THE JACKET
Written by
Massy Tadjedin
Based on a screenplay by
Marc Rocco
April 15, 2003
A pure white screen. Idyllic stillness. All of it looking and
feeling like the heavens are supposed to.
After some seconds of calm, water seems to mist the screen
and the slight shifts to the left and then the right suggest
this is a man's P.O.V. Then, suddenly, the white screen is
tugged and we see it was a sheet covering a presumably dead
man.
WILLIAM STARKS (V.O.)
I was 25 years old the first time I
died...
INT. HOSPITAL, KUWAIT, DAY
One more tug on the sheet and we see, and suddenly hear, from
William Starks' P.O.V. the CHAOS of the hospital around him
as DOCTORS and NURSES tend as best as they can to the injured
soldiers.
Our glimpse of STARKS reveals a red stretcher -- soaked in blood --
and the severe head wound where a bullet's minced his skull.
Then, slowly, steadily, a heartbeat is heard over the muffled
sounds of the hospital and, as his pulse quickens, so does
the pace of the world around him.
INT. HOSPITAL, KUWAIT, DAY
WILLIAM STARKS (V.O.)
I remember there was so much white
everywhere. And I felt peace...even
though there was war around me. And I
felt alive, even though I knew I was
dead.
INTERN #1
Come on, come on, let's tag these
guys and get them out of here.
An INTERN, clipboard in hand, stands above STARKS' unmoving
body with another INTERN (2) beside him. INTERN 1 pulls
the rest of the SHEET off of STARKS as the OTHER searches for
his DOG TAGS and gently closes his EYES with her hand.
INTERN #2 [Reading from the TAGS]
Starks, William. Born December 25,
1966.
INTERN #1
Wait, so how old?
INTERN #2
25.
INTERN #1
[Searching through records] Here he
is. William Starks. Born in Vermont.
He hasn't got a family listed. The
naval hospital'll figure out what to
do with him.
As the INTERN puts the TAGS back down, she meets STARKS' wide-
open EYES -- now filled with surfacing tears, sadness, and life.
She stares at them curiously and, after some seconds, STARKS
blinks and a TEAR runs down his cheek -- jarring her.
INTERN #2 [Calling out]
Oh my God! This soldier is ALIVE!
Code blue! CODE BLUE! This man just
blinked!
INTERN #1
He's been tagged already. Worry about
the others... [then seeing STARKS
blink] Oh shit! Shit! CODE BLUE! We
need a doctor! Get a doctor over here
now!
As the MEDICAL STAFF rush over to STARKS, preparing NEEDLES
and OXYGEN MASKS, STARKS merely closes his eyes and we follow
the now BLOODIED white sheet as it falls to the ground...
EXT. IRAQI VILLAGE, DAY
A NEWSANCHOR interviews CAPTAIN ROBERT MEDLEY (30s) -- a
particularly photogenic and affable participant.
CAPTAIN MEDLEY
The level of arms on the ground
really depends. [Answering a
question] But no, I'd have to say we
haven't had to engage on the ground
as heavily as we might have expected.
NEWSANCHOR
Have you lost any men today, Captain?
CAPTAIN MEDLEY
No. One of my Corporals took a bullet
to the head, but it looks like he
might make it. Looks that way...
FLASHBACK TO:
EXT. IRAQI VILLAGE, DAY
We see only the HAND, and not the man to whom it belongs,
enter the frame and pull the TRIGGER on a gun. The sound
pierces the air, and the bullet hits the side of STARKS' head
in a FLASH, shaving the skin around it right off.
EXT. AMERICAN NAVAL HOSPITAL, DAY
STARKS convalesces in a navy hospital bed -- his head heavily
BANDAGED and his arms suited with I.V.'s and dressings -- as a
MAJOR, a LIEUTENANT and a DOCTOR stand above him.
STARKS' face -- now cleaned of the blood that masked it before --
is alert, and striking. Even with the bandages, he remains
well-built and strong, like a shot straight to the head would
have been the only way for an enemy to take him down.
DOCTOR
Sergeant Starks was very lucky. A
little more to the right and it
wouldn't have wanted to come out...
MAJOR
But he's never gonna be able to
remember what happened?
DOCTOR
It's hard to say. Sergeant Starks
could have retrograde amnesia
or... [lowering his voice] any form of
psychological suppression. It's very
common with traumas like this.
STARKS [Cutting him off]
Sergeant Starks is in the room,
[beat] and I want to know when I'm
going home.
When he speaks, STARKS maintains the sharp, steady gaze of a
man assured of himself, even if he is lost among his
surroundings.
LIEUTENANT
Sergeant, you have no surviving
family in the States. I'm sure you
have friends or distant relatives,
but unfortunately we have no record
of them yet.
MAJOR
Captain Medley has recommended you
for the Purple Heart, Sergeant.
STARKS lets the tribute roll right off him. He spots the
CIGARETTES in the Lieutenant's pocket.
STARKS
Can I have one of those?
LIEUTENANT
Of course.
The LIEUTENANT lights one for him.
DOCTOR
There is help for you, Sergeant.
LIEUTENANT
Of course there is.
Their VOICES start to fade as STARKS smokes his cigarette,
blowing the SMOKE upwards and following it with his eyes.
He's finished with these men and everything they stand for.
STARKS [V.O.]
I didn't know where my home was. I
just knew I didn't want to be there
anymore.
EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, DAY
STARKS -- recovered now -- walks by himself along a long
highway. He seems to be walking away from things even if he
can't remember what they are yet.
EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, DAY
JEAN PRICE (30s) -- a hippie who happens to be a mother -- and
her daughter, JACKIE (8) tremble in the cold next to their
stalled car. JEAN sits next to the car, holding her knees to
her chest, more like a child than her daughter.
JACKIE runs her little gloved hand over her mom's ski-hatted
head as she cautiously watches STARKS approach them. He cuts
an arresting figure against the empty landscape.
JACKIE
Come on, mom. Don't fall asleep...
STARKS
You two ok?
JACKIE
Our car won't start.
STARKS [Looking at JEAN]
What's your mom's name?
JACKIE [Cautiously]
Jean.
STARKS takes off his backpack and kneels down.
STARKS
Jean? Jean, can you hear me? I need
you to try to wake up, Jean.
JEAN opens her eyes, stone red.
STARKS
Your mom take anything before this
happened?
JACKIE
Yeah, but I don't know what.
STARKS
[Beat] What's your name?
JACKIE
Jackie.
JACKIE decidedly sticks out her gloved hand. STARKS smiles
and briefly shakes it. STARKS rubs a hand over his chin and
cheek as he thinks of what to do.
STARKS
Nice to meet you, Jackie. Why don't
you wrap this scarf around yourself
and try to keep your mom awake while
I take a look at your car.
EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, DAY
As Starks works on their engine, JACKIE anxiously watches her
mother throw up in the distance. STARKS sees her watching and
tries to distract her.
STARKS
What do you think of all this snow?
JACKIE looks at him curiously.
JACKIE
[Beat] Nothing.
STARKS looks at her and smiles at her honest answer; Jackie
turns her head back towards her mother.
JACKIE
But I like it I guess.
STARKS
Hey, can you reach the gas pedal?
JACKIE
Yeah.
JACKIE gets behind the wheel, crouching down in the seat just
enough so her foot reaches the pedal.
STARKS
Go ahead, turn it on. Keep pushing
it.
JACKIE revs up the engine and, a few coughs and sputters
later, the car settles into a nice, working hum.
JACKIE [Smiling]
It works!
JACKIE steps down. She looks like she could hug Starks and,
unexpectedly, decides to. As STARKS awkwardly returns it, he
sees JEAN lifting her eyes to see him holding her daughter.
JEAN
Get your fucking hands off my
daughter!
JACKIE
Mom, he just fixed our car.
JEAN
Jackie, get in the car. NOW!
JEAN reaches for a RIFLE in the back of the truck but
stumbles from the nausea before she can pick it up.
JEAN
Look, I don't want any trouble, so...
STARKS
Neither do I, ma'am. I'll be on my
way.
JACKIE
Mom, you've got it wrong...
STARKS motions for JACKIE to stop as he collects his bags.
JACKIE
You're just gonna walk?
STARKS
Yeah, I'll hitch a ride or something.
[Beat] Let her throw it all up before
she gets back behind the wheel.
STARKS' DOG TAGS are tied to the ZIPPER of one of his bags.
JACKIE
What're those?
STARKS
Dog tags. [Off her blank look]
They've got your name and date of
birth for identification.
JACKIE
What for?
STARKS
[Beat] In case you get lost, or can't
remember who you are.
JACKIE [Still looking at them]
Hm.
STARKS unties them and gives them to her. She reads them.
STARKS
I think I can remember what's on
them.
JACKIE
William Starks. [Beat] Thanks.
CUT TO:
INT. COURTROOM, SMALL TOWN VERMONT
STARKS faces the screen with nothing but a cryptic BLACKNESS
about him and a confused look on his face as a MENACING VOICE
questions him.
VOICE (O.S.)
"Jackie" and "Jean" are the only
...things you know for certain about
that day?
STARKS nods.
VOICE (O.S.)
Are you aware we have no last name,
no place of residence, and no record
of any physical presence for these
"friends" of yours? How's that
possible in this day and age?
STARKS nods as a muffled "Objection" flickers away in the
background...
VOICE (O.S.)
I may need to actually hear that
answer, Mr. Starks.
STARKS
[Beat] Yes.
With Starks' answer, the background of the courtroom is
suddenly illuminated and we see that THIS IS STARKS' OWN
TRIAL. The VOICE belongs to a satisfied PROSECUTION who turns
to face a medium-sized CROWD watching on...
INT. COURTROOM, SMALL TOWN VERMONT
There are three KEY WITNESSES called to the stand: CAPTAIN
MEDLEY, Starks' commanding officer in the Persian Gulf; DR.
HALE, a psychiatrist; and OFFICER NASH, the cop who first
came upon the crime scene. Their three testimonies are
intercut to present the case against Starks quickly and
confusingly -- just like it appears to himself.
OFFICER NASH [Emotional]
Eddie [correcting himself], Officer
Harrison, was lying in a pool of his
own blood -- on his back.
DR. HALE
William Starks could be blocking the
incident. It would explain his well-
systematized scheme about the little
girl and her mother. A delusion as
complex as that can often replace the
reality of an incident like this.
OFFICER NASH [Cont'd]
Officer Harrison'd been shot three
times. He was long dead by the time
we got there.
DR. HALE
I have heard of Gulf War Syndrome.
The medical community is only
beginning to gather information about
it.
PROSECUTION
Gulf War Syndrome? What the...Why
don't we start diagnosing Hard Life
Syndrome while we're at it? I've
gotten a lot of convictions we could
overturn with that logic...
CAPTAIN MEDLEY
Sergeant Starks was awarded the
Purple Heart. That award doesn't
applaud violence or murder. [Beat] It
applauds honor.
DR. HALE [Cont'd]
His subconscious is blocking it, the
same way it began to in the Gulf,
particularly as something similarly
traumatizing happened to him then.
The following summations are punctuated by the BLACK FADES
between them and the simulated BLACK around them as they
speak -- like STARKS, at the beginning of his own testimony.
PROSECUTION [Disdainfully]
It's not a question of whether or not
he was sane when he did it?! He
absolutely was. Three bullets in one
man are three moral failings in
another.
CAPTAIN MEDLEY [Incensed]
War isn't a CNN Special. Half the
shit that went on couldn't be tidied
into a top of the hour headline --
either 'cause it couldn't be said
neatly or 'cause it couldn't be said
at all. It was ugly. And they don't
put ugly on TV. [Looking at Starks]
If Starks did kill that officer
... [Beat] You can't hold a man
responsible for a damaged mind.
DEFENSE
For God's sake, my client said he
thinks he's already died once. He
doesn't know what's going on.
FLASHBACK TO:
EXT. MURDER SCENE, HIGHWAY, VERMONT, DUSK
STARKS lies bleeding -- eyes half open -- by OFFICER HARRISON'S
dead, bloodied body as falling SNOW slowly whitens them both
and covers any FOOTPRINTS that may have been left behind. We
hear a distant gavel delivering a distant judgment...
STARKS [V.O., nearly whispered]
I don't know how it happened.
STARKS' eyes finally close as he lapses into unconsciousness.
INT. COURTROOM, SMALL TOWN VERMONT
The JUDGE nods as he hands the JURY FOREMAN back the verdict.
JURY FOREMAN
On the count of first degree murder,
we find the defendant, William
Starks, not guilty by reason of
insanity.
EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, DAY
In his mind, STARKS is walking out of the woods as the sun
sets and bounces off the snow all around him. We see JACKIE
watching him walk away into the woods.
JUDGE (O.S.)
I hereby sentence you to be committed
to a facility for the criminally
insane, where I hope that doctors and
the proper treatment can help you...
INT. COURTROOM, SMALL TOWN VERMONT
The JUDGE sentences STARKS, who stares back vacantly, like a
man who checked out of his life long before this judge
decided he had to.
EXT. ALPINE GROVE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL, DAY
A white VAN pulls up to Alpine Grove Psychiatric Hospital -- a
bleak, dated facility embellished only by the barbed wire
that seems to be everywhere around it.
STARKS' anatomy instantly and intensely separates him from
the staff of the hospital and the infirm patients who might
be in it. TWO MEMBERS of that STAFF lead him in.
JUDGE [O.S.]
Mr. Starks, I hope that someday you
might be well so that we will have
lost only one life in this tragedy.
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM, ALPINE GROVE MENTAL HOSPITAL
DR. THOMAS BECKER (overworked, dogmatic, disenchanted), DR.
BETH LORENSON (30s, unassuming, perceptive), and DR. GRIES
(20s, green) are convened with other STAFF at a routine
hospital meeting. These doctors deal in the currency of
madness every day and wear the heaviness of that burden on
their faces.
CHIEF OF STAFF
I'd certainly say he should be
considered violent, just given his
case...
DR. BECKER
How'd he dodge a conviction?
CHIEF OF STAFF
His defense argued post-traumatic
stress and delusional disorder. He
evidently couldn't account for a
similar incident during his service
in Desert Storm.
DR. BECKER
[Beat] So why isn't he just in the
psych ward of the county jail?
CHIEF OF STAFF
Apparently, he's a decorated vet. And
had another one testify for him. Who
knows? [To DR. BECKER] Tom, do you
mind taking him?
BECKER shrugs a nod as the Chief moves on to the next order
of business...
INT. STARKS' ROOM, WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY
STARKS is shown to his room by NURSE HARDING -- stern, senior --
and her henchman, DAMON -- a BURLY ORDERLY who relishes his
command, however diluted it may be.
DAMON unceremoniously puts Starks' UNIFORM on the bed. He and
NURSE HARDING wait at the door for Starks to change into it.
DAMON looks at STARKS -- his eyes inadvertently conceding that
Starks is more threatening than the common senile he
marshals; STARKS stares him back -- deliberately conceding
that he's right.
STARKS turns around -- only then looking stunned in the
sterile, cotton-white room, wondering where his life
disappeared to.
INT. DR. BECKER'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, DAY
STARKS sits opposite DR. BECKER in a harsh, tiled office.
STARKS wears his blue uniform and BECKER wears a doubtful
expression. From STARKS' P.O.V.: the DRUGS they've already
started giving him BLUR his vision of Becker.
BECKER
William? William, can you hear me?
STARKS nods groggily.
BECKER
I've given you some drugs to help
with your adjustment...
STARKS [Cutting him off]
What kind of drugs? [Beat] 'Cause
these seem pretty...pretty serious.
BECKER
Well, your condition's pretty
serious.
STARKS
[Beat] So they say. [Off Becker's
steady gaze] What?
BECKER
I'm just looking at you. Does that
make you uncomfortable?
STARKS
Depends on what you're seeing.
BECKER eyes STARKS mistrustfully.
BECKER
You said you couldn't remember
killing Officer Harrison. Correct?
STARKS
[Beat] You don't believe me, do you?
BECKER
It's not my job to believe you.
STARKS [Squinting to better see]
You're a doctor. I would think...
BECKER [Cutting him off firmly]
It's not my job to believe you or to
understand you. It's my job to try to
cure you and if that's a no-go, then
to...take some kind of care of you.
STARKS [Flatly]
Lucky me.
BECKER looks at Starks -- his eyes casting shame upon the
alleged murderer that sits before him.
BECKER [Stupefied]
You shot a man three times: first in
his heart, then in his stomach and
then...point blank, in the back of
his head. And then you just...forgot
all about it. A whole life erased
with three easy little words: I.
Don't. Know. What would it be if we
could all not know what we didn't
want to have to face.
BECKER glances at his WATCH and gets up -- still blurred in
Starks' P.O.V. It's only as he's walking off that Starks
notices he has a limp.
FADE TO:
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY
From STARKS' P.O.V., we follow him walk down the hospital
halls, even hazier from the medication than before. FORMS
blur into one another and, on either side of him is a crazy
world with crazy patients who've lost their way in it.
STARKS reaches for the WALL and runs his HAND over it, trying
to keep his balance. He's walking towards BECKER who stands
at the end of the hall, talking to other PATIENTS.
STARKS [Softly]
I don't belong here. I don't...
STARKS falters but stays up. He turns to see a shell of an
OLD MAN looking right through him with wooden eyes. STARKS'
eyes stay so completely fixed on the old man's haunting sight
that he doesn't see what's ahead of him.
He bumps right into a HYSTERICAL PATIENT whose sudden,
earsplitting SCREAMS peal interminably through the air.
STARKS [Mumbling]
I'm sorry. I didn't mean... I'm
sorry. I didn't mean it.
STARKS' fumbled efforts to help the PATIENT only feed his
hysteria more. The SCREAMING is intolerable.
STARKS [Forced to yell]
Will you listen to me? I'm not going
to hurt you. Please. I didn't mean
to bump...I'm sorry.
ORDERLIES and NURSES, followed by DR. BECKER, surround them
now, violently pulling STARKS off the patient. BECKER,
familiar with the PATIENT (HAROLD), tries to calm him.
BECKER
It's ok, Harold. It's ok.
STARKS searches their blurred faces and stops on Becker's as
they restrain him and give him more drugs.
STARKS [To Becker]
I don't belong here...
BECKER [Angrily, to the ORDERLIES]
Get him to his room.
FADE TO BLACK.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT
STARKS is slowly rebounding from the drugs when he hears
disquieting FOOTSTEPS in the hall, coming closer and
closer...
What follows happens too quickly for STARKS to react.
DR. GRIES, NURSE HARDING AND DAMON -- enter Starks' room.
They close the door and deftly administer a TRANQUILIZER and
a GAG.
STARKS has no idea what's happening to him as they drag him
out, and his STIFLED CRIES ensure no one else does either.
NURSE HARDING
Come on, army boy. Time for some
therapy.
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT
The first face STARKS sees as the world comes into focus is
NURSE HARDING'S. Around it loom those of DR. BECKER, DR.
GRIES and DAMON.
A shot of the room shows a constraint-ridden apparatus
hanging sternly on the wall. It is THE JACKET: an apparatus
designed to encase a man's body. Made of coarse, sickly-
stained red ands brown canvas and velcro restraints that would
first chafe, then forever burn, the skin they're wrapped
around, the JACKET looks medieval. Its appearance suggests
its purpose: to slowly STRANGLE THE LIFE OUT OF A MAN.
STARKS has been stripped of his blue uniform and is lying
nearly naked on a burial slab in the cold of the basement.
Even under the tranquilizers, STARKS formidably resists them
as the ORDERLIES wrestle to strap him in. Then Starks,
sensing as anyone would, that something bad is being done to
him, wisely stops resisting long enough to petition them.
STARKS
Wait. Wait a minute... Please.
BECKER motions for them to stop with his hand. STARKS blinks,
trying to bring the faces above him into focus...
STARKS
I, I don't belong here.
BECKER looks into Starks' eyes. Sanity stares back.
BECKER
No. I don't think you do either.
[Beat] But neither of us can do
anything about that.
BECKER barely nods and STARKS is trussed in the JACKET with
METAL CLAMPS. BECKER writes some details down, presumably
about Starks' treatment.
A CADAVER DRAWER -- just barely deep enough for a body or tall
enough for the height of a nose -- is slid open and STARKS,
already dreadfully sheathed in the JACKET, is crammed inside.
The ORDERLIES slam the cadaver drawer into the wall.
INT. CADAVER DRAWER
STARKS is literally entombed alive. Silence. Stolen breath.
They bolt the drawer and the CLANG echoes through his body.
The BLACKNESS and CLOSENESS of the space choke him as his
heart beats the frantic rhythm of his struggle.
We see only the WHITES of a pair of petrified EYES on a man
who's losing it -- hyperventilating, suffocating... for all
intents and purposes, dying the worst kind of a death.
Combing the walls for any sign of an explanation of what's
happening to him, STARKS sees a single white DOT -- almost
like a fleck of dust -- flitting between undecided SHAPES in
the blackness until, slowly, it grows bigger and bigger...
INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE
It's now a PATTERN of WHITE DOTS that changes the more STARKS
stares at it. Beneath it seems to be a smaller pattern with
formless shapes and figures that STARKS tries to discern
before they change into something else. Only after STARKS
blinks does he start to see the WHITE of the DOTS is SNOW
from a picture that is slowly and terribly coming together in
the following glimpses, each hardly longer than the time
between BLINKS.
1) A little river of RED marring the snow around it,
spilling from...
2) OFFICER HARRISON'S mouth just seconds before his last
breath. His eyes close and STARKS sees and hears a FLASH...
3) From the barrel of a GUN fired near him.
BLOOD sprays STARKS' hands as he looks down at them and
realizes he's in the scene and not just watching it. He looks
up from his hands and sees in similar flashes...
1) The snow beneath the BLOOD changing to DIRT as STARKS
stares at it. This time, the little river of RED comes
from...
2) The BODIES of IRAQI villagers, all still except one...
3) That of a IRAQI WOMAN. She unflinchingly lays her
hand in the entrails of a CORPSE and smears its
blood on her face just before she lies back down among
the dead, content to be one of them.
The only SOUNDS during these dreadful images have been a
trapped man's anxious BREATHS and the BEATS of a HEART
pumping so fast it could be a drum...
The screen goes BLACK and QUIVERS as STARKS clenches his eyes
shut.
INT. CADAVER DRAWER
Just then, as the MUSCLE beneath his eyes starts to VIBRATE,
something terrible and wet falls from the ceiling of the
drawer. PING! Right on his eye. The drop of WATER is enough
to send this man right over the edge.
STARKS' EYES roll back into his head and start to flutter,
shaking the SCREEN right along them until...
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE
STARKS stands outside his body, looking at the wall of
drawers he is in. He bends down to look more closely at a
STAIN on the floor -- DRIED BLOOD -- and as he runs his HAND over
it and stands back up, he is back in the...
INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE
IMAGES RACE PAST HIM too fast for him to catch anything but
fleeting clips of them. The IMAGES are his MEMORY and, no
matter how badly he wants to slow them down, he can't...
FADE TO BLACK.
INT. DINER, SMALL TOWN VERMONT
STARKS sees JACKIE, 8, sitting by a window in the diner. She
turns her head towards the ENTRANCE and, as she looks there,
so does Starks. That is when he first lays eyes on a woman, a
WAITRESS -- worn but still lovely -- leaving the diner. He is
taken with her and, for the first time since he's been in the
Jacket, seems calm. Just then, however, the reverie is
shattered...
SMASH CUT TO:
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT
The drawer is yanked open to reveal STARKS' still, drenched
face. BECKER, GRIES and the ORDERLIES stand above him.
BECKER
Take him out of it.
The ORDERLIES unstrap the JACKET from his body. Blood from
his chafed skin drips onto the burial slab. STARKS' eyes
remain closed.
BECKER
William. William, can you hear me?
We hear BECKER's voice as it sounds to STARKS...MUTED.
STARKS' EYES open only enough for him to see the PEOPLE'S
FACES morph chillingly into one another's.
DR. GRIES [Less muffled]
Pulse is 16, temp, just a hair under
90. 'Bout right for three hours of
psychosis.
NURSE HARDING
That's not enough, is it?
BECKER looks at STARKS' battered body.
BECKER [Wearily, indifferently]
It's enough for now. Take him to the
infirmary and let him recover there.
INT. WARD, ALPINE GROVE, NEXT MORNING
STARKS sits, totally disoriented, in the ward with the other,
more vocally INSANE patients. He runs his hand uncertainly
over the SCARS on his arm from the Jacket and looks around --
not knowing where his PARANOIA ends and REALITY begins.
The OLD MAN from the previous day is moving slowly with the
aid of his walker. He is far less threatening to STARKS
today...just a senile man about to walk into a wall.
STARKS [Getting up to help him]
Let's get you a destination other
than this wall.
RUDY MACKENZIE -- 40s, smart eyes, fidgety, with an innocent
face -- watches STARKS help turn the OLD MAN around.
MACKENZIE
That's Kingsley. Old bastard hears
us, I'm sure. He just doesn't want to
bother answering so he makes us think
he can't talk. I know. I tried it on
my mother for two months once before
she fished out my tongue. Literally.
[Beat] You're the cop killer, right?
STARKS
Yeah, guess so. How'd you know?
MACKENZIE
TV. Helps numb [makes a "crazy
gesture"] any active mind. [Sticking
out a jittery hand] Rudy MacKenzie.
(MORE)
MACKENZIE (cont'd)
Welcome to the village, William
Starks.
STARKS doesn't offer his hand, just looks back at MacKenzie.
STARKS [Looking away]
I'm not really in the mood to talk.
MACKENZIE
That's too bad. I don't believe in
disposable language either -- you
know, the small talk, the little
talk. Chit. Chat. Useless. The game's
something else though. Think about
it: What can we trade with each other
in the air between us? This...
[running his hand through the air] is
our court. [Beat, so eager it's sad]
I'm ready to throw the ball. Come on.
STARKS looks at MACKENZIE and sees that the constant flow of
words from his mouth only masks the tragic hesitation in his
eyes. A dead arm hangs limply by his side, like a weight.
STARKS [Relenting]
What are you in here for?
MACKENZIE
I tried to kill my wife.
STARKS
Don't you go to jail for that?
MACKENZIE
I tried something like 30 times.
There is, as STARKS rightly figures, no suitable response to
that.
MACKENZIE
She's bigger than me, and she's
stronger than me. And I never planned
on doing it. It was always in the
heat of the moment. I didn't beat her
or anything. Hell, she beat me. But
when we'd start fighting, I'd go for
the knife. Then she kept threatening
to have me put away, and [looking
around] she finally did.
As he talks, MACKENZIE notes the SCARS on Starks' arms. Dr.
LORENSON observes STARKS and MACKENZIE talking and starts
walking towards them.
STARKS
Yeah, well 30 times probably would
make you seem crazy.
MACKENZIE
Or just plain stupid. You'd think by
the twentieth time, I'd have found an
alternative method. Maybe a more
effective one, if you know what I
mean.
DR. LORENSON
Morning, gentlemen. How are you doing
today?
MACKENZIE winks discreetly at STARKS before he replies.
MACKENZIE
It's a hard one for me, Dr. Lorenson.
[Finally turns to face her, grimly]
The world around me, it's shrinking.
There's not even room for light to
make its way in. [Beat] Da-da-bum! Da-
da-bum! I feel like the horseman of
doom is coming for me, Doc. Only
today, he's not carrying flowers.
LORENSON reprimands MacKenzie by turning to Starks.
MACKENZIE
What? It's better than fine.
DR. LORENSON
And you, Mr. Starks?
STARKS [Already on the defense]
I'm fine.
DR. STARKS
Mr. MacKenzie, do you think I could
talk to Mr. Starks privately?
MACKENZIE
Of course you can, Doc. William, it
was an absolute pleasure. Thanks for
playing.
Just before he walks away, MACKENZIE turns around nervously
and uncharacteristically looks STARKS right in the eye.
MACKENZIE
Hey...when they talk you out to the
woods tonight and invite the wolves,
dance with them. [Beat] They don't
eat you when there's music playing.
STARKS looks at MacKenzie briskly, wondering if his words
were directed or just the meandering of a nut. But MacKenzie
just nods his farewell and starts humming as he walks away --
dead arm in tow.
DR. LORENSON
So you're ok?
STARKS [Still distracted]
What?
DR. LORENSON
I asked you if you're ok.
STARKS [Suspiciously]
I don't know. You tell me, Doc. You
think there's anything wrong with me?
DR. LORENSON
I don't know. You're not my patient.
STARKS looks away. Lorenson gives him a once over.
DR. LORENSON
You look like you've lost some
weight. Are you eating?
STARKS
I am. One of the few things I
remember doing is eating. So I guess
I must be exercising it off in my
dreams.
STARKS looks at LORENSON, seeing if he'll respond. LORENSON
looks back curiously at STARKS' pointed stare.
STARKS
You done with your small talk?
DR. LORENSON
Sure.
STARKS
Good.
STARKS walks away slowly and WEAKLY -- a fact that doesn't
escape LORENSON's observation.
INT. MEN'S ROOM, ALPINE GROVE HOSPITAL, DAY
STARKS walks into the bathroom, keenly eyeing the thin slit
of WINDOWS at the top of the wall. He walks closer to them,
when he suddenly hears some STRAINED BREATHING from inside
one of the stalls. He checks the first stall, pushing it
open. It swings both ways since it doesn't have a lock.
The sound continues. STARKS walks slowly past the second
stall to the third and then... WHACK! The door swings all the
way towards STARKS. BRUTALLY. He falls backwards -- his head
just barely missing a fatal confrontation with the sink.
DAMON, the ORDERLY, walks out.
DAMON
I'm sorry, Starks. Must have not seen
you coming there.
STARKS writhes in PAIN -- straining for his own breath now.
DAMON [Leaning down close to him]
Were you worried about me? [Smiling]
That's so sweet. Thanks.
With that, DAMON walks out, leaving STARKS on the floor.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, CHRISTMAS EVE
STARKS sits in his room, listening to the silence of the
night interrupted by first faint, then approaching,
FOOTSTEPS. Closer and closer...then harmfully near until
DAMON and HARDING enter his room.
They pause -- awaiting a reaction. STARKS doesn't give them
one.
NURSE HARDING
You gonna get the fuck up?
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, CHRISTMAS EVE
STARKS walks stoically down the cold corridors to his own
torture -- flanked by HARDING and DAMON on either side.
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS EVE
They're all in the room. STARKS seems pretty calm. Only in a
C.U. do we see his eyes register the JACKET...
BECKER
I'm glad to see you're cooperating
this time, Mr. Starks.
STARKS looks at the WIDE, STURDY restraints on it. They would
really hurt if you hit someone as hard as you could with
them. They might even knock someone out...
DAMON and HARDING move to undress him, when STARKS makes a
move to do it himself. They look to DR. BECKER who NODS that
it's all right.
DAMON begrudgingly lets go of Starks but not before he steps
on one of Starks' bare feet.
STARKS doesn't flinch. He merely turns away from them and
bends down to take off his pants. On his way up, he GRABS THE
JACKET OFF ITS HOOK and, using it like a weapon, aims to
smack it across Damon's face. DAMON deftly ducks and the
JACKET hits BECKER instead. The force of the blow sends
Becker down, and as he falls against the wall, DAMON and
HARDING leap to restrain Starks.
BECKER opens and closes his eyes, trying to get them into
focus. His right cheek is cut pretty bad. DR. GRIES helps
BECKER to his feet and picks his BROKEN GLASSES up off the
floor. BECKER puts them on.
DR. GRIES
Hold him while I get the
tranquilizer.
DAMON
Fuck the tranquilizer! I got a foot.
DAMON KICKS Starks hard in the back, nearly sending him down.
BECKER
No. That's not necessary.
BECKER looks down and sees his own BLOOD fall on the floor.
He looks up at STARKS who, even in his pain, looks shocked at
the force he just used.
BECKER
Let him go. [More firmly] I said, let
him go!
As soon as they let him go, STARKS lunges for BECKER --
pushing him up against the wall. STARKS stops, presumably
about to harm Becker but unsure, even to himself, of what
he's capable of doing...
BECKER looks fearlessly into Starks' eyes.
BECKER [An inch away from his face]
What, Starks? What are you going to
do? End me just because I'm an
inconvenience to you? [Beat] Just
like you did with Officer Harrison?
STARKS' face registers the meaning in Becker's words and a
look of self-doubt crosses his face.
BECKER
The only thing your mind is missing
is a conscience.
STARKS lets go of him and, as soon as he does, DAMON and
HARDING restrain him. BECKER calmly wipes the BLOOD from his
face, looks at his hand, shakes his head and walks out.
DR. GRIES
Wait...Dr. Becker, how long do you
want us to leave him in for?
BECKER doesn't answer. He doesn't even turn around. DR. GRIES
goes after him.
DR. GRIES
Just strap him in for now.
And DAMON and HARDING start to...
INT. BECKER'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS EVE, SOME TIME
LATER
BECKER turns around from the window and we see that his cheek
is BANDAGED. He opens a drawer, takes out some SCOTCH and
pours himself a SHOT. He swallows some pills with it.
After he drinks it, he looks up to see GRIES standing
opposite him, watching.
DR. GRIES
You ok?
BECKER
I'm fine.
DR. GRIES
[Beat] Listen, I hate to bother
you...
BECKER
Then don't.
DR. GRIES
But... what about Starks?
BECKER
What about Starks?
DR. GRIES
Should we be...
BECKER
Should we be what? Trying to change
him any way we can? [Beat] Yes.
DR. GRIES
But the Jacket? I mean...should we be
leaving him in like that?
BECKER [As if stunned by the question]
Leaving him in? [Beat] The medication
I'm given him is intended to adjust --
maybe even reset -- his violent
proclivities. You know, peel away
some of those layers of hate. The
Jacket's merely a safe place for that
to happen. The grounds and the halls --
where I can't monitor side effects I
can't predict -- aren't.
DR. GRIES [Still doubtful]
But, but...what about...
BECKER [Mocking Gries]
But...but what about the gun? I mean,
should he have been firing away like
that? [Shaking his head at GRIES] You
can't fuck up a life that's already
been fucked up. [Turning away] There,
there's the insurance you're looking
for.
DR. GRIES
I'm not looking for anything.
BECKER shakes his head, laughing inside at the world's
stupidity.
BECKER
[Beat] It's Christmas Eve, Justin.
Don't you have somewhere to be?
BECKER doesn't wait for an answer, just turns back towards
the window and takes another sip of his drink.
CUT TO:
INT. HOSPITAL LOUNGE, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS EVE
NURSE HARDING turns on the television as DAMON sits in one of
the lounge chairs.
NURSE HARDING
Ah, man, look, It's A Wonderful Life.
DAMON
You got any booze?
HARDING takes out a FLASK from her BACKPACK.
NURSE HARDING
'Course I do. [Smiling] And it is the
season for giving so let's get to it.
DAMON smiles and rubs his hands together eagerly.
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS EVE
A shot of the WALL OF DRAWERS, with no one in the room, just
someone in the wall...
INT. CADAVER DRAWER
STARKS finds himself in the physically wrenching place once
more. But nothing happens for some seconds. He breathes
anxiously, not knowing what to expect. His heart beats
steadily: THUMP...THUMP, until, finally, with each beat, a
SMALL WHITE FLECK becomes two flecks...then, two
dots...then, two circles...then, the WHITES of a pair of
EYES with a terrific meanness in them.
The EYES blink, then disappear like they were never there.
The pace of STARKS' heart quickens, and the inexplicable
madness surrounds him once more...
EXT. MURDER SCENE, HIGHWAY, VERMONT, DUSK
The SOUNDS of BOMBS RAGE around him but he's in the middle of
the murder scene, watching OFFICER HARRISON lie on the floor.
He turns to look over his shoulder and sees...
EXT. IRAQI VILLAGE, NIGHT
Through a PHOSPHORESCENT GREEN NIGHT-VISION CAMERA, we see FIRE,
FLESH, and RUIN littering the sand. Slowly the
terrifying images shift to a naturalistic, real-time
documentation of the action -- the ruin -- as it's occurring.
As STARKS blinks, TEARS fall and he hears, over it all, a
counseling voice...
MACKENZIE (O.S.)
When they take you out to the woods
tonight and invite the wolves, dance
with them.
The TERRIBLE SOUNDS become less terrible as they fade away.
MACKENZIE (O.S.)
They don't eat you when there's music
playing.
The scene morphs slowly and the following IMAGES appear
vaguely -- forming the walls of the TUNNEL around him.
1) C.U. A WOMAN'S NECK and a small child's HAND
2) INT. STAIRWAY, OLD HOUSE (STARKS' CHILDHOOD HOME)
3) C.U. A black and white PHOTOGRAPH
4) EXT. CREEK: A shot of clear water, not too deep...
5) EXT. A NEW ENGLAND BEACH
6) EXT. DESERT, IRAQ: A sublime sunset...
STARKS walks up uneasily to the wall and touches the IMAGES.
They move like they're liquid and, when they settle, the
whole wall is replaced with one large IMAGE of a BEAUTIFUL
WOMAN -- a waitress -- standing at the counter of a COFFEE
SHOP, moving a STRAND OF HAIR out of her face with her hand.
STARKS blinks slowly -- struck by this dream of her. He reaches
out and closes his PALM around her like he might catch hold
of the moment with this simple gesture.
The whole WALL OF IMAGES twinkles marvelously, as we...
CUT TO:
EXT. DINER, SMALL TOWN, VERMONT, CHRISTMAS EVE
The WAITRESS (early 20s) -- tired, with kind eyes, soft skin
and a beautiful mouth that hasn't smiled in a long time --
emerges from the diner. Even with no effort, she is
remarkably pretty.
From her UNIFORM, we know that her day was spent there.
STARKS simply stares at this WOMAN who seems markedly removed
from the world around her. The only fact she wears on her is
that she's tired.
She spots STARKS and can't help but do a double-take. Both
are momentarily taken with each other, though she tries to
hide any indication that she is.
INT. WAITRESS' CAR
She gets in her old car and starts it. As it warms up, she
looks for STARKS in her REARVIEW MIRROR and sees he's still
there.
He starts to walk over to her when she jumps out of her car.
EXT. PARKING LOT, DINER, VERMONT, CHRISTMAS EVE
The WAITRESS treads angrily towards STARKS.
WAITRESS
Where do you think you're going?
STARKS looks at her. He doesn't know anymore than she does.
WAITRESS
You gonna answer me?
STARKS just stares.
WAITRESS
If you're deaf, read my lips...I
don't need a psycho following me
today.
STARKS
[Beat] I'm not deaf.
WAITRESS
Good.
She turns and gets back in her car, slamming the door shut.
She starts to drive and STARKS stares after her.
After a few hundred yards, she SLAMS on the brakes and turns
the car round, coming back. Then she jumps out of the car and
heads back in the diner, without looking over at STARKS.
EXT. DINER, SMALL TOWN VERMONT, SOME SECONDS LATER
She comes out -- this time PURSE in hand -- and sighs at
Starks.
WAITRESS
[As if she owes him an explanation] I
forgot my purse.
STARKS nods slowly. The WAITRESS gets in her car and looks
again at STARKS in her REARVIEW MIRROR. He has hardly any
winter gear on him -- no gloves, no hat, no coat -- just jeans
and a flannel. He looks lost among his surroundings, as much
because he doesn't know where he is as because he doesn't
look like he belongs there.
She reverses towards him.
WAITRESS
In case you hadn't figured, it's
Christmas Eve. You're never gonna get
a cab here.
STARKS
[Beat] Thanks.
She looks him over and then rests her hands on the wheel.
WAITRESS
All right. [Beat] You got somewhere
you need to go, Mister?
STARKS
I'm not sure.
WAITRESS
Let me ask you that again. This time,
look around and consider your
options.
Being cold and freezing are his options.
WAITRESS
[Beat] You got somewhere you need to
go, Mister?
STARKS [Nodding slowly]
Yeah, I do.
WAITRESS
Great, get in.
INT. WAITRESS' CAR
WAITRESS
So, where do you want me to drop you?
STARKS rubs his hand over his chin and cheek as he thinks it
over. She watches him curiously.
STARKS
I'm not sure.
WAITRESS
You don't have anywhere to stay?
STARKS
I don't think so.
The WAITRESS takes out a FLASK and a sizable SWIG from it;
she swallows it smoothly, like someone used to doing so.
WAITRESS
Well, where are you from?
STARKS
I'm not sure. [Beat] I don't really
know.
WAITRESS
Of course you don't know.
STARKS
Why "of course"?
WAITRESS
Because in my life, it wouldn't make
sense for me to pick up some normal
guy with a place where he's from and
a place where he's going to. It'd be
too simple. I probably wouldn't know
how to handle a situation like that.
STARKS
Well, you definitely didn't pick
normal or simple this time either.
She looks over at him -- momentarily suspicious. He looks back
innocuously; there's something innately safe about him.
WAITRESS
At least you're honest. That's some
kind of start.
STARKS sees her take another DRINK from the flask. She pulls
out a CIGARETTE, and STARKS lights it for her with some
MATCHES.
WAITRESS
That's great. You're not sure where
you're from or where you're going,
but at least you've got manners.
She laughs, noticeably more relaxed now after the drink.
WAITRESS
Well, you got a coat or something?
STARKS [Looking down at his clothes]
No. Doesn't look like it.
WAITRESS
Well, how'd you get here?
STARKS
[Beat] I was dropped off.
WAITRESS
Do you have a motel or something?
Money?
STARKS feels his pockets.
STARKS
No.
WAITRESS
Well, don't you somewhere? Stuff?
Belongings?
STARKS
No. [Beat] Not around here.
She casts a long sideward glance at STARKS, taking him and
her circumstances in for herself. He looks back gently.
WAITRESS
All right, we'll get to my place and
call around, see where I can take
you. [Beat] Just don't think of
trying anything.
(MORE)
WAITRESS (cont'd)
I have the biggest defense for gun
control living upstairs from me.
She's armed and angry even when she's
asleep.
INT. WAITRESS' APARTMENT, EVENING
She is on the PHONE, calling various shelters. Her apartment
has some pieces of mismatched furniture, along with a string
of lopsided CHRISTMAS LIGHTS strewn around the WINDOWS in the
room. They, more than anything else, light the place.
WAITRESS [Pleading tone]
I could have him there in 15 minutes.
[Beat, disappointed] Hmm. Yeah,
thanks. Merry Christmas to you, too.
She hangs up the phone.
WAITRESS
Great. That was our last option. What
am I going to do with you?
STARKS
Nothing. [Getting up] Thanks for
bringing me this far.
WAITRESS
Where are you going? You'll freeze
out there. You don't even have a
coat.
STARKS
I'll manage.
WAITRESS
No, you won't. You'll die of cold out
there and then I'll have to feel
guilty. And I've already got more
guilt than I know what to do with.
[Beat] Do you want something to
drink?
STARKS
No, I'm ok.
She leaves to the KITCHEN to fix herself a drink and STARKS
stares after her. Suddenly, a SMASHING SOUND is heard as
something falls in the kitchen. STARKS' whole BODY TENSES UP
as he wonders whether he's being taken out of the Jacket.
WAITRESS
Shit! That was one of my good
glasses!
As she presumably cleans it up, we stay on STARKS who slowly
gains hold of himself. She comes back, DRINK in hand and
pushes the STRAND OF HAIR in her face back the same way she
did when he saw her in the tunnel. Even through her
weariness, she looks radiant under the Christmas lights. She
takes a long SIP.
WAITRESS [Noticing he's shaken]
Hey, you ok?
STARKS
[Beat] Yeah, I'm fine.
WAITRESS
You know what? It's Christmas Eve.
And you look clean -- I mean, you're
normal-looking. [Resolutely, for her
own benefit] It's Christmas Eve, and
I have a couch.
And sadly, no plans for the evening anyway. She looks back --
her EYES even more tired from the liquor.
STARKS
I'm not gonna hurt you.
WAITRESS [Softly]
I know. [Clearing her throat] I'm
gonna go take a bath. Make yourself
at home. You know, fix yourself
something to eat if you're hungry or
anything. There's nothing to steal,
but don't be a jerk and take
something anyway. And don't snoop,
ok?
STARKS
Ok. [Beat] My name's William by the
way.
WAITRESS [Shakes her head]
No, no. Let's not do the name stuff,
'cause you see, I don't want to meet
you. I may want to help you tonight,
but I don't want to know you. Honest.
STARKS nods as she walks out.
EXT. YARD BEHIND WAITRESS' APARTMENT, EVENING
STARKS, still without a coat, collects some WOOD...
INT. KITCHEN, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, EVENING
STARKS looks in her fridge. There's not much to work with --
just some JARS and plenty of VODKA.
INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, SOME TIME LATER
STARKS has lit a FIRE and set out a feeble dinner for them
when the WAITRESS comes out of the bedroom in sweats.
WAITRESS
What's this?
STARKS
The best I could do with what was in
your fridge.
She looks and sees a SANDWICH on a BUN in one plate and a
SANDWICH on two different colors of TOAST on the other.
Then she looks over at the fire; it's obvious from the way
she looks at it that it's been years, if ever, since
someone's done something like this for her.
STARKS
I only lit it because it was so cold
in here. I'm sorry if...
WAITRESS
No, it's fine. [Beat, swallow]
Thanks.
She turns and goes in the kitchen, calling out to him...
WAITRESS
You want a drink?
STARKS
Sure.
INT. KITCHEN, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, NIGHT
As she makes their DRINKS, a curious LOOK crosses her face,
just for a second.
INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, A LITTLE WHILE LATER
They've sat down to eat under the blinking CHRISTMAS LIGHTS.
WAITRESS
This is pretty good. Considering...
STARKS
Thanks.
They eat quietly for a second. STARKS looks at her, then down
at his food, still subtly stunned by it all.
STARKS
So you're a waitress, right? I
mean...from the uniform you were
wearing.
WAITRESS
Yup. That's me.
STARKS
You like it?
WAITRESS
[Beat] I do it.
STARKS
Have you always been a waitress?
WAITRESS [Remembering sadly]
No. I used to be a nurse.
STARKS
[Beat] Why'd you stop?
WAITRESS
Shit happens, and your life changes.
'Bout the best explanation of a lot
of things that happen. [Beat] So how
come you don't know where you're
coming from?
STARKS
I don't know, but I think part of
it's...
STARKS looks around as he decides to be honest with her.
STARKS
That I don't really know what's real.
She stares at him until a small sympathetic smile appears on
her lips.
WAITRESS
Well, good for you.
STARKS
[Beat] Why?
WAITRESS
[Beat] Real is overrated.
STARKS smiles back uncertainly.
STARKS
You don't think that's crazy?
WAITRESS
Maybe. [Beat] Maybe not.
She holds up her glass somewhat sadly.
WAITRESS
Sometimes I don't know the difference
myself. And, you know something? I
think I like it better that way.
[Finishes her drink] You want another
one?
She goes to the KITCHEN, and STARKS clears their PLATES.
INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' APARTMENT
STARKS goes in the KITCHEN as she comes out with their
drinks. He hears her turn on the RADIO. She lands on an
OLDIES station that's playing "Girl of North Country" by Bob
Dylan.
INT. KITCHEN, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, NIGHT
STARKS smiles a little, then realizes he remembers, and
likes, the song. It's the first familiar thing for him in
days.
He walks out slowly to the living room, where the WAITRESS
sits on the couch, drinking. STARKS moves closer to the
radio, leaning into it, listening and forgetting, for a short
while -- only as long as a piece of song -- everything else.
BOB DYLAN
If you go when the snow flakes storm
When the rivers freeze and summer
ends.
Please see she has a coat so warm
To keep her from the howlin' winds...
STARKS listens close -- smiling a small, sad smile. Over the
HARMONICA, we pull back and see two very lonely people
passing time together the way people sometimes need to be
able to.
STARKS
This is a great song.
WAITRESS
You remember it?
STARKS [Nodding slowly]
It's like I feel like...I know who I
am. I just can't remember anything
that made me this person.
When STARKS looks at her then, he's so close to a meltdown
that it takes him a moment to fight his way out of it.
STARKS
But hey, who can forget those words?
The man just wants simple and good
things for his woman -- that she be
warm and happy. How hard can that be
to remember?
WAITRESS
May be easy to remember, but not easy
to get. Being warm, maybe -- but,
look, you don't even have a coat and
I still have to chop wood to make a
fire. [Beat] And, being happy...you
tell me if that's simple.
The CHRISTMAS LIGHTS flash drowsily to their own tempo.
WAITRESS [re: the lights]
Why don't I try to get them to stop
blinking?
INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, AN HOUR OR SO LATER
She is visibly drained, after the day and the drinks.
STARKS
They told me I joined the army when I
was seventeen. That's when my father
died and, before that, it was
apparently just me and him since I
was born 'cause my mom split.
WAITRESS
So you never knew your mother?
STARKS
I guess not. But, as of now, I never
knew either.
WAITRESS
I'm sorry.
STARKS
Yeah. [Beat] How about you?
WAITRESS
Never knew my father. I grew up with
my mother. Actually, I grew up around
my mother. She was great though. I
mean, the way she was with her
friends... She was this woman who had
so much life in her, she had to find
ways to kill some of it just to be
like the rest of us. [Beat] She died
young.
STARKS
How?
WAITRESS
She fucked herself up day after day
and then, one day, she fell asleep
with a burning cigarette. [Beat] I
came home from work and she was gone.
The TEARS still run after all these years.
STARKS
I'm sorry.
WAITRESS
Yeah, me too. [Softly] Every day for
the last ten years.
STARKS
That when you stopped being a nurse?
She is surprised that he gleaned the connection -- and that he'd
been listening so closely.
WAITRESS [Exhausted]
Yeah, that's when I stopped being a
nurse. I never thought I could stop
being one, I wanted it for so long,
but... you just can't do it anymore
when you lose someone like that. You
can't take care of other people.
She closes her eyes and finally passes out. STARKS watches
her face, lit serenely by the FIRE and the Christmas lights.
It bears her grief even in sleep.
He covers her with a BLANKET then looks around and spots the
only PERSONAL EFFECTS in the room on her mantle. He walks
towards them, tripping slightly on a CORD from the LIGHTS. He
stumbles but regains his balance by reaching for the wall.
As he pulls himself up, he spots what is only inches away
from where his hand landed on the wall: HIS OWN DOG TAGS,
given to Jackie, only a couple weeks ago, hanging from a
single NAIL tacked into the wall.
Stunned, he stares at his NAME and BIRTH DATE scored on the
metal. He looks back at the WAITRESS and then to the few
PICTURES on the mantle: they are of JACKIE and her mother,
JEAN. STARKS runs his hand through his hair, trying to
swallow the improbability, and inexplicability, of the
situation.
STARKS' EYES search the room for ANYTHING that could help him
figure out what's happening. On the console is an OLD PAPER
and some MAIL. Totally disoriented, STARKS nearly STUMBLES on
his way to the PILE.
The label on the first BILL reads "Jackie Price." On the
second, the same. And the third...until at the bottom of the
pile, STARKS spots an OLD NEWSPAPER with the answer on its
DATE: December 3, 2004.
STARKS is absolutely stunned.
STARKS looks over at JACKIE and, just then, the HARSH SOUND
of the DRAWER being opened rings deafeningly in his ears and
the image of her starts to DISSOLVE at this worst moment. He
is being taken out of the JACKET...
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT
It's DR. GRIES, racked with guilt, who pulls Starks out...
He winces at the sight of the BLOOD and SWEAT streaked across
Starks' face. DR. GRIES checks his pulse and cleans his face
as best as he can with a WET TOWEL.
DR. GRIES
William, can you hear me?
His VOICE echoes in the morgue, sounding to Starks, as it
does to us, faint and distant. DR. GRIES drips some WATER in
Starks' mouth. As some of it trickles out, it runs into the
JACKET, burning STARKS' chafed skin.
STARKS' EYES flutter and DR. GRIES pushes the drawer back in,
afraid of what they've done to this man...
INT. CADAVER DRAWER
STARKS clenches his face and pleadingly closes his eyes. FIVE
SECONDS OF TOTAL BLACKNESS and SILENCE and he's back in...
INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' (JACKIE'S) APARTMENT, NIGHT
Only now, he's kneeling beside her sleeping FACE, just
looking at it. STARKS doesn't know what's going on but her
serene, sleeping face steadies him. He can only call out the
name he thinks she might respond to...
STARKS
Jackie? Jackie?
Sure enough, she answers with a STIR in her sleep.
JACKIE
Hm...
We see, in STARKS' eyes, the unbelievable connection: she is
the same little girl he met only a few weeks ago in 1992.
STARKS [Swallowing, softly]
Jackie? [Beat] What year is it?
JACKIE [In a drunken slumber]
What?
STARKS
What year is it?
JACKIE [Barely opening her eyes]
2004.
STARKS looks around as JACKIE moves in her sleep, almost
falling off the couch. STARKS picks her up and, in her sleep,
she WRAPS her arms around his neck.
INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT
STARKS tenderly lays her down on the bed...
INT. LIVING ROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT
STARKS picks up his DOG TAGS from the console, looks around,
spots the TELEVISION and fumbles a bit as he figures out how
to turn it on. STARKS sits down, throws back the rest of
JACKIE'S DRINK and another shot and looks around nervously,
unable to explain what's happening to him...
FADE TO:
INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, CHRISTMAS MORNING
JACKIE sits in her sleep as she wakes up, clearly hung over.
INT. BATHROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, CHRISTMAS MORNING
As JACKIE closes the MEDICINE CABINET, she sees her hungover
reflection in it.
She puts her face under the WATER and lets it restore some
color and life in her. As she comes up, that's when she
remembers the night before and the voice she barely heard in
her sleep.
STARKS [O.S., echoing distantly]
Jackie? [Beat] What year is it?
She SHOOTS UP from the sink, staring at her reflection.
INT. LIVING ROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, SECONDS LATER
JACKIE spots STARKS asleep on the couch -- newspaper strewn
all around him and the TV still on. He's holding the TAGS.
She kneels down close to his face and stares at him for
awhile before STARKS is jarred. He defensively GRABS HER
WRIST as his EYES BURST OPEN, startling her.
JACKIE [Desperately]
Who are you?
STARKS lets his GRIP loosen.
STARKS
[Beat] I'm William Starks.
A short look of SHOCK cross her face before she leaps up.
JACKIE
Get the hell out of my house!
JACKIE grabs the nearest object -- the IRON FORK from the
FIREPLACE set -- and holds it, shaking, against STARKS. STARKS
stays calm; he hardly expected a different reaction.
JACKIE
What'd you do? Snoop all over the
place? You had no right. You had no
right to go through anything.
STARKS
[Beat] I know it doesn't make sense.
It doesn't even make sense to me.
JACKIE
If you don't get out of my house
right now, I'll call the police.
STARKS [Remembering]
Your mom was passed out on the side
of the road when I found you. Her
name was Jean. [Beat] She was dizzy
the whole time...
JACKIE [Trembling]
Why would you do something like this?
I tried to help you.
STARKS
Jackie, I'm William Starks. I can
prove it.
JACKIE
What? Now you're gonna show me some
kind of driver's license?
STARKS
No, I don't have anything to show
you. I'm here from a mental hospital.
JACKIE
Well, you belong in one.
STARKS [Solemnly]
[Beat] You and your mom were in a
truck and she kept a rifle in the
back of it...
JACKIE
Stop it! Stop it!
JACKIE covers her ears and looks at him, pleading with her
eyes. STARKS' eyes plead right back.
STARKS
I'm sorry for upsetting you, [beat]
but I'm not lying to you.
JACKIE
You can't be William Starks. He's
dead.
STARKS
[Beat] What?
JACKIE
William Starks is dead... [Beat] I've
been to his grave.
STARKS
[Beat] What?
JACKIE
His body was found New Year's Day,
19...1993. At Alpine...
STARKS [Finishing for her]
Alpine Grove. That's the mental
hospital. How do you know that?
JACKIE
I looked it up.
STARKS
How?
Then he remembers -- understanding with a chill that what she
is saying could entirely be true.
STARKS
I gave you my dog tags.
JACKIE
No, you didn't. They found William
Starks' body dead in the snow.
STARKS
How'd he die?
JACKIE
I don't know. But he did die.
STARKS falters under the news. JACKIE looks around, through
her now blurred eyes, like she might find some help in the
apartment. She settles for the BOTTLE of VODKA on the table,
lowers the iron fork and takes a long heavy drink, then
laughs nervously as she looks up.
JACKIE
I know what this is...I picked you up
when I was drunk and you probably
thought I'm just fucked up enough to
fall for this. But the thing is I
know what I'm doing when I drink. I
just usually don't care. Right now, I
do though. And I want you out. Now.
STARKS
It's December 25th, 1993 today.
JACKIE
No, it's not. [Beat] It's December
25th, 2004.
STARKS [Desperate]
That can't be. That's...just, I
mean... You're telling me I died in
less than a week in the time I'm in.
JACKIE
I'm telling you I don't care what
time you think you're in. You're not
William Starks. [Beat] I don't
believe in many things, but I believe
in death. And it doesn't give back
what it takes. So whoever you are...I
did a nice thing, you've made me
regret it enough already, so please,
just leave.
STARKS
I'll leave. But look at me. Look at
my face, Jackie. I'm not lying. I met
you and your mother. I told you then
that I'd lost my memory. [Beat] There
was no one for miles around so I know
you know there's no way I could have
known that from a pair of dog tags
you had lying around.
JACKIE
Please...
STARKS looks at her tenderly before he turns to leave.
JACKIE, a little calmer, looks at the door like he's still on
the other side of it and calls out softly, and sadly...
JACKIE
Happy Birthday.
INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE
STARKS looks around him and, we see, from bottom up, the
exterior around Jackie's house melt away as STARKS suddenly
faces the massacred village in Iraq. Shocked at what's
happening to his body, he looks up, petrified. His body is
wound as tightly as a knot.
EXT. IRAQI VILLAGE, NIGHT, 1991
Again, we're glimpsing the scene through PHOSPHORESCENT GREEN
NIGHT VISION intermittently negotiated with real-time images.
Opposite Starks stands a CRAZED IRAQI SOLDIER -- seething in
anger and pointing his gun at a LITTLE BOY, presumably
belonging to the MAN not five feet away. Next to Starks is an
angry CAPTAIN MEDLEY, ordering STARKS to follow him. STARKS
is watching himself in the scene.
MEDLEY
You walk on. They pick up their guns
and fire at you, you stay. They pick
up and fire at each other, and you
walk on!
STARKS
He's got his gun pointed at a kid.
MEDLEY
That is not our problem.
STARKS
Yeah, well, none of this is our
fuckin' problem.
STARKS turns and aims his gun at a CRAZED IRAQI SOLDIER
threatening to shoot a child. We hear him YELLING in Arabic.
What STARKS doesn't see is another IRAQI SOLDIER (2) aiming
his GUN at STARKS.
MEDLEY
We are leaving this site right now.
STARKS doesn't hear him; he's busy perfecting his aim.
STARKS [To the first Iraqi soldier]
Hey!
At the force of the word, the SOLDIER lowers his gun and the
LITTLE BOY flees.
STARKS, who is now in the scene himself, lowers his gun
slightly as he approaches the SOLDIER. Neither speaks the
other's language but they're both saying everything with
their eyes. Neither moves his off the other.
Just then, though, we see the SECOND IRAQI SOLDIER get a
clear aim at STARKS.
He takes his SHOT before anyone else does. STARKS goes down
as the skin off the side of his head is shaved off.
He falls to the ground. As the rest of the picture fades to
black, all that is left is previously mysterious, still
haunting PAIR of EYES that we now see belonged to the
CRAZED IRAQI SOLDIER.
And over it all is the now more distant CLANK OF METAL as the
drawer is opened and the nightmare momentarily ended...
FADE TO BLACK.
INT. MORGUE, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS DAY
DR. GRIES, DR. BECKER, DAMON and NURSE HARDING enter the
room.
BECKER
You left him in all night?
NURSE HARDING
Shit, he's probably dead.
DR. GRIES [Defensively]
I tried to ask you if we should leave
him in yesterday...
BECKER
Don't get all worked up, Justin. I
expected some common sense on your
part and clearly I was expecting too
much. [Beat] Just open the drawer.
DR. GRIES
We never should have done this to
him...
BECKER
Well, what are we gonna do about it now?
Nothing is Gries' answer. Still, Becker seems to share the
concern.
BECKER motions for them to open the drawer. They pull him
out. STARKS looks cold and wrecked.
DR. GRIES
Is he? [Impatiently] Is he dead?
BECKER feels for a pulse and seems surprised to find one.
BECKER
No. [To Harding and Damon] Get him
upstairs.
INT. WARD, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS DAY
DR. LORENSON walks into the ward to check on STARKS. The
attending NURSE is walking around the ward.
LORENSON
Where's William Starks.
NURSE
I'm not sure. Dr. Becker had him
moved.
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY
DR. LORENSON walks anxiously down the halls of the hospital,
peering into every room, looking for Starks.
INT. ANOTHER HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY
DR. LORENSON spots BECKER walking out the DOORS of the
hospital and RUNS after him, in only his white coat...
EXT. PARKING LOT, ALPINE GROVE, DAY (CONT'D)
LORENSON [Calling out after him]
Dr. Becker! Dr. Becker!...Tom, wait!
DR. BECKER stops walking and waits a moment, registering the
voice, before he turns around to face Dr. Lorenson.
LORENSON [Out of breath]
Where's William Starks?
BECKER
He's recovering on the third floor.
STARKS
Are you kidding me? He's not
psychotic!
BECKER
Then how would you describe him,
Beth? Merely rebellious?
LORENSON
He'll be a zombie in a few days, Tom.
His behavior's hardly suggested he
needed neuroleptics.
BECKER
And you know that from what, a couple
two-minute stares across a room?
LORENSON [Firmly]
He didn't need anti-psychotics, if
that's even all you're giving him...?
BECKER ignores Lorenson's insinuation and merely turns his
CHEEK all the way round towards Lorenson so he can see the
BANDAGE from the CUT Starks gave him.
BECKER [Steadily]
After he slashed me with a hospital
instrument, I determined, in my
professional opinion, that Mr.
Starks, needed a little placating.
LORENSON
[Beat] You sure he wasn't provoked?
BECKER
You sure you want to begin making
that kind of insinuation? [Beat] I
took five stitches during a routine
therapy session.
LORENSON
I'm sure he took some, too.
BECKER [Smirking, unphased]
Happens sometimes when you've got to
restrain them. You watch the rest of
us work. You know that.
LORENSON [Appealing to him]
Our patients are sick.
BECKER
Yes, they are.
LORENSON looks at BECKER; he knows he's hiding something.
LORENSON
He's not gonna end up like Casey,
Tom. Whatever happened to him is not
going to "happen" to Starks. I don't
know what you're trying to do here
...but he's not a lab animal, Tom.
You can't reprogram him no matter the
drugs or the treatment.
BECKER
Jesus, you really don't let up, do
you? Just because you failed your
patient doesn't necessarily mean the
rest of us did, too. [Beat] Sorry to
tarnish your war hero's image, but he
is psychotic.
LORENSON looks back, starting to grasp Becker's misshapen
beliefs.
BECKER
Now, if you'll excuse me, it's
Christmas, and I have a family I'd
like to see.
INT. ROOM, INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS DAY
STARKS, IV in arm, lies asleep in bed, recovering...
INT. HOSPITAL, VERMONT
JACKIE walks in a hospital -- with many aspects parallel to
the mental hospital. White on white and, for Jackie
particularly, the presence of painful memories.
INT. ROOM, INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS DAY
LORENSON walks closer to STARKS and carefully examines the
BRUISES and BURNS on a body that's been badly beaten. His
eyes bear his guilt.
INT. NURSE'S STATION, HOSPITAL, VERMONT
JACKIE waits until a nurse, CLAIRE, greets her perfunctorily.
CLAIRE [Not looking up]
How can I help you?
JACKIE
Hi, Claire.
CLAIRE looks up, astonished to see her. She smiles warmly.
CLAIRE
Jackie, hi. How are you, honey?
JACKIE
I'm ok. [Beat] I need a favor.
CUT TO:
INT. STARKS' HOSPITAL ROOM
STARKS is asleep when a DARK FIGURE walks, like a GHOST, past
the WINDOWED DOOR of his room. STARKS opens his eyes and
snaps his neck in its direction -- fearful of everything at
this point. When he looks, there's nothing there; he's not
sure there ever was. The room starts to blue as he looks
around it, not knowing if he is crazy...
RETURN TO:
INT. OFFICE, HOSPITAL, VERMONT
JACKIE peruses HEADLINES and ABSTRACTS pulled up on the web:
"ALPINE GROVE INVESTIGATION into the mysterious death of
William Starks..."
"The body of WILLIAM STARKS, the former war hero who was
charged with the murder of OFFICER EDWARD HARRISON, was
found on the grounds of ALPINE GROVE on January 1, 1993.
STARKS was believed to have died from a wound to the
head."
The words and PHRASES that confirm Starks' story RISE from
their couched places on the computer screen.
"Local Doctor charged with medical malpractice." "Dr.
Thomas Becker resigns..." "It involved the recreation of
a womb-like environment." "Former patients testify to
being put in instrument known as the 'Jacket'"...
"Patient Rudy MacKenzie testifies..."
"WILLIAM STARKS, laurelled war hero..."
As JACKIE keeps scrolling, her face wears her disbelief that
what STARKS was saying may have been true. Then, she sees,
archived in a state newspaper, a mention of Dr. Lorenson and
a particular patient, "Eugene Yazdi."
"Local Boy, Eugene Yazdi, Overcomes Absence Seizure
Syndrome to Win Mathematic Decathlon...with the aid of
Local Doctor, Dr. Loel Lorenson." "Panelists for
National Epilepsy Conference include Dr. Lorenson,
Alpine Grove Hospital."
INT. STARKS' HOSPITAL ROOM, DECEMBER 26TH
A NURSE is checking on STARKS as he slowly wakes up.
STARKS
What the hell kind of drugs are you
people giving me?
STARKS is asking the NURSE, but it's BECKER's voice that
answers though Starks can't see him.
BECKER [O.S.]
Just something to help you sleep.
STARKS panics when he hears the voice. He looks around
nervously but the BRIGHT SUNLIGHT pouring into the room is
blinding. He swallows as he looks at the NURSE'S FACE as she
continues adjusting his pillows.
STARKS [Swallowing nervously]
Did you say something?
The NURSE shakes her head lightly and just then BECKER steps
out of the LIGHT.
BECKER
I said the drugs were to help you
sleep. [Beat] Did you sleep well?
Becker is remarkably calm, further confusing Starks' sense of
reality.
STARKS [Doubtfully]
But I wasn't asleep. Was I?
BECKER
Yes. You were. You were asleep for
nearly a whole day. It's December
26th, William.
STARKS sits up groggily, remembering what happened to him and
wondering how much, if any of it, was real.
STARKS
It's December 26th?
STARKS examines himself -- looking at his arms, spotting the
BRUISES on them.
BECKER
That's right, William.
STARKS [Slowly figuring it out]
1992?
BECKER nods. STARKS sits up -- his predicament and the room
slowly coming into focus.
BECKER
Yes. [Caustically] And that's the sun
and you're on earth. [Beat] And I
know you know better.
STARKS begins to piece if together. BECKER, as we begin to
see, is right. It is 1992 in Alpine Grove.
STARKS
I don't know better. All I know is
that you left me in there.
BECKER
In where?
STARKS
[Uncertainly] In that thing...the
Jacket.
The NURSE gives Becker a knowing look -- suggesting Starks
really is delusional. Becker doesn't even flinch as STARKS
tries to get a better look at Becker's face.
BECKER
We were forced to use restrains if
that's what you're referring to.
STARKS
That wasn't a fucking restraint.
BECKER
Actually, that's exactly what our
equipment is.
STARKS' EYES widen with alarm as BECKER reaches for the I.V.
in his arm, lingering on it long enough that Starks braces
himself for an ATTACK of some sort. But Becker just looks
back innocently as he adjusts it.
BECKER
Relax.
STARKS
Don't act like I don't know what's
real. [Beat] I'm not the one that's
crazy here.
BECKER
[Pointedly] Of course you're not.
Then he clarifies, wryly enough for Starks to catch it.
BECKER
You're just suffering from delusions
that are unfortunately part of your
condition.
STARKS
Don't give me that. I know what's
real, goddamnit! You strapped me in
something and stuck me in a drawer.
BECKER nods diagnostically. The NURSE's nonchalance about it
as she LEAVES the room further disquiets STARKS.
STARKS
I didn't dream it. I may have been
asleep but it wasn't a dream.
BECKER sits down in a CHAIR, half-shrouded in the light.
BECKER
I had a patient a few years ago. His
name was Ted Casey...
STARKS
I don't give a shit about your
patient!
BECKER
I wasn't pausing to see if you did.
[Beat] But, incidentally, you should,
because you're birds of a feather.
STARKS squints as he searches out Becker's face.
BECKER
Ted raped and sodomized a seven-year
old girl. [Beat] His lawyers asked me
to have a look at him because, after
his deeds were done... he climbed
into the trees of the forest where he
killed her and woofed like a dog. He
couldn't even remember his name when
I spoke to him, but, curiously
enough, he could speak back. [Beat]
Ted never went to prison because
everyone -- including me -- was
convinced he was sick. So he came
here.
BECKER leans into Starks' view to make sure he's listening.
STARKS is.
BECKER
Then one day a little girl came with
her mother to visit a relative and I
caught Ted stealing looks at her --
the kind you really have to steal if
you know what I mean. [Beat] I asked
Ted then if he could remember what
the little girl who he had... slain
...was wearing. [Beat] He gave me a
look I'll never forget, and, when he
answered, it wasn't with a color or
any sort of physical description I'd
expect. "Oh yes," he said. "I remember
it. I remember it well." [Beat] Those
were actually his last words I think.
BECKER's expression bears a hunting mixture of anger and
remorse as he recounts Ted's tale.
STARKS
We are not birds of a feather.
BECKER
Maybe not. [Beat] But I do think
you're in a tree... woofing like a
dog. And I'm just trying to help you
the only way I can think of.
BECKER gets up and, as he moves out of the light, STARKS sees
his BANDAGED CHEEK, reinforcing his memory of what
happened...
STARKS [Provokingly]
What happened to your cheek, Dr.
Becker?
BECKER
I was careless. Happens sometimes.
FADE TO:
INT. STARKS' ROOM, RECOVERY WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 1992
STARKS looks out on the SNOW-COVERED GROUNDS from his room on
the third floor. He seems pacified for the moment.
INT. HALLWAY, RECOVERY WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY
Everything about the dingy hospital punctuates the sad
mechanics of managing madness. CATATONIC PATIENTS and dated
equipment litter the hall and, as we follow a NURSE who walks
among them, we spot STARKS -- ARMS suspended in air and GLAZED
EYES fixed on the ceiling -- pretending to be one of them.
His ARMS fall and he wipes his dried MOUTH as soon as she
passes. STARKS has successfully made it out of his room. She
turns one corner as STARKS hustles to turn another...
INT. DAY ROOM, ALPINE GROVE
STARKS is almost there. As RANDOM ORDERLIES pass him, STARKS
lets his posture collapse as he despondently hangs his head
down so low they can't see his face. They pass, and STARKS
starts scuttling towards the door to the outside.
As soon as he reaches it and is outside in the cold -- with
only his BLUE PATIENT UNIFORM -- Starks walks normally, like
he no longer remembers the risks. Instead he remembers what
Jackie told him.
JACKIE [O.S.]
They found William Starks' body dead
in the snow.
STARKS [O.S.]
How'd he die?
JACKIE [O.S.]
I don't know. But he did die.
EXT. GROUNDS, ALPINE GROVE
STARKS leans down -- seemingly oblivious to the cold -- and
lifts some snow to his mouth, TASTING it like a man who needs
to affirm he is still alive. He's so rapt that LORENSON's
VOICE takes him by surprise.
LORENSON
Hey. You're not supposed to be out
here.
STARKS stiffens as he realizes he could be in the place where
his body was found. The terrible question asks itself on his
face: Is this when Starks is killed?
STARKS [Turning around sharply]
What are you going to do to me?
LORENSON
Well...
As LORENSON reaches into his POCKET for something, STARKS
anxiously holds his breath. It's BLACK when it comes out and...
a SKI HAT when it opens up. STARKS lets out his breath,
relieved.
LORENSON [Nonchalantly]
I thought I'd just ask you to come
back inside with me.
STARKS
And if I didn't want to come?
LORENSON
I guess I'd ask you why.
STARKS
Because I don't think I'm crazy.
LORENSON
You're not crazy.
STARKS is surprised by Lorenson's agreement.
LORENSON
You suffer from delusional disorder.
That doesn't mean you're... crazy. It
just means you're confused. And
you're here, instead of in jail,
because that was determined to have
played a role in your killing of a
police officer.
STARKS [Correcting him]
Alleged killing of a police officer.
LORENSON
You were convicted of the crime.
STARKS
That conviction doesn't convince me
of anything. Until I know that I did
it, I'm not going to accept that I
did.
LORENSON
You may never remember at all. [Beat]
Your mind's grasp of reality and the
real events that have happened to you
has been damaged.
STARKS
No. The real events that have
happened to me have been fucked up.
Not my mind.
LORENSON seems to realize -- at least for an instant -- that he
is looking at a desperate man who is persuasively, and
cogently, staring back at him.
STARKS
[Beat] William, I'd like to ask you
something if I can.
STARKS
Since when do people around here have
to ask permission to do anything?
LORENSON [Suspiciously]
How's your treatment progressing with
Dr. Becker?
STARKS still doesn't know how much Lorenson knows, and if he
should trust him.
STARKS
Fine. [Beat] Why made you ask?
LORENSON answers first with his eyes looking over Starks'
body. STARKS merely stares back tersely.
LORENSON [Carefully]
I just hope you'd let me know if that
wasn't the case.
STARKS
Why, what would you do?
STARKS
I could try to...make it stop.
STARKS
No. I don't want it to.
LORENSON
So it's helping?
STARKS [Choosing his words carefully]
[Beat] It's making me feel like a
different person.
LORENSON -- sensing she's not going to get any more from
Starks -- turns around to go back inside. It's only as she
turns her face away from STARKS that we see how nervous she
is. But you'd never guess it from her tone...
LORENSON [Casually]
You comin'?
STARKS looks towards the FENCES locking him in from every
direction. LORENSON waits until she hears STARKS' FOOTSTEPS
following her. She waits until STARKS has reached her.
LORENSON
You should be careful. You could be
killed if they found you out here.
STARKS
Believe me, I know.
INT. PATIENT CAFETERIA, WARD, ALPINE GROVE, 1992
STARKS and MACKENZIE are eating opposite each other.
STARKS
What were you talking about the other
day?
MACKENZIE
I wasn't talking about anything.
STARKS
Yeah, you were. What you said about
them taking me out to the woods...
MACKENZIE clams up slightly at the mention of it...
STARKS
What do you know about the Jacket?
MACKENZIE's eyes start to twitch nervously.
MACKENZIE
I know you need one when it's really
cold.
STARKS
[Cutting in] MacKenzie, listen to me.
Listen. I'm going to die.
MACKENZIE
Mortality's actually a great thing to
be familiar with. It means you're
sane on some level.
STARKS
[Gravely] No, I mean in four days,
I'm supposed to die.
MACKENZIE
[Beat] How do you know?
STARKS
The Jacket.
MACKENZIE grows visibly more nervous at this second mention
of it.
MACKENZIE
Oh no, you're pretty young. Your
body'll be able to handle a lot more
of it than you think...
STARKS
No. [Beat] I mean I found out while I
was in it that my body's gonna be
found in four days.
Just then, NURSE HARDING is upon them. She carries a ROD in
her hand which she TAPS menacingly on the floor as she walks
towards them.
HARDING
What are you two yappin' about?
STARKS tenses up as he sees only the ROD, which could inflict
a GASH if hit across a man's head the right way. Nearly every
object could be a threat to his life as this point.
MACKENZIE [Spoken like a nut]
[Beat] We're talking about our
ability to go forward in time, to go
into the future. [To Starks] That is
what we're talking about here, right?
STARKS is startled MacKenzie gets it.
STARKS
Yeah, it is.
HARDING
You know something? You're two
fucking freaks is what you are.
STARKS [Smiling]
Well, no shit, Einstein. What do you
think we're doing in this place?
MACKENZIE tries not to laugh but a CHUCKLE slips out.
HARDING
I want the two of you to shut the
fuck up and eat your food.
HARDING walks away with a final stare that Starks returns.
STARKS [Under his breath]
I gotta get back in it, MacKenzie.
MACKENZIE
It's gonna be sticky.
STARKS
Why?
MACKENZIE's body betrays his discomfort talking about it in
its sudden jerks accompanying every word.
MACKENZIE
'Cause Lorenson's got her claws in it
now. When she started getting
suspicious about me was when they
stopped using it on me. Women!
STARKS
So what am I supposed to do?
MACKENZIE
You could still always give Becker an
itch. 'Course you might get killed
when he goes to scratch it, but seems
to me you're saying that's about to
happen anyway. [Beat] Just be careful
not to walk yourself right into
something.
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, 1992, DAY
Dr. LORENSON and DR. GRIES are walking briskly to a meeting.
DR. GRIES
We're late.
LORENSON
I wish they'd skip the formality of
this annual review and just cut our
budget. Our silence on the matter
should be enough to appease the civic
conscience without wasting an hour we
don't have.
DR. GRIES
Maybe it's not such a waste.
LORENSON looks at GRIES askance before she sets the record
straight.
LORENSON
It's the ticking of a box on a sheet
of paper no one cares about.
DR. GRIES
They don't care about all the things
we do right. [Beat] But they might
...they might care about what we're
doing wrong. [Beat] That's what they
should come here to look for.
LORENSON can see GRIES is trying to tell her something.
LORENSON
What should they be looking for?
DR. GRIES
They should just be looking harder.
LORENSON grabs GRIES' arm, sensing the import of her words.
LORENSON
Where? [Beat] It's Becker isn't it?
He's doing stuff, isn't he?
DR. GRIES
Later. I'll tell you about it later.
We got a session to catch now.
INT. WARD 3, ALPINE GROVE, 1992, DAY
STARKS is in a different ward with PATIENTS who appear more
threatening and disturbed. As he is anxiously looking around --
presumably for a way out -- Starks hears one of the PATIENTS
humming an eerily DISCORDANT MELODY. Looking to see who it
comes from, STARKS happens to spot ONE PATIENT -- a young,
fierce-looking guy -- eyeing a YOUNG NURSE, SALLY,
administering medication from a dated CART.
STARKS looks around the room and notes there are NO DOCTORS
or ORDERLIES around. The YOUNG NURSE, meanwhile, is focused
on the medicine -- oblivious to the BRUTE eyeing her.
The BRUTE's not that far away when he starts walking towards
the YOUNG NURSE. STARKS starts in their direction, picking up
speed -- maneuvering through VARIOUS INCOHERENT PATIENTS -- as
the BRUTE reaches the NURSE.
He throws her TRAY down and pushes her against the WALL. She
starts screaming as he pushes up against her. STARKS picks up
the TRAY and strikes the BRUTE across the head with it.
The BRUTE holds his head in pain as he tries to regain his
balance. It's clear he's impaired. But it's also clear he
understands pain.
STARKS [To Sally]
You ok?
As she NODS, her EYES dart above to the HAND about to strike
him. Off her look, he ducks and turns around, punching the
BRUTE in the stomach -- HARD -- but not before the piece of GLASS
he held from one of the broken MEDICINE BOTTLES comes
perilously close to STARKS' head.
The BRUTE bowls over and STARKS looks at the GLASS terrified.
Is this when he dies?
The BRUTE -- incensed more than ever -- lunges at him a final time.
STARKS gets him by the NECK, expertly applying PRESSURE
POINTS and, after only a few seconds, subdues him. STARKS
himself seems surprised that he knew how to use them. He lets
out a suspended BREATH, instinctively touching his FOREHEAD
to make sure he's not cut. He looks back at SALLY.
SALLY
Are you ok?
STARKS
Yeah, Why are you in this ward alone?
Where is everyone?
SALLY [Defensively]
There's a state rep visiting so
they've moved everyone around. But
I've been alone before...
STARKS
Where are the other orderlies?
SALLY
In the therapy session downstairs.
That's what the rep's sitting in
on...
STARKS
Ok, listen. I want you to get out of
here and lock the door behind you.
I'll go get some doctors.
SALLY looks at STARKS, wondering whether she can trust him.
Her eyes shift to the BRUTE on the floor and she remembers
that she can.
INT. MAIN ROOM, WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 1992
The STATE REP -- 40s, disgruntled, even drowsy -- is
recognizable among a group that includes the CHIEF OF STAFF
(Dr. Williams), BECKER, LORENSON and GRIES. They are
presiding over a GROUP THERAPY SESSION when STARKS enters...
STARKS [Calling out]
Sorry I'm late, Dr. Becker.
BECKER is noticeably taken aback but tempers his response.
BECKER
Mr. Starks, this session is for our
civil patients. Damon, please take
Mr. Starks back to his ward.
STARKS cuts him off and threatens with his gaze.
STARKS [Derisively]
No. Please, Dr. Becker. You can strap
me in a Jacket or even gag me, but
please don't leave me out of therapy.
This is where I feel like I make the
most progress.
BECKER relents, seeing STARKS has the upper hand -- an
AUDIENCE, deranged but eager no less.
BECKER
Fine, Mr. Starks. You can pull up a
chair for yourself.
As STARKS walks across the room, it's obvious to everyone -- as
they turn their heads to watch him -- that he is a physically
ailing man. Using all his strength, he walks up slowly to the
group, dragging a CHAIR behind him because he doesn't have
the strength to lift it. STARKS sits down.
BECKER
Mr. Jensen, please continue.
JENSEN -- a twitchy schizophrenic -- surveys the group
seriously, determining whether it's safe to say what he's
about to...
JENSEN
Well, [beat] I've been approached by
the Federal Trade Organization.
BECKER's not listening to a word JENSEN says. But STARKS is.
BECKER [Calm as ever]
And what have they approached you
about, Mr. Jensen?
JENSEN
They want me to head the Organization
for the Organized.
The other PATIENTS look at him in wonder as the STATE REP
listens limply.
BECKER
The Organization...for the Organized?
JENSEN
That's right. Have you heard of them?
BECKER
No, Mr. Jensen. I have not.
GROUP PATIENT 2
That's because there is no such
Organization, you idiot.
JENSEN
That is categorically not true. Bl-bl-
blatantly and manifestly NOT TRUE.
I've been asked to lead them. But, if
you'd heard of them, then they
wouldn't be hush-hush, would they?
BECKER [Wearily]
What do the rest of you think?
The GROUP stares at one another silently.
STARKS [Loud and emphatic]
Well, [beat] I know they exist.
BECKER
And how is that?
STARKS looks at JENSEN, who looks back avidly. MACKENZIE eyes
Starks nervously, like he senses what he is about to do.
STARKS
When I was in the Gulf, the
Organization was recruiting the
Organized.
BECKER [Incensed]
Is that a fact, Mr. Starks? Because
if it's not, it doesn't help Mr.
Jensen.
STARKS [Looking right at Jensen]
It is a fact. Bona fide, and
classified.
LORENSON and MACKENZIE watch STARKS curiously.
JENSEN
I knew it! I knew it! Those little
fuckers are everywhere.
STARKS
They recruit only the best, Mr.
Jensen. [Beat] I didn't want to have
to say this...
Not even the DOCTORS dare disrupt the silence...
STARKS
But these people [pointing to the
Doctors] know about it. In fact, when
Presidents of this country and heads
of state leave office, they come
here, to Alpine Grove. They're among
us right now! [Looking right at
Becker] Isn't that right, Dr.
Thatcher? And Jensen, I'm proud they
picked you.
JENSEN looks on nobly.
STARKS
They're always ordering us to stay
calm, but how can we be calm?
STARKS suddenly turns right at Becker, wrapping his message
to him in the seemingly crazed theatrics of a nut.
STARKS
[Looking suddenly directly at Becker]
All they do is give orders. That's
all they have to do. And no one will
ever know. All it comes down to is an
order. [Beat] They've got hands
everywhere.
STARKS stands up, ready to SALUTE Mr. Jensen. The OBSERVERS
look to BECKER for order.
STARKS
Long live the Organization for the
Organized!
BECKER
Sit down, Mr. Starks! Sit down, Mr.
Starks!
But, at that, Jensen's completely lost it. His excitement
erupts in the form of him JUMPING out of his chair and
eagerly and elatedly HITTING HIMSELF in the head.
BECKER
Sit down, Mr. Jensen!
Too late. OTHER PATIENTS are on their feet, HANDS jubilantly
up in the air. And, in the midst of the havoc, the speechless
order is soundly delivered in Becker's NOD to Damon.
RANDOM PATIENTS
Dr. Thatcher! Dr. Becker!
DAMON and HARDING grab STARKS while the other members of the
STAFF slowly calm the other patients. LORENSON is too busy to
notice them taking Starks out. STARKS winks at MACKENZIE, who
smiles somewhat sadly back.
CUT TO:
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT, 1992
HARDING and DAMON stand above Starks, who lies on the brutal
slab, already hemmed in the Jacket.
DAMON
Starks, you're like a mule. You're
real stubborn. But there's ways of
fixin' that. All you need is a good
stick. [Beat] Here's your stick.
DAMON slams him in the drawer.
INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE
STARKS' eyes dart about him; it sounds like something is in
there with him. The sound stops momentarily and, then, out of
nowhere, a DROP falls on his eye. PING! STARKS winces. He
clenches his face, not knowing when the next drop will fall.
His heart starts to beat more and more madly, punctuated by
the DRIPS -- making a score fit only for hell. He closes his
eyes and begins to die...
EXT. CRIME SCENE, HIGHWAY, VERMONT, DUSK, 1992
STARKS and TENNY -- 30s, shifty, a total stranger -- sit in
silence in TENNY'S CAR. (We recognize the murder scene.) RED
POLICE LIGHTS FLASH in the rearview mirror though STARKS
doesn't see them yet.
STARKS and TENNY are talking to one another. TENNY's voice
takes a dangerous tone.
TENNY
You ever been to jail?
STARKS
No.
TENNY nods, distracting STARKS long enough to slip a hand
down his leg to the GUN he's hidden there.
TENNY
It's worse than war. It's worse than
anywhere you've ever been.
STARKS
I doubt it. [Beat] I don't think
prison's so bad you don't want to
remember it...
TENNY carefully pulls over to the side of the road, assured
and cautious with each word, each move.
TENNY
Well, I've never been to war, but I'm
sure as hell not going back to
prison.
STARKS [Finally spotting Harrison]
What's he pulling us over for?
TENNY [Still preparing himself]
Recreation.
OFFICER HARRISON walks up to their car.
OFFICER HARRISON
Gentlemen, I'm gonna need you to step
out of the car, with your hands at
your side please.
STARKS
Why?
OFFICER HARRISON [Sternly]
Step out of the car.
STARKS
Ok, sir. I was just asking what for.
OFFICER HARRISON
This is a stolen vehicle you're
driving. Now put your hands in the
air, out where I can see 'em.
That's the second when OFFICER HARRISON sees where TENNY'S
HAND is. As he reaches for his own GUN, the situation
explodes as TWO FLASHES eclipse all else. OFFICER HARRISON
goes down, still holding his own GUN and STARKS jumps out of
the car to check on him.
STARKS
Jesus Christ, what'd you do that for?
TENNY looks around, still holding the GUN. Starks swallows,
assessing whether to back away or not. TENNY waves his gun as
he half points it in Harrison's direction. Then, GUN still in
hand, he smirks nervously and looks at STARKS.
TENNY
Man, if you're so deaf and dumb, you
ain't even worth a fucking bullet.
TENNY raises the gun, then aims it away from STARKS and
shoots OFFICER HARRISON once more. From the ground, OFFICER
HARRISON fires back and STARKS, now lunging at Tenny, TAKES
THE HIT.
STARKS falls, clearly unable to get up, let alone pursue
anyone. TENNY smiles sardonically and slowly puts the GUN in
his back pocket as he turns to leave. This SMILE was one of
the eerie FLASHES that haunted Starks in the JACKET...
STARKS struggles but can't move. That's when he passes out,
looking at OFFICER HARRISON from the ground, as he did in the
scene before.
INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE
STARKS stands in the lighted tunnel, which only gets brighter
as his heart races with fear in the first seconds that he's
back in there. Then he sees an IMAGE of a WOMAN'S FOREHEAD
that lulls him to a calm until his heart slows and the LIGHT
gradually dims...
FADE TO BLACK.
INT. DINER, SMALL TOWN VERMONT, 2004
STARKS enters the diner, calming down even more as he spots
JACKIE. She looks up, holding PLATES in her hand. She's
understandably surprised and unexpectedly pleased when she
sees him. She greets him with a small smile.
She drops off her orders and then walks up to him.
JACKIE
I'll be off in 15 minutes. Can you
wait till then?
EXT. RAVINE, VERMONT, DAY, 2004
STARKS and JACKIE smoke in the cold, standing next to the
hood of her car.
JACKIE
The Jacket. That's what they call it,
right?
STARKS
Yeah.
JACKIE
It was banned, you know... and it led
to an investigation of Dr. Becker's
mistreatment of some of his patients.
That's when they found out how badly
he was drugging his patients...
STARKS [Starting to make sense]
So he was giving me all kinds of
drugs...
JACKIE [Nodding]
Apparently. He was taking a lot of
them, too. It said he was trying out
behavior modification treatments that
were banned back in the 70s -- "womb
treatment" is the name he gave to
what he did to you...
STARKS [Cutting in]
Womb? A fuckin' womb? What kind of
animal did he come out of?
JACKIE
But no one knew until after...
STARKS
After I...
JACKIE nods.
JACKIE
[Beat] You bled to death.
STARKS
What?
JACKIE
I don't know how you got the cut to
your head, but you died bleeding from
it.
STARKS [Digesting]
And you're sure my body was found on
January 1st?
JACKIE nods.
STARKS
Do you really believe me?
JACKIE
I don't know. [Beat] I thought I was
crazy after you left that day. I died.
I still think I could be crazy. But
then I replayed that night in my head --
the parts of it I could remember --
and it was like...I don't care if I
was, or am. I haven't felt that way
in a room with someone my whole life.
[Beat] And when you left, all I
wanted was...
JACKIE looks around her; coupled with the cold, her sobriety
is obvious. STARKS takes hold of her and holds her face close
to his so that their foreheads touch.
JACKIE
[Softly] I want to trust you. Should
I trust you?
STARKS
Yes.
JACKIE
Then we need to figure out what
happened to you. It's the only thing
we can do.
STARKS
I know.
JACKIE
Alpine Grove still exists. I looked
it up on the net. We should go there
and see if there's still anyone
around who might have known what
happened to you.
STARKS
If they don't take me out before
then. [As an afterthought] What's the
net?
JACKIE looks at him and laughs.
INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY
They are driving through VERMONT to ALPINE GROVE. STARKS
looks out the window and watches her drive.
STARKS
I didn't kill Officer Harrison.
JACKIE
I know.
STARKS
How? Did they figure it out after I
died?
JACKIE
No. They never figured it out. I did.
Most murderers don't stop to help a
drunk woman and her little girl on
the side of the road. Not without
hurting them.
INT. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, 2004
STARKS and JACKIE sit opposite DR. MORGAN, the current young
face of the hospital. MORGAN has a boyish face and a matching
gullibility.
DR. MORGAN
I'm sorry I can't tell you more about
your father's death, Mr. Starks. Our
own medical examiners determined only
that he died from a blunt trauma to
the head but that was right around
the time the Alpine Grove's staff
changed and I'm afraid we didn't have
the best record system before then.
STARKS
His body was found on January 1,
1993, but do you know if that was
long after he had died?
DR. MORGAN
No, I don't. I'm sorry. I wish I knew
more.
STARKS
What about Dr. Thomas Becker or Dr.
Loel Lorenson? There was also a Dr.
Gries, I think.
DR. MORGAN
Well, Dr. Lorenson is still here at
the hospital. If she was here at the
time your father was, then I'm sure
she'd be of more help to you.
STARKS
What about Dr. Becker and Mr. Gries?
DR. MORGAN
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with
Dr. Becker and Dr. Gries passed away
three, four years ago.
JACKIE
Do you have any kind of forwarding
address for Dr. Becker?
DR. MORGAN
Your father was here 12 years ago. I
doubt the hospital would have that,
if Dr. Becker is still even alive.
[Beat, a little suspiciously] Is
there a particular reason you need
to know how your father died?
STARKS doesn't waver when he answers.
STARKS
He was the only family I remember.
DR. MORGAN [Nodding]
I'll see what I can find out about
Dr. Becker. And maybe Dr. Lorenson
will know something.
INT. WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 2004
Dr. MORGAN leads JACKIE and STARKS through a ward. STARKS
looks around in disbelief; it's more like a hospital now than
it ever was in 1993.
INT. RECEPTION AREA, LORENSON'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, 2004
As they arrive outside Lorenson's office, MORGAN turns to
them.
DR. MORGAN
Let me just tell her we're here.
DR. MORGAN goes inside and JACKIE takes STARKS' HAND as they
wait. It's hardly more than a couple seconds when LORENSON
appears in the doorway. She looks at STARKS curiously and the
two share a very lengthy, intense STARE.
DR. LORENSON -- now in her 50s -- walks closer to Starks
suspiciously. For his part, STARKS doesn't look as unfamiliar
with Lorenson as he should; this doesn't escape Lorenson.
LORENSON
Hello. I'm Beth Lorenson.
She puts out a hand that is trembling slightly.
LORENSON
It's nice to meet you, Mr. Starks...
STARKS hesitates before he takes Lorenson's hand. There is
something very eerie about the exchange. STARKS quickly lets
go and LORENSON turns to JACKIE...
LORENSON
And you are...?
JACKIE looks back uncomfortably.
JACKIE
I'm just William's friend.
LORENSON looks over both of them acutely and then calmly
turns to Dr. Morgan.
LORENSON
I think we'll be fine from here.
Thanks, Stanley.
INT. LORENSON'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, 2004
LORENSON leans against her desk while STARKS and JACKIE sit
in the chairs. As they talk, each seems cautious in his
exchange -- not knowing what the other one does or doesn't
know.
LORENSON
My God you look exactly like him.
STARKS
I never knew my father. Did you?
LORENSON
Yeah, I did. [Beat] He was my most
memorable patient.
STARKS
Why?
LORENSON considers her answer.
LORENSON
At the end, he made me change my mind
about a lot of things.
STARKS
You thought my father was crazy?
STARKS
No. I don't think he was crazy. He
needed help...but he wasn't crazy.
[Beat] Your father actually helped me
with a case of mine.
LORENSON waits to see if STARKS knows what she is talking
about.
STARKS
What case?
LORENSON
I was working with a boy named
Eugene.
STARKS shows no recognition but JACKIE does.
JACKIE
Who was Eugene?
LORENSON [Peaked]
He was a friend's son. [Beat] Are you
familiar with the case?
JACKIE
Just a little, when we were looking
up information about William's
father. How did he help?
LORENSON
It's complicated, but [looking at
Starks] in a way, your father let me
know how I'd get through to him.
JACKIE
How?
LORENSON
He just said...that I'd shock Eugene
and then things would change for him.
JACKIE
I don't understand.
LORENSON
I still don't either, even after all
these years.
STARKS
Do you know how my father died?
LORENSON [Unconvincingly]
I don't know how much I remember but
I seem to think it was from a... cut or
blow of some sort or another.
STARKS
How'd he get it?
STARKS
[Beat] I don't know.
STARKS
But Dr. Morgan said you were around
when my father was...
LORENSON
I was. But I saw a lot of cuts and a
lot of blows. I'm sorry I don't know
more about your father's. [Sincerely]
I didn't know about everything that
went on here.
LORENSON says it like she's hiding something.
STARKS
Well, do you think Dr. Becker would
have any idea?
LORENSON
How do you know about Dr. Becker?
STARKS
My dad wrote some things down before
he died.
LORENSON looks like she's suddenly remembering something.
LORENSON
That's right. He did.
STARKS looks at Lorenson curiously; he doesn't know what
Lorenson is talking about.
LORENSON
So maybe Dr. Becker would know.
[Beat] But, as I'm sure you know, the
statute of limitations has run out
for charging the hospital with any
liabilities.
STARKS
Why would we do that?
STARKS just stares at LORENSON, not knowing if he died by
this man's hands or not, not knowing who he can trust...
JACKIE
Because Becker resigned after the
charges brought against him by State
Patient Advocacy Groups.
LORENSON
I see you've done your homework.
[Beat] Alpine Grove's undergone a lot
of changes since then. At the time,
we didn't have the...resources to
help our patients the way we needed
to. [Beat] Now, we do. And things are
different.
STARKS
I wouldn't be so sure. Like you said
about back then, you might not know
everything going on around here.
DR. LORENSON looks right at STARKS.
LORENSON
It's important for you to know who
your father was, isn't it?
STARKS
[Beat] Yeah, it is.
LORENSON [Eerily]
It's almost as if your life depended
on it. Isn't it?
STARKS
Exactly.
LORENSON
Well... [beat] let me know how your
search turns out.
STARKS
[Beat] We will.
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY
STARKS and JACKIE walk briskly down it, away from Lorenson's
office.
STARKS
I don't believe a thing she just
said.
JACKIE
Me neither. Who was the boy she was
talking about, Eugene?
STARKS
I have no idea.
JACKIE
You think Lorenson kills you?
STARKS
Maybe. I don't know. Seems more
likely Becker does, but at the very
least she knows how I died.
JACKIE
Let's see if they have an address for
Becker. I also want to figure out
more about the kid you helped her
with.
STARKS
Why?
JACKIE
Because that's the part I believe is
true. You probably did help her
somehow with the boy and Eugene's
name did come up over and over again
on the abstracts I pulled.
STARKS nods.
STARKS
[Beat] There's one more thing I want
to see.
INT. CORRIDOR [LEADING TO BASEMENT], ALPINE GROVE, 2004
STARKS, determined, now leads JACKIE. As they reach the end
of the hall, we see DAMON -- now in his 50s -- look after them
curiously before he goes back to his work with a PATIENT.
INT. BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, 2004
JACKIE watches STARKS ignore the "Authorized Personnel Only"
SIGN as he pushes the door open without so much as a pause.
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, 2004
The morgue looks exactly as before.
STARKS is momentarily jarred in the room. He looks to the
wall on which the JACKET hung and sees only the BARE HOOKS
that used to hold it up.
STARKS
This was the room. They used to hang
the Jacket there. [Turning to Jackie]
This is where it happened. This is
the room I'm actually in right now.
JACKIE isn't doubtful, but it's also hard to be
convinced...
STARKS
I can show you. It's probably in
there.
STARKS walks to the CADAVER DRAWERS and rests his hands on
the one they put him in. Then, with great difficulty --
physical and emotional -- he opens it to see if there is
anything left.
He pulls it out, and there's nothing in there.
JACKIE
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...
STARKS leans closer, locating all the proof he needs: the
stained metal -- still reddened and browned with DRIED BLOOD --
and the part of the morgue slab he CLAWED his NAILS into when
he was in it. JACKIE looks at it in disbelief.
STARKS
Yes, it was. [Softly] My fingers were
the only things I could move. [Beat]
Dead bodies don't bleed. And they
certainly can't claw so hard they
dent metal.
INT. HALLWAY, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE
STARKS and JACKIE are leaving the MORGUE, when STARKS spots
DAMON, now hardly a hair of the bully he was before. DAMON
stares at him curiously; STARKS glares back furiously.
DAMON
You folks ain't supposed to be down
here.
JACKIE
We were just leaving.
DAMON doesn't take his eyes off Starks.
DAMON
Do I know you from somewhere?
STARKS
You may have known my father, William
Starks.
DAMON smiles, remembering...
DAMON
That's right! Goddamn, you're the
spitting image. I didn't know he had
a son.
STARKS
He didn't either.
DAMON [With a dirty laugh]
I'll be damned. He musta been 12 when
he had you. [Beat] You could be his
ghost.
STARKS
Did you know my father?
DAMON
Oh yeah, sure. He killed a cop,
right?
STARKS looms strangely over DAMON in this exchange.
STARKS
You wouldn't happen to know how he
died, would you?
DAMON [Slightly apprehensive]
No, I don't. I just remember them
finding his body.
STARKS
You don't know any more, Damon?
DAMON [Shocked]
How'd you know my name?
STARKS
My father used to talk about you.
DAMON
Oh yeah, what'd he say?
Damon's eyes betray his unease.
STARKS
He said you were a sadistic fuck that
belonged in jail.
DAMON is shocked, and cowed. So much that he shakes as he
looks for his bearings.
DAMON
Look here, I don't like you getting
in my face and saying this bullshit
to me...
STARKS
That's too bad.
DAMON
I thought you said you never knew
your father.
STARKS
I didn't. [Beat] Did you have
anything to do with his death?
DAMON
I don't know what you're talking
about, man. I swear. This is some
weird shit you're telling me... and I
don't know how come you're doing it.
STARKS starts to see a shaking man who stands confused and
distraught before him.
STARKS
He died because he bled to death from
a blow to his head. Someone had to
have given him it.
DAMON
I never touched your father! I swear!
Damon's eyes are filled with dishonesty, tears and a craven
FEAR. STARKS leans in closer to DAMON as he remembers...
STARKS
You know something, Damon? You're
like a mule. You're real stubborn.
But there's ways of fixin' that. All
you need is a good stick. [Beat]
Here's your stick. Live with it.
STARKS looks like he could easily bash Damon's head against
the wall, but instead he lets it go and walks away.
EXT. CEMETERY, ALPINE GROVE GROUNDS, 2004, DAY
STARKS is standing above his own headstone: WILLIAM STARKS,
December 25, 1967 - January 1, 1993. Next to his grave is that
of RUDY MACKENZIE. STARKS looks down sadly at both. JACKIE
comes up behind him.
JACKIE
How long do we have?
STARKS
I don't know.
JACKIE
They told me Becker's in Shelbourne
now. I looked him up and he was
listed.
STARKS looks scared and lost -- like it's all catching up to
him. And like he might be being taken out of the Jacket.
STARKS
How far away is that?
PAGE MISSING
JACKIE kisses his SCARS -- from the war and the Jacket -- and
STARKS lifts her higher so he can look at her as they make
love for the first time.
INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT
JACKIE is lying in STARKS' arms, running her FINGERS over one
of the SCARS on his chest. STARKS strokes her hair.
JACKIE
What about Captain Medley? He never
told them what happened to you over
there. His testimony...that coward
wanted them to think you were crazy.
STARKS
I know. It was perfect. [Beat] Erase
my sanity and you erase anything I'll
ever say.
JACKIE [Frustrated]
Well, doesn't what he did to you make
you mad?
STARKS
Of course it makes me mad. It makes
me more than mad. Just like
remembering the face of the man who
killed that officer and knowing
nothing more about him. But what's it
gonna do for me to find them now? I
can't fix everything in three days.
JACKIE
You've got to get yourself out of
that place. They're going to kill you
if you don't.
STARKS
I might not be able to.
JACKIE
It's not a prison, it's a hospital.
There's got to be some way out of
there and you've got to find it...
She doesn't finish because it's too hard to. STARKS nods,
wiping her tears and kissing her.
FADE TO:
INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT, 2004
The sore sound of the DRAWER being opened stirs Jackie --
awakening her as if she heard it in her sleep. She reaches
across the bed, but STARKS is no longer there. She runs her
hands over the bed like he's alive in the sheets.
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992
DR. LORENSON is administering medicine to a patient in the
ward, when she sees -- almost like a shadow -- a STRETCHER
being wheeled down the hall. She finishes with the patient
and runs to the end of the hall in search of it...
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT, 1992
STARKS lies recovering under a small light above his hospital
bed. His body bears marks of the brutalization. As we pull
back, we see DR. LORENSON standing guard over him at the foot
of his bed.
EXT. WARD, ICU, ALPINE GROVE, NEXT MORNING
STARKS sits by a window -- I.V.'s in his arm -- smoking feebly,
still severely weak from the Jacket, while DR. LORENSON
observes him for a bit from the hall before she goes inside.
LORENSON
You'll die if you keep smoking those
in your condition.
STARKS
I'll die either way.
LORENSON pulls up a chair and sits opposite him.
LORENSON
I can't try to help you unless you
let me. [Beat] I know about the
Jacket.
STARKS waits to see what this means.
LORENSON
I'm sorry for what you were put
through, and I'm sorry I couldn't
stop it earlier. But I promise you
that I will from now on...
STARKS [Cutting him off]
I don't want you to.
LORENSON doesn't understand.
LORENSON
What do you mean?
STARKS
You have no idea what's going on.
LORENSON
No, I do. That's what I'm saying to
you.
STARKS
Listen to me! You don't! The Jacket
is my only chance in this place.
LORENSON just thinks it's another delusion.
LORENSON
How can you say that in your physical
condition? Do you realize that it's
because you were put in it that
you're as...weak as you are now?
Becker's a man who's not well
himself.
STARKS searches for words that won't sound as crazy as he
knows he appears. They don't exist.
STARKS
You don't understand.
LORENSON
Then help me understand. You know,
you're not alone. A lot of Gulf Vets
have begun to experience curious
symptoms. What you have might well be
a syndrome and, if so, it's not one
we know enough about to be treating
it this vigorously.
STARKS
This has nothing to do with that.
LORENSON [Exasperated]
Then what? What? [Beat] I can't guess
it. You have to help me.
STARKS fixes his eyes on Lorenson. He has nothing to lose but
still he treads carefully. The words that follow come almost
unwittingly.
STARKS
...What you do not know is the only
thing you know.
(MORE)
STARKS (cont'd)
[Beat] And what you own is what you
do not own...
And where you are is where you are
not.
LORENSON
[Beat] Where is that from?
It's as though STARKS hears his words for the first time.
STARKS
I don't know. [Frustrated] Remember?
STARKS
Come on. Tell me what you do know.
STARKS
[Beat] I've seen a time that's not
this time. And I'm only able to see
it when I'm in the Jacket.
LORENSON
Well, what time is it?
STARKS
2004.
LORENSON nods, trying to mask his dismay but failing.
STARKS
You don't believe me.
LORENSON [Testing him]
Well, what year do you think it is
now?
STARKS [Exasperated]
I'm not delusional. I know it's 1992.
Same as every sane person.
LORENSON
Ok fine. Tell me about it. Tell me
about the future. 2004. What does it
look like?
STARKS
It doesn't look all that different.
LORENSON
The future doesn't look different?
STARKS
No. Not for people like me. [Beat]
Not in the places I come from.
LORENSON
What about the world?
STARKS
I didn't see that much of it -- same
as now. I only saw it as part of my
own life.
LORENSON looks at STARKS, unintentionally patronizing.
LORENSON
Do you think you're traveling in
time? Is that it?
STARKS shakes his head and momentarily challenges Lorenson
simply with his air of calm resolve.
STARKS
Not everyone in here is crazy, Doc.
LORENSON searches for another approach.
LORENSON
[Beat] Like who? Like MacKenzie
maybe?
STARKS
Maybe.
LORENSON [Matter-of-factly]
Did he tell you he tried to kill his
wife?
STARKS nods.
LORENSON
MacKenzie locked himself up in his
house for two months and nearly
starved himself to death before he
was brought here. All because his
wife left him for another man.
STARKS moves to put his cigarette out and his I.V. almost
falls out of his arm. LORENSON makes a move to adjust it and
STARKS flinches perceptibly, startling LORENSON.
STARKS [Adjusting it himself]
Maybe that just makes him weak, not
crazy. Or maybe he is crazy. [Beat]
Still doesn't make me think I am.
(MORE)
STARKS [Adjusting it himself]
And, judging by the fact that you
just told me about another patient,
it doesn't even make you think I am,
so what don't you work on persuading
yourself first.
LORENSON
Why don't you help me?
STARKS
Because I don't have time.
LORENSON
Why not?
STARKS
I'm about to die unless I do
something to stop it.
LORENSON
And how do you know that?
STARKS
Because of the future. I know what's
going to happen.
LORENSON
William, that is just another facet
of my delusions.
Then, STARKS remembers the only thing that might help him. He
pauses, trying to recall as much of it as he can.
STARKS
And what about your work with Eugene --
the kid? Is that another facet of my
delusions?
LORENSON -- having prepared to continue -- is bowled over at
the mention of her patient. She loses all color and calm in
her features.
LORENSON
How do you know about Eugene?
STARKS
You told me about him. I saw you and
I think you thought I knew something
about him. So you told me.
LORENSON doesn't know what to say.
LORENSON [Somewhat angrily]
How do you know about Eugene!?
STARKS [Shaking his head in disbelief]
You told me. It's like two parts of
you talking through me. Look, judging
from your reaction, there's no other
way I could know about him.
LORENSON
There obviously is, so what don't you
just tell me how you found out about
him.
STARKS looks at her convincingly.
STARKS
Some part of you suspects -- even if
you don't know for sure -- that what
I'm saying is true.
LORENSON
I don't know how you know about
Eugene, but these ideas are part of
your delusions.
STARKS
NO! They're not my delusions! Look,
just leave my business with Becker to
me!
LORENSO
One thing's got nothing to do with
the other.
STARKS
One's got everything to do with the
other. So unless you want my blood on
your hands...leave what's between me
and Becker between me and Becker.
LORENSON backs off, jarred by Starks' assertions and fearful
of his debilitating vehemence.
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 1992
MACKENZIE sits idly on one of the hallway benches until the
hallway is clear of the STAFF. Then he scuttles quickly -- all
the time close to the wall -- to Starks' room.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 1992
MACKENZIE gets inside, ducks as a NURSE passes and then taps
lightly on the wall, announcing himself gladly.
MACKENZIE
Hey, I brought you some smokes.
STARKS doesn't waste any time.
STARKS
Lorenson said your wife left you for
another man and that's when you lost
it.
MACKENZIE almost imperceptibly winces -- confirming the truth
for Starks -- before he has to sit down.
MACKENZIE
Geez, how's that for a fucking "thank
you"?
STARKS
Is it true?
MACKENZIE tosses him the CIGARETTES and lights himself one.
MACKENZIE
She left me, I tried to kill her, I
tried to kill myself. She was mean, I
was weak, I was cruel so she left, I
didn't plan it, didn't see it...FINE!
MACKENZIE suddenly stops, distraught. When he resumes, it's
in an oddly more normal tone than he's ever used before.
MACKENZIE [Softly]
I didn't want to see it. I'm in here
because they say I have a nervous
condition. [Beat] Well, here's my
question, who wouldn't be nervous if
they really looked at their life?
[Beat] Whose life is that good?
STARKS doesn't have an answer.
MACKENZIE
Not this luckless little mammal's.
What difference is it to them? [Beat,
slows down] You believe what you want
to believe. One version is easier
than another so you make it your own.
As MacKenzie runs his hand over his forehead, he looks hurt,
and sad, but strangely not a bit crazy.
MACKENZIE
I'll tell you this though. However
nuts I am, I wasn't nuts enough not
to know how wrong it was to put a
human being in something like that.
MACKENZIE's twitching continues as he recollects it.
STARKS
MacKenzie, [beat] what if we are
crazy?
MACKENZIE
[Shrugging] What if we are? There're
crazier things than thinking up
fictions for yourself. [Beat]
Everyone does it, don't they? Even
Becker. That roller coaster car pops
more pills than all of Ward 3.
STARKS
Becker does? Are you sure?
MACKENZIE
I've been here for 11 years. It's my
neighborhood. 'Course I'm sure. He's
as drugged up as the rest of us...I
guess he has to be to put up with all
this.
STARKS nods and MacKenzie puts his head down, suddenly
vulnerable and embarrassed. STARKS lights TWO CIGARETTES.
STARKS
Thanks for the cigarettes. You
still got a lot of problems,
MacKenzie, but you're ok.
MACKENZIE and STARKS smoke together quietly.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, DECEMBER 29th, 1992
STARKS is trying to see if the windows open through the bars
covering them. It's especially hard with the I.V. still
connected to one of his arms.
BECKER
At least it's some kind of bars we've
got you behind.
STARKS turns, startled.
BECKER
Hello, William. I understand you've
been asking for me almost every hour.
I would've been here sooner but you
gave our little state visitor quite a
bit to talk to me about.
STARKS
That's too bad.
BECKER
It is. But when it comes down to it,
you just have to patient with them.
They'd rather have their vacation,
too, so they just push dealing with
our "practices" off to the New Year.
STARKS
They make it hard for you to get away
with your business, huh?
BECKER
Temporarily.
STARKS lights a cigarette and, with that gesture, adopts the
unscrupulousness of a criminal so convincingly it bears
little resemblance to his usual demeanor.
STARKS
Makes it a little easier for me to
get away with mine.
BECKER looks at STARKS seriously.
BECKER
And what's that?
STARKS
My business?
BECKER
Yes.
STARKS
Getting away with things. Like
whatever I may or may not have gotten
away with Officer Harrison.
BECKER
You killed him?
STARKS simply delivers one slow nod.
STARKS
And wound up in a better cage. [Beat]
But I still want to make a deal.
BECKER looks understandably disgusted and STARKS proceeds
with the calculation of someone who is guilty.
STARKS
See, the deluxe lab animal treatment
I've been receiving -- well, I don't
think it's worked. I woke up today
and realized... [eerily lowering his
voice] ...I don't think I'm cured. So
really, what was the point? Torture?
I think that's still sort of illegal
in some states -- though we'll have to
check on Vermont. And, how's this for
the cherry on top: it seems my
physician is a pill-popping freak.
[Beat] Last time I checked, that
makes some pretty good copy for a lot
of these news shows. [Humbly, deftly]
"I don't remember everything they did
to me. I just remember the worst
parts." I think I should be sitting
down when I say it, don't you think?
It takes BECKER some seconds to swallow this.
BECKER
I think...I have to think about it.
BECKER cocks his head to one side as he does. Then he slowly
makes his way over to STARKS and leans in closer to him.
STARKS instinctively raises his hand to his HEAD -- prepared
to be defensive if he has to be. If this is the moment when
he's killed.
But BECKER only YANKS the I.V. angrily out of Starks' arm,
tearing his skin with it.
BECKER
I think your story needs a little
fleshing out before it's ready to go.
BECKER turns to leave as STARKS bleeds onto the floor.
BECKER
I'll say a prayer for you in Church
today, Starks. Maybe the Gods can
pick up where the medicine left off.
STARKS
You sure you know where to find one?
BECKER
I've managed to every Sunday of my
life. [Beat] Some of us are God-
fearing men, Starks.
STARKS
And what does that mean?
BECKER
Means we believe in doing his work
and fear what the world would be like
if we didn't at least try to.
STARKS smirks at the hypocrisy he sees.
STARKS
Becker, how do you sleep at night?
BECKER
You in here. [Beat] Works like a
drug.
BECKER leaves without looking back and STARKS closes his
eyes, breathing a sigh of relief that it's over.
INT. NURSE STATION, ALPINE GROVE, 1992, EVENING
LORENSON, dressed to leave, stops to talk to NINA, one of the
evening nurses.
LORENSON
Nina, William Starks is to stay in
ICU all night. If anything is
supposed to change, I want to be
called about it.
NINA
Sure, Dr. Lorenson.
INT. LORENSON'S HOME, VERMONT, 1992
LORENSON comes home to an unremarkable apartment to find a
thin, young mother, TALIA YAZDI, and her eleven year-old
mute, and seemingly retarded son, EUGENE, waiting for her
outside her door.
STARKS
Hi. [Beat] Sorry I'm late.
TALIA
It's ok. [To Eugene] Hi, Eugene.
EUGENE returns her greeting with a blank stare.
INT. LORENSON'S HOME, VERMONT, SOME TIME LATER
LORENSON sets her things down on the kitchen table as TALIA
starts to tidy things around the apartment.
LORENSON
Talia, I need to ask you something.
TALIA looks at LORENSON.
TALIA
What is it?
LORENSON
Have you told anyone about my
sessions with Eugene?
TALIA [With an accent]
Of course not. [Off Lorenson's still
doubtful look] I swear I haven't. I
wouldn't do that to Eugene, or you.
You know that.
LORENSON
Has anyone been asking about him?
TALIA
No. I would have told you.
LORENSON nods. She believes her.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992
STARKS spots DAMON standing cautiously in the hall.
INT. NURSE STATION, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992
We see (but don't hear) HARDING speak to NINA as DAMON slips
into STARKS' ROOM. NINA seems sufficiently distracted.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, SECONDS LATER
DAMON flashes a KNIFE at STARKS.
DAMON
No funny business or we can make this
a lot fucking harder for you.
One look at the KNIFE and the SAME QUESTION burns once more...
STARKS
[Weakly] No funny business.
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992
DAMON hustles Starks down the hall as fast as they can before
the NURSE or any other staff member spots them.
INT. OFFICE/LIBRARY, LORENSON'S HOME, NIGHT
EUGENE sits opposite LORENSON, who quietly observes him,
jotting some notes down on her pad. She is intermittently
holding up PICTURES for Eugene, asking him to repeat their
names as if she were teaching him to read.
LORENSON
Eugene, this is a "TRAIN."
EUGENE starts to pronounce the word when abruptly, and
without any warning, he looks like he's unconscious, only
with a blank stare. Lorenson quickly moves beside Eugene and
watches him from up close, apparently not altogether
surprised at what's happening.
EUGENE doesn't even blink. The only sounds we hear from him
are a couple, barely audible guttural noises. LORENSON --
exhausted -- takes off her glasses wearily and gently
addresses the boy.
LORENSON
Come on back down here. Wherever you
are...try to come on back. You'll
like it, I promise.
Just then, TALIA walks in with TEA, JUICE and COOKIES for
Eugene and Lorenson. She spots her son in his absent, staring
state and forces her face into a small, sad smile to avoid
tears as she sets the tray down and the cookies before them.
TALIA gently touches LORENSON'S hand. LORENSON looks at her
warmly. TALIA knows how hard she's trying.
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992
BECKER soundlessly watches as HARDING and DAMON finish
strapping Starks in the Jacket.
DAMON slams the DRAWER shut, sending STARKS back in.
INT. JACKET/TUNNEL
What STARKS lacks in strength, he counteracts with his
OVERWHELMING WILL. The SCREEN TREMBLES with it. One TERRIFIC,
WHITE LIGHT and we...
CUT TO:
INT. JACKIE'S CAR, SHELBOURNE, VERMONT, 2004, DAY
STARKS sits by himself in Jackie's car, parked in a gas
station. He looks around, trying to make sure it really is
her car. He looks in the back and sees a pair of sneakers and
an empty BOTTLE of VODKA.
He looks outside and sees a few people walking into the FOOD
MART of the gas station. He trembles with cold as he looks
down at his plaid shirt.
Then, JACKIE unexpectedly appears outside the DRIVER'S WINDOW
opening the car door and nearly spilling her COFFEE when she
spots STARKS next to her.
Seeing it's him though, she smiles warmly.
JACKIE
You just scared me, that's all.
She leans over to him and gives him a kiss, handing him the
coffee.
STARKS
Me, too.
JACKIE
Here, drink this. I'll get the heat
going.
EXT. MAIN STREET, SHELBOURNE, VERMONT, 2004
JACKIE speeds through the streets of Shelbourne, presumably
on their way to Becker's house.
EXT. BECKER'S NEIGHBORHOOD, SHELBOURNE, VERMONT, 2004
They've slowed down a little.
INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY
JACKIE reads from some directions on a PAPER as their CAR
slows down on one particular street, towards one particular
house.
EXT. BECKER'S HOUSE, SHELBOURNE, 2004, DAY
JACKIE [O.S.]
I think this is his house.
INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY
STARKS looks at the house, bedecked with a lopsided SNOW MAN
on the front lawn.
STARKS
You're sure?
JACKIE
Yeah. I called the number yesterday
to make sure. Thomas Becker, retired
M.D.
STARKS gets out of the car.
EXT. BECKER'S HOUSE, SHELBOURNE, 2004, DAY
STARKS knocks on the door. No answer.
EXT. BECKER'S HOUSE, SHELBOURNE, 2004, DAY
JACKIE tries to look through the windows to see if anyone's
there. No one is. It looks small and dark inside.
EXT. BECKER'S HOUSE, SHELBOURNE, 2004, DAY
STARKS knocks again, looking down anxiously at his feet.
JACKIE walks up to him from around the side of the house.
They don't have the time to wait.
JACKIE
They're not here.
STARKS
They're not.
JACKIE
[Beat, lost] No.
JACKIE notices how COLD Starks looks.
JACKIE
Maybe they're out.
STARKS nods.
INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY
STARKS rubs his hands together as he looks out the windows
and sees NO CARS or PEOPLE on the street. JACKIE watches him
despairingly.
JACKIE
How much time do we have?
STARKS [Distracted]
I don't know.
JACKIE
What? What are you thinking?
STARKS
There're no cars on this street.
JACKIE looks around; there really aren't.
JACKIE
Yeah, you're right. But wait, how can
that be?
STARKS turns to JACKIE, thinking.
STARKS
I don't know. Maybe that's because
this whole thing is a dream. How can
you have a street with no cars on it?
JACKIE
I don't know. But this isn't a dream.
I'm real, and so is where we are.
STARKS
Then why isn't there anyone around?
JACKIE
[Beat] I don't know.
STARKS runs his hand over his head and closes his eyes in
desperation.
JACKIE
What are you doing?
STARKS doesn't answer.
JACKIE
William! William!
STARKS opens his eyes. She sighs in relief.
JACKIE
Maybe he's gone somewhere. He'll have
to come back.
STARKS starts to shake his head in disbelief, when suddenly,
he realizes...
STARKS
Of course he will. [Beat] What day of
the week is it?
JACKIE
It's Sunday.
STARKS [Nodding]
It's Sunday.
JACKIE
So?
STARKS looks ecstatic with hope.
STARKS
Look where these people live.
A small, beautiful, removed place.
STARKS
They've got lives to be grateful for.
JACKIE
William, you're not making sense.
STARKS
[Beat] They're at Church. And I bet
that's where Becker is.
EXT. STREETS, SHELBOURNE
JACKIE and STARKS head back to the only MAIN STREET in the
town. As they approach the town church, they start to see a
ROW of cars parallel-parked on the street.
JACKIE pulls up to the entrance of the CHURCH.
INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY
STARKS watches JACKIE get out of the car and walk up to the
doors of the CHURCH.
EXT. CHURCH, SHELBOURNE, 2004
JACKIE boldly opens the CHURCH door.
INT. CHURCH, SHELBOURNE, 2004
JACKIE sees the town seated in the Church. The PRIEST looks
up at her briefly and some people turn around, but she closes
the DOOR before she causes a major interruption.
INT. CHURCH, SHELBOURNE, 2004
We move to the third or fourth row, where, from behind, we
see a head of GREY HAIR. He slowly turns around, casting a
look towards the door and revealing a glimpse of his face.
Though it's aged slightly, it hasn't softened.
EXT. CHURCH, SHELBOURNE, 2004
JACKIE and STARKS watch as the people file out of Church.
They are leaning against her car when STARKS spots him.
DR. BECKER walks beside a SMALL CHILD -- presumably his
GRANDSON. JACKIE registers his formidableness with some
surprise; Becker's maintained a strong physique and is hardly
a shade less intimidating than he was before. Only his hand
has a permanent shake now.
STARKS doesn't waste any time. He heads straight for him.
Almost sensing him, BECKER looks in his direction. The casual
look on his face is instantly supplanted by one of DISBELIEF.
STARKS
You still go to Church. How's that
work? Your God just doesn't notice?
That it? [Beat, serious] How you
doin', Dr. Becker?
BECKER stops walking and looks at Starks. His GRANDSON looks
at him.
BECKER'S GRANDSON
Grandpa?
BECKER [Still looking at Starks]
Sean, why don't you wait for me by
the car? I'll be there in a minute.
[Turning to the kid] Ok?
His grandson, momentarily appeased, heads for the car.
BECKER [To Starks]
Can I help you?
STARKS
I don't know, Dr. Becker. Can you?
That's enough to confirm for BECKER who STARKS is.
All around them, people leaving Church socialize routinely --
unaware of the haunted history being made between them.
BECKER
Who are you?
STARKS
I think you know. Your eyes say you
do.
BECKER
[Beat] You're his son?
STARKS
No. I'm not his son. I'm him. [Beat]
What? You look like you've seen a
ghost. You can come here and touch
me, old man. I'm the real thing.
BECKER
How...how are you here?
STARKS looks at Becker -- each a terrifying reminder of the
other's past.
BECKER
You died, Starks. Years ago, in the
hospital.
STARKS
I know. [Beat] You killed me, didn't
you?
BECKER
No. I didn't. I swear I didn't. I
probably helped push you to kill
yourself, but I didn't do it.
STARKS
I didn't kill myself. I died from a
blow to the head. How'd it happen? I
have to know.
BECKER looks at him, nearly too stunned to speak.
BECKER
I don't know how you died. The last
time I put you in the Jacket was just
after you told me you remembered
killing that police officer...
STARKS
I didn't say I remembered killing
him. I just repeated some words to
get myself back in there.
BECKER
I know. [Beat] I knew that when you
came out.
STARKS
How?
BECKER
Because...because you came out and
said something you couldn't have
possibly have known. You came back
and repeated three names...
BECKER falters as he recalls his offenses.
BECKER
Of people like you. People I was just
trying to help. They couldn't get
worse so I thought, with medication,
they might get...
STARKS
Medication? What kind of meds do you
chase with nights in a cadaver
drawer?
BECKER
It was part of the treatment I
intended...I didn't know what the
effects would be...
STARKS
So, what, you guinea pig sick people
to find out?
BECKER
The three of you weren't regular
patients. You were criminals that
ended up at Alpine Grove.
STARKS
No, we were patients.
BECKER concedes after all this time.
BECKER
You and the others didn't seem that
way then.
STARKS is quiet as he comes to understand how it's about to
work out: if Becker tells him those names now, he essentially
indicts himself.
STARKS
Who were the others?
BECKER remembers with a hint of remorse.
BECKER [Racked with remorse]
Nathan Piechowski, Jackson
MacGregor, and Ted Casey. [Beat] I
didn't ask for you -- for any of
you. You were all sent to me.
STARKS looks at Becker, in astonishment.
BECKER
What is it?
STARKS just stares at Becker, waiting for the realization to
hit him, too.
BECKER
How did you come to know their
names?
STARKS
You just told me. The last time I
was with you was when I was in the
Jacket. I'm in it right now, Dr.
Becker.
BECKER
I don't understand...
STARKS
I'm in it as we speak. [Beat] You're
haunting yourself right now. [Beat]
I guess sometimes we indict
ourselves if no one else does. You
didn't make history like you wanted
to, huh, Dr. Becker. It turned out
different, didn't it?
BECKER
I didn't put you in Alpine Grove.
STARKS
No. [Beat] You put me on drugs and
then you put me in the Jacket.
BECKER [Stoically]
I was sorry when I heard you died.
I was, but...how was I to know you
didn't shoot that police officer?
STARKS
The same way you just said I didn't
without my ever telling you. [Beat]
And that still doesn't excuse what
you did. Just because you had keys
to a cage didn't mean you had
animals inside. [Beat] You've
earned your guilt, Becker.
STARKS shares a last look with Becker before he walks away
towards the car.
INT. JACKIE'S CAR, DAY, 2004
JACKIE and STARKS sit inside the parked car as STARKS touches
his head.
JACKIE
That's all you got from him? That
bastard helped take your life away
from you.
STARKS
No, he didn't.
JACKIE
What? How can you say that? He's
the one that put you in that
goddamn medieval...Jacket. He's
probably the one who killed you.
And with those words, JACKIE starts to break down.
STARKS
No one's killing anyone.
STARKS takes her hand and runs it over his head.
STARKS
Touch me. I'm okay.
STARKS looks at her with love, understanding and, for the
first time, a sense of peace. He strokes her hair to calm her
down.
STARKS
If everything hadn't happened the
way it has, then I wouldn't be here
right now, sitting in a car with
you, touching your face.
JACKIE
Why are you saying that? [Beat] We
don't have long, do we?
STARKS looks at her without answering. JACKIE wipes her eyes,
fastens STARKS' seat belt, and seeing that Starks' EYES have
started to flutter, starts driving. In the distance, the
barely audible sound of the DRAWER opening, and their time
ending, is heard.
STARKS
Where are we going?
JACKIE
To the hospital.
EXT. HIGHWAY, VERMONT, DAY, 2004
JACKIE and STARKS speed on the highway. As STARKS sleeps,
JACKIE keeps looking over at him like it's a way to make sure
he stays with her.
INT. HOSPITAL, VERMONT, DAY, 2004
JACKIE helps STARKS -- who's severely weakened at this point --
to the nurse's station. CLAIRE is there.
JACKIE
Claire, I need help.
CLAIRE helps JACKIE, and they take him into a room. From
afar, we hear CLAIRE asking about him.
STARKS
What's happening to me? Why am I
getting so much weaker?
JACKIE
Because your body can only take so
much of what they're putting you
through.
CLAIRE
Jesus, what's happened to him?
INT. ROOM, HOSPITAL, VERMONT, DAY, 2004
JACKIE helps CLAIRE do for STARKS what they can; it doesn't
seem like much at this point.
STARKS
Lorenson's the only one that could
let me out of there. I need something
to persuade her that I was there. Get
me something to take to her.
JACKIE
Ok. Ssh. Rest.
INT. OFFICE, HOSPITAL, 2004
JACKIE stands above a PRINTER as it prints the information
she's looked up about Dr. Lorenson. The PAPER gets jammed,
and that's when JACKIE completely loses it. She WRESTLES with
the printer as if it were responsible for what's happening.
Then she realizes she's not alone. She looks back and sees
CLAIRE, watching from the doorway, with a sympathetic look in
her eyes.
JACKIE [In a panic]
He's not...?
CLAIRE
No, no. [Beat] Not yet. But he
doesn't have long. Are you sure you
don't want a doctor to look at him?
JACKIE
No! It won't do any good. [Beat]
Please, Claire. They won't
understand.
CLAIRE acquiesces with her eyes.
INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE
STARKS is trapped: back on the day when Officer Harrison was
murdered.
FLASHBACK TO:
EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, LATE AFTERNOON, 1992
(Cont'd from the scene after STARKS left Jean and Jackie's
place):
STARKS is walking back on the same highway just after the sun
has set, and just after he helped JEAN and JACKIE, on that
fateful day...
This time we see a CAR stop for him from a much closer
distance. TENNY pulls up towards STARKS and rolls down the
window on the passenger side. STARKS bends down to be able to
see the driver.
TENNY
Hey, Mister, you need a ride?
STARKS
Where are you going?
TENNY
I'm going to Canada but I can let
you ride with me up to the border.
STARKS considers this.
TENNY
Can you drive?
STARKS
Sure.
TENNY
Great, get in. We'll switch off in
a bit.
We pull back and see the same SHOT, from a distance, of
STARKS putting his BAG in the back and getting in. As he
opens the CAR DOOR, we hear the MUSIC playing inside. As they
drive off, the MUSIC fades further and further in the
distance as we...
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT
It's the night that they slept together, and the departure we
never saw. We see, from Starks' POV, JACKIE sleeping
serenely in the bed.
We catch one glimpse of STARKS in the moonlight, standing
naked in the doorway, before he turns and then...disappears --
having been taken out of the Jacket at that point.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM, VERMONT, 2004
JACKIE is by STARKS' side, lying on the hospital bed, next to
him, smoothing his sweating head.
JACKIE
William, please, honey, wake up.
For me.
STARKS' eyes flutter open.
JACKIE
Can you hear me?
STARKS nods; JACKIE tries to continue without choking up.
JACKIE
I found out about Eugene. The little
boy. He's the key. That's who you
have to tell her about when you get
back there. It's the only way to
prove this to her.
JACKIE's VOICE fades as we...
CUT TO:
INT. LORENSON'S HOME, VERMONT, NIGHT, 1992
LORENSON watches EUGENE continue to look unresponsively
in the distance.
RETURN TO:
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM, VERMONT, 2004 (SOME TIME LATER)
STARKS is awake, watching JACKIE sleep wearily on his chest.
He sees the TOLL this has taken on her, just as he senses he
is about to be taken out of the Jacket. He nudges her gently.
STARKS
Jackie?
JACKIE stirs her eyes to look at him.
STARKS [Somewhat urgently]
Where do you live?
JACKIE
What?
STARKS
When we first met, when you were 7,
where was the house you lived in
with your mother? Do you remember
your address?
JACKIE
112 Orchard Way. [Realizing, in a
whisper] You're not coming back,
are you?
STARKS, faint, struggles to get out of the bed.
STARKS
You gotta stop thinking like that.
JACKIE
Then, where are you going?
STARKS
Nowhere. [Beat] I just think I'm
gonna be sick.
STARKS moves towards the bathroom of the hospital room.
JACKIE moves to help him and he motions for her to stop.
STARKS falters in the doorway when he turns to look back at
Jackie -- like it might be for the last time.
JACKIE [In a whisper]
You come back to me...
STARKS nods, then goes in and closes the door behind him.
JACKIE stares after him -- alone in the total silence of the
room. She listens for the slightest noise and that's when she
actually hears the sound of the DRAWER being opened for
herself.
She realizes he's gone. She RUSHES after him, opens the door
in a fit, and then, sees what she feared most: no sign of
Starks. JACKIE falls to her knees, right there, on the
bathroom floor and cries out like a woman only beginning to
realize how unfathomably deep her heart is...
INT. ALPINE GROVE, 2004
STARKS is suddenly in the waiting area outside Lorenson's
office -- still severely weakened.
He walks slowly to the OFFICE DOOR and feebly knocks.
LORENSON answers and STARKS falls into her arms.
LORENSON [Stunned]
Oh dear God.
INT. LORENSON'S OFFICE
LORENSON has laid STARKS down on the COUCH in her office.
STARKS can barely talk. He spews as much of it as he can out
in his feverish state...
STARKS
I'm William Starks. I'm not his son.
And...and the kid you work with.
Your friend's son...Eugene...
LORENSON is stilled by the words STARKS just spoke.
LORENSON
I know. I know it all. Save your
strength. I already know everything
you're going to say. [Beat] You're in
the Jacket right now, aren't you?
STARKS
How...how do you know?
LORENSON
You told me this was how it
happened.
STARKS
I did?
LORENSON
Yeah.
STARKS clutches his side in pain as they prepare to take him
out.
STARKS
Who...who kills me?
LORENSON
You have nothing to fear, William.
But when we look to see STARKS' reaction, he's not there...
INT. BECKER'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, EVENING
BECKER is dressed to leave the hospital when he suddenly
decides not to. He takes off his coat and his gloves, but not
his SCARF, and walks out of his office with a decided
urgency.
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, 1992
BECKER pulls STARKS out of the drawer and looks down ruefully
at STARKS' scathed face. STARKS, drenched in BLOOD and SWEAT,
seeks the outline of Becker's face in the light.
STARKS [Whispering]
Becker, I know about you. [Beat] I
know what you did to your patients.
BECKER looses the straps around Starks' neck to help him
speak.
STARKS
Nathan...Piechowski. [Beat] Jackson
MacGregor...Ted Casey. [Beat] You
didn't cure them. You killed them.
BECKER momentarily loses color and his forever cool mien.
After some seconds, STARKS passes out and BECKER -- hands
trembling -- looks as though he might stick him back in when,
instead, he starts to remove him from the Jacket himself. He
silently and carefully unties each of the straps -- taking
unusual care for Starks' flesh as he prepares to put him on a
stretcher.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU, ALPINE GROVE, EARLY MORNING
As the SUN starts to rise, we see STARKS -- now cleaned up --
recovering in his bed. He is unconscious. From his window, we
look down and see Dr. Lorenson's car pulling into the lot...
FADE TO:
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU, ALPINE GROVE, EARLY MORNING
LORENSON, still wearing her winter gear, walks into Starks'
room, anxiously checking his VITALS. Her anxious expression
reveals Starks' frailty. She looks to the window then and
sees an empty chair with only Becker's SCARF on it.
LORENSON goes to the window in time to see BECKER getting
into his car.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU WARD, ALPINE GROVE, LATER THAT MORNING
STARKS lies unconscious in the bed. The NURSE, SALLY, stops
by the room to check on Dr. Lorenson.
SALLY
Would you like anything, Dr.
Lorenson?
LORENSON
A cup of coffee would be great,
Sally. Thanks.
SALLY
Is he gonna be ok?
LORENSON
I hope so.
SALLY
Me, too.
LORENSON looks after her as she leaves.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU WARD, ALPINE GROVE, MORNING, 1992
LORENSON wakes up as STARKS stirs in his sleep, slowly waking
up.
LORENSON
You're going to be ok, William. We
just need to get your fever down
and we'll be able to hopefully
stabilize you.
STARKS
Who are you kidding, Doc? You or
me?
LORENSON doesn't answer.
STARKS
Can I get some paper and something
to write with.
LORENSON
What for?
STARKS [Solemnly]
I'm starting to think I'm really
gonna die soon. So I'd like to write
some things down.
LORENSON
I'm not gonna let that happen.
STARKS
You still don't believe me, do you?
LORENSON
I do believe you...
STARKS
No. Listen to me...the kid, Eugene...
LORENSON still gets taken aback by Starks' knowledge of
Eugene.
STARKS
No one knows you're working with him
so how would I have found out? He's
your friend's son, right?
It's true; no one could have known about Lorenson's private
life. STARKS coughs, clearly in great pain.
LORENSON
William, I can't indulge these
delusions, even when you're in this
state.
STARKS
Listen to me. That's all I ask.
LORENSON has no choice.
STARKS
He's having absence [pronounced
"absance"] seizures when he stares
off into space like he does. He has
them so often that that's why he
hasn't learned to speak properly.
LORENSON
Who told you this?
STARKS
You did, in the future. You figured
it out because a part of you already
knows this. That's how it works.
[Beat] I'm just telling you something
you already know, even if you haven't
realized it.
STARKS closes his eyes, gathering what strength he can.
STARKS
I don't know when it'll happen but
soon I think, you'll shock the boy
and it'll wake him up.
LORENSON
What are you talking about?
STARKS
You'll figure it out and you'll do
good by him.
That's all STARKS can manage before LORENSON sees he's about
to pass out again.
CUT TO:
INT. LORENSON'S APARTMENT, NIGHT, 1992
LORENSON answers the KNOCK at her door. It's EUGENE and
TALIA.
STARKS
Hey.
TALIA
What is it?
LORENSON [Finding it hard to explain]
Nothing. [Beat] I don't know. I
thought of something I could try.
LORENSON looks at TALIA helplessly. TALIA nods and leads
Eugene inside. LORENSON can't help but look down the hall to
make sure no one's there.
INT. STUDY/OFFICE, LORENSON'S APARTMENT, NIGHT, 1992
LORENSON sits across from EUGENE, holding up a picture of a
DOG. Between them is a tray of MILK and COOKIES.
LORENSON
Come on Eugene, try to say it with
me. This is a "DOG".
EUGENE
D--d---d----.
But Eugene can't hold the sound of the letter long enough to
make the word. An absence seizure takes hold of him as he
looks out unconsciously into space.
LORENSON moves closer to him.
LORENSON [Softly]
What's happening to you?
LORENSON checks Eugene's pulse and leans in close to the
boy's unconscious face like the answer is there if she just
looks hard enough.
LORENSON
Are you having a seizure? Is that
really what's going on?
LORENSON spots a corner of Eugene's EYE twitching slightly,
and, rushing to get a better look, takes the shade off of the
nearby LAMP and holds it above his head so she can get a
better look at him.
Just then, TALIA opens the door, startling Lorenson. She
knocks over the MILK and, as it spills on the LAMP CORD -- now
on Eugene's lap -- it causes an ELECTRIC SHOCK. Eugene catches
it. TALIA gasps and Lorenson watches the boy in fear.
The moment passes and Eugene -- more responsive than he has
ever been before -- looks at his mother and Lorenson. He
doesn't know what's happened but he is aware, and awake,
like never before.
EUGENE picks right up where he and Lorenson left off.
EUGENE
Dog. [To Talia] Hi.
TALIA and LORENSON look at him and each other at shock.
STARKS [O.S., distantly]
You're going to...shock the boy and
then things will change for him.
LORENSON
You ok, Eugene?
EUGENE holds Lorenson's gaze steadily for a few moments.
LORENSON [Stunned himself]
Yeah, you are ok.
TALIA
What's happening?
LORENSON [Putting the pieces together]
He got a little shock. [To himself]
And it's reset him. Not permanently
probably...but at least for a little
while. They use it on epileptic
patients sometimes...
TALIA
But he's not epileptic.
LORENSON
No, but he is having seizures.
TALIA looks at LORENSON. She's still confused. LORENSON's
merely surprised.
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU UNIT, ALPINE GROVE, 1992
STARKS looks up from his PAPER -- now covered in WORDS -- to
see Dr. Lorenson in the doorway. STARKS still looks weak but
much better than before.
STARKS
It worked, didn't it?
LORENSON nods.
STARKS
This is really happening, isn't it?
DR. LORENSON
[Beat] What do you need me to do?
STARKS
[Beat] Thank you.
STARKS folds the LETTER.
STARKS
I need to get this letter to
someone.
DR. LORENSON
I can't take you out of here in
your condition...
STARKS
And I can't stay here in my
condition. I am going to die
tonight. It's already been decided.
DR. LORENSON
No, it hasn't.
STARKS
Yes. [Beat] It has. Everything up
'till today is done. Everything
starting with tomorrow is up for
grabs.
EXT. PARKING LOT, ALPINE GROVE, 1992
LORENSON helps STARKS into the parking lot as it snows.
INT. LORENSON'S CAR, DAY, 1992
LORENSON and STARKS are driving on the same, now familiar
highway.
STARKS
You know how to get there?
LORENSON
Sure. It's an easy address. A
little far out there, but easy
enough.
STARKS
Good.
Bob Dylan plays on the RADIO. STARKS smiles as he hears him
and turns the music up; the act is sad because, as LORENSON
notices, it belongs to someone with an interest to live.
EXT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, DAY, 1992
DR. LORENSON and STARKS drive up to Jean and Jackie's house.
STARKS
You want me to come with you?
STARKS
No, I'll be ok.
STARKS slowly makes his way to their front door and knocks on
it as best as he can. The sound, however, is still
understandably soft.
STARKS waits and then reaches for the knob on the door. He
opens it and looks inside. We first see his face, and the
devastation on it, as we guess the sight he's laid eyes on.
JACKIE is sitting at the kitchen table, still only 7 years
old. Though STARKS expected it, he falters under the
disappointment of seeing a girl he liked instead of the woman
he loved. As she looks up at him, it's all he can do not to
break down.
STARKS
Hi.
JACKIE [Surprised]
Hey. [Beat] I remember you.
STARKS
I remember you, too.
STARKS shakes his head, looking at her. She looks beautiful,
and still hopeful. Her life lays ahead of her and her fate --
when he found her in 2004 -- remains as distant as possible
from this innocent, still promising image.
STARKS
Jackie, how have you been?
JACKIE smiles; she doesn't get asked that often.
JACKIE
I've been ok.
STARKS
Good. How's your mom?
JACKIE
Ok, I guess.
STARKS nods. JACKIE smiles. It's all he can do not to
crumble.
STARKS
Do you think I could see her?
She looks at him and senses, like kids do, the desperation in
his eyes.
JACKIE
Sure.
JACKIE calls out for Jean, then runs up the stairs to get
her. LORENSON has gotten out of the car and is waiting
outside on the porch. STARKS remains in the doorway.
Some seconds later, JEAN appears -- gaunt but in a slightly
better state than we saw her before.
JEAN
Can I help you?
STARKS
Hey, Jean. Nice to see you.
JEAN looks a little confused.
JEAN
I'm sorry? Your face looks awfully
familiar, I just can't quite place
it...
JACKIE
Mom, this is the guy that drove us
home that afternoon we were stuck
on the highway. The guy you yelled
at for no good reason...
JEAN
Oh, yeah.
She gives him a once over, and, seeing how weakened he looks,
decides intuitively he can't be much harm. She also notices
LORENSON waiting by the car.
JEAN
There something you need?
STARKS
You could say that.
STARKS looks at JACKIE, hesitating because of her. Sensing
this, JEAN asks Jackie to leave.
JEAN
Jackie, go play in the snow.
JACKIE
Why?
JEAN
Just do it.
JACKIE leaves and walks to the yard. STARKS watches.
STARKS
I can't stay long. [Motioning to
Lorenson] That's my doctor and I
gotta get back to the hospital.
Everything I want to say is in this
letter. [Beat] You can check as
much of it as you can.
STARKS hands her the LETTER.
STARKS
I won't be around when you read
it...but I hope you believe it.
It'd be a real shame if you didn't.
JEAN looks baffled but, seeming to grasp his urgency, nods.
STARKS
[Beat] I should be on my way.
JACKIE has been watching this exchange from the shed. When he
looks over there, he catches her eye and CALLS OUT, with what
strength he has left...
STARKS
Bye, Jackie.
These are the hardest words STARKS has probably ever had to
say. JACKIE just stares after him, as does JEAN, as he shows
himself out.
STARKS
Happy New Year to both of you.
JEAN
Thanks. You, too.
EXT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, DAY, 1992
As STARKS is walking away, we see his eyes begin to tear in
the cold -- but not from it.
INT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, DAY, 1992
JACKIE abruptly runs after him.
JACKIE
Hey, wait!
STARKS stops in his tracks; he clears as much sadness from
his face as he can before he turns around to face her.
STARKS
[Beat] You be good to yourself,
Jackie.
JACKIE
Ok.
Then, suddenly, she sticks her hand for him to shake, as she
did that day on the roadside; only now, it trembles slightly
in the cold.
STARKS takes JACKIE'S HAND and holds it in his own softly and
affectionately. JEAN and DR. LORENSON look on curiously as
STARKS looks in her face, at her hand in his, and then to the
heavens for the means to get through this.
As STARKS lets go at last, JACKIE looks back at him, sensing
the connection even if she doesn't know it yet.
STARKS turns and stumbles as he walks back to his car.
LORENSON moves to help him, but STARKS tells her not to with
his eyes. He makes his way to the car on his own.
MONTAGE:
INT. LIVING ROOM, JEAN AND JACKIE'S HOUSE, DAY, 1992
JEAN sits down and starts to open the LETTER. Starks' voice,
as we hear it now, is presumably from parts of the LETTER
he's written to her.
INT. LORENSON'S CAR, DUSK, 1992
LORENSON looks over to STARKS, who stares painfully out the
window. They drive on in silence.
STARKS (V.O.)
I was 25 years old the first time I
died. It didn't end anything though.
[Beat] Sometimes I think we live
through things only to be able to
tell them, to bear witness, to say
this happened.
INT. ALPINE GROVE, NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1992-1993
STARKS walks back through the gates of the hospital,
despondently returning inside, with LORENSON at his side.
STARKS (V.O.)
And it wasn't to someone else. It
was to me. And I lived despite it.
Sometimes I think we live to beat
the odds. And sometimes I agree
that life can only begin with the
knowledge of death. That it can all
end, even when you least want it
to.
INT. WARD, ALPINE GROVE, EVENING
MACKENZIE looks up from his game of solitaire as LORENSON
helps STARKS down the hall. He holds up his hand in the
gesture of hello, or goodbye.
STARKS raises his hand back with an earnest smile.
STARKS
I'm telling you my story because
it's the only way I can try to help
your daughter, and you, have a
better one of your own.
INT. BECKER'S HOME, SHELBOURNE, 1992
We see BECKER taking his DRUGS. In his dark den, on his worn
desk, is a bottle of WHISKEY. He closes his eyes as he
administers to himself whatever aid he can...
INT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, DAY, DECEMBER 31, 1992
JEAN is reading each page avidly, affected by this man's last
words.
STARKS (V.O.)
It's scary...and lucky...how much we
can forget. Scary because we think
the past gives us our bearing, and
lucky because in those moments I'm
talking about, you realize it
doesn't. And it never had to.
INT. SMALL BAR, CANADA, NIGHT, 1992
TENNY (Officer Harrison's murderer) is at the bar ordering a
drink from the BARTENDER. As he gets his DRINK, he slaps a
BILL down on the counter and turns around to survey the bar...
INT. JACKIE'S ROOM, JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, EVENING, 1992
JACKIE rummages in a box of her personal belongings, looking
for something specific in them. She stops finally when she
finds STARKS' DOG TAGS. She takes them out slowly and puts
them around her neck.
STARKS (V.O.)
I am not a crazy man, even though
they mistook me for one. I live in
the same world as the rest of you.
Only I saw more of it.
Then, after a moment of staring down at them, she tucks them
under her sweater.
INT. CAPTAIN MEDLEY'S HOME, NIGHT, 1992
CAPTAIN MEDLEY holds a beer as he stares blankly at a TV
broadcasting news about MIKE TYSON'S RAPE CONVICTION.
Medley's barely watching the footage...
INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, 1992
Dr. Lorenson helps Starks back to bed. STARKS looks up at
Lorenson, thanking her without words but with his eyes.
LORENSON smiles as she looks back sadly at Starks' even more
weakened self.
STARKS (V.O.)
And the seeing is the only way you
can hear what the truth around you
is saying: you can always start
believing in things you don't
already believing in. And, while
you're alive, it's never too late.
Then he turns and walks out, closing the door so that Starks'
room and the screen darken at the same time.
INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1992
TWO PAIRS of legs walk down a corridor, darkened by the
night, through the now familiar passage to the basement...
STARKS is not restrained this time though we don't see who is
walking down the hall with him. He runs his hand over his
forehead and looks at it when he's done. STILL NO CUT.
They slow down their pace as they round the corner, as STARKS
appears dizzier and dizzier. He doesn't stop and the PERSON
beside him doesn't see how weak he is... until STARKS TRIPS.
In slow motion, we hear a DISTANT, GARBLED VOICE CALL OUT...
DISTORTED VOICE
No! Wa...atch out!
But STARKS' head hits the GLASS CASE of the FIRE EXTINGUISHER
on the wall, as it was destined to. In the terrific SHOWER OF
GLASS, one PIECE cuts a neat, deep, fatal GASH in Starks'
head.
BLOOD starts to flow. As STARKS' eyes struggle to regain
their focus, we see the BLURRED, indiscernible FACE of the
PERSON leaning over him to see if he's all right.
The details start to make sense, even to Starks. This is the
WOUND they said he died from.
INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1992
STARKS collapses on the familiar slab, ready to be strapped
into the Jacket one final time. BLOOD pours from his head
onto the floor.
The PERSON with him struggles to get all of Starks' weight
onto the metal slab. She's doing it as carefully, and gently,
as she can -- taking observable care with every strap of the
JACKET, almost as if the act itself is a humane one.
When the HANDS finally reach the straps around his neck and
the hardest part of the struggle has passed, STARKS smiles
kindly, and thankfully, into the single overhead LIGHT in the
room that obscures the face of the person strapping him in.
As the drawer is pushed in, one of the STRAPS gets caught on
the side, CUTTING STARKS' ARM. We hear a small CRY in the
room. Then the HANDS adjust the strap and slowly push STARKS
in.
INT. JACKET/TUNNEL
It's more beautiful and serene inside than it's ever been
before. This time, as he travels through the tunnel, it's as
though he's traveling in a heaven of his own. The IMAGES he
sees are the best moments of his past -- connected in a
tranquil, fluid narrative that suggest STARKS has finally
retrieved his memory without it haunting him...
STARKS (V.O.)
I promise you, Jean. No matter how
bad the days and things around you
look, they look better awake than
they do asleep. I can offer you
some proof: when you die, there's
only one thing you want to have
happen...sometimes so badly it
comes true, I guess. [Beat] You
want to come back.
PANELS:
The PANELS we saw briefly are completed further now.
1) C.U. A WOMAN'S NECK as a small child's HAND touches it.
2) INT. STAIRWAY, OLD HOUSE (STARKS' CHILDHOOD HOME): STARKS,
aged 9, running up the stairs, knocking a PICTURE on the wall
with his elbow...
3) C.U. A black and white PHOTOGRAPH of Starks' father, a
much older version of himself.
4) EXT. CREEK: A shot of clear water that's not to deep and,
on its surface, the reflection of a TEENAGE BOY'S FACE before
he touches it and sends it rippling...
5) EXT. A NEW ENGLAND BEACH: STARKS (20s) dressed in a black
suit, holding an URN, letting the ASHES fly into the water...
6) EXT. DESERT: A SANDSTORM WHIRLS round before it's replaced
with... EXT. VERMONT: A FIELD of snow.
EXT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, MENTAL HOSPITAL
We see now that it was DR. LORENSON who put Starks in.
Exhausted from the physical strain of getting him in there,
she stares at the closed drawer, like looking at it is one
way to look after Starks.
INT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, VERMONT, 1992
JEAN puts down STARKS' LETTER and walks out of the kitchen
and watches JACKIE sitting absently on the couch, looking
past the TV.
JEAN kneels wordlessly beside her daughter and looks her
daughter in the eye. JACKIE looks back curiously as JEAN
wraps her arms around Jackie's LEGS and rests her head in her
lap, holding onto her with the dearness of having narrowly
missed a tragedy.
FADE TO BLACK.
EXT. DINER, SMALL TOWN VERMONT, 2005
Over the sounds of CARS slushing in the snow, an IMAGE fades
up slowly on the screen, until we see it's STARKS, standing
in the parking lot outside the diner once more.
This time he seems situated, and hopeful. After a slightly
longer wait than the first time, JACKIE walks out -- in the
same way as before except that she wears a NURSE'S UNIFORM
and an unmistakable air of vitality.
Jackie looks directly at Starks and we see the same
attraction between them teeming even more than before. Even
as a physically injured man in jeans and a flannel, with a
BLEEDING CUT on his head and no coat in the cold, STARKS is
someone we see she wants to be near.
Then we see JACKIE as STARKS does: she looks beautiful,
alive, happy and just like the woman he never wanted to
leave. She approaches Starks warmly, less suspicious of the
world -- and less devastated by it -- than we remember her
being.
JACKIE
Hey there. [Beat] You ok?
STARKS revels in the moment. In their reunion.
STARKS
I think so.
JACKIE
You're bleeding pretty bad there.
STARKS touches his FOREHEAD in a panic and, seeing the BLOOD
on his hands, looks up at her, terrified. Sensing this, she
moves closer to calm him.
JACKIE
It's ok. It's ok. Relax. It's just
a cut. We can get it fixed.
But we need to get you to the
hospital now. How'd you get that?
STARKS
I fell down. [Beat] But I'm alive.
STARKS looks at her -- immensely relieved and grateful.
JACKIE [Laughing a little]
Yes, you are alive. But, listen, it's
New Year's Day. You're not going to
get a cab. Especially not here. And
you're gonna freeze if you stand out
here in the snow much longer. I'm on
my way back to my shift at the
hospital...
STARKS
You work there?
JACKIE [Gesturing to her uniform]
Yeah, I'm a nurse. Why don't you let
me give you a ride...
STARKS falters slightly as he walks. JACKIE helps him make it
to the car, much like before...
STARKS
Thanks.
INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2005
STARKS can hardly keep his eyes off her when her CELL PHONE
suddenly rings.
JACKIE
Sorry, one sec.
JACKIE answers it, smiling.
JACKIE
Hey! How are you? [Beat] Thanks. I
was just thinking about you, too.
STARKS listens nervously to her conversation and the
affection in her voice.
JACKIE
Listen, I gotta go, mom, 'cause I'm
late... but, thanks. Happy New Year to
you, too. I'll call you later. [Beat]
Ok, bye.
JACKIE hangs up and looks at Starks -- feeling a little
awkward after the call.
JACKIE
Sorry about that. It was my mom.
STARKS smiles back warmly at her; he gets it more than she
knows.
STARKS
Nothin' to worry about there.
EXT. OVERHEAD, VERMONT HIGHWAY, 2005
Jackie's car pulls onto the highway, alongside the other,
more modern cars on the highway.
JACKIE (O.S.)
How you doin'?
STARKS
I'm doing fine.
The happy sound of their engine on the highway continues,
uninterrupted, for some seconds, before, first faintly then
louder, we hear a racking, all too familiar sound: the DRAWER
creaking as it's opened once more...
THE END