marvin's eyelids flutter, but he doesn't awaken.

 

                         ANSELM

               Marvin Fuster, wake up.

 

Marvin's eyes finally open thinly. When he sees the angel with his face nearly touching his, Marvin's eyes pop open wide. He reacts in terror; yanks the sheet onto his face, leaving only his eyes exposed.

 

                         MARVIN

               Ho-ly-fuck-in'-SMOKE!

 

                         ANSELM

               Do you know what happened, Marvin

               Fuster?

 

Marvin begins to shake uncontrollably. His eyes, blazing with their look of terror, snap shut.

 

                         MARVIN

                Oh God...I'm thinkin' I croaked!

 

                         ANSELM

                She is here, and we are watching her.

                This is what you will do.

 

The camera pans upward from the bedside as Anselm the angel continues to whisper instructions to the terrified Marvin.

 

                                                                              FADE

 

INT. MARVIN'S HOSPITAL ROOM-EARLY MORNING

 

FADE IN:

 

The first light of dawn illuminates the windows. Marvin is dressing in his blood-stained clothes. He cinches a makeshift belt-a length of wire-at his trouser waist. Afterward, he gently pats his gauze-wrapped head, and then begins pulling the dressings off.

 

                         MARVIN

                     (muttering lowly)

 

               Shit howdy. Don't feel nuthin'...what the

               hell...goddam', where the hell they put

               my shoes...

 

Barefoot, Marvin pads to the entry door, eases it open, and checks the hallway with its bright neon light-glow.

 

                                                                               CUT

 

INT. HOSPITAL-CONTINUOUS

 

Twenty feet away his eyes stop at the nurses' station. The top of a blond head is visible on the back side of the counter.

 

Marvin softly closes the door and then tiptoes down the hall in the direction of a blurry, red EXIT sign above another door. Arriving near the nurses' station, he gets down on hands and knees and slips by. He arrives at the exit door, opens it slowly, and then steps through.

 

                         NURSE (O.S.)

                     Wait! Stop!

 

                                                                                 CUT

 

INT. STAIRWELL-CONTINUOUS

 

With surprising agility, Marvin begins descending the flights of stairs, glancing back every other step. The metallic clank of a door is heard several floors above him. He rushes onward, and finally arrives at the main floor, huffing badly. He grabs hold of the handleset, yanks it inward, and bolts through.

 

                                                                                 CUT

 

INT. HOSPITAL MAIN FLOOR-CONTINUOUS

 

The main floor is nearly devoid of people. Behind the admissions desk, twenty feet from the main entrance doors, a woman sits, talking with an elderly woman on the aisle side. Marvin races past the desk, inadvertently bumping into the elderly woman. She shouts angrily. The woman behind the desk jumps to her feet.

 

Marvin hesitates only briefly to backtrack and help the lady to her feet.

 

                         MARVIN

                     (out of breath)

                'Scuse me, ma'am. So sorry.

 

Marvin darts away as the ADMISSIONS CLERK shouts after him.

 

                         ADMISSIONS CLERK

                Sir! Sir!...

 

Marvin is at the rotating doors. He enters and pushes forward with all his might. Seconds later he exits the hospital at a gallop.

 

                                                                                  CUT

 

EXT. HOSPITAL MAIN ENTRANCE-CONTINUOUS

 

Marvin runs down the concrete drive, and then onto the street. His arms are working like locomotive wheel pistons. From close by the SOUND OF A SIREN breaks the quiet. He glances back over his shoulder.

 

                         MARVIN

                     (huffing and puffing)

                Holy Christ, what was that thing?

 

An ambulance, its SIREN WAILING, pulls into the emergency entrance. Marvin races on in the direction of the lower downtown area and his dock-home.

 

Two blocks farther on he makes a right onto a short street, and then into an alley. He slows. Ahead, an enclosure of graffiti decorated concrete with its gate hanging listlessly half-open is visible. He half-stumbles toward it, and then moves in behind a battered dumpster to the rear. He sinks down, knees bending to his heaving chest.

 

                         MARVIN (VO)

                Shouldna' give 'em my address. Dumb.

                Stupid.

 

He glances around. Trash and dirt litter the rear of the enclosure. Suddenly he looks up. He brings one hand, and then the other, to his forehead, moving them over his entire skull, thinning gray hair still intact. No sign of a wound anywhere.

 

                         MARVIN

                Jesus H. Christ. I busted my head open?

                It...it...

 

He pats his head harder.

 

                         MARVIN

                It don't hurt...what's goin' on?

 

He sits contemplating, and then rises and walks from behind the dumpster back into the alley.

 

                                                                                CUT

 

EXT. DOWNTOWN STORE FRONT-MORNING

 

Marvin stands staring into a display window at fashionably dressed female mannequins.

 

REFLECTION IN THE GLASS.

 

Behind him, workers dressed in suits exit a bus and pass by. Many glare at him; others walk on, ignoring him. He turns suddenly and catches sight