GAME 6










                          Written by

                          Don DeLillo














                                               Revised Draft
                                               May 19, 20054





INT. LOFT APARTMENT - MANHATTAN - MORNING

STEVEN SCHWIMMER, a drama critic, asleep on his bed. He
wears a sleep mask.

The bed is a mattress on a makeshift platform.

Papers strewn on the floor.

An exercise bike.

A desk with and old manual typewriter, reference works,
periodicals, Styrofoam cups.

A cast-off sofa with pants, shirts, sweater, underwear and
socks tossed haphazardly on the cushions and arms.

A counter that sets apart the kitchen area. A portable TV set
on the counter. The remains of dinner for one.

A row of stacked cardboard boxes with mail spilling out on
the floor. Boxes are labeled in crayon: HATE MAIL.

A coffee table with a candle nub in a saucer and six gleaming
rounds of ammunition scattered next to a Llama Comanche .357
Magnum with a checkered walnut stock -- overall length, nine
and a quarter inches.

A Port-O-San toilet, about seven feet high, orange, scarred
and dented -- scavenged from a construction site.

A snapshot on the bedside table. It's a blurry picture of
Steven holding a cat. Steven wears a peaked cap, and a shadow
falls across his face. Next to the picture is a clock radio,
which comes on with a buzz as the clock shows nine AM.

RADIO ANNOUNCER begins to speak --

                         LONE EAGLE (V.O.)
                    (softly)
               Traffic flowing smoothly on the
               Deegan right now but if you're
               lucky enough to have a ticket for
               tonight's game, be sure to leave
               early because it's going to be
               bumper to bumper.

Steven does not stir.

EXT. LOFT BUILDING2

Steven's loft is in an old squat building on 47th Street near
Twelfth Avenue. The structure looks abandoned. Graffiti
everywhere. Entranceway filled with debris.

                         LONE EAGLE (V.O.)
               Another day of traffic. Traffic
               everywhere I look. Cars stop and
               move and stop again. People sit at
               the wheel thinking their thoughts.

EXT. UNITED NATIONS PLAZA APTS - - MORNING

The shimmering glass facade of the United Nations Plaza
Apartments at 48th Street and First Avenue. A man visible at
a window on one of the high floors, a cup of coffee in his
hand.

                         LONE EAGLE (V.O.)
               Day in, day out. Red light, green
               light. Traffic on the major
               arteries and traffic in the little
               veins.

From his POV we see the traffic below creeping along, nearly
at a standstill.

                         LONE EAGLE (V.O.)
               Cars, vans, taxis, trucks, limos,
               Mopeds, bikes and buses. Emergency
               vehicles screaming and wailing.
               Birth and death, walk and don't
               walk.

The man takes a sip of coffee.

                         LONE EAGLE (V.O.)
               Traffic yesterday, today and
               tomorrow. Bumper to bumper, soul to
               soul. This is Lone Eagle over and
               out.

EXT. 47TH STREET AND FIRST AVENUE - A LITTLE LATER

The same man -- the playwright Nicky Rogan with his hand in
the air, hailing a cab. He is forty-five, vigorous, wearing
well-made sporty clothes.

In a corner of the screen --

                         OCTOBER 25, 1986

INT. TAXI

Stalled in traffic.

                         NICKY
               I used to drive a taxi.

                         DRIVER
               Where you're going, mister?

Nicky glances at the driver's name plate

                         KAGANOVICH
                         ANATOLI

                         NICKY
               I used to drive a taxi.

                         DRIVER
               I used to be head of neurosurgery.
               Big hospital in USSR. This
               hospital, I'm not kidding.

                         NICKY
               Very big.

                         DRIVER
               I opened thousands of brains.

                         NICKY
               What did you find?

                         DRIVER
               Big mess every time.

                         NICKY
               I loved my taxi. Went twelve hours
               nonstop. Stopped only to pee. I
               peed under the Manhattan bridge.
               Peed many times in parks and
               playgrounds.

EXT. STREET CORNER

47th Street and Third Avenue. A man is dancing with a life-
size cloth doll. His tape player is on the sidewalk, playing
and instrumental version of "Beautiful Dreamer" and there is
a cigar box for donations. A few people look on from a
distance. The man wearing an old cutaway, with running shoes,
and the doll has long red tresses and wears a frilly gown.

Nicky emerges from a taxi at the corner and walks rapidly
past the dancing man.

Nicky crosses the courtyard to Buchanan Apartments.

INT. FOYER

JOANNA BOURNE reaching for the door. Joanna is fifty-ish,
handsome, stylishly dressed.

INT. BUCHANAN APARTMENT - SECONDS LATER

Nicky and Joanna embracing with wordless abandon.

They are in the hallway clutching each other, stumbling. The
walls on either side are hung with expensive art.

They grapple past the living room. Fleeting look at the
paintings by Longo and Fischl, a poster by the Guerilla
Girls.

The edge of the bedroom. Nicky is crawling into the room and
Joanna is hanging on to him, being dragged. They are fully
dressed except for one of Joanna's shoes.

The bedroom. A Lichtenstein, a Hockney, a silk-screen of
Joanna by Andy Warhol. A Jeff Koons piece. Nicky and Joanna
roll on the floor until they are halfway under the bed.

INT. HALLWAY

Muffled sounds from the bedroom. We track to:

The maid's room. The maid is smoking a cigarette and reading
New York magazine. The cover is partly obscured by her hand
but we can see a blurry black-and-white photo of a man
hurrying along a street with a newspaper over his face,
shielding himself from the camera. Over the photo, three
words visible: THE PHANTOM WHO -- A second line of type is
too small to be legible.

INT. BEDROOM -- LATER

Nicky and Joanna are undressing after the fact, very slowly
and distractedly. Joanna stands by a chair near the window.
Nicky is on the other side of the bed and he alternates
between standing and sitting as he takes off his clothes.

                         JOANNA
               Last night. Alan Albright called me
               a handsome woman. Second time he's
               done that. Son of a bitch.

                         NICKY
               I hear Alan's sick.

                         JOANNA
               Alan's very sick. He has to go to
               New Mexico and sit in a lukewarm
               solution.

                         NICKY
               You know about Adele.

                         JOANNA
               What about her?

                         NICKY
               She's dying.

                         JOANNA
               She died.

                         NICKY
               I talked to her two days ago.

                         JOANNA
               Apparently it didn't help. You know
               about Peter, of course.

                         NICKY
               Our Peter?

                         JOANNA
               Peter Redmond. They found out why
               he can't remember his lines.
               There's something living in his
               brain. A parasite he picked up in
               Borneo, doing the movie.

                         NICKY
               Can he get through it?

                         JOANNA
               They're watching him closely.
               There's a special rehearsal set for
               this afternoon. To bolster his
               confidence. And that's not all.

                         NICKY
               I've got bigger problems, Joanna.
               Personal problems.

                         JOANNA
               That's not all, Nicky. I've been
               backing your plays for fifteen
               years. And I've never been more
               depressed.

                         NICKY
               About what?

                         JOANNA
               Steven Schwimmer. The most powerful
               critic in America gets his first
               crack at Nicky Rogan.

                         NICKY
                    (hiding his concern)
               Look. All I want is a haircut. I'm
               not worried about this guy.

                         JOANNA
               Ever since he started reviewing the
               Broadway theater, nobody in this
               business has been worried about
               anything else.

                         NICKY
               They can send their heartless
               brilliant boy-critic. There's a
               much bigger thing going on than
               tonight's opening.

                         JOANNA
               What?

                         NICKY
               The Red Sox

                         JOANNA
               You mean the World Series? I
               thought the Red Sox were winning.

                         NICKY
               Three games to two. But if you know
               their history, you realize there's
               a tragedy in the making. I've been
               carrying this franchise on my back
               since I was six years old.

                         JOANNA
               It can't be all that personal.

Joanna enters the walk-in closet to finish undressing and get
a nightdress.

                         NICKY
               If you have a team you've followed
               all your life, and they raise your
               hopes and crush them, and lift them
               and crush them, do you want me to
               tell you what it's like? It's like
               feeling your childhood die over and
               over.J
                         JOANNA
               I mean Nicky, really, no.

Nicky follows her into the closet, still in his shirt and
boxer shorts.

                         JOANNA
               I'm proud of this play. It's so
               different from anything you've
               done.

                         NICKY
               This is how we've managed to last.

                         JOANNA
               We're able to surprise each other.

                         NICKY
               In and out of bed.

                         JOANNA
               Because we're completely
               mismatched.

                         NICKY
               We don't even like each other, do
               we?

Nicky walks out of the closet, takes off his shirt, gets into
bed.

                         JOANNA
               I used to tell myself. Talent is
               more erotic when it's wasted. Will
               I see you tonight?

                         NICKY
               The Red Sox blow a chance to win
               their first World Series since
               1918. You expect me to miss that
               for an opening night?

Joanna emerges from the closet in her nightdress and gets
into bed.

                         JOANNA
               It makes me so mad. Steven
               Schwimmer ready to strike. The
               exterminating angel.

                         NICKY
               It's all worked out. They'll lose
               tonight. Then they'll lose
               tomorrow. I see it with stunning
               clarity.

                         JOANNA
               It's your best play, Nicky.

                         NICKY
               They'll lose because they're my
               team.

                         JOANNA
               He will absolutely hate it.

INT. STEVEN SCHWIMMER'S LOFT

Steven is just waking up. The radio plays soft music.

He reaches over and hits the off button, then activates the
cassette player. He struggles out of bed and Sufi music
begins to fill the room.

He stands at the foot of the bed, a man in his mid-twenties,
hollow-chested, slightly potbellied, wearing rumpled pajama
bottoms and a Mostly Mozart T-shirt.

He does not remove the sleep mask.

The music has a sensuous, driving beat. Voices begin to
chant.

Steven holds his arms parallel to the floor. Slowly he begins
to turn, clockwise. The beat picks up and he whirls more
quickly, his mouth coming open.

Now he begins to whirl about the room. The chanting grows in
intensity. Although he is blindfolded, Steve deftly avoids
running into furniture and other objects.

Steven stops whirling at the precise moment the music stops
playing. He is back at the foot of the bed, arms stretched
wide.

INT. TAXI

Creeping along. Nicky leaning toward the driver.

                         NICKY
               I wrapped my sandwiches in tinfoil.
               I ate and drove. I had one of those
               big checkered cabs.

                         DRIVER
               You are going where?

                         NICKY
               Crosstown.

                         DRIVER
               Very bad today.

Driver's nameplate --

                         CHOUDHURY
                         RAMASWAMY

                         NICKY
               I cleaned out the ashtrays
               religiously.

                         DRIVER
               I am sitting here five years in
               traffic. It is one continuous
               traffic since I arrive. Why must it
               be?

A taxi pulls up alongside. Nicky notices the young woman in
the rear seat. It is his daughter Laurel. He opens his
window.

                         NICKY
               Laurel, stay there.
                    (to his driver)
               Keep the meter running. And try to
               stay abreast.

Nicky leaves his taxi and gets into Laurel's.

INT. SECOND TAXI

Nicky pushes in next to her. Laurel is eighteen, slightly
overweight, with a pleasant and expressive face. She is
carrying books in a nylon haversack.

                         NICKY
               I never see you anymore. Where are
               you all day?

                         LAUREL
               I go to college. I thought you
               knew.

                         NICKY
               Do you want to get some coffee?

                         LAUREL
               I don't drink coffee, Daddy. And
               this is not what we should be
               talking about.

                         NICKY
               What do you want to talk about?
               I'll talk about anything. What's
               this?

Nicky lifts a small radio and headset out of her bag.

                         LAUREL
               I'm seeing your play tonight,
               remember?

                         NICKY
               Why do you need a radio?

                         LAUREL
               So at the intermission I can listen
               to the ball game. Do you know that
               mother is seeing a prominent
               divorce lawyer?

                         NICKY
               That's completely crazy.

                         LAUREL
               Is it?

                         NICKY
               Don't talk like that. How
               prominent? What are you implying?

                         LAUREL
               She's doing like those Iranians. `I
               divorce thee. I divorce thee. I
               divorce thee'

                         NICKY
                    (indicating driver)
               And he hears it the same time I
               hear it? What happened to family
               secrets?

Driver's nameplate ---

                         TABATTABI
                         ABULHASSAN

                         LAUREL
               Mother is totally, you know, upset.

                         NICKY
               Abulhassas, we'll be getting out
               here.

Nicky pays the driver.

EXT. THE STREET

Nicky stands alongside the first taxi and pays his original
driver. Laurel reluctantly exits the second taxi.

INT. COFFEE SHOP

47th Street between First and Second Avenue.

Nicky and Laurel enter the coffee shop they are greeted by
the owner, a hefty Greek named GEORGE.

                         GEORGE
               Nicky, you don't come in for a
               while. Everything's okay?

                         NICKY
               Hello George. You're so healthy and
               thick-bodied I want to punch you in
               the chest. This is my daughter
               Laurel. Just to hear the sound it
               makes.

                         GEORGE
               I saw your picture in the paper.
               Two papers.

                         NICKY
               That means they're getting ready to
               kill me.

                         GEORGE
               That's not what I hear. I have
               four, five actors working here.
               `His best play since "Yessiree Bob"
               I'm telling you, they say it.

                         LAUREL
               He doesn't want to hear it.

He leads them toward a booth.

INT. COFFEE SHOP - LATER

Nicky is launched into a full breakfast. Laurel has a tea bag
in a cup -- no water.

                         NICKY
               If lawyers for the mob are called
               controversial, why are divorce
               lawyers called prominent?

                         LAUREL
               Because they get outstanding
               settlements. And Mother is
               determined that this time there's
               no turning back.

                         NICKY
               I just had breakfast with her. She
               didn't say a word about this.

A young waiter recognizes Nicky and unobtrusively points him
out to another waiter.

                         LAUREL
               Because you refuse to believe she's
               serious. You've always refused.

                         NICKY
               Don't be so steely-eyed. It's that
               course you're taking in
               criminology.

                         LAUREL
               Oh please. Not now.
                    (beat)
               She wants you to stop seeing What's-
               Her-Name. Finally. Now and forever.
               Do you think that's too much to
               ask? For a wife of nineteen years.

                         NICKY
               You're too young to be studying
               criminal behavior. It's making you
               obsessive.

                         LAUREL
               She is kicking you out.

                         NICKY
               Your mother and I have something
               between us that's too strong to
               damage permanently. Believe me, I
               know this. That's right, nineteen
               years. And what about the days and
               minutes? Sharing small moments,
               sharing memories, raising a
               beautiful child. We're wedded in
               the deepest and strongest ways.
               Lillian isn't only my wife. She's
               my best friend.

Nicky shrugs.

                         LAUREL
               Bullshit, Daddy.

INT. COFFEE SHOP - NEAR THE CASH REGISTER - LATER

Nicky and Laurel stand on a short line at the cash register,
each holding a check.

                         LAUREL
               Mother won't tell me how long
               you've been seeing this person.
               She's embarrassed to tell me. So
               why don't you tell me?

                         NICKY
               Don't call her Mother all the time.
               It makes her sound tragic and
               unforgiving. What happened to Mom?

                         LAUREL
               I didn't turn her into Mother. You
               did.

                         NICKY
               This person and I are a thing of
               the total past. I promise you.

Nicky takes Laurel's check away from her, intending to pay
himself.

Laurel snatches it back.

                         LAUREL
               Know what Mother said to me?
               Daddy's demons are so intense he
               doesn't even know he's lying.

EXT. THE STREET

Bank towers. The Bank of India, Banco di Napoli, Bear
Stearns, the Bank of New York, The Chemical Bank,
Manufacturers Hanover. A sense of real institutions looming
over the busy street. The bank names engraved on bronze
markers, carved in granite, incised on glass.

Street level. A glimpse of the bronze statue called "Taxi on
Park Avenue" -- a man with and attache case and raincoat,
hailing a cab. The real people hailing cabs, well-dressed men
and women striding along with briefcases -- purposeful,
successful.

INT. TAXI

Nicky rides again.

                         NICKY
               It's life, it's taxis. People
               trying to make contacts, make
               deals, meet their lovers. Taxis are
               sexy. You can't have Manhattan
               without taxis. I was proud of my
               taxi. I kept my taxi clean.

Nicky shifts his gaze. He sees Elliot Litvak slinking across
the street, looking faintly unclean and shows a trace of a
smile. He watches Elliot enter the lobby of the Chemical
Bank.

INT. BANK

Elliot is at a cash machine, making an elaborate transaction.

Nicky appears, approaching the adjacent machine. Elliot sees
him.

                         ELLIOT
               Nicky. I was thinking about you. I
               went to the preview last night.

                         NICKY
               I don't want to hear about it.

Nicky attends to his own transaction.

                         ELLIOT
                    (whispering)
               A lovely piece of theater. Small
               but important.

                         NICKY
               Shut up, Elliot.

                         ELLIOT
               Quietly effective.

Nicky takes his cash and begins to move away.

We don't appreciate what they've
built for us. We're artists who are
too dumb to see that this is the
peak moment of Western culture.

                         NICKY
               You're an artist. I'm a craftsman.

                         ELLIOT
               Press a button and they give us
               money.

                         NICKY
               Ride with me. We need a haircut.

INT. TAXI

Stalled between Park and Madison. The driver has opened the
door and is standing just outside the cab, trying to
determine the cause of delay.

                         ELLIOT
                    (whispering)
               How is Lillian? I haven't seen her.

                         NICKY
               She wants a divorce.

                         ELLIOT
               Don't talk like that.

                         NICKY
               It's over, finished and done with.

                         ELLIOT
               That sounds so final. But are we
               really surprised?

                         NICKY
               I'm completely stunned. I don't
               want this to happen.

                         ELLIOT
               But didn't we know it would happen?

                         NICKY
               Don't needle me, Elliot. Tell me
               how bad you feel. We're suppose to
               feel bad together. This is what
               friends do.

                         ELLIOT
                    (whispering)
               Joanna Bourne. So rich and crisp.
               This woman lets you touch her body?
               You put your hands on her personal
               parts?

Nicky hits Elliot -- a token blow to the arm. Elliot thinks
about it, then hits back.

They swat each other, half kiddingly, each of them leaning
away from the other to prevent being hit in the face.

EXT. THE STREET

A whitish brown mist is building the west. There is a sense
of scurrying people.

INT. TAXI

The driver re-enters.

                         DRIVER
               We must abandon.

                         NICKY
               What do you mean, we must abandon?

                         DRIVER
               Ruptured steam pipe.

                         ELLIOT
               Ruptured steam pipe.

                         DRIVER
               Asbestos lining. Do not inhale.

                         NICKY
               We must abandon.

                         DRIVER
               Contaminated substance. Very
               dangerous. Shooting mud.

                         NICKY
               Do not inhale.

                         ELLIOT
               We must abandon.

                         DRIVER
               Ruptured steam pipe.

                         NICKY
               Very dangerous.

                         ELLIOT
               Asbestos lining.

                         NICKY
               We must abandon.

                         ELLIOT
               Do not inhale.

Driver's name plate --

                         BODENHEIM
                         YEHOSHAFAT

Nicky pays him.

EXT. THE STREET

The driver flees eastward. Nicky and Elliot run across
Madison Avenue. A snowstorm of asbestos is shooting out of a
man hole cover west of Fifth Avenue, reducing visibility to
near zero. Cars and people are white shadows.

The two men, with collars raised and hands over heads hurry
into a restaurant on 47th Street between Madison and Fifth.

INT. RESTAURANT - LATER

A small narrow room. Handsome wall paintings -- a Tuscan hill
town. Very slow day.

Nicky and Elliot sitting with a carafe of wine, a bottle of
mineral water and some bread sticks. Glancing at menus
intermittently.

                         NICKY
               I'm trying to think. When did you
               start looking so terrible? You look
               awful.

                         ELLIOT
               I can tell you the year, the day,
               the night, the minute.

                         NICKY
               You used to love life. You don't
               exude this any more.

                         ELLIOT
               What do I exude?

                         NICKY
               Suffering. You exude a person who
               sits in a small dark apartment
               eating soft white bread.

                         ELLIOT
               Tonight you find out what it means
               to suffer.

                         NICKY
               Tonight. What's tonight?

                         ELLIOT
               Shit. They don't have any carrot
               soup.

                         NICKY
               You mean because What's-His-Name.

                         ELLIOT
               You will suffer because he is in
               the theater. And you will suffer a
               thousandfold when his review
               appears.

                         NICKY
               It's just a review.

                         ELLIOT
               It is just a review. Do not inhale.
               Very dangerous.

                         NICKY
               What's the fuss? I don't get it.

                         ELLIOT
               That's what I said eighteen months
               ago.

                         NICKY
               What happened eighteen months ago?

                         ELLIOT
               Before his Broadway days. He
               reviewed the one-act I did at the
               Fulton Fish Market. We did this
               play at four AM, outdoors in the
               rain. One performance. For the fish
               handlers.

                         NICKY
               And he was there?

                         ELLIOT
               Steven Schwimmer. I memorized every
               word of this review.

                         NICKY
               That's awful.

                         ELLIOT
               I recite it to myself with
               masochistic relish.

                         NICKY
               A year and a half later? You're
               still brooding?

A patron approaches the table and stares at Nicky with a
fixed grin of crazed recognition.

                         MAN
               Yessirree Bob! Yessisree Bob!

Nicky's jaw becomes set and he pours himself a glass of wine
as the man backs off.

                         ELLIOT
               You don't know about obscure
               writers, Nicky. How we have our
               anger to nurture and love. Our
               murderous fantasies for any amount
               of fame, money , power and sex.

The waitress comes by. She is Paisley Porter, attractive, in
her mid-twenties.

                         PAISLEY
               Guys ready to order?

                         ELLIOT
               Paisley Porter. I didn't know you
               were waiting tables.

                         PAISLEY
               Elliot?

                         ELLIOT
                    (to Nicky)
               This is a great young out-of-work
               actress.

                         PAISLEY
               Elliot Litvak. Have you been ill?
               And Mr. Rogan. How nice.

                         NICKY
               What's good?

                         PAISLEY
               We have a very nice pasta today.
               Alla Putanesca.

                         ELLIOT
               Say it again.

                         PAISLEY
               Alla puttanesca.

                         ELLIOT
                    (to Nicky)
               Isn't she great? What did I tell
               you? A talent.

INT. RESTAURANT - LATER - SAME TABLE

The food has arrived. Nicky is eating compulsively -- in
contrast to Elliot, who sips his mineral water, dabs his
mouth with a napkin, looks around the restaurant between
bites. When Nicky is finished with his food, he begins
picking among the items on Elliot's plate. Elliot uses his
fork to deflect Nicky's fork and the two men have a brief
duel with utensils, fencing silently but intently, using
knives and spoons to vary action.

EXT. STREET

The asbestos mist still clings. Men in protective suits and
masks move slowly, like moon walkers. Halted traffic,
abandoned cars. Mud covering the sidewalks and shop windows.
A gauzy stillness, dreamlike.

INT. STEVEN SCHWIMMER'S LOFT

Stillness. A slow whirling 360-degree shot. The kitchen area
is empty. The door of the portable toilet is open and no one
is inside. The makeshift wardrobe is empty except for four or
five hangers with shirts and jackets. There is no one at the
desk or exercise bike.

A sound, faint but persistent, like an intake of air.

The bathroom. The toilet bowl has been ripped out and taken
away, leaving a hole in the floor. Brownish water drips from
the tap into the wash basin, which is indelibly stained. The
drip makes a two-part sound and it matches the rhythm of the
intake of air. One-two. Pause. One-two. The bathtub has been
sprayed by a graffiti artist. Multi-colored swirls and
arabesques.
Steven is sitting on a mat in the tub, arms in the air and
folded so that his fists are close to his ears. He is in
lotus position, breathing in serious meditation -- a deep
intake of breath followed by a softer expulsion, matching the
beat of the dripping faucet.

He is still wearing the sleep mask.

INT. RESTAURANT - MAIN ROOM - LATER

The kitchen staff is eating at a group of tables pushed
together. Nicky's table has been absorbed by this cluster and
he sits reading the sports section in a tabloid and having an
espresso with his cigar.

Elliot, Paisley and actor-waiter stand at the small bar in
conversation.

Next to Nicky, two kitchen workers talk about the ball game.

                         FIRST MAN
               I got a good feeling about tonight

                         SECOND MAN
               We got Ojeda going. He pitched
               beautiful last time out.

                         FIRST MAN
               Plus Darryl's due for a big game.

                         NICKY
               I hate the Mets.

                         SECOND MAN
               How come?

                         NICKY
               When the Mets lose, they just lose.
               It's a flat feeling. But the Red
               Sox -- here we have a rich history
               of interesting ways to lose a
               crucial game. Defeats that keep you
               awake, that pound in your head like
               the hammer of fate.

Paisley walks across the room toward the kitchen. Nicky
pauses to watch her, then resumes speaking.

                         NICKY
               You can analyze a Red Sox defeat
               day and night for a month and still
               uncover layers of complex feelings -
               - feelings you didn't know you were
               capable of. The pain has a memory
               all of it's own.

EXT. SHEA STADIUM

The parking lot is empty. The stands are empty. A few members
of the crew move the batting cage into place for batting
practice.

INT. SHEA STADIUM - LOCKER ROOM

The empty visitor's locker room. Uniforms hang on the doors
of the lockers in preparation for tonight's game. We see the
3names Henderson, Stanley, Buckner.

INT. THE MEN'S ROOM - A LITTLE LATER

Cramped quarters. Intensely claustrophobic. Elliot at the
urinal. Nicky at the hand-dryer. An actor-waiter standing
between them at the sink.

                         ELLIOT
                    (quoting Steven Schwimmer)
               `One thing saves Elliot Litvak's
               work from complete mediocrity, and
               this is his lack of ambition.'

                         WAITER
               It gets funnier.

                         ELLIOT
                    (zipping up)
               It gets funnier. See, Nicky? They
               chart the laughs. This from a
               critic who lives like a fallen
               monk. Whose address is a carefully
               guarded secret.

                         WAITER
               A critic who has to disguise
               himself.

                         NICKY
               What do you mean?

                         WAITER
               To go to the theater. Wears I don't
               know what. Make-up, padding.

                         NICKY
               Why?

                         WAITER
               Because he is so deeply hated by so
               many people in the business.

                         ELLIOT
               He has to disguise himself, Nicky.

                         WAITER
               For his own safety and peace of
               mind.

The waiter squeezes past and leaves.

                         ELLIOT
               Do you want me to tell you what it
               was like, reading that review at
               the newstand with trucks rumbling
               past and street vendors facing
               Mecca?

                         NICKY
               What was it like?

                         ELLIOT
               I said, `I'm dead'. He killed me.

INT. RESTAURANT -LATER

Elliot standing near the front window, in a shaft of
sunlight, examining a white after-dinner candy. He puts it in
his pocket for later.
Paisley eating lunch at the end of the long table, looking up
to see Nicky approach with liqueur and a glass on wine. He
sits opposite her, placing the wineglass in front of her.

                         NICKY
               You've worked with Elliot?

                         PAISLEY
               I was in the fish-market play. What
               happened to him?

                         NICKY
               There was a review.

                         PAISLEY
               I think I remember.

                         NICKY
               So does Elliot.

                         PAISLEY
               Not one of Steven's finer moments.

                         NICKY
               Oh. You know him.

                         PAISLEY
               A little.

                         NICKY
               And he has finer moments now and
               then.

                         PAISLEY
               He has -- something. A funny little
               quality I find --

                         NICKY
               Endearing.

                         PAISLEY
               Engaging.

                         NICKY
               Elliot wants to kill him with a
               railroad spike.

                         PAISLEY
               A little drastic maybe?

                         NICKY
               Say it again.

                         PAISLEY
               What?

                         NICKY
               You know what.

                         PAISLEY
               Alla puttanesca.

                         NICKY
               One more time.

INT. THE ENTRANCE WAY - A LITTLE LATER

Elliot watches Nicky embrace Giorgio. Nicky carries the
tabloid he'd been reading -- the "Daily News". Elliot and
Nicky stand at the door and watch the whitish mist that
continues to linger.

                         ELLIOT
               Is it safe?

                         NICKY
               Do we care?

                         ELLIOT
               I think we Nought to wait.

                         NICKY
               I say we go.

                         ELLIOT
               You say we go?

                         NICKY
               Do not inhale.

                         ELLIOT
               I'm not ready.

                         NICKY
               Here we go.

They pull up their collars and run outside.

EXT. STREET - DAY

The street is deserted. Nicky holds the newspaper over his
face for protection. Each man has an arm in the air, trying
to hail a taxi. They are standing near a trash receptacle
that carries an advertisement for "New York Magazine". It is
a reproduction of the cover that we'd glimpsed earlier in
Joanna's apartment when her maid was reading the magazine. A
furtive man shielding his face with the newspaper -- and a
headline about a Phantom. Nicky and Elliot do not see the
receptacle.

A bus comes down the street with a large horizontal ad
covering its right side. It is the same ad -- five of them
actually, five "New York Magazine" covers side by side.
Elliot is trying to hail a cab and doesn't notice the ad. As
the bus bears down, Nicky steps out of the way, removing the
newspaper from his face and getting a clear look at the five
photos on the side of the bus -- a man concealing his face
with a newspaper.

Nicky reads the text under the logo of "New York Magazine".

                   THE PHANTOM WHO HAUNTS BROADWAY

                  Learning to hate Steven Schwimmer

Nicky stares after the bus. Another bus comes along, carrying
the same ad.

Nicky watches darkly.

EXT. STREET - LATER

This is the diamond district. Store signs reading:

Antique JewelryWe Buy DiamondsGold Emporium
Wholesale JewelryAll Brand-Name Watches Reduced

INT. THE TAXI - NICKY AND ELLIOT

Nicky is reading the newspaper. The driver is speaking
Chinese into his two-way radio. Squawky replies from the
dispatcher in machine gun Chinese.

                         ELLIOT
               The man has taken over my mind.
               He's not only out there. He's in my
               head and I can't get rid of him. I
               can't write a word without
               imagining his response. I'm
               paralyzed as an artist.

                         NICKY
               I don't have the problems that
               artists have.

                         LLIOT
               You've been saying that for years.

                         NICKY
               What?

                         ELLIOT
                    (mockingly)
               `I'm just a professional. A dues-
               playing member of a guild.' Because
               you're afraid, Nicky. That's the
               darkest part of you. You don't
               think you're good enough.

Nicky lowers the newspaper.

Driver's nameplate:

                         WU LI

EXT. THE STREET

About a dozen people gathered together including several
diamond merchants in their beards, black suits and fur hats.
They are watching the man in the cutaway dancing with his
cloth doll. Someone places a donation in the cigar box. From
the tape player: "Dancing in the Dark."

Elliot ends up near the Gotham Book Mart, on the north side
of the street. Nicky looks right past him into the bookstore
window. He sees something that interests him.

                         ELLIOT
               Where are you going?

                         NICKY
               Don't wait Efor me.

                         ELLIOT
               What about the haircut?

INT. GOTHAM BOOK MART

Nicky walks along the main aisle, looking at a woman standing
in the poetry nook.

Only a few people in the shop.

He enters the back room and gets a glimpse of a woman walking
through the opposite doorway back into the main room.

He squeezes past a browser and looks through the doorway.
Someone is just leaving the shop.

He walks to the rear of the store, where the office is
located. The door is open, the room is empty.

He re-enters the main room and sees a woman seated on the top
step of the stairway that leads to the basement stacks. Her
back is to Nicky and she is reading a book. He approaches
slowly and then squats by the doorway to get a closer look at
her.

She turns. It is Paisley Porter.

INT. GOTHAM BOOK MART - A MOMENT LATER

Nicky and Paisley in a corner of the back room.

                         NICKY
               You keep slipping away. How do you
               do that?

                         PAISLEY
               I was one of those silent,
               listening children. Glued to the
               shadows.

                         NICKY
               I was all noise. Played the radio
               loud. Battled constantly with my
               brother and sister. Here I am,
               world.

                         PAISLEY
               I hear good things about the new
               play.

                         NICKY
               So do I. Over and over.

                         PAISLEY
               Peter Redmond is an actor I admire
               enormously.

                         NICKY
               Would you like to meet him?

                         PAISLEY
               He doesn't want to meet some out-of-
               work ingenue.

                         NICKY
               I'm trying to prolong our
               afternoon. In case you haven't
               noticed.

                         PAISLEY
               The fact is, I have to get going.

                         NICKY
               Is it true?

                         PAISLEY
               Is what true?

                         NICKY
               He wears a disguise.

                         PAISLEY
               Steven goes to extremes to protect
               his privacy. No friends. No phone.

                         NICKY
               But you're his friend.

                         PAISLEY
               Sort of. Sometimes. You're not
               building an obsession about Steven,
               are you? Look. I understand opening-
               night jitters, but you've got one
               of the great actors in American
               theater starring in your play.

EXT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER

47th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue.

INT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER - STAGE ENTRANCE

Nicky has been cornered just inside the entrance by the stage
manager, a small, fierce woman named RENEE SIMON.

                         RENEE
               I can't take this anymore. He
               forgets simple lines. He forgets
               where to stand. We tell him and
               tell him and tell him. I know he's
               a sweet man. I love Peter. It's not
               his fault. But I've never worked in
               a show where the leading man has
               4parasites in his brain.

INT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER - THE ORCHESTRA

Nicky sits down in the orchestra, looking darkly into space,
brooding. He surveys the set, a working class kitchen, behind
it a backdrop of dark streets and looming tennaments. A
portly well-dressed man appears, moving along the row toward
Nicky. This is SIDNEY FABRIKANT, the producer.

                         NICKY
               aybe we ought to postpone the
               opening.

                         SIDNEY
               Joanna loves this play. She has
               sunk tons of money. She is
               completely Ncommitted.

                         NICKY
               appreciate that, Sidney. But our
               leading man can't remember his
               lines. And his understudy can't
               carry the play.

Nicky looks out at the rehearsal in progress on stage. The
director, JACK HASKINS and the actor PETER REDMOND
(50)confer, move about gesturing and blocking.

                         SIDNEY
               I had lunch with Joanna. She said
               she told you about Peter. You
               weren't concerned, she said.

                         NICKY
               hat was this morning.

                         SIDNEY
               So what happened since? You're
               worried about this kid who writes
               these reviews?

Nicky looks across the theatre. Paisley Porter sits alone,
tenth row center, watching rehearsal with rapt attention.

                         NICKY
               'm not worried about this kid.

                         SIDNEY
               Well I am. Worried sick. Everybody
               quotes Steven Schwimmer. He's here
               to announce the death of
               civilization. He kills a play every
               time he farts.

                         NICKY
               Postpone. We have every right.

                         SIDNEY
               Too late. All the elements are in
               place. Delay the opening and we
               lose the theater.

                         NICKY
               I've had three straight washouts,
               Sidney.

                         SIDNEY
                    (deliciously)
               You're dangling from the last
               letter of your last name.

INT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER -THE STAGE - NICKY AND PETER

REDMOND - A LITTLE LATER

The actor sitting on the sofa. Nicky on one knee, leaning
towards him in intimate conversation.

                         NICKY
               Sidney remains optimistic.

                         PETER
               Sidney.

                         NICKY
               Sidney Fabrikant. Our producer.

                         PETER
               I was educated by nuns.

                         NICKY
               Yes.

                         PETER
               I have excellent long-term memory.

                         NICKY
               Yes.

                         PETER
               I kissed Shirley Felder on the
               teeth.

                         NICKY
               Yes, Peter.

                         PETER
               But my parasite is consuming all
               the new memories. Eating my lines.

                         NICKY
               You have to see the words. Try to
               build a mental picture of the
               script. Imagine your lines high-
               lighted with a felt tip pen.

                         PETER
               What color?

                         NICKY
               What was your favorite color
               crayon, growing up?

                         PETER
               Burnt sienna.

                         NICKY
               Mine was cobalt blue.

                         PETER
               This is your history, isn't it?
               Nicky? All around us. And my
               parasite is consuming it.

                         NICKY
               Yes.

                         PETER
               I kissed her while she was
               laughing.

                         NICKY
               Yes.

                         PETER
               I can see her face so clearly. Dear
               God. My heart was flying out of my
               chest with love.

INT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER - THE WINGS

Jack Haskins and Renee Simon

                         RENEE
               I hear he got the parasite in
               Burma. 

                         JACK
               I heard Borneo.

                         RENEE
               Why do we blame the Third World for
               our parasites? Maybe he got it in
               Denver or Minneapolis.

                         JACK
               Maybe he got it in Borneo.

INT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER - THE STAGE

Nicky and Peter still conferring. Jack and Renee approach.

                         PETER
               I feel shaky about one line in
               particular. If I can get past this
               line. I think I can handle the last
               long speech.

                         RENEE
               Which line, Peter?

                         PETER
               The Son says to the Father, This
               could be it.

                         NICKY
               And the Father replies?

                         PETER
               That's the line I can't ever, for
               the life of me remember. I just
               can't get it.

                         JACK
               It's the same line. The Father
               simply repeats what the Son says to
               him.

                         RENEE
               This could be it.

                         NICKY
               This could be it.

                         PETER
               I know it sounds easy. But
               something happens between the time
               I hear the line and the time I'm
               suppose to Jrepeat it.

                         JACK
               This could be it.

                         PETER
                    (long pause)
               This could be it.

                         JACK
               Let's work on it.

                         PETER
                    (long pause)
               Let's work on it.

INT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER - AISLE - A LITTLE LATER

Nicky and Paisley Porter make their way out of the theatre.

                         PAISLEY
               Do you think he can do it?

                         NICKY
               I don't know.

                         PAISLEY
               He's a very sweet man.

                         NICKY
               Where are you going now?

                         PAISLEY
               Home.

                         NICKY
               Someone waiting for you?

                         PAISLEY
               No one's waiting.

                         NICKY
               There's a certain kind of wounded
               young man who uses his oddness to
               get laid. Is that our Steven?

                         PAISLEY
               If I'm sleeping with him, and I
               haven't said I am, then so what?

                         NICKY
                    (quietly)
               So everything. That's so what. So I
               begin to hate him. So I want to do
               him grave harm.

                         PAISLEY
               But you don't even know me. How can
               you care what I do with whom?

                         NICKY
               I know you both. Enough. How much
               knowledge does it take before a man
               does something crazy.

                         PAISLEY
               Do you want to talk about doing
               crazy things.

                         NICKY
               Yes.

                         PAISLEY
               Never mind.

INT. LOBBY - CONTINUOUS

They enter lobby daylight, squint a little.

                         NICKY
               What? Come on, Paisley.

                         PAISLEY
               Our Steven not only disguises
               himself.

                         NICKY
               Yes.

                         PAISLEY
               He goes to the theater armed.

MUTED BACKGROUND VOICES ON THE LOBBY PA: Jack Haskins and
Peter Redmond.

                         JACK (V.O.)
               This could Pbe it.

                         PETER (V.O.)
               This could be it.

They look up at the speaker.

                         PAISLEY
               He feels he has to defend himself
               if necessary.

                         NICKY
               I'm actually beginning to enjoy
               this.

EXT. BARRYMORE THEATRE - DAY

Wide of the theater. Nicky says goodbye to Paisley.

Reverse angle, Elliot watches them from across the street.

Nicky goes back inside the theatre. Paisley walks west on
47th street.

Elliot waits for a moment, then follows her.

INT. STEVEN SCHWIMMER'S LOFT

The Port-O-San. Steven emerges and goes to the stacked
cardboard boxes against the wall. His hate mail. He is
wearing a bath towel like a prayer shawl over his sweat
clothes.

He drags one of the boxes to the ratty armchair. He sits in
the chair by the filthy window that looks west toward the
early-setting sun.

He takes a letter from the box, opens it, reads it, lets it
fall to the floor. Takes another letter, opens it --

There is a knock at the door.

Steven tenses, does not move.

Another knock.

He moves warily toward the door.

                         PAISLEY (V.O.)
               Steven, it's me. Will you open
               please.

Steven releases the dead-bolt lock and opens the door.

                         STEVEN
               You've come to me. I wanted to
               believe you would one day.

                         PAISLEY
               I haven't come to you.

                         STEVEN
               But you're here. So you must have
               come to me.

INT. STEVEN SCHWIMMER'S LOFT - A LITTLE LATER

Steven is back in the chair by the window. Paisley nervously
prowls the loft.

                         PAISLEY
               In other words I never understood
               until today how much pain and
               anxiety you've been causing with
               your reviews. Steven, it's so
               unfair.

                         STEVEN
               Of course it's unfair. The truth is
               always unfair. Why do you think I
               live this way? Hiding out. Stealing
               electricity from a lamp post.
               Because people who write the truth
               are outcasts of society. I can't
               live openly, in a nice clean
               doorman building, with my name on
               the mailbox. They'd come after me
               in packs.

                         PAISLEY
               Not if you stopped hurting people.
               Write the truth gently.

                         STEVEN
               The truth is never gentle. Listen
               to me carefully. Each of us lives
               in the thinnest possible wrapping
               of wishes and dreams. Truth is the
               force that penetrates this wispy
               skin. It hurts and maims.

                    (reaching down to clutch a
                    fistful of letters)
               Look how they hate me for telling
               the truth. It's an education,
               Paisley. The College of Raw Nerves.
               Letters dripping blood. Cries of
               revenge.

                         PAISLEY
               Yes. I've seen your victims. One
               past and one future. I thought I
               might convince you to reconsider.

                         STEVEN
               And I thought, at last, she's here,
               she wants me.

                         PAISLEY
               I don't want you, Steven.

Paisley moves towards the door.

                         STEVEN
               Stay. Teach me to be compassionate.

                         PAISLEY
               I'm going home to my machine.

EXT. STREET CORNER CASH MACHINE

Elliot looks up and sees Paisley emerging from Steven's
building. He crosses the street toward her.
When Paisley sees him, she seems to freeze.

EXT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER

47th Street between Broadway and Eight Avenue.

Nicky walking slowly backwards, arm raised, trying to hail a
cab. It is getting dark. He glances left, sees a large two-
panel poster in front of the theater. One half is a black-and-
white photo -- a younger Nicky Rogan, in a tuxedo, holding an
award in his raised hand.

The other half is all type --

                         SIDEWALKS
               The new
                         Nicky
               ogan

He sees someone enter the theater lobby. It is his daughter
Laurel. He follows, catching up to her at the end of a short
line of people at the ticket window.

                         NICKY
               Laurel. Tickets are all set. I
               double-checked.

                         LAUREL
               Thanks, Daddy. But I just need one.
               Mother's not going.

                         NICKY
               Opening night?

                         LAUREL
               I know -- why should a bitter
               divorce interfere with tradition?

Laurel reaches the window and speaks to the clerk.

                         LAUREL
               Rogan, Laurel. You also have a
               Rogan, Lillian. She won't need it.
               Sell it.

                         NICKY
               Take it yourself. Take a date.

                         LAUREL
               I don't have a date. I don't want a
               date.

They leave the window with Laurel's ticket.

                         NICKY
               And you blame me. It's because we
               never talk. Let's talk.

                         LAUREL
               I have a class. I'm late.

                         NICKY
               Can we talk later? Will you be at
               the party?

                         LAUREL
               I'm not sure.

She is out the door, hurrying across the street. Nicky stands
under the marquee, calling out to her.

                         NICKY
               I'll find you. After the show.
               Somewhere.

INT. TAXI

Moving very slowly.

Driver's nameplate --

                         MOSHOESHOE
                         IBRHIM

                         DRIVER
               A man is hit the other day by
               another taxi. I mean he is flying.
               Crash against the windscreen. Right
               here in my face. Blood is
               everywhere.

                         NICKY
               I never left the garage without my
               Windex.

                         DRIVER
               I was barrister in Kenya. I said to
               him, get off from here. I cannot
               drive with your body on my
               windscreen.

                         NICKY
               I drove twelve hours straight
               through. Ate at the wheel.

                         RIVER
               You have to eat at the wheel. You
               cannot get anywhere.

                         NICKY
               That's the drama. We're waiting for
               life to continue. Where do you pee,
               Ibrahmin?

                         DRIVER
               Under the Manhattan Bridge.

                         NICKY
               That's where I peed.

EXT. THE STREET

47th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenue. A hotel, a high
school, brownstones with fire escapes.

INT. MICHAEL ROGAN'S KITCHEN

Michael, Nicky's father, is making an omelette on the old
stove. He is pushing eighty, slow-moving, with a two-day
stubble.

Knock at the door.

Michael goes to the intercom, inches from the door.

                         MICHAEL
                    (into speaker)
               Who is it?

                         NICKY (V.O.)
               I'm at the door.

                         MICHAEL
                    (into speaker)
               Go way. I'll call a cop.

                         NICKY (V.O.)
               Pop, will you let me in?

                         MICHAEL
                    (into speaker)
               Where the hell are you?

                         NICKY (V.O.)
               Right here. At the door.

Michael goes to the door and looks through the peephole.

INTERCUT AS NECESSARY

                         MICHAEL
               What do you want?

                         NICKY
               It's me. Nicky.

                         MICHAEL
               Nicky comes on Sunday's.

                         NICKY
               Where are your glasses? Go get
               them.

                         MICHAEL
               If it's you, what are you doing
               here?

                         NICKY
               I'm on my way to get a haircut.

                         MICHAEL
               Where does Nicky get his hair cut?

Nicky stands against the door, speaking softly into the
peephole.

                         NICKY
               Across Ninth Avenue. Dodgie's.
               Where you've been getting your hair
               cut for fifty years. Where Uncle
               Billy and Uncle Marty got their
               hair cut. Where Jim Rorty shot a
               man for cheating at poker.

                         MICHAEL
               It was rummy, not poker. But I'll
               take a chance and let you in.

INT. MICHAEL ROGAN'S KITCHEN - LATER

Michael is eating his omelette at a small enamel-topped table
in the kitchen. Nicky stands by the boxlike refrigerator,
drinking a beer. This is the kitchen that is the centerpiece
of the theatre set. The new play is Nicky's young life.

                         NICKY
               It's a constant shock to me, how
               small this place is. How did we do
               it? Five people in these little
               rooms.

                         MICHAEL
               Get yourself something to eat.

Nicky takes some eggs out of the refrigerator.

                         NICKY
               We must have been heroic.

                         MICHAEL
               Five's not so many. There were
               families with seven kids. A
               grandmother. A dimwit uncle.

                         NICKY
               Lillian says it once a week. `Why
               doesn't he come live with us?'

                         MICHAEL
               You know the answer to that.

                         NICKY
               I do know the answer to that. Why
               don't we watch the ball game later?
               We'll go to Mannion's.

                         MICHAEL
               They're only gonna lose.

                         NICKY
               Of course they're gonna lose. We'll
               watch them lose. What good is
               heartbreak if we don't experience
               it firsthand?

                         MICHAEL
               The Red Sox are your problem. I
               never understood about you and the
               Red Sox. Everybody rooted for the
               Yankees.

Nicky is scrambling the eggs.

                         NICKY
               Remember 1949? Last two games of
               the season. Against the Yankees.
               The Sox lost on Saturday. Then they
               lost on Sunday. First I cried for
               twenty-four hours. Then I had fist-
               fights the rest of the week.

                         MICHAEL
               It's one thing for kids. You get
               older, you Nhave other things.

                         NICKY
               It's all connected, Pop. It's one
               life. Baseball is memory. How do
               fathers and sons show their love?
               They go to a ball game together.
               Thirty-five years later, they sit
               in the kitchen and remember.

                         MICHAEL
               But the son is suppose to stop
               crying.

                         NICKY
               I could have grown up happy. A
               Yankee fan. A divorce lawyer.

Nicky sees his father's glasses on a shelf above the stove.
He puts them on the table.

                         NICKY
               You'll need these. Tonight. For the
               play.

                         MICHAEL
               Don't make me sit through one of
               your plays.

                         NICKY
               Hey, Pop. I know you don't like the
               commotion of opening night. But I
               especially want you to see this
               play. It's new territory for me.
               And for you too. I have to know
               what you think.

                         MICHAEL
               Since when did that matter?

                         NICKY
               Let's not start that again.

                         MICHAEL
               My back is killing me.

                         NICKY
               Where's your elastic brace?

                         MICHAEL
               I can't find it.

                         NICKY
               You're suppose to wear it when your
               back gives you trouble.

                         MICHAEL
               I lost it. I lose everything.

                         NICKY
               I'll go get you another one. You
               have to wear it.

Nicky takes a roll off the counter, makes a sandwich for his
scrambled eggs, takes a bite and heads for the door.

                         NICKY
               Be right back. Take a good look at
               me.

Michael puts on his glasses.

                         MICHAEL
               So I know who I'm letting in.

Nicky leaves the apartment.

EXT. THE STREET

The man in the cutaway dances with his doll. The tape machine
plays "In The Still of the Night.

" The street is completely empty except for the dancer.
Nicky, a small paper bag in his hand, reenters his father's
building.

INT. MICHAEL ROGAN'S LIVING ROOM

The room bears some resemblance to the living room set at
the Barrymore. Michael sits at the end of the sofa, weary.
Nicky is taking an athletic bandage -- about four feet long
and three inches wide -- out of the package.

He sits in a chair that is set perpendicular to Michael's end
of the sofa, so that Nicky is looking at his father in
profile.

                         MICHAEL
               `Why doesn't he come live with us?'
               Because everything is here.

                         NICKY
               I know, Pop.

                         MICHAEL
               I'm lucky they don't knock down the
               building. It could happen anytime.
               And everything worth remembering is
               right here.

                         NICKY
               I think the building's okay. At
               least for the time being.

                         MICHAEL
               You didn't think it was okay when
               you lived here. You wanted to get
               out so fast I thought you were
               running a marathon.

                         NICKY
               Normal boy's ambition. I like
               coming back. You know that.

                         MICHAEL
               You tell your friends your father
               used to work the docks. Callused
               hands. But you had an attitude when
               you were growing up that wasn't
               easy for your mother and me to
               understand.

Nicky is gradually unbuttoning his father's shirt so that he
can wrap the bandage around the old man's chest and back.

                         NICKY
               I was in a hurry to do big things,
               make big mistakes. Any mistakes
               were okay as long as it was big.
               But I'm trying to see these things
               clearly and honestly. That's the
               play they're going to kill starting
               tonight. There's a guy out there
               getting ready to rip it apart. And
               that's us. Who we were and where we
               come from.

                         MICHAEL
               So what are you going to do about
               it?

                         NICKY
               What do you want me to do?

                         MICHAEL
               Show him who we are.

Nicky takes off the shirt.

Michael struggles out of his T-shirt and we see that he is
wearing the elastic bandage he thought he had lost.

He is sitting with his head tilted up, eyes closed, and is
unaware that he is wearing the bandage.

Nicky takes the new bandage, winds it tightly and puts it
back in the box.

His father has gone to sleep.

EXT. STREET BUILDING

It is dark and cold. Nicky emerges and walks west, diagonally
across the street, to a barbershop on the other side of Ninth
Avenue.

lliot is on the stoop waiting for him.

INT. THE BARBER SHOP

Nicky sits in the barber chair. Elliot pulls up a customer's
chair and sits with his back to the mirror, more or less
facing Nicky. The barber, an elderly hawk-eyed man named
Dodgie, begins his preparations for Nicky's haircut.

                         NICKY
               He carries a gun.

                         ELLIOT
               Then you should carry a gun.

He places the sheet over Nicky's upper body and fastens it at
the neck.

                         NICKY
               I used to carry a gun when I drove
               a cab.

                         ELLIOT
               Where is it?

                         NICKY
               I gave it away. I thought, I'm a
               writer now.

                         ELLIOT
               That was a big mistake.

                         DODGIE
               You should never be without a gun.
               In this city?

                         ELLIOT
               If he carries a gun, you have to
               carry a gun.

                         NICKY
               We're making too much of this.

                         ELLIOT
               No, we're not.

                         NICKY
               I'm not a lonely spooky writer like
               you. Nursing a hundred grudges. I'm
               a man who loves life.

                         ELLIOT
               We're talking about something
               deeper than grudges. How do we
               respond to personal attack?

                         DODGIE
               In this city? And you don't carry a
               gun?

                         ELLIOT
               How do we maintain our dignity and
               self-respect?

                         NICKY
               In other words why should we suffer
               silently at this kind of abuse? The
               man is out there ruining lives.

                         ELLIOT
               It's your best play, Nicky.

                         NICKY
               He'll hate it.

                         ELLIOT
               He'll kill it. He'll write a review
               so devastating it will shatter your
               career and cause the most
               unmanageable psychic grief. What
               happens to your apartment on the
               East River? Your house in
               Connecticut, where you watch things
               grow.

Dodgie goes to the cabinet on which the cash register sits.
He opens the cabinet door, slides out a drawer and removes
some hand towels. There is something there he wants Nicky to
see. An old pockmarked revolver.

Nicky sees the gun.

                         NICKY
               We were thinking of putting in a
               pool.

                         ELLIOT
                    (quoting)
               `The most interesting thing about
               Elliot Litvak is that he writes the
               way he looks -- fuzzy, grubby and
               shifty-eyed.'
                    (beat)
               I'm telling you as a friend.

                         NICKY
               What?

                         ELLIOT
               There are things that speak to us
               from the past.

                         DODGIE
               In this city you don't walk five
               feet out the door and there is
               somebody trying to take what's
               yours.

                         ELLIOT
               Your truth is locked in your past.
               Find it. Know it for what it is.
                    (beat)
               Shoot him, Nicky.

                         NICKY
               Shoot him.

                         ELLIOT
               The American theater doesn't need
               people like that.

                         NICKY
               Shoot him, Nicky. Not that we
               really mean it. But where does he
               live?

                         ELLIOT
               Keep going west. Last building
               before the river.

                         NICKY
               How do you Eknow.

                         ELLIOT
               Paisley Porter.

                         NICKY
               What do you mean?

                         ELLIOT
               About an hour and a half ago. I saw
               her come out of a place. She said
               she was visiting a friend. But she
               wouldn't tell me who.

                         NICKY
               Had to be him.

                         ELLIOT
               She was very evasive.

Nicky gets out of the chair. Dodgie removes the sheet for him
and Elliot smooths down his clothes and hair, like a pair of
grooms attending a warrior.

Nicky goes to the cabinet, gets the gun. He returns to the
chair.

                         NICKY
               I'm enjoying this more every
               minute.

Elliot takes an after-dinner candy out of his pocket -- the
candy he pocketed in the Italian restaurant after lunch. He
blows the lint off and eats it.

                         DODGIE
               How do you want the sideburns.

                         NICKY
               Elegant and refined.

EXT. SHEA STADIUM

Crowds of people pouring down the ramps from the train
station, hurrying, late.

The umpire's room -- six men nibbling cookies, smoking a last-
minute cigarette, adjusting equipment.

An unidentified room somewhere in there lower reaches of the
stadium. Twenty cases of Great Western champagne stacked and
ready for the postgame celebration.

INT. STEVEN SCHWIMMER'S LOFT

Steven shaving. He does it symmetrically. A stroke under the
left sideburn; a stroke under the right sideburn. Left side
of jaw; right side of jaw.

Steven standing in his shorts, applying putty to his jaw to
make it square. Then a false mustache and a wavy blond
hairpiece. Then a thick bronze makeup paste.

Steven in front of a full-length mirror near the bed, putting
on a bulletproof vest, which gives him a solid appearance,
bulking his caved-in chest and concealing his pot belly.

Steven putting on black trousers, a brash shirt with a bright
bow tie, which he tips slightly askew. A pair of black and
white shoes with elevator heels. Then his shoulder holster.

Steven leaning over the coffee table, inserting bullets into
the chamber of the revolver.

With the gun in his holster, he stands in front of the
mirror. Takes the gun out, aims it, puts it back in the
holster.

Does a dazzling karate move.

Steven putting on a metallic rayon sport coat. A long silk
scarf.

We see a handsome, dashing young man.

He puts on a pair of dark glasses and heads for the door.

EXT. THE BARRYMORE

pening night crowd. The sidewalk is mobbed. Limousines and
taxis pulling up. Men in tuxedos, other men scalping tickets.

The TV crew with a female reporter doing interviews: talking
to Joanna Bourne and Sidney Fabrikant.

A couple of ten-year-old break dancers entertain the well
heeled opening night crowd.

INT. TAXI

Stuck in traffic. Nicky in the rear seat.

The driver is a black woman around fifty. Next to her in the
front seat is her grandson, Matthew, who is ten.

The interior of the taxi is homelike. A plastic drinking cup
magnetically rooted to the dashboard. A small battery-
operated fan next to the cup. The steering wheel is
upholstered. There are family photographs on the dashboard
and visors.

Matthew's schoolbooks are next to him on the front seat. He
is doing his homework.

Driver's name plate --

                         MOSEBY
                         TOYOTA

                         NICKY
               I loved my taxi. A checkered cab.
               Big and rumbly.

                         TOYOTA
               I'm looking at you trying to think.
               Put your face in the mirror. I know
               I recognize you from somewhere.

                         NICKY
               Everybody else does. Why not you?

                         TOYOTA
               You're Frankie Lazzaro. The
               gangster from Rhode Island.

                         NICKY
               Oh yeah?

                         TOYOTA
               Matthew, look at him. When I lived
               in Roxbury, the media followed this
               man everywhere. He was bigger than
               ten movie stars.
                    (to Nicky)
               Where's your white Lincoln limo?

Nicky is delighted at the mistake and alters his voice
slightly, using a gangsterish inflection.

                         NICKY
                    (to Matthew)
               Some little kid stole the hubcaps.

                         TOYOTA
               The most charming gangster in New
               England. Where are we going, Mr.
               Lazzaro?

                         NICKY
               Call me Frankie. And it looks like
               we're going nowhere.

                         TOYOTA
               Might be an accident on the West
               Side Highway.

                         NICKY
               How come you got the kid with you?

                         TOYOTA
               Matthew's my grandson.

                         NICKY
               A grandmother. God bless you.

                         TOYOTA
               He does bless me, each and every
               day. Matthew's mother works a
               hospital shift, so I pick him up at
               school. We stop for a meal usually
               around this time. He does his
               homework and gets some experience
               meeting people. But we never had a
               famous mobster before.

                         NICKY
               It's the kid's lucky day.

                         TOYOTA
               This is one charming crook. If
               shooting people is charming.

                         NICKY
               Now that's a complicated subject.

                         TOYOTA
               That's a simple subject.

                         NICKY
               Look, we're stuck here front and
               back. It's dinnertime for you, game
               time for me. Let's park the cab and
               go to Mannion's. What do you say,
               Matthew? We'll drink beer and talk
               baseball.

GRAINY IMAGE

Filling the screen. Actual footage. A man in a parachute
coming down on an expanse of grass. It is the infield at Shea
Stadium. He carries a sign reading "Let's Go, Mets". Security
men hustle the parachutist off the field and into the Mets
dugout as the game begins.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN

We see that the image is on a TV screen over the bar. The
place is crowded, a neighborhood tavern.

Near the door: Nicky embracing the owner, a beefy man named
Georgie. People coming and going.

                         NICKY
               Georgie.

                         GEORGIE
               Nicky, God bless. You're well? Your
               family's well? That's all that
               counts.

                         NICKY
               Are you absolutely sure?

                         GEORGIE
               Hey. I love this guy. Be good. Stay
               well. I'm serious: Give my best to
               everybody.

They embrace.

Faces lining the bar.

TV images from the game.

People at tables standing occasionally for a better look at
the game.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE -LATER

Nicky sits facing Toyota and Matthew. A young waiter is
placing their food on the table.

                         MATTHEW
               What happens if somebody comes in
               here right now and shoots you?

                         NICKY
               This place becomes famous. Tour
               buses. Blind people feeling around
               for bullet holes in the wall.

                         TOYOTA
               You see what you're doing, don't
               you?

                         NICKY
               What am I doing?

                         TOYOTA
               You're charming the boy.

                         NICKY
               Hey, Toyota. He asked me a
               question.

                         TOYOTA
               Frankie Lazzaro. Coming down the
               courthouse steps every day in the
               media. Children see this. They
               think you're the Secretary of the
               Treasury.

                         NICKY
               That's my cousin, Angelo.

INT. THE BARRYMORE THEATER - DRESSING ROOM

The actor Peter Redmond and the director Jack Haskins. A
second actor, who is about fifteen, witnesses the exchange.

                         JACK
               This could be it.

                         PETER
               This could be it.

                         JACK
               This could be it.

                         PETER
               This could be it.

                         JACK
               Does it feel comfortable?

                         PETER
               Does what feel comfortable?

                         JACK
               This could be it.

                         PETER
               This could be it.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE MAIN ROOM - LATER

People cluster around TV sets.

Raucous noise.

A waiter with a tray of food standing transfixed, watching
the game.

Nicky is now sitting next to Matthew and they are watching
the game.

                         MATTHEW
               What's it like to shoot somebody?

                         NICKY
               I respect a kid who does his
               homework in a taxi. But let's put a
               lid on the questions.

                         TOYOTA
               Go on, tell him. Tell the truth.
               Tell him how you feel, shooting a
               piece of hot metal in somebody's
               flesh who was once a child, who was
               once the same age as this boy.
               Somebody's flesh who was innocent
               once.

                         NICKY
               It's complicated. It's a whole
               life. A person doesn't commit an
               act of violence out of nowhere.
               There are strong forces at work.

TV audio: derisive shouts from the stadium crowd directed at
Red Sox players.

Action on the field.

                         TV VOICES
               Dew-eeey! Rog-errr!

The bar crowd picks up the chant.

TV images. The Red Sox have scored and lead 2-0.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

Nicky stands to see the action better. His jacket swings open
and Toyota sees the revolver tucked into his waistband.

INT. THE BARRYMORE

eople seating themselves in the orchestra.

Noise from the tavern TV continues to be heard from the
subjective viewpoint of a man in the theater who has a
miniature TV and earphones.

Steven Schwimmer in an aisle seat in the orchestra. He sees
Paisley sitting in the theatre some distance away.

House lights go down.

Two figures hurrying down the aisle. An usher leading a young
woman. The woman is Laurel Rogan, Nicky's daughter, wearing
her headset antennas.

Laurel squeezes past some people and takes her seat, and
Steven, sitting three rows back, watches her with interest.

The curtain comes open.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - LATER

Cheering from the bar crowd.

Nicky is a little disheveled. He has finished his dinner and
is eating from Toyota's plate finishing and watching the
game.

                         TOYOTA
               You're a family man, Frankie?

                         NICKY
               Wife and daughter. My father's
               still alive.
               He outlives me, starting tonight.
               Because the Mets just tied the
               score. It was only a matter of
               time, wasn't it?

                         TOYOTA
               An how many years does it take a
               person to make his family safe and
               secure and happy, and then in one
               dumb moment, what does he do?

                         NICKY
               I don't know Toyota. What does he
               do?

                         TOYOTA
               And the people he hurts the most
               are the people who love him.
               Despite who he is and what he does
               for a living. We're always saying
               we want to take control of our
               lives. You don't want to take
               control. You want to lose control.
               Jesus knows it.

Nicky is standing again but he's not looking at the TV screen
this time. His gaze is directed at someone who has just
entered the tavern.

A woman stands at the entrance, middle-aged and somewhat
anxious, looking for someone. She is Lillian Rogan, Nicky's
wife.

                         NICKY
               It's a complicated subject.

                         TOYOTA
               It's a simple subject.

Nicky gestures that he will be right back.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE BOOTH

                         LILLIAN
               Your father said you might be here.

                         NICKY
               Two-all after six.

                         LILLIAN
               I've been looking for you because I
               want to let you know what's been
               going on before you read about it
               in a gossip column.

                         NICKY
               We stranded five runners in the
               first two innings. This will come
               back to haunt us.

                         LILLIAN
               I want to be fair-minded, Nicky.

                         NICKY
               All right. What's been going on?

                         LILLIAN
               I've been talking to a prominent
               divorce lawyer.

                         NICKY
               How prominent?

                         LILLIAN
               He has his own submarine. I'll be
               getting everything that matters.
               I'll get New York and I'll get
               Connecticut.

Happy roars from the bar crowd.

A young waiter arrives with menus.

                         NICKY
               I'll have whatever she's having.

                         LILLIAN
                    (to Waiter)
               I don't want to be responsible for
               his food. Just a small green salad.
               And a Perrier.

                         NICKY
               Bring me the bay scallops with
               mercury poisoning.

                         WAITER
               Yessiree, Bob.

                         NICKY
               Get the hell out of here. I don't
               want you bringing our food. Send a
               real waiter.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE BAR

TV images: action on the field.

Crowd at the bar. Noise like a massive pulse beat. Bar crowd
picks up chant from stadium crowd.

                         BAR VOICES
               Rog-errrr! Dew-eeey!

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE BOOTH - LATER

Dinner has arrived with a bottle of wine. A cigarette burns
in the ashtray in front of Lillian.

                         NICKY
               Opening night, Lillian.

                         LILLIAN
               Who the hell cares?

                         NICKY
               The whole thing is my fault. I took
               unfair advantage of your patience
               and understanding. You understand
               me.

                         LILLIAN
               That's always been my problem.

                         NICKY
               And you've been extremely patient.

                         LILLIAN
               You know why, don't you? Because I
               am patient, chain-smoking Lillian.

                         NICKY
               You smoked because I smoked. We
               were falling in love, remember? I
               used to see certain movies only
               because you had seen them. I wanted
               to see what you saw.

                         LILLIAN
               I'd forgotten that.

                         NICKY
               I went because you went. You smoked
               because I smoked.

                         LILLIAN
               That's very lovely actually.

                         NICKY
               Laurel wants us to be honest and
               open. Let's be open with each
               other.

                         LILLIAN
               Be open with me. I'd like that.

                         NICKY
               There may be things you'd rather
               not know about.

                         LILLIAN
               I want to know. We haven't talked
               this way in years.

                         NICKY
               I had an affair -- are you sure you
               want to hear this?

                         LILLIAN
               Joanne Bourne.

                         NICKY
               Alma Wetzel.

                         LILLIAN
               Nicky, no. This is insupportable.
               How could you?

                         NICKY
               I'm a man. She's, you know, a
               woman.

                         LILLIAN
               She's my gynecologist.

Lillian begins to weep lightly.

                         NICKY
               I am really, deeply sorry.

                         LILLIAN
               It violates so many trusts.

                         NICKY
               It was an animal thing. No real
               intimacy.

                         LILLIAN
               I never thought of Dr. Wetzel as
               having a sex life outside the
               office.

                         NICKY
               We did it in the office. She
               thought her apartment was too
               impersonal.

                         LILLIAN
               I'm glad we're having this talk.

                         NICKY
               I feel great. I feel impeccably
               alive. I'm elated. Eat something.
               Please. I love you.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE BAR

Moans from the bar crowd.

TV images.

Scoreboard: Red Sox lead 3-2 in the seventh inning.

EXT. THE STREET

Nicky with one arm raised, hailing a taxi. He and Lillian
kiss sweetly.

A taxi pulls up and Lillian gets in. She and Nicky hold hands
through the window.

                         LILLIAN
               You look awful, sweetheart. Get a
               haircut. Get a lawyer.

Across the street, the man in the cutaway is dancing with his
doll. The tape machine plays, "In the Wee Small Hours of the
Morning."

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN

Nicky rejoins Toyota and Matthew. He carries the wine bottle
and his glass.

                         MATTHEW
               Great game. Red Sox are winning.

                         NICKY
               They're always winning. Until they
               lose.

                         TOYOTA
               Your problem is you take the easy
               way out. Losing is easy.

                         NICKY
               Winning is easy. Losing is
               complicated. It's a lifetime's
               work.

                         TOYOTA
               It may be work but it's not honest
               work. Faith is the real work.

                         MATTHEW
               Clemens has a blister. Look.
               They're pinch-hitting for him.

TV SCREEN

Mike Greenwell comes up to hit for Clemens. Two pitches, two
strikes.

                         NICKY
               He's a twenty-four-game winner. He
               pitches seven solid innings. We
               scratch out a one-run lead. Of
               course he gets a blister. Of course
               they put up Greenwell even though
               Baylor's sitting on the bench. Of
               course Greenwell strikes out.

Third pitch. Greenwell strikes out.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

                         TOYOTA
               You made him strike out. You wished
               it on him. You want to lose. It's
               too hard for you to believe in
               something. It's hard to have faith.
               It's hard Nwork to trust somebody.

                         NICKY
                    (reciting)
               "It looked extremely rocky for the
               Boston nine that day."

                         TOYOTA
               You're afraid to risk believing.
               Believe in them. Believe in your
               self. Take a risk. It will humanize
               you as a person.

                         NICKY
               I want to believe.

                         TOYOTA
               If you believed, you wouldn't be
               walking around with a handgun in
               your belt. What does that tell me?
               You want to make the night come
               down.

INT. THE BARRYMORE

iew from the wings. Jack Haskins and Renee Simon looking on.

The stage. Peter Redmond as the Father sits at the end of the
sofa. The fifteen-year-old actor who plays the Son approaches
him, sitting on a footstool and leaning close.

                         FATHER
               I always thought a night's sleep is
               what you get for a hard day's work.
               But these last weeks I lie there
               helpless. Hour after hour. I've
               come close to praying for the first
               time since I was your age. Pray to
               God to put Sme out.

                         SON
               I talked to the doctor again, Pop.
               He said she's not getting any
               better. He wants to talk to you. I
               think he means right away.

                         FATHER
               How bad is she?

                         SON
               This could be it.

Peter stares at the Son, a look of desolation slowly entering
his face.

In the wings, Renee looks at Jack. She is equally desolate.

INT. THE BARRYMORE - THE ORCHESTRA SEATS

Laurel in the audience leans forward, waiting for the next
line.

teven Schwimmer watches, giving nothing away.

INT. THE BARRYMORE - THE STAGE

Peter staring at the Son. The Son looking increasingly
bewildered.

Sound of coughing in the audience.

INT. THE BARRYMORE - THE WINGS

Renee takes a newspaper off a chair, offers a section to
Jack, keeps the rest for herself.

8Sound of coughing intensifies.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN

Boisterous noise from the bar crowd.

Two women exchanging high fives.

TV images.

Scoreboard: 3-3 after nine innings.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

Nicky is finishing his wine. Matthew is next to him,
standing.

                         TOYOTA
               Say it and you'll believe it. Life
               is good. Say it.

                         NICKY
               I want to say it because my whole
               life may depend on these next few
               moments.

                         TOYOTA
               Then say it.

                         NICKY
               Life is good.

                         TOYOTA
               Speak it like it's real. Matthew.

                         MATTHEW
               Life is good.

                         NICKY
               Life is good.

Raucous, mocking cries from the Bar Crowd.

                         BAR CROWD
               Hen-duuu! Hen-duuu!

                         TOYOTA
               What are people?

                         NICKY
               I don't know.

                         TOYOTA
               Matthew.

                         MATTHEW
               People are dependable.

                         NICKY
               I don't know if I can say that.

                         TOYOTA
               People are dependable.

                         MATTHEW
               People are dependable.

                         NICKY
               Let's see what Henderson does.

TV SCREEN

Dave Henderson stands at the plate to lead off the Red Sox
tenth.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

A real waiter arrives -- obese, slow-moving, with hair
curling out of his ears -- and he brings ice cream for
Matthew, coffee for Toyota and a stinger for Nicky.

                         NICKY
               Finally, I get a waiter who doesn't
               know "Macbeth".

                         WAITER
               But I know you, don't I? I seen you
               on a poster in the theater
               district. I'll think of your name
               in just a --

Nicky lifts his hand to stop the man.

                         NICKY
               You know-

                         BAR CROWD
               Hen-duuu!

Then a moan and deep silence.

Nicky disengages from the altercation and looks at the TV
screen.

TV SCREEN

Dave Henderson has hit a home run and the Red Sox now lead 4-

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

Toyota and Matthew are jubilant, and Nicky is quick to join
them. It is the only lively table in the place.

                         MATTHEW
               People are dependable.

                         TOYOTA
               Life is good.

                         NICKY
               Baseball is life.

TV SCREEN

The Red Sox push across another run when Barrett singles,
driving home Boggs.

                         NICKY
               Enjoy your ice cream, kid. When
               you're an old man it'll come back
               to you. The same deep sweet soft
               toothy taste. And you'll remember
               where you were and what you saw.

Scoreboard shows: Red Sox 5, Mets 3, going into the last of
the tenth.

INT. THE BARRYMORE

he theater is nearly emptied out. A few people still heading
toward the exits. Laurel Rogan remains seated, wearing her
headset, listening to the ball game. She is concentrating
deeply, fists clenched.

Only one other person is still seated, three rows back. It is
Steven and he is looking intently at Laurel.

The house lights dim.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN

Toyota, Matthew and Nicky are huddled closely, watching the
screen. Matthew is seated now and Nicky leans over him from
behind, framing the boy's head in his hands so that Matthew's
attention will be directed unswervingly to the action on the
screen.

The bar crowd is somber.

Nicky drops his mob accent.

                         NICKY
               This is something no one has been
               privileged to see in almost seventy
               years. Very few people now alive
               can say that they have seen what
               you are about to see, Matthew. The
               Red Sox win a World Series. This is
               deeply, intensely personal. All the
               mistakes I've made, all the envy,
               fear and violence that's encased in
               this little envelope we call a
               person -- all washed away in the
               next few minutes. And your
               grandmother knows why.

                         TOYOTA
               Because God loves a winner.

                         NICKY
               He used to love losers. But the
               laws of physics changed.

TV SCREEN

Backman flies out to Jim Rice. One out.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

                         NICKY
               Backman flies to Rice. It's like a
               beautiful song lyric.

TV SCREEN

Hernandez flied out to Henderson.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

                         NICKY
               All the times I died when the Red
               Sox lost an important game they
               should have won. All the awful
               things I said to my mother and
               father. To Tmy wife and daughter.

                         TOYOTA
               Washed away.

                         NICKY
               Because life is good.

                         TOYOTA
               Because faith is rewarded.

INT. RED SOX LOCKER ROOM

Attendants putting plastic in front of the lockers to prevent
champagne damage. Camera crew setting up. Men wheeling the
twenty cases of champagne into the clubhouse. A man peeling
foil from the tops of the bottles.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

                         NICKY
               All the failures, all the fatalism.

                         MATTHEW
               Washed away.

                         NICKY
               One more out.

TV SCREEN

Carter singles to left.

The bar crowd remains silent.

                         NICKY (V.O.)
               One more out. One more out.

Mitchell singles to center.

Slight stirring among the bar patrons. A few people, about to
exit, return to the bar.

                         TOYOTA (O.S.)
               It's all right, Frankie. Just a
               little touch of suspense. Life is
               good.

                         MATTHEW (O.S.)
               Baseball is life.

                         NICKY (O.S.)
               One more little out. A nubber. A
               pop-up. All year long, thousands of
               outs. We want one more little out.

Knight singles to right center. Carter scores and Mitchell
goes to third. The score is 5-4.

The whole tavern is rocking.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

                         TOYOTA
               Don't worry. It's a test.

                         NICKY
               It's a test all right. They're
               bringing in Stanley.

TV SCREEN

Bob Stanley trots in from the bullpen.

                         NICKY (O.S.)
               It's Stanley. It's the Steamer.
               Fate has spoken to this man in the
               depths of the night.

                         MATTHEW (O.S.)
               What did it say?

                         NICKY (O.S.)
               A thousand things.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

                         MATTHEW
               You're hurting my head.

Nicky releases his grip on Matthew's head.

The bar crowd begins to chant.

                         BAR VOICES
               Mookie, Mookie, Mookie, Mookie!

TV SCREEN

Mookie Wilson stands in against Bob Stanley.

                         MATTHEW (O.S.)
               We're still winning. That's what
               counts.

First pitch to Wilson -- he swings and misses.

Silence from the bar crowd, cheers from Nicky's table.

Second pitch to Wilson -- he fouls it off. No balls, two
strikes.

Sound begins to fade. Wilson fouls off a pitch. Wilson takes
a ball, outside. Wilson fouls off another pitch.

Absolute, unnatural silence.

Stanley prepares to throw. The silence suddenly breaks and
for the first time we hear the TV Announcers clearly.

                         ANNOUNCER 1
               The Sox are one pitch away.

                         ANNOUNCER 2
               One pitch away.

                         ANNOUNCER 1
               Stanley's getting ready.

                         ANNOUNCER 2
               This could be it.

                         ANNOUNCER 1
               This could be it.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

Nicky recognizing the line from his play.

                         NICKY
               This could be it!

                         MATTHEW
               This could be it!

                         TOYOTA
               This could be it!

                         NICKY
               This could be it!

Nicky is charged with excitement, hearing the line as a
favorable sign, a positive connection between the play and
the game.

TV SCREEN

Stanley winds up and throws. It's a wild pitch. Mitchell
comes in from third with the tying run.

The bar crowd erupts in cheers.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

Shock and dread.

                         MATTHEW
               It's all right. It's a tie game. We
               can still win it next inning.

Nicky drinks his stinger.

                         BAR CROWD
               Mookie, Mookie, Mookie, Mookie!

                         TOYOTA
               This is the time. Trust in people.
               Believe in life. Faith is hard
               work. Don't give in. Don't give up.

                         MATTHEW
               Life is true.

                         NICKY
               Life is real.

                         TOYOTA
               Trust your team.

TV SCREEN

Stanley delivers to Wilson. Sound fades away. Action isin
super slow motion.

Wilson swings and hits a bouncing ball toward first base.
Stanley moves off the mound to cover first. Wilson drops his
bat and races down the line. Bill Buckner, the first baseman,
ranges to his left to field the ball.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE TABLE

Nicky watches as if in a trance. Complete silence around him.
He is separate from everybody else, the only clearly defined
figure in a group of shadowy and indistinct people.

TV SCREEN

Nicky's viewpoint. An image of Bill Buckner in silvery light
expanding out of the TV screen to fill the larger
environment. Moving soundlessly in slow motion, Buckner
fields the bouncing ball and heads toward the bag. He beats
Wilson to the base by an eyelash and the inning ends with the
teams tied at 5-5.

Frozen moment: Buckner holding his glove hand aloft, the ball
securely gripped. In the drama of the moment, Buckner seems
to be crying out a word or name, but his face is twisted with
tension and exertion and we can't make out what he is saying.

INT. THE BARRYMORE

Laurel Rogan, seen from behind, is somewhat slumped in her
seat. She turns off the radio, removes the headset and rises.
She moves along the row toward the aisle.

She appears to be the only person in the theater.

She moves trudgingly up the aisle toward the exit. At the
head of the aisle she is startled by a figure standing in
dimness.

It is Steven Schwimmer.

They look at each other. Sound of the cleaning crew in the
lobby and then a door opening at the rear of the orchestra.
Light from a flashlight plays across the seats and walls. The
beam hits Laurel first and then Steven.

The beam holds on Steven. What Laurel sees is a strikingly
handsome young man, dramatically lighted . He takes off his
dark glasses, so she can see his eyes.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - MEN'S ROOM

Cramped space. Nicky at the washbasin, disheveled but happy,
washing his face.

One man at the urinal. SECOND MAN behind him, waiting his
turn.

Nicky drying his face with a paper towel.

                         NICKY
               Great game.

                         FIRST MAN
               Unbelievable.

                         NICKY
               Classic.

                         SECOND MAN
               Scintillating.

                         FIRST MAN
               I still don't believe it.

                         NICKY
               Have to hurry back.

                         SECOND MAN
               Hurry back. Hurry back to what?

                         NICKY
               Eleventh inning. What else?

                         FIRST MAN
                    (zipping up)
               I think you're a little confused.
               Nothing personal friend.

                         NICKY
               What are you talking about?

                         FIRST MAN
               What are we talking about?

                         NICKY
               Yes. What are you implying?

The second man approaches the urinal.

                         SECOND MAN
               Game six is history,pal.

                         NICKY
               You're not making sense.

                         FIRST MAN
               We're not making sense.

                         SECOND MAN
               Did you see Mookie hit the ball?

                         NICKY
               Of course I saw it.

                         FIRST MAN
               Did you see the winning run score?

                         NICKY
               You're not making sense. Make
               sense.

Nicky throws his paper towel at the men. No one moves. They
are trying to interpret this action.

                         NICKY
               You're implying I missed something.
               What did I Fmiss?

                         IRST MAN
               You missed the boat, Popeye the
               Sailorman.

Nicky charges the men. He and the First Man wrestle each
other into the stall.

                         SECOND MAN
               Hold him till I zip up, Tommy.

Nicky and the First Man are grappling in the stall. Second
Man hurriedly washes his hands at the basin.

                         NICKY
               Baseball is life. Life is good.

Al three men in the stall, wrestling. Nicky has one foot in
the bowl as someone's elbow strikes the handles and the
toilet flushes.

INT. MANION'S OLD TIMER TAVERN - THE BAR AREA - A LITTLE 103

LATER

The crowd is slowly breaking up. A few people still clustered
near the TV sets, which are showing replays.

Nicky is standing alone near a small set at the back on the
room. His clothing torn and stained. One shoe and pants leg
dripping wet. A bruise on his forehead.

He is watching a replay.

TV SCREEN

Wilson hits the ball. It bounces twice, then goes under
Buckner's glove. Knight scores from the third with the
winning run. A 6-5 victory for the Mets.

The main light in the tavern goes out. The TV sets keep
replaying Buckner's error. Regular speed, slow motion, color,
black and white.

Nicky stands in the darkness, brooding.

EXT. LOFT BUILDING

The condemned building where Steven Schwimmer lives. The
street is deserted.

INT. STEVEN'S LOFT

Steven and Laurel on the sofa. He is unbuttoning her blouse.

Two sources of light. A candle on the coffee table. The small
                         TV set on the counter -- showing a newscast, with sound
               turned off.

                         LAUREL
               Why won't you tell me your name?

                         STEVEN
               It's only our first date.

Steven undoes the last button.

                         LAUREL
               I'm willing to tell you my name.

                         STEVEN
               Names are incredibly intimate. We
               barely know each other. Trust me on
               this.

She decides she will trust him. They kiss softly.

                         LAUREL
               You have to tell me what you
               thought of the play.

                         STEVEN
               First you tell me.

                         LAUREL
               Brilliantly moving.

She begins to remove his jacket.

                         STEVEN
               What else?

                         LAUREL
               Packs an emotional wallop.

                         STEVEN
               What else?

                         LAUREL
               A flat-out hit.

Together they get his jacket off.

                         STEVEN
               Are you majoring in theater
               criticism.

Laurel sees the shoulder holster and gun.

                         LAUREL
               Criminology.

They kiss passionately.

                         STEVEN
               If you're wondering about the
               firearm.

                         LAUREL
               Yes.

                         STEVEN
               This building is not secure.

They are all over the sofa, working on the removal of
Steven's shirt.

INT. THE ENTRANCEWAY

Nicky makes his way past the debris. The front door is gone,
the inner door smashed and battered -- door knobs gone and
locking mechanism ripped out.

He starts up the stairs past a dead or sleeping body.

INT. THE LOFT

On the sofa, Laurel is straddling Steven, whose shirt is
almost completely off, exposing his bulletproof vest. Laurel
is blouseless and barefoot, with her unzipped skirt still on
and her bra dangling from one shoulder.

                         LAUREL
               I have this thing where I have to
               know a person is being honest with
               me before, you know, I can feel
               completely free to be myself.

                         STEVEN
               We're strangers in the night. The
               last thing we want is honesty.

                         LAUREL
               What do we want?

                         STEVEN
               Mystery. Deception.

                         LAUREL
               Deception isn't something I
               personally consider sexy.

                         STEVEN
               What's sexy?

                         LAUREL
               Knowing who a person is. Down deep.

                         STEVEN
               Even if the truth about a person is
               sad or depressing or shocking?

                         LAUREL
               You won't even tell me your name.
               What's shocking about a name?

Steven maneuvers himself into a sitting position so that he
and Laurel face each other at equal height and at close
quarters. 

                         STEVEN
               Even if the truth requires a
               certain adjustment?

Steven begins removing the cosmetic putty around his
naturally shallow chin. He uses Laurel's hair clip to scrape
his jaw clean. Then he peels off his fake mustache. And
borrows Laurel's dangling bra cup to wipe the bronzing agent
off his face.

INT. THE LANDING

Nicky stands with his back to Steven's door. His gun is out.
He holds it up near his face, muzzle pointed up.

He looks at the gun as if it had feelings and personality,
and he speaks to it as to a sympathetic friend.

                         NICKY
               I used to go to the movies all the time
               I saw a hundred situations like
               this. A man and a gun -- and a
               locked door. Lee Marvin or Steve
               McQueen. And I used to say to
               Lillian because we went to a
               hundred movies that we saw together
               or that I saw because she had seen
               them, and I'd say, `Watch him kick
               in the door with one kick,' And it
               might be Steve McQueen or Jeff
               Chandler, holding the gun up like
               this, and he would turn and kick
               the door and it would fly open at
               once, and I would say to Lillian,
               `How completely phony. Whoever made
               this movie has no idea how hard it
               is to kick in an actual door in
               real life.' I still love Lillian.
               But it's not easy to kick in a
               door. I knew they would lose and
               they lost, so what are we so upset
               about? They lost tonight, they'll
               lose tomorrow. It's written on the
               wind.

INT. THE LOFT

Laurel is on her feet, backing away slightly. Steven removed
his shoes and stands in his stocking feet, noticeably shorter
than he'd been earlier.

He begins to unstrap the bulletproof vest, causing Laurel to
retreat further.

INT. THE LANDING

                         NICKY
               These wives named Lillian. I used
               to say to her, `You don't kick a
               door once or twice and expect it to
               open. It's only in the movies a man
               can kick in a door with such
               amazing ease. Because a real door
               requires a tremendous and prolonged
               pounding before it finally gives
               way.' He's a great player...how
               could that ball go through his
               legs?

Nicky turns, steps back and kicks the door. It opens at once.

INT. THE LOFT

Steven and Laurel are briefly immobilized by shock as the
door comes flying open.

Nicky moves toward the candle-lit couple.

Laurel realizes who he is and stands by the sofa. She zips
her skirt.

Nicky is trying to understand what he sees, then he gets it.

                         NICKY
                    (quiet)
               Laurel.

Nicky holds his gun hand aloft, repeating the image of Bill
Buckner with the baseball in his glove -- Nicky's
hallucination.

Then Nicky issues a cry, a sound from the time before humans
acquired language. It is the audible anguish of his life,
from the fetus onward.

We hear what he is saying in overlapping echoes and we
realize he is crying out a name. We recognize the look on his
face and the formation of syllables on his lips as elements
we'd seen earlier -- on Buckner's face when he shouted
something as he made N
the "third out" of the tenth inning.

                         NICKY
               Ste-vennnn Schwim-merrrr!

Laurel reacts with horror to the revelation of Steven's
identity. She rearranges her bra.

Nicky stumbles, drops his gun. It goes off.

Steven flees toward the shadows at the back of the loft, his
hand moving toward the gun in his shoulder holster.

Nicky picks up his gun and begins to stalk him.

Steven fires twice striking a nearby lamp. The room is dark
now. Lit only by the blue glow of the TV.

The TV sports roundup, which has been showing football
highlights, has switched to baseball -- highlights of the Red
Sox-Mets.

Nicky reaches Laurel.

                         NICKY
                    (crying out)
               This is my daughterrrrr!

Steven is wide-eyed at the news.

                         LAUREL
               I don't think he knew, Daddy.

Nicky sees the photo of Steven and his cat. He shoots twice,
blows it away.

                         LAUREL
               Daddy, I'm sorry. But he was so
               beautiful. I trusted him. When I
               saw what he really looks like --

A voice from shadows:

                         STEVEN
                    (OS)
               Am I really so deeply repugnant?

                         LAUREL
               Yes.

                         NICKY
               Go home, Laurel. Tell your mother I
               will be late.

Nicky walks toward Steven's voice, toward the shadows.

                         NICKY
               You're going to die. You're a dead
               man. You're dead.

He notices Laurel following behind him.

                         NICKY
               Look. I'm sorry you keep running
               into dishonest men. But you're only
               eighteen. We can still turn it
               around.

                         LAUREL
               Except I won't have a father
               anymore.

                         NICKY
               I'll see you all the time. I'll get
               a place right nearby. One room. No
               distractions. We'll talk.

He shouts into the darkness.

                         NICKY
               YOU'RE DEAD!

Laurel puts her hand on his shoulder.

                         LAUREL
               What will we talk about?

                         NICKY
               Everything.

Nicky sees one of the New York Magazine ads, Steven
Schwimmer's face mounted on the cardboard. He fires three
times, wiping out Schwimmer's eyes.

                         LAUREL
               Will I believe you when you tell me
               something?

                         NICKY
               There's nothing left for me to lie
               about.

Nicky starts into the darkness only to see Steven emerge from
the shadows, his gun lowered. Oddly, he seems distracted by
something on another part of the room. He is looking at the
TV set on the counter.

Nicky watches him approach the kitchen area. He follows, gun
raised.

Steven sits on a stool to watch TV.

Nicky approaches warily, his gun aimed at Steven's head,
which is blue-lit by the TV screen.

                         NICKY
               You're dead. I see you on a morgue
               slab drained of all fluids.

Laurel follows at a distance to see what they're so
interested in.

Nicky puts the gun muzzle flush against Steven's temple.

                         NICKY
               I see the outline of your body in
               chalk on this very floor.

                         LAUREL
                    (whispering)
               Daddy, wait.

Steven is watching slow-motion footage of Bill Buckner
missing the slow roller.

                         STEVEN
               Then they lost?

                         NICKY
               Why does it matter?

                         STEVEN
               If they lost tonight, they'll lose
               tomorrow. It's all over.

                         NICKY
               Why do you care?

                         STEVEN
               They're my team.

                         NICKY
               No. They're not your team. They're
               my team.

Nicky cocks the hammer.

                         STEVEN
               They're my team, too. I grew up on
               Boyleston Street. Right by Fenway
               Park. I went to fifty or sixty
               games a year. All by myself. I was
               one of those kids with scabby
               elbows. I called out to the
               players. `Look over here. Hi, I'm
               Steven. My parents are divorced.'

                         NICKY
               I went to college in Boston so I
               could be near the Red Sox. I took
               summer classes and the cut them to
               go to the game. My wife is from
               Boston. Lillian Ziegler?

                         STEVEN
               The Red Sox were my world. I
               surrendered my existence to a team
               that couldn't win the big one.

                         NICKY
               If you're such a devoted fan, why
               were you at the play tonight
               instead of the game? Answer
               carefully. This is important. You
               could have gone to the theater last
               night. There was no game last
               night.

                         STEVEN
               Because I can't bear to watch. When
               they lose, I die inside. It's like
               some little person named Steve just
               crumples up and dies. I wait for
               the scores. I still die, hearing
               the scores, but it's over in a
               second. I can't survive the game
               pitch by pitch, inning by inning.
               I've done it too many times. And I
               can't do it anymore.

Nicky lowers the gun.

                         NICKY
               I was six years old the day Pesky
               hesitated throwing home and
               Slaughter scored all the way from
               first. That's when I knew the Red
               Sox were my team. Pity and terror.

                         STEVEN
               When I traveled through Asia this
               summer, I went to tremendous
               trouble and expense to rent a car
               with a phone so I could call up
               Sports Phone in New York and get
               the scores. I drove through the war
               in Afghanistan calling Sports Phone
               like every hour on the hour, for
               updates.

                         NICKY
               What about my play?

                         LAUREL
               Yes. And no more evasive tactics.

                         STEVEN
               It's your best play, Nicky.

                         LAUREL
               See, Daddy.

                         STEVEN
               I've seen it twice. I went back
               tonight to be sure. It's a brave
               and honest piece of work.

                         LAUREL
               What else?

                         STEVEN
               An artistry and sensitivity you've
               never shown before.

                         NICKY
               And you're not saying that because
               of the gun in my hand?

                         STEVEN
               You're out of bullets.

Nicky points the gun at the palm of his own left hand and
pulls the trigger. A click.

                         LAUREL
               See, Daddy.

                         STEVEN
               And Peter Redmond helped immensely.
               These pauses were exquisitely
               timed. He made us wait and wait. He
               built a gorgeous tension and
               suspense.

                         NICKY
               We worked very hard on the pauses.

Nicky places it on the counter.

                         STEVEN
               I called Sports Phone from Lhasa,
               Tibet. Freezing in my little rented
               Fiat. Sheep on a hillside. Rocky
               debris dating back millions and
               millions of years, from the time
               the Himalayas thrust up when the
               plates of India and Asia collided.
               Red Sox 3, White Sox 2. A moment in
               the history of the world.

Nicky takes Steven's head and moves it tenderly against his
chest. When Nicky releases the head, he has Steven's toupee
in his hand. He looks at it briefly, then hands it to Laurel.

EXT. 48TH STREET NEAR ELEVENTH AVENUE

A yellow taxi comes speeding past, moving eastward on 48th
Street. We see it from various perspectives and elevations.
It is a large checkered cab, the only thing moving in the
night. Steam comes billowing from funnel vents. The taxi
catches every light just before it turns red.

INT. TAXI

Nicky is driving, his face showing intense satisfaction.
Laurel sits next to him.

Driver's name plate ---

                         MEMLUK
                         SULEYMAN

The driver sits in the middle of the rear seat, looking
somewhat nervous.

                         LAUREL
               Faster, Daddy.

EXT. 48TH STREET

The taxi crosses Park Avenue, speeding past the bronze statue
of a man hailing a cab.

It approaches First Avenue, where a road divider bisects the
thoroughfare. Nicky swings into a sharp turns, barely
averting contact with the divider, and stops abruptly.

Three doors open. On the empty street, Nicky hands the driver
a wad of bills. Then he and Laurel step over the divider. He
puts his arm around her shoulders and they cross the avenue
to the glass tower where they live.

The sun begins to climb out of the East River.

                         THE END