The Essential Ellison Part 71

TANIADerek, you're making Mr. Cramden angry. His face is gettingall blotchy.

CRAMDENDammit, Flint! This is beyond belief, utterly unconscionable!

(he moves toward Flint)Now cease this badinage, open the b.l.o.o.d.y safe and give me thatblack diamond.

He has just about reached Flint, and starts to make a move clearlyintended to cause Flint harm. Flint had continued to smilecharmingly through this entire exchange, but as Cramden steps in todeal him a blow, Flint decides it's time to knock off the charade,and in one fluid movement he spins delivering a savate kick thatsends the ersatz Cramden through a gla.s.s and tubular steel free-standing shelf filled with Chinese glazes. Everything, Cramdenincluded, goes down in a wide swath of noise and moving parts.

FLINT.

(to Cramden)If those Chinese glazes were real, I'd be distressed at losingthem. Tang Dynasty, you know.

63 ANOTHER SHOT ON THE ACTION-ARRIFLEX.

He spins again, and sees the two girls advancing on him, their handsheld in the kill-positions of jukindo (ask Bruce Lee about this; itreally looks ominous).

Tania springs first, giving the deadly cry of the a.s.sa.s.sin. Herattack is easily countered by Flint, who manages to hurl her againsta wall. Just in time to get Claudia into range, and to deal her ablow (which she counters on her forearm) that might kill a less adept a.s.sailant. He then fences with her, stroke, stroke, stroke, asthey each whip their best moves on the other. Flint finally knocksher down. And here comes Tania again.

The fight continues. A marvelous three-way duel with Flint doing hisbest to disable-but always the gentleman, not to kill-the two girls(who aren't really girls, so you can vindicate a guy wiping thefloor with two ladies).

NOTE: the Author would happily fill in every ch.o.r.eographed move ofthis epic battle-the core of Act Two-but from sad experience theAuthor has found out that the "Fight Director" and the Director ofthe segment like to program these things themselves. And who am I todeprive the kids of their innocent pleasures. So..."the fightcontinues." Do it your way, but make it look serious and deadly.

Finally, Flint downs the two girls. He ties their long hairtogether, lifts them like two sacks of meal, and drops them over asofa, one on either side so they can't get themselves undone.

He turns, just as Cramden opens up on him with a grease-gunautomatic with a wire stock. No need to ask from whence he obtainedthis weapon. You'll understand, and so will the audience, in a fewmoments.

Flint hurls himself sidewise, out of the line of bullets and-in themanner of a wrestler bouncing off the ropes-hurtles from wall towall, running up one wall and kicking off, sprinting across the roomto bound off a second wall, changing directions, and all the whileuttering Zen cries of the most blood-curdling nature...a bravuraperformance guaranteed to make jaws drop. And when Cramden has spunaround and around and around in an attempt to antic.i.p.ate from whichdirection Flint will be coming, he staggers dizzily and Flint hitshim with a dropkick that sends Cramden flailing through the air, andout through the penthouse window, shattering it with a barrage ofgla.s.s. The SCREAM can be heard for a loooong time as Cramdenplummets toward the street far below.

CAMERA MOVES IN SLIGHTLY on Flint, who stands, shaken, at havingkilled his "boss." He is trying to gather his senses, performingthat eyes-closed/fingers-to-temples bit, and does not see 64 BEHIND FLINT IN B.G.

as "Cramden" floats back up from the street below, floats in throughthe window, picks up a heavy vase, moves up on Flint and wallops himacross the back of the head. Flint goes down like a rhino in a carbody crusher.

65 FLINT'S POV-THE ROOM-WHAT HE SEES.

as he begins to float off into unconsciousness the room begins to goout of focus, refocuses, out of focus, blurs, gets misty around theedges, and as we watch, the SPECIAL EFFECTS merge the image ofFlint's posh apartment over the last view we had of the Gunsmiths'laboratory. Then, with his eyes flickering, but not yet gone, thelab goes solid and Flint sees the two Blacksuits, with their suits yanked up like body stockings, tied together, and we realize the two"girls " were hallucinogenic images of the Blacksuits, and the hairhe tied together was their suit hoods. Barmeier is trying to untiethem as they struggle to get free.

As Flint goes over the edge, Calista appears at the rim of hisfading world, leans over him and looks disgruntled.

CALISTA(as if from far away)Even that delusion didn't work.

(beat)I guess we're just going to have to get really rotten withhim.

And Flint fades away as we HOLD his unconscious form, suddenlylifted into the air above the heads of the two disentangledBlacksuits, who carry him away as if he were an unholy offering tothe sun G.o.d.

FADE TO BLACKandFADE OUT.

END ACT TWO.

ACT THREE.

FADE IN:.

66 INT. CONVERSATION ROOM-LONG SHOT.

WIDE-ANGLE LENS SHOOTING down the length of a room that seems onlyslightly smaller that Latvia, because of the distortion of the lens.The walls are white or gray, and black lines, drawn in perspective,converge far down what appears to be a vast distance. In VOICE OVERwe HEAR a cultivated, soft, rational voice with an English accent.Not heavy, just sophisticated enough for us to understand this is aneducated, upper-cla.s.s Englishman speaking, something very toney likethe dude who does the Schweppervescence commercials. All the whilethe VOICE SPEAKS OVER the CAMERA TRUCKS IN STEADILY on the pointwhere the lines converge, at which point sits a stylish Saarinenpedestal wingback chair, very modern, very smooth and sedate. (TheAuthor can provide this chair, if needed.) SHAKESPEARE O.S.Mr. Flint, I've been asked to speak to you for a few moments.

(beat, then with self-deprecating lightness)I presume they want me to convince you to save your life, orat least your sanity. Perhaps the one is identical with theother, I've never been too certain about that; I think alittle creative madness is all that prevents us from becomingone with the snails.

CAMERA IN STEADILY on the chair throughout this DIALOGUE, until wehalt movement at a MEDIUM SHOT and the chair swings around-havinghidden what it contains till this moment because of its wingback-andwe see Flint sitting there very calmly, listening to the speaker. Heis once again dressed as first we saw him in the opening scenes,elegant in tuxedo, legs crossed, very dapper and together.

FLINTIf I take it correctly, you 're another hallucination.

CUT TO:.

67 REVERSE ANGLE PAST FLINT-HIS POV.

The room in reverse, the same perspective of lines, and an identicalchair seated across from him. Seated in the chair, wearing theElizabethan garb of his time, drinking ale from what is called a"half-yard" gla.s.s, is WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. Not Barmeier or someoneelse dressed as The Bard, but Shakespeare himself. Oh boy! The Bardnods in answer to Flint's remark, and raises his ale in a smalltoast of camaraderie. NOTE: throughout this entire scene, the Bardis never menacing, he is friendly and intelligent and just what we'dwant Wm. to be.

SHAKESPEARESadly, I'm afraid so.

FLINTThen why should I pay any attention?

SHAKESPEAREBecause I'm a far more entertaining conversationalist thanthat pack of hooligans and cutpurses with truncheons.

FLINTI'll grant you that. And you use better grammar.

SHAKESPEARE.

(smiles)Then let us talk...as intelligent men...for just a fewminutes.

FLINTYou choose the subject.

SHAKESPEARE.

(with a twinkle)You won't be distraught if I don't select gemology?Particularly diamonds?

FLINTNot in the least.

SHAKESPEARELet us discuss patriotism.

68 thru 75 MEDIUM SHOTS ALTERNATING FLINT ALONE, THE BARD ALONE, TWO-SHOTS with CAMERA MOVING AROUND THEM to keep the scene from becomingvisually static. But HOLD PERSPECTIVE so we perceive this discussionoccurs across an enormous gap. Both physically and intellectually.

SHAKESPEARE (CONT'D.)Do you believe an individual should die for his country?

FLINTI believe he should live for his country.

SHAKESPEAREAh! A good start. Then you don't believe we should give ourlives for causes?

FLINT.

(carefully, as if a ritual)I believe life is sacred, that it should be preserved at allcosts.

(beat)If one must die, it should be for ideas, not causes.

SHAKESPEAREYou reject death for slogans.

FLINTIdeas cannot be killed, only those who propound them.

(beat)

The Christian martyrs died by the scores, but it was time forChristianity, and nothing could have stopped it, certainly notthe power of Imperial Rome.

SHAKESPEAREThen do I take it you're saying they should have lived, evenat the cost of recanting?

FLINt.i.t worked for Galileo, and his ideas live on. Yes, I thinkthat's what I'm saying.

SHAKESPEAREBut then, if that is so, don't we defeat injustice and evil byresisting it?

FLINTPrecisely my point. By staying alive we sustain the ability tocontinue the fight.

(beat)

Six million Jews went to their deaths in ovens and gaschambers, many of them docilely. Their murder did nothing tohalt the monstrousness that condemned them.

SHAKESPEAREYou denounce their deaths as complicity by inaction? Thatseems a bit severe, Mr. Flint.

FLINTI don't condemn them, of course not. I merely contend that,had they fought, had they clung with ferocity to their lives,all might not have gone so smoothly for their killers.

SHAKESPEAREBy extension then, don't you think you should preserve your life in this rather untenable situation?

FLINTI thought we weren't going to discuss black diamonds?

SHAKESPEARE(shrugs)I merely bring you full circle in your own argument.

FLINt.i.t is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done.

SHAKESPEAREWhat a marvelous line. May I use it sometime?

FLINTAlready been used.

SHAKESPEAREOh? By whom?

FLINTCharles d.i.c.kens.

SHAKESPEARE(ponders)I don't believe I've ever heard of the fellow.

FLINTBright young kid. Coming up fast. They say he has talent.

SHAKESPEAREWhat do you think of Marlowe?

FLINT(grins)What do you think of Marlowe?

SHAKESPEAREAmusing.

FLINTHow would you take to the concept of Marlowe's having writtenyour plays?

SHAKESPEARELet us not descend to gaucherie, Mr. Flint.

(beat)Let's move on. Now...Aquinas on courage and faith...

LAP-DISSOLVE TO:.