Premise: A terrorist has planted a series of bombs inside several malls in Los Angeles. Although they capture the man before the bombs go off, a bout of amnesia prevents him from remembering where he put the bombs, or if he’s the terrorist at all.
folder: screenplays
password (as above, use small case letters)
1. Kidnapping a baby
RAISING ARISONA (undated draft)
Another baby starts crying. Florence looks up at the ceiling.
NATHAN
That sounds like Larry.
Close on the crying baby as Hi bounces it, gently but
desperately.
HI
Shhhh! Shh! Nice baby...
He starts to lower it back into the crib. The crib is
unpainted with the name of each baby burned Bonanza-style
into the headboard: Harry, Barry, Larry, Garry, and Nathan
Jr. Instead of quieting as he is lowered into the crib, the
squalling baby only sets off one of his brothers. Hi hurriedly
lifts him back out.
He looks desperately around the room.
The room is wallpapered with nursery rhyme characters.
There are toys strewn around. There is one adult-sized easy
chair in the corner.
Hi carries the baby over to the chair, stepping on and
reacting to the squeal of a squeeze-me toy on the way. He
sits the baby deep in - the chair and then returns to the
crib to deal with the second crying baby.
He lifts the baby out of the crib and gently bounces it.
This baby stops crying.
Another one in the crib starts bawling.
Hi sets the second baby down on the floor and gives it a
rattle to keep it pacified. He reaches for the third baby in
the crib. Sweat stands out on Hi 's brow. He is desperately
chucking the third baby under the chin when we hear a muffled
PTHUMP!
He whirls to look across the darkened room.
The first baby has dropped off the easy chair and is
energetically crawling away toward a shadowy corner.
LIVING ROOM
Nathan and Florence are sitting stock-still, staring at the
ceiling. After a moment, another baby starts crying.
NATHAN
What're they, playing telephone?
They stare at the ceiling.
NURSERY
Loose babies are crawling everywhere. Hi is skittering across
the room in a half-crouch, a baby tucked under one arm,
reaching out with the other as he pursues a crawling baby
across the room.
He hefts the other baby with his free arm and brings the air
back to the crib.
He turns to look frantically around the room.
The other three babies have disappeared.
There is perfect quiet.
Hi goes over to the closet door, which is ajar, and swings
it open.
He reaches under a moving pile of clothes on the floor and
pulls out a baby.
He returns it to the crib and freezes, listening.
The sound of a rattle.
He drops to the floor to look under the crib.
WIDE ANGLE UNDER CRIB
A baby holding a rattle leers into the camera in the
foreground. Behind him Hi, on his stomach, is reaching in to
grab at his leg.
Hi is pulling the baby out, away from the camera, when with
a plop! a baby drops onto Hi 's back from the crib above.
Hi twists one arm back to grope for the baby crawling on top
of him.
He is straightening up, a baby in each arm, when he reacts
in horror to something he sees across the room.
HI'S POV
The hindquarters of a diapered baby are just disappearing
around the corner of the nursery door into the hallway.
LIVING ROOM
Florence and Nathan are staring at the ceiling. After a beat
we hear a muffled plop! on the ceiling. A beat later, the
bleat of the squeeze-me toy.
NATHAN
...Whyn't you go up and check on
'em?
They sound restless.
UPSTAIRS HALLWAY
The floor-level wide-angle shot shows a baby crawling toward
the camera in the foreground. Behind him, in the background,
just rounding the open door from the nursery, yet another
baby is making a mad dash for freedom.
Hi emerges from the nursery and, stepping around the
background baby, trots toward the baby in the foreground. By
the time he reaches it the low-angle cropping shows us only
his feet and calves.
CLOSE ON HI
Perspiring as he tiptoes the last two steps to the baby.
HI'S POV
The baby and, beyond it, the stairway down to the main floor.
We hear footsteps approaching.
BACK TO HI
He scoops up the baby and hurriedly tiptoes away toward the
nursery.
LOW-ANGLE REVERSE
The baby at the nursery door in the foreground; the staircase
in the background. As Hi reaches the baby we hear footsteps
climbing the stairs.
Hi's free arm comes down into frame to scoop the baby up and
out of frame just as:
Florence's head appears, bobbing up as she climbs the stairs.
She approaches the nursery, still clutching the Dr. Spock
book.
NURSERY
As Florence enters from the hallway door.
We track back into the room, on her, as she approaches the
crib. Halfway there she freezes, staring, in shock.
HER POV
All of the babies have been replaced in the crib but not
lying down: They are seated in a row, staring back at her,
lined up against the far crib railing, like a small but
distinguished panel on "Meet the Press."
2. Death of a mother
ANIMAL KINGDOM (shooting script)
INT. J'S AND JULIA'S APARTMENT / LOUNGE - DAY
JOSHUA 'J' CODY (17), wearing one oversized rubber dishwashing
glove, sits on the couch beside his mum, JULIA CODY (35), who is
asleep, chin on her chest, in front of game-show TV. J watches
the TV intently.
Two paramedics appear at the open door with kit bags. They rush
in and go straight to work on Julia.
PARAMEDIC
What's she had?
J
Heroin.
The paramedic draws Narcan into a syringe and administers. The
other checks her pulse. J watches the game show.
PARAMEDIC
Not responding. We'll need a MICA.
INT. J'S AND JULIA'S APARTMENT / LOUNGE - NIGHT
J is on the phone. He waits for an answer, strangely blank.
J
(into phone)
Grandma. It's J [...] Josh [...] Yeah,
good. Um, Mum's gone and OD'd and
she's died and so [...] Yeah, I'm OK.
Sorry, I probably should have said it
slower and not just go and blurt it
out and that. I don't really know what
I'm supposed to do now and [...] They
took her away.
An ambulance came [...] Yeah, they
turned up and took a statement and
that, but I told them I was 18 and now
I don't really know what to do. They
didn't say anything about, you know,
like am I supposed to organise the
funeral and that? I don't really know
what I'm supposed to do now, with the
paperwork and arrangements and that. I
just remember when Grandpa Donny died
you were all over it, you know what I
mean?
*
