MEGALOPOLIS
by
Francis Ford Coppola
American Zoetrope Unspecified Draft
916 Kearny St.
San Francisco, CA 94133
United States
FADE IN:
EXT. NEW YORK - DAY 1
AERIAL VIEW - THE CITY
Gateway to modern America. Seven bridges and four tunnels,
millions of ‘automobiles jammed solid as the sun is breaking
out of the clouds, revealing a city ablaze with light, world
center of culture, economics and power.
MUSIC UP:
“"M E G A L fe) P QO L I s"
CREDIT TITLES PLAY over:
MONTAGE of the gigantic island city, great towers of steel
and glass reach upwards as trails of ants move through its
canyons, eventually recognizable as human life. PEOPLE of
all classes, patricians, citizens, and a vast proletariat
consisting of workers from the distant corners of the
empire. This is ROME of modern time, replete with the
tragic confusions and uncertainties of the world of today,
so full of fear and yet so full of promises and opportunity.
NEW VIEWS
Tolls being collected; bills counted, the traffic.makes its
way through a huge marble archway toward the city beyond.
NEW VIEWS
People moving through the avenues and byways encompassing
every activity, labor, diversion, perversion and expression
of wealth and impoverishment imaginable. Crossing the
street; going Up escalators, we begin to HEAR the buzz of
the city, itg gossip.
PEOPLE (0.S.)
Talented, yes -- a genius,
possibly.
OTHERS (0.S.)
The man’s a lecher and a womanizer
-- he’s the moral cancer of this
city.
VIEWS ON NEWSPAPER PRESSES
Gossip rolls out.
leonrratmen)
CONTINUED : 1
ANOTHER
Who ever elected Catiline?
CLOSE VIEW ON MANICURIST HANDS
WOMAN (0.S.)
He’s very attractive -- 80, 80
magnetic, charming.
KNOWING WOMAN (0.S.)
I think he’s evil.
EXT. THE CHRYSLER BLDG. TOWER - DAY 2
The radiant aluminum crown flames in the morning light, a
symbol of hope.
STUDENT (0.S.)
What is the Design Authority,
anyway? It seems to control
everything.
INT. ELEVATOR - DAY 3
Filling with people going to work this morning.
MAN
I can’t believe he’d do something
like that?
WOMAN
Something like what?
ANOTHER
Serge Catiline.
Elevator stops; people get out and in. One new man
overhears the name.
NEW MAN
You heard?
MAN
Serge Catiline fired his entire
office in a rage. Threw a box of
drafting pencils at them. One man
was injured in the eye!
NEW MAN
It's true -- twenty people let go.
({CONTTNIUED \
ek,
CONTINUED : 3
NEW WOMAN
You know he once tried to kill his
wife -- with an overdose --
Elevator stops once again, more people come in and go out.
A new man enters, his arms filled with document folders.
NEW WOMAN
They say she’s still in a coma
somewhere.
DOCUMENT MAN
And got away with it! Acquitted!
Elevator door opens again with people getting in and out,
including a stylishly-groomed MAN in his forties, whose
presence causes a change in the conversation.
WOMAN
-- the new copy machine is a
lemon.
NEW MAN
It’s not reliable and it’s
overpriced.
WOMAN
Those copiers aren’t
(awkwardly)
~». What they used to be...
VIEW ON THE MAN
Eyes you can’t tell about -- features well-suited to the
look of indifferent dignity. We remain on the immaculately
dressed and groomed SERGE CATILINE as he moves out of the
elevator, and passes through the lobby. A group of art
students look up at the murals and displays depicting many
great Design Authority projects -- bridges, parkways and
buildings -- while a uniformed PAGE declares:
PAGE
~e. artist and scientist, Serge
Catiline was appointed as sole
director of the Design Authority
in 1967, with jurisdiction over
all bridges, parks, tunnels and
fairgrounds --
(CONTTNUED )
CONTINUED : 3
MOVING VIEW ON MURALS AND PHOTO DISPLAYS
Showing Catiline working with his design team; photos of him
white-coated in a laboratory; bare-chested working along
with steel crews at a building site.
VIEW ON THE TOUR GROUP
The young women cannot help but exhale a noticeable ‘ahh,’
not realizing that the man himself passes behind them and up
the staircase leading to his offices.
PAGE
In 1992, Dr. Catiline was awarded
the Nobel Prize for his work on
molecular-modulated polymers --
known under the trade-name
‘Megalon.’
INT. CLOUD TOWER - DAY 4
High atop the Chrysler Building is the ‘Cloud Tower,’ an
atelier Catiline designed for himself. He moves to the
triangular-shaped windows and looks across the skyline of
the city.
PAGE (0.S.)
His projects are always
distinguished by a sense of
innovation and beauty that changes
the way we see.
CLOSE ON SERGE
Taking a breath of both yearning and satisfaction. Then he
exhales.
EXT. RIVERSIDE HOUSING PROJECTS - DAY 5
Rows of project buildings implode and collapse amid clouds
of dust, smoke and rubble.
MOVING VIEW
The former tenants of these buildings watch helplessly
through the cyclone fencing and police barriers, coming upon
the shreds of the eviction notice “Tenant Relocation
Operations Are Planned. (signed) Serge Catiline, Design
Authority Construction Coordinator.”
INT. CLOUD TOWER - WINDOWS - DAY 6
Serge moves to the large triangular window of the top of the
Chrysler Bldg. He opens it and steps outside, anticipating
something, an upcoming moment that shows in his eyes,
fearful.
EXT. CLOUD TOWER - DAY 7
Looking upward for a sign. Clouds are moving more rapidly
across the sky, creating a strobe effect of light and shadow
on him as the sun appears across the horizon. We wonder if
he’s suicidal or just trying to prove his courage.
VIEW DOWN
His gleaming Italian shoes step closer to the edge. There's
the great fall to the busy streets below. It seems as
though natural events are hurrying by, speeding.
NEW VIEW
Serge lets go of the railing, first one hand and then the
other. He’s on his own now against the elements, against
nature, against time. His eyes close in deep concentration.
CLOSE SHOT - SERGE
His eyes open, now blazing with power.
MEDIUM VIEW - CHRYSLER BLDG. TOWER
Serge standing in the wind on the narrow edge, his hands
extended to the sky. Clouds race wildly by him.
SERGE
Stop!
He looks up. It appears to him that the CLOUDS are frozen
still. He looks down.
VIEW TO THE STREETS
The throngs of automobiles and trails of people appear
FROZEN.
LOW ANGLE ON SERGE
He looks up and laughs triumphantly.
(CONT TNUED )
CONTINUED : 7
SERGE
See? See?
He waves at the clouds and they MOVE away. Another laugh,
then suddenly frightened, he steps inside the tower to
safety.
SERGE
(whispered)
Who am I, to conquer time?
INT. EXHIBITION HALL - DAY 8
VIEW ON ESCALATORS
People moving up. The gossip continues:
MAN
Do you believe this Mayor they’ve
come up with?
OTHERS (0.S.)
Did the bosses pick his name out
of a hat?
ANOTHER
He was a piss-poor District
Attorney.
VIEWS ON THE GOSSIP
Of the city; opinions, slander, rumors.
MAN
Mayor Cicero’s inherited a
mountain of DEBT and the banks are
pulling the plug.
WOMAN
How can a city go bankrupt?
EXT. FULL VIEW - ENORMOUS MODEL OF THE CITY - DAY 9
MOVING VIEW ON MAYOR FRANK CICERO
Stocky and powerfully built but gentle, a man of humble
origins. He worked his way through law school in his
family’s delicatessen. He is honest but ambitious -- Y
capable of great conviction and feeling. He seems impatient
on this important day, keeps rubbing his hands together.
(CONT TNUED }
CONTINUED : 9
Bankers, union leaders, developers, and worried city
officials are gathered around walkway catwalks suspended
over a large model of the city.
VIEW DOWN THE CATWALKS
Revealing a banker, patrician, the richest man in the city
and patriarch of the Hamilton family, EUGENE "GENE”
HAMILTON, in his seventies.
GENE (0.S.)
May we now begin, I have another
meeting in an hour.
His nephew CLAUDE HAMILTON is one of the city’s notorious
‘wild rich youth’ being leashed-in by his powerful Uncle.
The bank is represented by DAVY CATO, his protege and CEO of
HAMILTON NATIONAL. Also representing the banks are TIM and
TOM BONI, monozygotic twins who own the Boni Budget Bank,
grown large enough to almost rival Hamilton National. They
owe their beginnings to NUSH BERMAN the old party boss, a
shuffling relic of the good old days. He’s accompanied by
MEADE MILO, an affluent, raffish black ward boss with a
strikingly handsome face. Suddenly the catwalks they’re on
over the huge model of the city begin swinging.
NEW VIEW
Gene’s nephew Claude is enjoying skipping from catwalk to
catwalk, swaying them with exclamations of “Whee!” and
Whoo.” Everyone hangs on to the railings in terror.
GENE
(annoyed)
Claude.
NEW VIEW
A stir at the entrance caused by the arrival of MIRIAM
HAMILTON CARTERET, the Governor of New York and Gene’s
cousin. Her security people are concerned that the catwalks
sway as she enters and is greeted.
FRANK
Welcome, Madame Governor. Follow
me, ladies and gentlemen.
They cluster above a huge vacant space in the city model
below. It borders the Hudson river, from 44th St. down
about 15 blocks.
(CONT TNITED }
CONTINUED :
FRANK
Here it is! A hundred acres of
land, fronting the river; soon to
be vacant. A hundred acres for
which all of us have had plans,
but I have great newa -- Bangkok
and Madrid have dropped out, so we
can move ahead with our World’s
Olympic Fair for 2012. CITYWORLD,
the way of the future. Look for
yourself, folks, there it is.
VIEW TO THE MODEL
As city staff roll in the model of the Mayor’s ‘World’s
Olympic Fair Park.’
FRANK
New high rises for those low-
income people we've shifted
temporarily to the Bronx; note the
pavilions housing the end-all of
shopping malls, a Mega-mall; the
three-dimensional theater
complexes and stadiums, all to be
sponsored by the countries and
corporations represented. We’11
rent them out, and look -- the
little parks and squares, note the
size of the parking lots -- a
monorail system! And this, Madam
Governor, an electronic state-of-
the-art gaming casino. Wins and
losses go on your final hotel bill
which, thank you Madam Governor,
our city will both own and
operate.
GOVERNOR CARTERET
Don’t thank me, as you well know --
I opposed the legislation
bitterly.
GENE
How much?
FRANK
It’s been meticulously costed, Mr.
Hamilton, to pay for itself within
a decade if not sooner. It’s money
in the bank.
(CONTTNUED \
CONTINUED:
GENE
But first you need the banks to
raise the money to build it.
Planning on floating a bond issue?
FRANK
Yes, sir. Naturally.
GENE
There’s already too much city
paper out there.
FRANK
The city is aware of that, Mr.
Hamilton -- and no one more aware
than I. But Cityworld represents
a way out of debt. Apart from the
casino takings, the rent, the
percentage of profit from
utilities --- think of the jobs
Cityworld means. After those
immigrants we've relocated to the
Bronx return, there’‘ll be jobs for
all of them.
NUSH
Like the Mayor says, Cityworld is
money in the bank. It’s the
biggest project the city’s taken
on in God knows how many years,
and it’s overdue. Which is why --
(smoothly )
I intend to use all my influence
to make sure there will be no
construction delays or trouble
from the unions. Cityworld will
come in under budget.
CLAUDE
Labor Boss says
no labor loss!
GENE
Cut the witticisms, Claude.
(to Frank)
Debt is debt, whether the debtor
is a family or a city. Fat is fat
and lean is lean. Now I’ve been
around a long time --
(CONTTNIED }
CONTINUED : 9
TIM BONI
(whispered)
Far too long.
GENE
-- and I’ve never known a mayor
who didn’t have grand schemes to
haul the city out of debt. Look
at this white elephant --
(sweeping his hand
over the model of
Manhattan)
The only time the city ever did
get out of debt was when the banks
took over and ran it.
TIM BONI
True.
TOM BONI
Very true.
CLAUDE
Mr. Tim and Mr. Tom,
Bankers with aplomb!
GENE
Will you keep your mouth shut,
Claude. You’re hear to observe,
not talk.
CLAUDE
It's really neat,
when you run concrete.
GENE
I warned you, Claude, you’re out
of here!
MOVING VIEW
Claude is glad to leave; dancing lightly across the
catwalks, he wiggles his brows at someone in the shadows
when he reaches the perimeter ledge.
CLAUDE
Sock it to ‘em, Cousin Serge!
THE VIEW REMAINS ON SERGE CATILINE
Having been there listening to Mayor Cicero’s pitch.
(CONTTNUED \
10.
CONTINUED : 9
VIEW ON THE MAYOR
Anxious not to lose their attention.
FRANK
(desperately)
Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Boni, Mr. Boni --
CITYWORLD is the way of the
future, I do assure you!
MOVING VIEW ON SERGE
Striding toward the assembled group, pushing the Boni twins
aside.
SERGE
What a charlatan you are, Frank.
Cityworld is a way of the past.
The same gasping fish in the same
high rise apartment boxes by the
same inept architects; the same
absence of good design. A casino
for God’s sake! A place where
paychecks are lost and kids go
hungry.
GOVERNOR CARTERET
Hear, hear.
FRANK
When have you ever thought about
people, Catiline? I’m not the
charlatan, you are. Sitting on a
mountain of toll revenues this
city could use. I haven’t seen
you worried about our growing
debt, Mr. Chairman of the Design
Authority!
SERGE
Oh, I’m worried Mayor Cicero,
though my solution to what ails
our city isn't a frantic grab at
revenue by fair means or foul.
What I’m planning to do with that
site won’t milk paychecks or
contribute to vices we should have
outgrown by now.
(MORE)
(CONTTNUED )
11.
CONTINUED : 9
SERGE (cont'd)
And it won’t cost New York City a
cent to build, because I already
have the funds in hand, and I’1l
bring MEGALOPOLIS in at a fraction
of the cost of your pathetic
CITYWORLD.
They all are staring wide-eyed, for only one man knows what
Serge intends to do.
VIEW ON GENE HAMILTON
He is also staring wide-eyed as the rest because he loves to
gee Serge in action.
GENE
Won’t cost the city a cent, huh?
FRANK
This is an outrage. What do you
mean, Catiline, what the hell is
Megalopolis?
VIEW ON SERGE
SERGE
Megalopolis -- the city of
tomorrow. On this site! As
Chairman of the Design Authority,
under its charter I have
jurisdiction and I intend to build
a dream city. A dream of a city.
FRANK
People can’t live on dreams.
People need jobs, housing,
schools, hospitals. Cityworld
will provide the income we need,
the jobs we need.
SERGE
All Cityworld will do is grow old
in a hurry and crumble. I’m going
to initiate change, Frank, to
create something new, something
that won’t be able to crumble.
Gene turns to the Governor.
GENE
He’s got a point, Governor.
(CONTTNUED )
12.
CONTINUED : 9
GOVERNOR CARTERET
That he does.
SERGE
Megalopolis will be built out of
Megalon, which is imperishable.
That’s right, entirely out of
Megalon. Maintenance? An
occasional wash.
NUSH
Megalon is unsafe! Steel and
concrete are safe, safe, safe!
GENE
I may not be able to win a Nobel
Prize, but I can see potential
when it’s pushed under my nose.
Like my nephew, who has won a
Nobel Prize -- it’s time we
utilized the materials of the
moment, and keep on improving them
because research doesn’t stop and
I don’t stop funding research.
TIM BONI
That you don’t. But what’s the
price tag, Gene? I heard you hold
the patents for everything coming
out of Hamilton Research
Laboratories.
GENE
What’s wrong with that; it was
good enough for Edison -- the guys
who dream it up get to play with
their toys, get top salaries and
tenure, get whatever they ask for
without waiting a year for an
answer. And Megalon‘s made out of
what there’s plenty of -- garbage.
VIEW ON FRANK
Reeling from shock, Frank Cicero stands with Cityworld
tumbling about his ears.
NUSH
Garbage, yet. I got no confidence
from something made from garbage.
(MORE )
{CONT TNIED )
CONTINUED :
NUSH (cont'd)
Steel and concrete are tried and
true, steel and concrete won't let
you down.
(turning on Gene
fiercely)
Well, if your Megalon is made out
of garbage, Mr. Hamilton, you’1l
get none of New York’s. New York
garbage goes for landfill, my
contract says so.
Gene roars with laughter.
GENE
There’s never a shortage of that
particular commodity!
FRANK
(using his authority
as Mayor)
Please, please! Catiline hasn't
got the say here, I do! I am the
elected official here! And I want
to see Cityworld become an income-
earning, prosperous reality!
SERGE
A stain on what the future should
FRANK
The future, the future! It’s the
present we live in and the present
we should concern ourselves with.
SERGE
If we don’t care about the future,
there won’t be one.
CLOSE VIEW ON FRANK AND SERGE
The former D.A. comes out in Frank. He almost seethes from
hatred and envy of Catiline.
FRANK
Listen to him! Listen to Design
Czar Catiline! Were you so cool
and collected when you murdered
your wife?
SERGE
As the former D.A., Cicero, you
should know that’s actionable.
(MORE)
(CONTTNIEN }
14.
CONTINUED : 9
SERGE (cont'd)
I was acquitted in your courtroom,
remember?
FRANK
How can I forget? You made a
travesty out of justice.
SERGE
You mean you couldn’t scare up a
shred of evidence.
FRANK
Did you make Megalon out of her
body, Serge?
(trembling with anger) x
Is Lily a plastic girder? A wall
panel?
Serge rolls up his plans and flashes a big grin.
SERGE
You're out of the race, Mayor.
I’m building it my way. As
Chairman of the Design Authority I
have jurisdiction over parks and
fairs and I already have the money
to develop the site.
You're a fraud, Catiline, and so
is this... this Megalopolis of
yours. I promise you I will use
all the power of my office to stop
it.
REBECCA SILVER, the city’s PR officer, tries to draw Frank
out of the room before he says too much.
REBECCA
Mayor, you’re expected in the city
in less than an hour.
FRANK
Okay, okay. Okay, Rebecca.
(fuming)
It’s a siren song to lure the city
onto the rocks!
REBECCA
Come on, let’s go out the back
way. I can’t face running into
that bunch in the foyer -- and the
parade can’t start without you.
(CONT TNIED }
10
CONTINUED : . 9
She hustles the Mayor out. Gene looks at Serge.
GENE
Well, Nephew -- I guess it’s
settled then. Megalopolis goes up
on the site, not Cityworld.
MOVING VIEW ON GENE HAMILTON AND SERGE
They leave together, looking like father and son, Davy Cato
on their heels, his face curiously disappointed.
VIEW ON NUSH AND MEADE
MEADE
(to Nush)
Nepotism reigns. How many
Hamiltons are there, for God’s
sake?
NUSH
Too many.
(warmly )
You’re like a son to me, Meade.
Meade’s large greenish eyes betray no emotion save when they
gaze upon the old man with complete love.
EXT. EXHIBITION HALL - DAY 10
Gene’s vintage limousine is there, its door open. Gene
steps in, followed by Davy. He peeks out the window.
GENE
You can build casinos with Megalon
too if you have to, you know how
that old saying goes?
A black Citroen pulls up.
SERGE
‘You can’t fight city hall?’
We'll see.
Serge's driver, an ex-linebacker named FUNDI with gorilla
arms, is able to open the rear door without getting out.
Serge steps in and the Citroen drives off.
16.
ik
12
EXT. TRIBOUROUGH BRIDGE TOLLS - DAY ll
Automobiles stop and go as they make their way into the
immense city. Design Authority troopers halt cars and wave
the Citroen across the lanes, toward the far side V.I.P
lane.
MOVING SHOT
As the Citroen turns into a private lane marked “Design
Authority Only” leading past the toll gates unhindered. A
trooper salutes the Chairman.
INT. CITROEN - DAY 12
Serge turns on the TV in the Citroen.
VIEW ON THE TV
Stock market coverage by a financial newscaster, beautiful
and sexy, ‘WOW’ BALTIMORE. She is the brilliant financial
commentator and probably the most desired single woman in
the city. Her nickname is based on the gasp everyone makes
when they first see her. She stands in the middle of the
trading floor; stock prices roll across the bottom of the
screen.
Wow
(on TV)
--eChairman Gene Hamilton’s
departure isn’t imminent, but
corporate succession at Hamilton
National affects the future of a
financial-services company so
vast, with 270,000 employees in 10-
plus countries, as to challenge
any individual to run it
effectively.
Serge’s phone RINGS. The divider glass goes up as he
answers it.
SERGE
(on phone)
Wow, I’m watching you now.
wow
(angry)
That was two hours ago -- I came
home to meet you.
(CONTTNIUED }
17.
12
13
14
CONTINUED : 12
SERGE
I tried to call you.
WOW
I don’t understand you, Serge; do
you understand yourself? Your
needs? Your women? Do you even
want to?
Serge notices the woman in the car alongside him, driving
out of his VIEW.
SERGE
Yes, Wow I do --
(click, she hangs up)
I want to understand myself.
He waves his hand to stop time and reverses the traffic, so
that the woman is back in his VIEW. She smiles.
EXT. THE CITY - DAY 13
The Citroen moves deeper into the crowded streets
approaching a parade. Children in strange uniforms with
their band instruments and flags, scouts, soldiers, cadets
and policemen are congregating. A cop approaches the car as
it is stopped by a blockade.
EXT. FIFTH AVENUE PARADE - DAY 14
Mayor Frank Cicero is marching with his wife TERRY. Rebecca
Silver keeps shuffling them to different parts of the parade
to avoid hecklers. Crowds boo; "Cicero you hack!”
REBECCA
They'll be no shortage of ‘boos’
out there, your honor. Maybe you
want to leave the wife out of
this.
FRANK
A parade isn’t a parade without
the Mayor marching.
TERRY
Let’s march with the fire
department, Frank. Who'd want to
boo the fire department?
(CONTTNIED }
18.
14 CONTINUED : 14
; CROWD
When will our garbage get picked
up, Cicero?
Crowds book and jeer, some throw garbage before the cops can
stop them.
FRANK
My opposition’s got ringers out
there. They’1ll probably follow me
all the way up 5th Avenue booing.
Who cares?
HECKLER
What about the shit in the
subways!!!
TERRY
You do, Frank.
Rebecca hurries them next to the marching firemen. Frank
moves even closer to Terry, almost wishing he could lean on
her.
FRANK
How am I going to go down in
history as the best Mayor since
Fiorello La Guardia if I can’t
haul the place out of its
financial mire?
TERRY
Stand up straight, Frank -- and
for heaven’s sake wave!
REBECCA
Where’s Julia?
Frank scowls, waving.
TERRY
Don't bring up Julia to him now.
FRANK
They hardly know me yet. Think
I’m some nobody tagged to replace
the old mayor because he dropped
dead.
(throwing kisses)
They would love me if they knew
me.
({CONTTNUEN )
14
15
CONTINUED : 14
TERRY
They will know you. It’s in the
cards.
EXT. CROSS STREET - DAY 15
VIEW ON THE CITROEN
Crowds are deep behind the police barriers. A Lieutenant
notices the distinctive car stopping and steps up to the
driver.
FUNDI
I got the Chairman of the Design
Authority.
LIEUT.
Sorry, go ahead Dr. Catiline.
Serge gives a half-hearted wave and the Lieutenant snaps to
attention, signaling his men to move the barricades and move
out to stop the parade and let the Citroen through.
HIGH VIEW ON THE CITROEN
Moving through the crowds. Some recognize Serge’s car and
applaud his great public work.
VIEW ON FIFTH AVENUE
A whistle BLOWS as the police stop the parade just as the
Mayor’s party was about the cross.
FRANK
Applause? Who the hell is that
for?
REBECCA
That’s Dr. Catiline’s limo.
THEIR POV
Serge’s car being escorted across as the crowds part for it,
applauding and cheering ‘Bravo, Catiline!’
CLOSE ON FRANK
Watching enviously.
(CONTTNUED }
20.
15
16
17
CONTINUED : 15
FRANK
Stop the Mayor’s parade for
Catiline?
NEW VIEW
The Citroen has moved through, but a few reporters with TV
cameras have cornered the Mayor.
NEWSMAN
Mayor, what about the casino?
FRANK
The casino will go ahead as soon
as funds can be found and
allocated.
NEWSMAN
Is it moral and ethical that a
government should profit from what
Serge Catiline says is a kind of
addiction?
FRANK
Are we of this city’s
administration to cower and cringe
before a man who wasn’t elected?
Who talks about the future to
people who haven’t got a present!
Rebecca is signaling to the police to blow the whistle,
start the parade moving and get her boss out of the hot
seat. The whistle BLOWS -- the parade continues on.
FRANK
(waving
Thank you, everyone.
EXT. UPPER EAST SIDE APARTMENT - DAY 16
Serge emerges from his Citroen, and moves quickly into the
apartment building.
INT. WOW’S APARTMENT -— AFTERNOON 17
MEDIUM VIEW ON WOW BALTIMORE
She stands before Serge naked except for the diamond
wristwatch which she taps with a polished fingernail. She
is very angry.
(CONTTNUED )
21.
17
18
CONTINUED : 17
In nature she’s brilliant but narrow, conceited, arrogant,
well aware that she is seductive heaven on a platter. She
loves Serge because she can’t bend him to her will.
SERGE
Aren’t you going to catch cold
standing there in only your
jewelry?
WOW
Have you no concept of time?
SERGE
Actually, Wow, I don’t.
She stalks into the bedroom. He follows.
INT. BEDROOM - AFTERNOON 18
Wow has slipped into the large bed covered with trays,
magazines, Coke bottles, etc. A TV is playing a tape of her
latest “MoneyWeek” show.
WOW
(on TV)
“Before we get to MoneyWeek’s
guest, Mr. Eugene Hamilton --
Chairman of Hamilton National
Bank...
SERGE
For God‘s sake Wow, turn yourself
off.
She turns the television off with a remote.
wow
How can I when you turn me on like
Times Square at dusk? How can I
when you make me wait? I’m not
one of your shop girls.
SERGE
Not at all, you’re a high class
bitch, Miss Baltimore. That’s why
I love you.
Wow
Hah!
(CONT TNUED )
22.
18
CONTINUED : 18
SERGE
The meeting with the city fathers
took place and I won. I’m going
to build Megalopolis!
WOW
Fuck Megalopolis. It means more
to you than I do.
SERGE
Rejoice with me Wow, I won. I
won!
He smiles to her; reaches out for her. She’s still playing
hard to get. His eyes roam the bedroom, offended as always
by its slatternly appearance.
SERGE
I can’t tolerate slobbery.
He walks around compelled to gather the wreckage up using
one hand to shove her bottom aside impatiently while the
other rescues a Chinese food carton and an empty candy bag
from the bed. He tosses the stuff into the trash.
wow
You’re an obsessive-compulsive
wacko, Serge. Anal as hell. I
(growl in her voice)
-- am oral.
SERGE
That’s what I like best about you,
my beauty.
He starts to move toward her but Wow throws herself into an
easy chair and glowers at him.
WOW
Sit down, Serge. Is it too much
to ask to have a little
conversation?
His eyes closed, he shakes his head.
SERGE
No, Wow, of course it isn’t. I’m
sorry, go ahead. Look, I’m
sitting.
(CONT TNIED )
23.
18
CONTINUED :
wow
Truly, Serge, the longer I know
you the less I know you. What a
way to start a conversation. But-~--
all right, if the direct approach
is the only one, here goes. It’s
time you and I got married.
That opens his eyes.
SERGE
Why?
wow
Because you and I have been lovers
for five years, and I am not
getting any younger. I’11 be
thirty-five in November.
SERGE
I don’t see what the one has got
to do with the other.
Wow
It’s this way, lover. I want to
get married. I need to get
married. The career is beginning
to pall, I’ve gotten what I want
out of it.
SERGE
The general description is that
you’re the most desired woman in
New York City.
Wow
(flattered)
I believe I am. But yours and
yours alone, my darling. No one
else can get to first base, though
there are many who try to steal
it, including your dear Uncle
Eugene. I want you to marry me.
SERGE
Having tried it, I can’t recommend
the institution.
WOW
Lily was a tragic mistake, that’s
all.
(MORE)
18
(CONTTNUED }
24.
18
CONTINUED :
18
WOW (cont'd)
It’s time you left Lily’s death
behind you. I love you with all
my heart, Serge.
SERGE
(dreamy detachment)
Everyone always assumes she’s
dead, but she might not be.
Wow doesn’t understand, but he passes by that quickly.
SERGE
I keep wondering if she’s going to
walk through my door. Hi Serge,
I’m back. Just a little bout of
amnesia, is all.
(his mouth tightens)
Wow, don’t marry for love. It’s
too hard on the soul.
wow
It’s wrong not to marry for love.
Marry me, please.
SERGE
No.
WOW
Why? Why?
SERGE
Because, my Wall Street Witch,
you're too discreet. We’ve been
together for all these years, but
no one knows. That means you
treasure secrets. If you have
other men, I’d never know. If
ever I do acquire another wife,
she will need to be as flawless
and transparent as Baccarat glass.
WOW
I don’t have other men!
SERGE
So you say. But every day of your
life, on the TV, Wow, you lie. I
see you doing it. With such
belief.
(CONTTNURD 5
25.
18
CONTINUED : 18
NEW VIEW
He joins her on the bed and props himself on an elbow to
contemplate exactly where to start. He decides on her
mouth, and kisses it forever. From there it’s a gradual
slide down.
CLOSE ON WOW
Her expression moves through a range of emotions starting
with a tiny smile.
WOW
Why, Serge, why?
SERGE
Because sometimes, you can be a
plastic bag over my face.
That hurts, but her body responds to him even without her
consent.
wow
-- you think you have mental
chains binding me to you --
SERGE
Yes, but as frail as tissue.
He kisses and licks her waist adoringly.
wow
(gasping)
I don’t know -- Serge -- but even
that first time -- and always when
we're making love -- it’s as
though I’m getting transfusions of
your greatness through my vagina.
Her pleasure eclipses all else. But then reality gets the
upper hand.
wow
But -- I’m not going to stay on
Wall Street until I become one of
its grand old institutions and the
pigeons shit on my memorial. I
can’t wait for time to ruin me!
Her knees go; she collapses to the floor and howls ina
frenzy. Serge sighs and leaves. When she senses he is
gone, she recovers and clicks on the TV.
(CONTTNIED }
26.
18
19
20
CONTINUED:
WOW
(on TV)
18
Mr. Hamilton, your departure from
the bank isn’t imminent, you’re in
good health and don’t appear to be
in a hurry to name a successor --
you have everything in life a man
could want.
(looking at him
alluringly)
What's next?
EXT. GRACIE MANSION - DAY
19
Many city cars are gathered by the guard booth; their
drivers chatting with the police stationed there.
INT. DINING ROOM - DAY
20
Frank Cicero sits around the dining table with his staff,
including Rebecca Silver, comptroller AL MORGENTHAU, and
police commissioner STANLEY HART.
A distance away, Frank’s
wife Terry sits by herself with scissors and a stack of
newspapers, clipping out articles.
FRANK
We’ve lost ten thousand jobs in
the last five years, and at the
same time new immigrants have
arrived looking for jobs and
requiring services, putting even
more drain on city resources --
MORGENTHAU
Previous administrations simply
went into debt.
FRANK
Debt is the plague of our times.
MORGENTHAU
More immigrants -- more city
employees -- more pensions and
benefits. It’s an impossible
situation.
JULIA (0.S.)
Impossible? My father doesn’t
know the meaning of the word
impossible!
(CONT TNIED }
27.
20
CONTINUED : 20
JULIA CICERO appears, barefoot and in a white halter evening
gown with bustle, trying to sneak up the staircase. She is
in her early 20s, exquisite. She has been a photographic
model, photographer, detective, toying with any number of
professional options. She shows the diction, elocution and
poise resulting from years of excellent finishing schools.
Her entrance breaks the tension, everybody looks at her and
just smiles. They know she’s Frank’s favorite and his
problem child, obviously just coming home from a wild night.
Commissioner Hart is her slave.
JULIA
Could I get some scrambled eggs --
I’m suddenly starving.
FRANK
Good afternoon, Julia, I feel I
haven't seen you in a month.
JULIA
Not true at all; I saw you the
night before last for dinner. Can
I help with your problems?
FRANK
Sure, the city’s in debt; the
banks won’t pony over any more
until we balance our budgets -- we
have three more weeks of cash
reserve to write checks for our
payroll.
JULIA
(thinking)
What about the Feds?
HART
They told us to drop dead.
FRANK
We didn’t even get thirty pieces
of silver.
JULIA
Well, my Daddy always says --
‘look to history.’
MORGENTHAU
We should start a war?
Morgenthau and Hart start to laugh but Frank stares them
down.
(CONTTNUED \
28.
20
CONTINUED :
20
FRANK
(proudly)
Do I see the glimmer of an idea?
Julia’s my summa cum laude history
student.
The scrambled eggs are rushed in.
FRANK
Good, bring her food.
JULIA
Bread and circuses.
(eating and thinking)
Our city is the greatest city in
the world; the center of the
world. Everyone wants to visit
it, come here stay in our hotels,
go to our fashion shows, eat at
our restaurants and catch a
glimpse of what’s coming next. We
need bread and circuses. We need
a show, a big show that they’d all
have to buy tickets for.
FRANK
That’s Cityworld; an Olympic
World’s Fair!
REBECCA
Try to pry that away from
Catiline, that’s the problem.
JULIA
(looking up from her
plate) :
The way I see it, DEBT represents
the past, money you've already
spent. CASH is the future,
because it’s money you have the
potential to spend...
FRANK
And the present? What is the
present, Julia?
JULIA
(going back to her
eggs )
Well, SEX is the present because
it’s the ‘here and now.’
(dropping her napkin)
(MORE)
(CONTTNUED )
29.
20
CONTINUED:
JULIA (cont'd)
Well, thanks for breakfast -- I’ve
got to get some sleep.
They all look at their watches -- it’s late afternoon.
Frank rises to his fatherly duties.
FRANK
Julia, I want to talk to you.
(to the others)
Would you excuse us please.
The city officials scoop up their documents and take their
leave, causing Julia to turn around mid-way in her exit from
the room. Terry picks up her clippings and rises.
TERRY
(leaving)
Frank, you’re in for a hard time.
Mare is retrograde in Sagittarius,
opposing your Venus and squaring
your sun.
Left alone with her father, Julia’s smile fades.
FRANK
Where were you all night?
JULIA
Who can remember. The city’s a
great big toy.
FRANK
(hopefully)
Does that rhyme with ‘boy’?
JULIA
How about the city’s a great big
‘pearl’ then.
FRANK
Julia, Julia, Julia.
JULIA
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.
FRANK
I’ve told Commissioner Hart I
don’t want you running around with
the police anymore, going out at
night with the detectives...
JULIA
But Dad --
(CONTTNIED \
30.
20
CONTINUED :
Frank indicates a tabloid newspaper on the table.
20
FRANK
And I don’t care if Commissioner
Hart gave you that little badge, I
don’t want you in the vicinity of
gunfights, and drug hustlers and --
JULIA
What’s really up? Dad?
FRANK
Every night, out all hours. Every
morning in the papers --
photographed half naked in the
fountain of the Plaza Hotel;
dancing wildly with lesbians in
the Village.
JULIA
They are my friends.
FRANK
Models and photographers in
nightclubs, drinking and doing God
knows what.
JULIA
I’m well over twenty one.
FRANK
And worse than anything, with that
scandalous group of rich kids --
Claude Hamilton is a blot on his
family’s name, and as for those
sisters of his -- they sleep with
each other!
JULIA
Were things any different in your
day, or ever?
FRANK
In my day all I knew was study and
work; my family was poor and we
all tried to help.
JULIA
(hurt)
I try to help you, Daddy. I do,
but in my own way.
f CONTITNIED)
31.
20 CONTINUED : 20
FRANK
It hurts me when they describe you
preferring -- women. And with
pictures, yet.
Julia takes the papers.
JULIA
Dad, like it or not, this city
today is in the age of the female,
La Donna; it’s the young women
with the ideas, the talent and the
daring that are making things
happen. The men are all rock
guitarists or wimps obsessed with
job security; terrified of
responsibility and too timid to
start families, much less found a
dynasty that will last 300 years,
for God’s sake. The girls have
left them in the dust. It’s a
political issue, not a personal
one.
FRANK
Politics is the personal made
public.
JULIA
If truth be known, you’d have a
hard time finding a woman under 24
who isn’t vaguely bisexual.
FRANK
But you’re a Cicero -- we prefer
the old values.
JULIA
I love you very much Dad, but I’m
grown up and I have to discover my
own soul in my own way.
Frank puts his arm around her and walks her over to the
French doors leading to the patio overlooking the river.
She clutches the incriminating tabloids behind her.
FRANK
Why not get out of the city, go
back to college. Earn your
degree.
(CONTTNUED )
20
21
22
CONTINUED : 20
JULIA
You’ve already educated me.
FRANK
So you’d rather be Servillia...
JULIA
(finishing his
sentence)
-- The Medea of the Palatine.
FRANK
-- than Cornelia --
JULIA
-- the ‘mother of the Gracchi.’
See, Dad? You have rubbed off.
The nut doesn’t fall far from the
tree. You never give up; never
settle for less; never lie, steal
and never cheat, and neither do I.
When I find my own soul, I'll make
you proud -- Daddy.
He reaches out for her and hugs her tightly, passionately.
Nothing means more to Frank than his daughter Julia, and
only after that perhaps, his honor.
CLOSE VIEW
On Julia’s hands behind her back, holding the tabloids. She
flicks them away, out of the house.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. THE YARD - DAY 21
The papers blow in the wind, opening, and showing the
pictures of Julia dancing with models and the scandalous
Clodia Hamilton. The wind blows them away. A gardener,
picking one up, puts it in his sack.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. AVENUE - DAY 22
Time is passing as crocuses turn to tulips and dogwood
flowers.
(CONT TNITED )
33.
22
23
24
25
CONTINUED : 22
Bags are collected, some papers falling out. We see
pictures of Gene Hamilton with Wow Baltimore on his arm
caught going into the "21" Club.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. GENE HAMILTON’S HOUSE - DAY 23
The season has changed, we see one classical tower with a
prominent peristyle terrace adorned with classical statues.
INSERT 24
A wedding invitation, magnificently engraved: “Lavender
“Wow” Baltimore and Eugene Hamilton...”
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. HAMILTON’S TERRACE - DAY 25
Gene Hamilton’s terrace garden. It looks out over an
incredible view. An archery target and workout equipment
stand at the far end. His nephew Claude has come to see
him, in white tie -- Gene motions him over.
GENE
Come here, Claude -- come here.
Gene is dressed in white tuxedo, he seems most vibrant.
He’s trying to fix his bow tie, wants Claude to help hin.
CLAUDE
Congratulations, Uncle Gene.
Wowle Wow!
GENE
Great turn of events, eh?
CLAUDE
A partridge in the house,
sure beats shooting grouse.
GENE
Cut that rhyming crap, Claude!
You're my heir, behave like it.
CLAUDE
Okay, Unc.
fCONTTNURD )
34.
25
CONTINUED :
25
GENE
I wanted to explain why I asked
your cousin Serge to be my best
man. He’s mature.
CLAUDE
Is she already pregnant?
GENE
No chance of that, my plumbing’s
been disconnected.
CLAUDE
So she got the bank without the
grind of motherhood. Did you get
a prenuptial agreement?
GENE
I may be old but I’m not stupid.
CLAUDE
Just asking. Why are you marrying
her?
GENE
Because I’m nuts about her. She’s
my present to myself. I’1l stay
young. I might even live forever.
CLAUDE
Whoopee-doo for the heir.
GENE
You ought to spend time at the
bank with me.
CLAUDE
No thanks, Unc. I like my life
the way it is. Claude Hamilton
the third; bad boy, hip boy,
playboy.
GENE
Gay boy?
CLAUDE
That’s my sisters you’re thinking
of.
GENE
Rumor says you sleep with them.
(CONTTNUED \
35.
25
CONTINUED :
25
CLAUDE
Rumor, rumor! What do you say?
GENE
I don’t give a rat’s ass so long
as you turn into someone who’ll
guard the Hamilton empire better
than a Doberman its bone.
CLAUDE
Why isn’t the family genius your
heir? He’s mature.
GENE
Geniuses, nephew, regard money as
a tainted tool. Serge’d give it
away.
CLAUDE
So you’re stuck with wild boy
Claude. Did you hire the city’s
pet virgin to sing at your
reception?
GENE
Sure did -- thanks for the tip.
Not cheap.
CLAUDE
Good.
Gene puts his arm around Claude, and walks him out. Claude
holds a small video camera in his hands.
Claude leans
GENE
Be nice to Wow once she’s in the
family, hear me?
CLAUDE
I‘1l be so nice I’1l even call her
my Auntie Wow.
GENE
Got your little camera charged up
for the wedding?
to kiss him on the cheek.
CLAUDE
Sure have, you’1l get the Claude
version of your wedding -- all the
dirt, all the snide remarks.
(MORE)
(CONTTNIED }
36.
25
26
CONTINUED : 25
CLAUDE (cont'd)
Watch and you'll know,
friend from foe.
INT. GENE AND WOW’S WEDDING RECEPTION - NIGHT 26
(As seen through the tiny video CAMERA of Claude Hamilton.)
IMAGE -- Serge giving the toast as Best Man.
Camera keeps PANNING from Serge’s crotch to Wow’s
breathtaking cleavage.
IMAGE -- Claude’s sisters -- CLODIA, CLAUDINE, AND CLODINA.
Known as the ‘Claudettes’ to the many who have enjoyed them.
Totally lascivious coverage of Maids of Honor misbehaving.
IMAGE OF DAVY CATO
With his wife, clearly not listening to her and gazing at
Wow’s legs and shoes.
IMAGE OF GROOMSMEN
All over seventy, still talking abut young girls. One is
getting a oxygen fix.
IMAGE OF WOW
Can’t keep her eyes off of Serge.
IMAGE OF SERGE
Trying to be indifferent to Wow, but steals a glance. He is
totally preoccupied by the teenage singing sensation.
IMAGE: TEEN STAR
VESTA SWEETWATER has been hired to sing for the Hamilton
young people at the request of Claude. She’s photographed as
she poses with Gene and Wow, and is especially flustered with
the dapper Serge Catiline.
VIEW ON VESTA
Camera is handed off, s0 Claude, smitten and jealous, is in
the picture with her.
CLAUDE (0.S.)
Fuck Serge.
(CONTTNUED \
26
27
28
CONTINUED : 26
CLOSE SHOT
Vesta kisses Serge on the cheek, and then blushes and fans
herself.
CLAUDE
Are no virgins sacred?
CLOSE ON SERGE
Someone introduces Julia to him. Claude takes her by the
hand and jealously leads her away.
IMAGE OF THE CLAUDETTES
Offering drugs and seducing some unsuspecting other
bridesmaid in the ladies room. THE CAMERA tilts up and is a
grotesque IMAGE of Claude leering into it. Claude is with
his old boarding school pal, ANTON SMITH -- dense, muscular;
a former West Point Cadet recently kicked out. He pulls his
pants down and the bridesmaids are amazed at what they see.
INT. LIMO - NIGHT 27
Claude’s camera points at himself.
CLAUDE
(video sound)
What am I up to? Change. Kick
the old to death, piss on their
beliefs so the new can be born.
INT. CLOUD TOWER - NIGHT 28
CLAUDE’S CAMERA -- Serge has made the mistake of having them
all back to party in the Cloud Tower. Both Serge and Julia
try to outdo each other with their behavior -- Julia with
Clodia and Serge with Vesta, who has disappeared with Serge.
Claude’s camera is on a drunken, drugged Julia.
ANTON (0.S.)
What about her?
CLAUDE (0.S.)
(to his sisters)
Examine her. Is she really a
virgin?
CLODIA (0.S.)
Claude?
(CONTTNUED )
38.
28
29
CONTINUED : 28
CLAUDE (0.S.)
I like virgins, only virgins.
A hand pulls the CAMERA and we are in an EXTREME CLOSE shot
of Clodina pushing her face into the camera.
CLODINA
Don’t mess with Claude and his
women. The last thing you need.
The CAMERA swings to Julia, clearly high -- recently part of
the Claude Club and being fondled by Clodia.
CLODIA (0.S.)
Cousin Serge? He’s first on the
revenge list.
Julia is smiling until she hits bottom and passes out.
CLOSE ON JULIA
Dreaming.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. STREETS - HIGH ANGLE - DAY 29
JULIA’S BAZAAR DREAM:
Julia walke by the sidewalk where a street artist draws a
huge question mark ending his colored chalk question with:
“THINGS ARE CHANGING, BUT TO WHAT?”
MOVING VIEW JULIA
Making her way down the immigrant streets, among the carts
and street vendors, bazaar of spices, nuts of all types.
Steam rises from cooking Middle Eastern delicacies -- there
are trinkets, ornaments and clothing. Arab vendors cry out
"I got Bulgari watches -- Armani shirts -- Gucci belts!”
VIEWS
Glimpsing life, beads and books, belts and merchandise from
the four corners of the empire.
MOVING CLOSE VIEW ON JULIA
Had a hard night, but seems intent on going to give a
warning. “...Genuine Rolex watches!”
(CONTTNUED )
39.
29
30
31
CONTINUED : 29
FULL VIEW -- THE CHRYSLER BLDG
Ite tower rising up from behind a block of the city.
INT. LOBBY OF DESIGN AUTHORITY -— DAY 30
Julia Cicero moves past the awards and displays to a
secretary, SARA, slouched in her swivel chair faking Serge’s
signature.
JULIA
I’m here to see Dr. Catiline.
SARA
(not looking up)
Are you the press?
JULIA
No, I’m Miss Julia Cicero.
SARA
May I ask what it’s about?
JULIA
About Miss Julia Cicero.
Sara punches a button on the intercom.
SARA
Just go right up those steps, Miss
Julia Cicero --
(smiling)
--as thousands have gone before
you.
INT. CLOUD TOWER - DAY 31
Serge is by the window. When he sees Julia it’s as if for
the first time, stunned admiration.
SERGE
I was in a state of shock when I
learned your identity, hadn’t
registered how beautiful you are.
JULIA
Save your blandishments for your
women.
(CONTTNIED }
40.
31
CONTINUED : 31
SERGE
A vocabulary and all. How could I
have been so blind -- it’s just
that one candlepower has turned
into megawatts.
Their eyes meet. Both draw a breath, experience a moment in
which time, now elastic -- seems suspended. Flustered, they
break the glance and move away from each other.
SERGE
(breaking the spell)
What’s urgent enough to compel
Frank Cicero’s daughter to see his
old enemy?
JULIA
His new enemy, since your
Cityworld veto.
(quickly)
But this has nothing to do with my
father. I’ve come to warn you
about Claude Hamilton.
SERGE
(half-laughing)
Claude? That‘’s ridiculous.
JULIA
No it isn’t. Claude is plotting
revenge against you.
SERGE
That’s a joke.
JULIA
Dr. Catiline, it isn’t a joke.
SERGE
He’s harmless.
JULIA
Don’t take him lightly. He’s very
dangerous. He said a lot last
night.
SERGE
I must remember to tell Claude
that he’s managed to convince one
person he’s dangerous and not an
idle fool.
(CONTTNUED }
41.
31
CONTINUED :
JULIA
Maybe Claude doesn’t do any useful
work, but he works at getting back
at people. Truly, he’s dangerous -
- especially to you.
SERGE
Because I used to kick his ass
when he was sixteen. He was an
apprentice in my studio one
summer. One summer was enough. I
asked him what field he wanted to
study with me and he said,
“Genius.”
JULIA
I heard it was over a girl.
SERGE
He quit, bygones are bygones.
JULIA
Not where Claude’s concerned. He
has a book he calls his revenge
aie and your name is the first in
t.
SERGE
Oh, very serious. And my name is
in it, you say?
JULIA
In purple ink. The worst.
He catches her eyes; her breath leaves her again.
totally charmed by her.
SERGE
You look -~ oh, five years old.
In fact I wish you were just a
little chubbier.
He laughs but she doesn’t find it funny.
JULIA
I’m not chubby, and I’m not five.
I can see I wasted my time.
Goodbye.
SERGE
Don’t go -- not yet, please.
31
He is
(CONT TNIED )
42.
31
32
CONTINUED : 31
Their eyes catch once again. Time seems frozen to her;
flustered, she tears her eyes away to look at her watch.
JULIA
I’m afraid I must. As surreal as
it sounds, the President and First
Lady are coming to dinner tonight
and if I’m one second late, my
head will be displayed on a spike
outside Gracie Mansion.
SERGE
I want to show you what I am
doing.
JULIA
I would love that -- in fact --
but I can’t now.
He is right next to her, and that is dizzying. Julia sways
a little. He takes her wrist lightly in his fingers -- not
only a caress but a command.
SERGE
You won’t be late. I'll stop time
for you while you look at
Megalopolis. Then Fundi will get
you home in time.
She glances at her watch, her resolve crumples.
JULIA
Okay, it’s five fifteen -- just a
minute or two.
INT. DESIGN STUDIO - DAY 32
Serge leads her down into his Authority studio, where the
plans for Megalopolis are being hatched.
There are drafting tables and various members of the design
team at work. The windows overlook the entire city. In the
center of the area is a ping-pong table on which is spread a
blueprint of the entire Megalopolis as it is envisioned
(which changes daily).
SERGE
This is it.
(CONTTNUED }
43.
32
CONTINUED : 32
VIEW ON PING-PONG TABLE
Cardboard boxes, various chunks of styrofoam placed around,
balsa wood crudely carved into shapes -- several volleyballs
and a basketball; a section of bonsai trees. Julia gazes,
awed, understanding what they are doing. She begins to SEE
the various members of Serge’s design team.
JULIA
It’s -- beautiful, isn’t it?
SERGE
Sorry, this is Julia Cicero. This
is Charles Eddington, my chief
engineer and architect. The
redhead over there is Balin of the
fractals, my physicist. And Vera
Constantine, my electrical
engineer -Don Parsons, social
engineer, Jeannette Papadopoulos,
my biochemist -- Kara Kazanian, my
mathematician.
JULIA
And this team is all you need to
build a whole city?
SERGE
There are many others, just not
here inside the womb, if I may be
excused the metaphor.
JULIA
Are you trying to needle me?
They all look around to others for confirmation chuckling to
themselves. Serge points to the cluster of basketballs.
SERGE
That’s the center. The city of
the future for the man of the
future --
JULIA
The person of the future.
SERGE
Yes.
(pause)
(MORE )
(CONTTNUED )
44.
32
CONTINUED :
32
SERGE (cont'd)
We started by asking what the
people of the future would be like
in -- say, one hundred years
forward in time. Had to know what
their world will be like; how the
person of the future would want to
live?
JULIA
Okay, and?
SERGE
We realized that technology would
eliminate the need for human
labor.
JULIA
Technology, you mean, like
Megalon?
CHARLES
Well, we have to assume Megalon is
a beginning -- there will be many
more developments.
JULIA
But ‘exactly’ how? And when? And
what exactly is Megalon?
Different members of Serge’s team are working on the
project, men and women, young and older.
SERGE
It’s a plastic, in that it’s
organic and non-metallic. But the
arrangement of its molecules and
chains can be varied to suit a
particular need. It’s moldable,
rollable, stampable, knotable,
twistable. And it has built-in
memories you can trigger with a
specific kind of modulated
current.
JULIA
Have you got a piece I can see?
They lead her to a table with some plastic sheets.
Balin is star-struck over meeting Julia and has a collection
of all her pictures when she was a model --
(CONT TNITED }
45.
32 CONTINUED : 32
SERGE
So, here’s a piece of Megalon --
Serge picks up a sheet of a soft, almost pliable material.
SERGE
You can make it from anything
organic, but the one thing we have
to excess is garbage, so at the
moment it’s made from garbage.
JULIA
What about toxic waste?
SERGE
Things like cyanides, arsenides,
acid, ammonia? They contain
radicals we need, and can
incorporate.
JULIA
Sewage?
SERGE
(smiling)
The best of all.
Balin types into his laptop and the Megalon responds.
BALIN
I‘m giving it various wireless
instructions. Nano-technology in
action, Miss Cicero. .
(he points to the “NT”
patch on his jacket)
I‘ll get you a patch.
SERGE
We’re looking for a compass
heading so we know how to design
Megalopolis. We’ve concluded that
people will no longer have to
labor -~ work.
JULIA
(accepting it)
So what you're saying is that
you’re going to design a city for
what you imagine the people of the
future will be like. How do you
know what they’11l want?
CCONTTNURED }
32
CONTINUED :
47.
By projecting time forward. We
selected an empirical point a
hundred years from now and asked
ourselves, given the direction
things are taking, what the person
a hundred years from now will
need. Not expect -- need.
JULIA
But what will they do if they
don’t have to work? Work is -- is
liberating. Though I admit you
have to like what you work at.
Serge walks over to where Balin has been working out lists
of priorities, and priority groups on a chalkboard. He's
reduced it to these headlines:
“Priorities -- LEARNING, CREATING, PERFECTING, CELEBRATING,
then each has a subheading which includes teaching, enjoying
art, sport, privacy, worship, ritual, family, celebration,
festival, etc.
BALIN
These will be the priorities of
the person of the future.
JULIA
Learning, creating, perfecting,
celebrating -- sounds like the
Nazi Party.
BALIN
Only the best parts.
SERGE
All human activity is work, Julia.
But in the world of the future, a
person will be able to choose what
work he prefers. There won’t be
any other jobs, really --
CHARLES
What he’s best suited for, what he
really wants to do because the
basics of life will be provided
for. Gratis.
JULIA
But there’d still have to be
money .
(CONTTNITED )
32
CONTINUED :
32
SERGE
Why?
JULIA
(smiling)
Because it makes the world go
round.
SERGE
Not necessarily, anymore. What is
money really, other than plastic
and computer sheets. The only
reality is DEBT. That is my
revolution. In my world of the
future, debt won’t exist. Ever
since it was invented, debt is the
shadow that blights every mind.
Human beings endure debt in the
hope that tomorrow they’1l pay it
off -- they won’t owe. They’1l be
free.
JULIA
To work at what they want.
SERGE
And the four priorities we're
going to design this city around
are --
JULIA
Creating, learning, perfecting and
celebrating.
Balin knows of Julia through the tabloids’ coverage of her
and the Claudettes.
BALIN
Partying, yeah!
JULIA
Partying can’t fill a life.
CHARLES
But the four together can.
JULIA
There’1l be too many people --
(CONTTNUED)
48.
32
CONTINUED :
32
SERGE
Not in a hundred years. By then
we’ll have learned that children
are precious gifts.
JULIA
You’re a dreamer.
SERGE
Then look at my dream, Julia.
Serge leads Julia forward to the pieces of balsa wood,
shapes of styrofoam and sketches and reference pictures
pinned on the walls.
JULIA
Manufacture will still cost.
BALIN
Hardly anything if it’s done on a
molecule by molecule basis in
factories no bigger than germs.
SERGE
Megalon’s only the beginning of
miracle breakthroughs in nano-
technology and quantum machines.
CONSTANTINE
All communications are like
threads on a loom; everything is
connected; trigger the raw
material and it proliferates.
We SEE the city rising into the site that Serge has just
laid bare.
The existing streets of New York's grid pass
through undisturbed, but levels on top and below them
provide new possibilities -- hence, the city coexists with
contemporary Manhattan.
BALIN
Quantum mechanics and computing --
puff! Everything is everywhere.
(confidentially)
Eventually people and things, too -
- teleportation.
CHARLES
Easy Balin. ‘Balin the Fractal’
is your biggest fan, Julia.
Balin smacks his baseball cap down on the table.
(CONTTNUED \
49.
32
CONTINUED :
32
BALIN
Sign my hat. Sign my arm.
JULIA
(signing)
But it’s so long off -- Why are
you trying to build the future
now? It’s too advanced.
SERGE
There speaks Frank Cicero’s
daughter.
A fierce glare turns Julia’s eyes yellow.
BALIN
Bingo; it’s cool.
(can’t contain
himself)
“Wings over the world” H.G. Wells,
“Intelligence, Creativity and
Friendliness” A. Huxley --
JULIA
But people have to work.
SERGE
Julia, think about it. Two
hundred years ago, manpower was
vital. But slowly, slowly,
slowly, automation has reduced the
labor element in almost
everything. Do you think that
trend is going to backslide? No,
it’s accelerating. The time is
inevitably coming when it will be
a rare privilege and honor to have
a job.
VIEWS ON THE MEGALOPOLIS CITY MODEL
The basketballs have become a cluster of stadiums and
auditoriums as well as a huge urban machine -- ringe move
pedestrians gently throughout, and small ‘mono’ cars are
picked up, used -- left anywhere, or move up on high-speed
groups of them. The entire city comes to life; Julia not
only sees it, she walks into it.
JULIA
You guys are crazy -- wonderfully
crazy.
(CONT TNUPTY\
50.
32
CONTINUED :
Julia’s face
32
SERGE
A city that has the ability to
modify itself, that can grow
intertwined with the people living
in it and changing it --
(enthusiastically)
I’ve been waiting for this chance
my whole life and I swear I’m not
going to blow it.
registers a terrible thought.
JULIA
What about the others?
SERGE
Others?
JULIA
Banks. Multinationals, the -- the
engineers of debt. They’d kill
you first. What’s power for, but
to use? And they have the power.
They can manipulate governments.
A chill falls over the room; Julia is reminding them of
fallibility.
NEW ANGLE
The illusion dies. Suddenly the table is once again covered
with pieces of plastic, balsawood, styrofoam, and
basketballs.
She shivers.
JULIA
But there’s so much more I want to
know. Oh, I wish I could help.
SERGE
Why can’t you help? The one
vacancy here belongs to you,
Julia. You’re what we’ve needed,
gomeone young who can ask all the
questions we assume we know the
answers to, then discover that we
don’t. You’re the fresh eye,
you're the critic, you’re the
devil’s advocate. Come and work
with us.
(CONTTNURED }
51.
32
33
CONTINUED : 32
JULIA
Oh my god, I couldn’t. My father
would kill me.
SERGE
(shrugs)
It‘s your choice. But don‘t
forget that you’re grown enough to
be your own person. If your true
inclination leans toward Frank
Cicero’s world, then I’m mistaken
in you, you wouldn't fit.
CLOSE ON JULIA
Up goes her chin.
JULIA
No, you’re not mistaken in me. I
want to do this. I have to do
this.
SERGE
(briskly)
Then be here at eight next Monday.
And don’t be late, because we’re
off to the site.
Julia remembers the time.
JULIA
I must go. My head’s going to be
on that spike.
Gazing up into Serge’s face, smiling.
JULIA
But it’s been worth it. Thank
you, Serge.
She rushes into the elevator.
SERGE
Look for the Citroen outside, you
won’t be late.
INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHT 33
Julia looks at her watch. It is 5:18.
(CONTTNIED }
52.
33
34
35
36
53.
CONTINUED : 33
JULIA
Impossible.
Her heart is racing and she jumps for joy -- an unsettling
thing to do in an elevator.
INT. DESIGN STUDIOS - NIGHT 34
The design group resumes work, THE CAMERA MOVES CLOSE TO
SERGE. Distracted, working but thinking of this new force
in his life, Julia Cicero. His mind is racing, “She isa
universe all her own, she’s my fate, my nemesis, my own
private galaxy.” Everywhere he looks he sees her face.
EXT. GRACIE MANSION - NIGHT 35
TRUCKING VIEW ON JULIA
Returning home as if in a dream. She walks barefoot holding
her shoes, skipping past the President’s secret service
cars, limos and agents posted around the mansion. She
stops, puts her shoes on, freshens her hair, puts on some
lipstick and makes her entrance as the respectable daughter.
AGENT
She's okay -- she’s the mayor’s
daughter.
THE VIEW LOOKS IN THROUGH THE WINDOW
We see Julia cruise into her home, being introduced to
Governor Carteret and then the President and the First lady
by a proud Frank Cicero. We notice her whisper something
into his ear.
INT. GRACIE MANSION - NIGHT 36
CLOSE ON FRANK
He is aghast.
FRANK
What! You’re going to work for
him? Catiline? That murderer?
The President, First Lady and entire cocktail party stand
there, mouths open at his outburst. Governor Carteret
suppresses a chuckle at the Mayor’s peasant-like behavior.
Rebecca Silver rushes across to calm him.
(CONTTNIED \
36
37
38
CONTINUED : 36
REBECCA
Your honor! Defamation!
JULIA
Dr. Catiline is my friend. He’s a
genius.
FRANK
Your family is the beat friend
you'll ever have!
Frank becomes embarrassed in this grand company, collects
himself.
FRANK
Well, Mr. President, I hope you’ve
worked up an appetite. Home
cooking here -- my wife is a
wonder in the kitchen.
He hugs Terry and they all smile, the tension broken as he
leads them toward the dining room. The President escorts
Terry, Frank follows escorting the Firet Lady and the others
follow. Julia lingers by herself for a moment, but at
Rebecca’s signal, follows into the room, as the door is
closed.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
EXT. THE CITY - DAY 37
The leaves are changing to fall colors. The city is
stately. Formal. Classical.
EXT. CITY HALL - DAY 38
THE VIEW MOVES CLOSER
The city is alive with the history of the founding of the
Republic conceived on the model of Rome. This building was
once the seat of the Federal Government.
FRANK (0.S.)
My daughter, a traitor? Julia,
the man is evil!
54.
39
40
INT. MAYOR’S LOBBY - DAY 39
Secretaries work and assistants follow instructions of
Rebecca Silver but there’s an air of tension and awareness
of the conflict going on inside. Every once in a while the
Mayor's voice can be heard shouting -- everyone stops, only
to continue when it abates.
FRANK (0.S.)
Why do you think he calls it
Megalopolis? Because that’s the
closest he could get to
Megalomania!
INT. MAYOR’S OFFICE - DAY 40
Julia stands before the desk that Mayor Fiorello La Guardia
once used, while her father shouts at her.
FRANK
How could you even contemplate
working for the man who’s out to
ruin me?
JULIA
You’re wrong about him, Dad.
Serge is a good man. The fact
that you don’t see eye to eye
doesn’t mean he’s what you just
called him -- I happen to feel
he’s right! Megalopolis is the
way we have to go -- we can’t keep
living in the past when everything
around us keep changing faster
than we can take in!
FRANK
The past is set in concrete. It’s
happened, we know about it, we're
not postulating crazy ideas like
some new hot gospel when we look
to the past as our guide! This
nation was founded on the vision
and foresight of a brilliant group
of men, they laid down the rules,
and I for one believe in following
those rules. Catiline preaches
sedition!
(CONTTNUED }
55.
40
CONTINUED :
40
JULIA
Hasn't it occurred to you that
when that brilliant group of men
laid down the rules, they were
called crazy? Dad, each age has
its visionaries, and the past
isn’t always the right way. To
make mistakes is human, but to
repeat them is stupid!
FRANK
What would know you, at your age?
You're a fool of a girl, you’re an
infant.
Frank is caught in a rage beyond his capability to control.
His own flesh and blood, the daughter he loved beyond any
other is defying him.
JULIA
What hogwash! Dad, you know it’s
hogwash. It’s also bigotry. How
much do you know about the man to
make accusations like ‘sedition’?
How can you know what he stands
for when you won't stop to listen
to anything he says? It isn’t
logical! No, worse -- there’s no
sense in it. Why do you hate him
so much?
FRANK
(convinced)
Because he’s the Devil in a
winning disguise. He seduces. He
corrupts. He murders and gets
away with it. He can’t be
touched. He’s above the rule of
law. He waves a wand and conjures
things up out of nowhere. He
blinds beautiful young women, he
destroys innocence -- he is evil
incarnate! Incarnate!
JULIA
(whispering dully)
Dear God, you’re on a crusade.
You’re living in the middle ages.
You don’t reason, you simply
believe. Heart and soul, you
believe. You’re possessed.
(CONTTNURD \
56.
40
41
CONTINUED : 40
FRANK
Possessed to bring Catiline down --
that much is true!
She moves to him, grasps his right hand in both of hers.
JULIA
Daddy, I beg of you, be happy for
me! No matter what you think of
him, be happy for me, please,
please!
FRANK
(snatching away his
hand)
How can I be happy when you’re
ruining yourself?
JULIA
I am going to work for him, and
nothing you can say or do will
stop me!
FRANK
Then you’re lost to me. You're
lost Julia, you're lost.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. GRACIE MANSION - AFTERNOON 4l
A self-drive trailer is parked by the Mayor’s residence.
Balin is waiting in the car. The cops by the guard gate and
staff watch sadly as Julia and the housekeeper carry out her
few boxes of books, stereo system and a few suitcases. The
housekeeping staff and guards bid Julia a tearful goodbye.
Julia jumps in the van, and Balin drives it away, his radio
blaring.
THE VIEW MOVES
To a window on the second floor of the residence, from which
Terry watches her daughter leave home. She turns away.
CLOSE UP ON TERRY
She looks down, as she turns the tarot deck, THE VIEW SHOWS
the fateful card -- “The Devil.” We HEAR the hooting of an
owl.
57.
42
43
EXT. TIMES SQUARE - NIGHT
The Citroen makes its way through the night.
INT. THE CITROEN - NIGHT
Serge prowls the city, driven by Fundi.
FUNDI
Any particular destination, Mr.
Serge -- uptown, downtown --
heaven, hell?
SERGE
If a man lives in hell, does he
have the right to pull an angel
down with him?
FUNDI
Well, maybe the angel will yank
him up to heaven. Maybe it’s his
only chance.
SERGE
Wait.
42
43
Suddenly, he opens the door and is at a flower section of a
market on the corner. He buys a bouquet of flowers and
returns to the car. This worries Fundi.
FUNDI
Hey, Mr. Serge. You want to go to
Atlantic City? I could make it in
a few hours.
SERGE
That ugly place -- you lose as
goon as you set foot in there,
design-wise.
FUNDI
Cheer up, Mr. Serge. Get in the
correct half of the half-empty
glass.
SERGE
Pull over, Fundi -- over there.
(CONTTNUED }
58.
43
44
45
CONTINUED :
43
FUNDI
I’m not going to let you get out
and disappear.
SERGE
It’s not up to you.
FUNDI
I’m not supposed to let you out of
my sight. The insurance company --
SERGE
(very firm)
Pull over, Fundi.
FUNDI
OK, Mr. Serge --
The Citroen pulls to the side. Serge steps out of the car,
and disappears into the shadows.
FUNDI (0.S.)
I’1l be right here.
Fundi is exasperated -- Catiline disappears like this every
few months.
EXT. GRACIE MANSION - NIGHT 44
The moon is dark and foreboding; we HEAR an owl hooting.
CAMERA MOVES CLOSER to Frank’s bedroom window as a light
comes on.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT 45
Frank sits up in his bed, obviously troubled through the
night, gasping. Terry rouses, turns on her elbow.
TERRY
Hon?
FRANK
I don’t like that owl.
TERRY
Go to sleep.
(CONT TNUED }
59.
45
46
CONTINUED : 45
FRANK
A dream. A terrible dream. I was
looking at the full moon, when a
cloud that looked like a hand
reached out and swallowed it.
TERRY
I’ll turn the Tarot tomorrow.
FRANK
That owl is bad, bad luck.
TERRY
I told you, Frank; you have to see
this psychic -- Ablo. An expert
on dreams, they say.
FRANK
What am I, Agamemmnon asking the
oracle why the winds won‘t blow?
Lose your daughter, O great king!
He remains up, eyes wide open. Terry is already asleep.
FRANK
(quietly)
Losé your daughter --
He sits there in the shadows, trembling as we HEAR the sound
of the owl.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT/INT. CITROEN - MORNING 46
NEW VIEW
Fundi is asleep in the Citroen, the small TV he was watching
still running. Serge slinks out of the labyrinth of streets
and into the Citroen.
Fundi wakes up. Serge is there, patiently sitting in the
rear, letting Fundi get his sleep.
FUNDI
Okay, Mr. Serge?
Serge sits quietly. Fundi starts the car, then looks back.
FUNDI
Everything OK?
(CONTTNIED 1
60.
46
47
48
49
CONTINUED 46
SERGE
Yes.
Fundi hesitates, wanting to ask where more.
SERGE
Just go, Fundi.
The Citroen starts up and drives off.
FADE OUT:
PADE IN:
EXT. THE CITY - MORNING 47
Early morning over Manhattan. It is summer, and the city
has become sultry. The city, surrounded by ethnics of all
corners of the empire, the bazaar that haunted Julia.
MONTAGE: THE BAZAAR
Feminine forces running through the city like rivers.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - DAY 48
The river boundary of the vacant acres. Partly a wasteland
of disused railroad tracks, ancient sheds, tangled heaps of
iron and concrete, illicitly dumped household machines,
stripped cars. In the distance looms what’s left of the
immigrant projects, not very old in years; brick high rises
wherein nothing had really worked from the day the official
ribbon had been cut.
NEW VIEW
The Design Authority team has taken occupancy of the site
with their survey equipment and cluster of Airstream
trailers.
EXT. CLAUDE’S CAR - DAY 49
Claude has driven by the crowds in an ostentatious $500,000
automobile. He sits up and takes notice of the building
group of immigrants behind the lightweight police
barricades. He steps out of the car and hands his tiny
camera to Anton, who reluctantly follows.
(CONTTNIED \
61.
49
CONTINUED : 49
ANTON
Why are we here, Claude?
CLAUDE
You see that sign up there in the
sky, “City for Sale” -- let’s have
a look, kick some tires...
Anton doesn’t see it of course. Claude watches the people
speaking in Arabic and Pakistani; Spanish and Haitian.
CLAUDE
Get this shot, Anton.
VIEW ON CLAUDE
Posing in front of the rabble, one foot forward, his left
arm cuddling his chest, his right arm at his side. Regal,
arrogant. Indifferent to any danger.
CLAUDE
You know, Anton old chum, one
thing about immigrants, when they
get the vote, they exercise it.
Think it’s their patriotic duty to
their new country. They value
American citizenship.
ANTON
I’m a citizen, you’re a citizen.
They’re un-American trash.
CLAUDE
Tek, tsk! That’s probably the
kind of remark Pocahoritas made to
your illustrious ancestor, John
Smith. At one time, epoch or era,
we all arrived as immigrants on
these fabled shores flowing with
milk and honey.
ANTON
Jesus, I hate it when you go
upmarket, Claude!
CLAUDE
Sometimes I wonder why I hang with
you, Anton. It must be because of
your one party trick.
He walks into the center of the mob -- a placard they carry
reads, "Give us back our homes,” and “Who elected Catiline”?
(CONTTNUED }
62.
49
CONTINUED : 49
One says in Arabic:
‘SHARIF
(in Arabic)
Rich American dogs.
Claude catches the eye of this bearded young man, KHALID
SHARIF, as though he understands. Then, in a surprise:
CLAUDE
(Arabic)
Absolutely true, my friend.
The protestors are thrown off balance as he sticks out a
manicured hand.
CLAUDE
(Arabic)
Claude Hamilton the Third, at your
service.
SHARIF
(Arabic)
Where did you learn to speak
Arabic?
CLAUDE
(Arabic)
I've studied here and there, my
family is in oil, I have studied
Ibn Khaldun for my history.
These people are taken aback. Some Haitians step forward,
with no true link to the Arabs other than the destruction of
their homes.
HAITIAN
Design Authority bastards, they
evicted us from our old projects,
sent us to live in the Bronx. You
can help us?
CLAUDE
(in Haitian patois)
Would the neighborhood in the
Bronx tear my head off if I
dropped in to have a little talk?
Truly amazing -- even Anton is impressed.
(CONTTNIED }
63.
49
CONTINUED : 49
ANTON
I knew you could speak French --
but?
CLAUDE
One small talent, a natural
ability launched by the many
schools I was kicked out of.
(to the Arab)
Where can I visit you?
SHARIF
The Arab bookstore in Brooklyn;
the owner’s name is Jemal Sayeed.
Fizzing with delight and ideas, Claude gives the bewildered
group a cheery wave and steps back into the ostentatious
car, followed by a nervous Anton. He looks toward the
construction site through the zoom lens of his camera:
VIEW FROM A DISTANCE - LONG LENS
Julia approaches Serge. They look utterly natural together,
bonded even though they are not touching.
CLAUDE
Fuck! All my life, anytime I
visit a woman in this city, my
cousin Serge is just leaving.
NEW VIEW
Claude and Anton sit in the exotic high-end sports car.
ANTON
He ig older.
CLAUDE
No matter what I do. If I were
president, he’d be king. If I
were king, he’d be emperor. If I
were emperor, he’d be the ruler of
the universe! I so much as see
him and I taste hatred on my
tongue!
Deliberately biting it and tasting blood, very powerful and
eerie. Then he swallows with relish.
CLAUDE
Tastes good.
(CONTTNUEN )
64.
49
50
65.
CONTINUED : 49
He revs the sixteen cylinders noisily and ROARS off. The
mixture of immigrants, bearded and turbaned look on in
confusion.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - DAY 50
VIEW ON SERGE
Giving orders to his team. Charles is worried about the
growing numbers of protesting people
SERGE
Who are they, Charles?
CHARLES
Protestors -- someone tipped them
off that their buildings were
coming down.
SERGE
Well, tell them to push the button
before the crowd gets any bigger.
He gazes over the site. Julia can see what he does. He is
blind to the project buildings and sees only what he plans
to replace them with.
CLOSE ON JULIA
Focused on Serge. Sharing her secret thoughts with Balin,
who loves to be near her.
JULIA
I never realized it could happen
in the thinnest flake of time, but
it has.
BALIN
What has?
JULIA
I can never be the same again.
HER VIEW
Serge among his team. Suddenly the outer row of buildings
COLLAPSE to the ground.
BALIN
Wow. Did you see that?
(CONT TNUED )
50
CONTINUED :
50
JULIA
How could I not? That’s what it
felt iike I never would have
thought it.
BALIN
Me neither -- no matter what, when
things fall, they just fall.
JULIA
Yes. Could I fascinate someone as
elderly, as formidable as the
Director of the Design Authority,
the world’s leading chemist? The
world’s best man?
CLODIA (0.S.)
You’ve been in Club Claude long
enough sweetie, to know it doesn’t
pay to mess with Claude.
She turns, and there are the sisters in a huge white
limousine, a leg dangling, Clodia’s leg.
JULIA
Good grief, The Claudettes, or is
this a scene from ‘the Scottish
play.’
CLODIA
The last thing you need is to go
down in Claude’s revenge book.
JULIA
He’s raving.
CLODIA
We’re all mad, we Hamiltons. Too
much intermarriage.
CLAUDINE
Serge is a Hamilton too -- don’t
ever forget that.
They slip back in the limousine, and it cruises off.
BALIN
So those are the famous Claude
sisters in the flesh. My, my.
(CONT TNIUED }
66.
CONTINUED : 50
Julia isn’t paying attention to Balin, or the ominous
warning of the Claudettes -- her heart is beating because
Serge is coming toward her.
SERGE
Julia, you’re here.
JULIA
You showed me the future. Now I’m
here to help you build it. Tell
me everything -- so I know what to
do.
SERGE
Well, as you see -- demolition and
cleaning the site. Laying the
substructure with channels.
His attention is diverted by several large container trucks
pulling up.
SERGE
Look, the first monocars are here.
Balin is beside himself -- rushes over to the trucks as they
are opened and ramps are put up.
JULIA
What’s that?
SERGE
A monocar -- There are also
duocars, tricars and quadricars.
They’re electric, silent and
pollution free. I plan to issue
millions of them and just leave
them laying around for anybody to
use.
VIEW ON THE TRUCKS
The ramps, in place, strong ball-like vehicles begin rolling
down. The two hemispheres of the ball are its wheels which
cushion the ride over any terrain, and of course can move in
any direction.
NEW VIEW
Serge and Julia move closer.
(CONTTNUED \
50
CONTINUED : 50
SERGE
We'll start out using them on the
site; the Megalon embellishers
adapt themselves easily to any
terrain.
VIEW ON THE MONOCARS
The hatch of one opens and Balin leaps in.
SERGE (0.S.)
When they run out of juice, they
suggest that you get another one,
and then run on autopilot to
recharge themselves automatically.
Members of the team revel in the flexible little vehicles.
VIEW ON SERGE AND JULIA
SERGE
At night, that same autopilot re-
distributes them throughout the
city, so that there’s always one
available for whoever needs one.
JULIA
Wow.
SERGE
There’s more -- in Megalopolis,
you can also drive them up to the
high-speed maglev, and they gang
up together like a string of
pearls and can go fast as hell to
a distant location; then you can
drive the individual car back down
and use it for local use.
JULIA
What do they cost?
SERGE
Next to nothing, because they’re
grown like eggs out of Megalon.
, BALIN
Nano-tech in action.
JULIA
Where's my patch, you promised,
Balin?
(CONTTNIED }
68.
50
CONTINUED : 50
All the staff is out there having fun with the monocars.
SERGE
(shouting out)
Come on, quit fooling around. All
we need is a scandal about wasting
the authority’s money on toys for
you guys!
Serge helps Julia climb onto a scaffold with the ability to
rise safely, so they can peer down onto the vast hole
underlying Megalopolis.
TwO SHOT
As they rise.
JULIA
What happened to the people who
lived in those projects you just
blew up?
SERGE
Ask your father, he relocated them
to the Bronx when he thought
Cityworld was going here.
JULIA
Don't you care?
SERGE
About Cityworld?
JULIA
About the people.
SERGE
(frowning)
I do. But I can’t let myself
think about it.
JULIA
But will they come back?
SERGE
My concern is to put my hands on
change and mold it for the good of
generations yet to come. Change is
chaotic -- it stalks the present
like a shark, you hardly feel its
bite.
(MORE)
(CONT TNIED \
69.
50
CONTINUED : 50
SERGE (cont'd)
My concern is to make people aware
that change is as inevitable as
glaciers grinding mountains down
to hills. To show them that they
can manipulate change, not simply
endure it.
Julia sees the flaw in her ideal man.
JULIA
What you’re saying is that you
look at the forest, never at the
trees.
Her mild needling has piqued Serge a little, but Julia’s
last remark startles him. He turns and their eyes meet.
They are quite high up now, and the wind is blowing on them
- the light golden.
SERGE
Tell me where I’m going wrong?
JULIA
The forest is made of leaves, and
the leaves are so frail that every
time fall comes around, they
wither away. Like people.
SERGE
I can’t love people. There are
too many of them. If I love them
I couldn't create for them.
JULIA
How can you say that?
SERGE
I refuse to build an ant heap. So
far that’s all we’ve managed to
do, build ever taller ant heaps
for ever more ants.
JULIA
Once they’re here on this earth,
you can just wish them away.
Build for the ants, Serge. Love
the ants.
SERGE
No, I won’t, I can’t.
(CONT TNITED }
70.
50
51
52
53
CONTINUED :
50
JULIA
Do you want one person on a gauzy
escalator to the stars -- just
yourself? Put as much of yourself
into homes as you do into
monuments, and you’ll be. loved
forever.
SERGE
I don’t think about love. I’m not
-- easy with it.
They don’t speak for a while after this. Julia looks out
over the vast site, the people becoming ants, the monocars
probing the terrain.
JULIA
(she points to the
center).
What’s going there?
SERGE
A gmall stadium. You remember?
(can’t take his eyes
off her)
With a roof like gold tissue
paper.
EXT. GRACIE MANSION — NIGHT 51
THE VIEW MOVES
Through the trees, the garden. We HEAR the owl. A LIGHT
goes on in the corridor.
INT. GRACIE MANSION HALLWAY - NIGHT 52
Terry is carrying some chamomile tea to help Frank sleep.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT 53
Frank is up in his bed, he has been terribly worried and so
exhausted he can’t sleep. She gives him the tea.
FRANK
My most beloved child is deserting
me for an alluringly wrapped
package of evil. My world is
falling apart.
(MORE )
(CONT TNUED }
71.
53
54
CONTINUED :
72.
53
FRANK (cont'd)
My administration is tottering.
No one will take the time to
listen to me.
TERRY
Hon.
FRANK
How does he do it? What weakness
in them does he find, that he can
slither inside, gnaw them away to
rotten fruit --
TERRY
Sleep, hon --
FRANK
(drowsy )
I had such dreams. But how can I
wrestle Antaeus when I can’t lift
him off the ground? How can I
battle the hydra-headed beast of
the city’s debts? They sit back
in their swanky, deathly quiet
chairman’s offices and laugh at
me. Look down at me.
TERRY
(falling asleep)
Sleep, hon --
FRANK
Thousands upon thousands -- rent
control, and then -- no landlords -
- no money for projects, whole
structures going to fall. On me.
(horrified)
Qn_me.
CUT TOs:
EXT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT 54
MUSIC UP. SEARCHLIGHTS screaming across the sky; pastel-
colored tents fluttering. The area is bubbling with excited
crowds, parades of nattily dressed citizens; paparazzi
photographing everyone as they leave their taxis and limos.
The occasion is a huge promotion by the debt-laden city to
raise money to meet its payroll --games sponsored by Gene
Hamilton in honor of his new bride called “WRESTLERAMA. ”
(CONT TNIED }
54
73.
CONTINUED : 54
NEW VIEW
A Maybach limousine pulis up and Gene Hamilton steps out --
the first view of him since his marriage. The spring in his
step makes him appear ten years younger as he presents his
dazzling new wife Wow to the crowds. She is a dresser, an
over-dresser covered in diamonds. But it is the figure that
dramatizes the clothing, not the other way around. Great
cheers and applause rise up, as well as some inevitable
obscene remarks. Banners fly up, “HAMILTON NATIONAL
PRESENTS --— ‘WRESTLERAMA,’ HELPING A CITY IN DEBT!”
Gene is led to a covered statue in front of the entrance,
followed by eager paparazzi getting every view of Wow
possible. Some aide hands him a velvet cord, which he pulls
with vigor, revealing a large bronze statue of himself.
Gene is delighted and the crowd is impressed.
GENE
I look every inch the robber
baron. Wow, come read the
inscription.
Wow stoops to read the placque, affording the crowd a
privileged view of her cleavage.
wow
"Make money, money by fair means
if you can, but if not, by any
means, money. Eugene Hamilton.”
There is a new excitement in the crowd, and the paparazzi
dash to it.
NEW VIEW
The Citroen pulls up, and out steps the singing rage of the
city, 15-year-old Vesta Sweetwater, her MOTHER and then
Serge, beautifully dressed in a white suit. The crowd emits
a shrieking scream and cheer: this is the city’s own virgin
and they love her. A news team immediately has their camera
going and a microphone pointed.
INTERVIEWER
Is it true, Vesta -- is your dress
made of Megalon?
VESTA
The first one ever.
(CONTTNIED \
54
74.
CONTINUED : 54
INTERVIEWER
So it looks like you're going
ahead, Dr. Catiline -- and Vesta’s
your poster girl?
SERGE
Young people have to know that
Megalopolis is their city -- and
Vesta will spread the word.
VESTA
Look -- I can be invisible.
She lifts her arms, twirling around and suddenly, the dress
becomes transparent -- we see the crowds and flashbulbs
right through her.
SERGE
(explaining)
Tiny cameras embedded behind the
dress transmit what they see --
through to the other side.
VIEW ON WOW
Those big, mascara-ringed eyes zone in on the man of her
lost dreams and then feign indifference. But their eyes
show a meaningful connection. Not pleased, she accepts
Gene’s arm around her, as they are led up the purple carpet
into the arena, just as the Claudettes’ limo pulls up and
discharges the girls who gave the word ‘pulchritude’ its
meaning, step out holding champagne bottles by their necks.
They are accompanied by a more demure Julia Cicero. This is
a big item for the journalists and photographers.
Julia seems disgusted to see Serge there with the city’s
virgin. Though a child, Vesta has an unsettling
concupiscence about her and Serge seems to be susceptible to
it s
CLOSE ON JULIA
Almost stopped in her tracks as the Claudettes try to cuddle
provocatively with her and photographers keep calling her
name so she’ll look their way. “Julia, over here!”
PHOTOGRAPHER (0.S.)
Pose with the girls, pose with the
girls, Julia!
(CONTTNUED )
54
55
75.
CONTINUED: 54
NEW VIEW
Surrounded by paparazzi, Julia cannot believe that Serge is
accompanied by this teenage phoney.
NEWSMAN
Is the city bankrupt, Julia?
ANOTHER
Does this mean we're out of the
closet, Julia?
Clodia gives them the finger. They hurry up to where men
are checking VIP names, to Claude, now wearing dreadlocks
and beginning to be accompanied by a contingent of
‘clients,’ men whom Anton Smith’s expression clearly labels
as mongrels; Arabs, Indians, Cubans and Haitians. Club
Claude, now united, gets the cordon lifted and enters the
VIP way, Claude spreading his signature $100 bills in his
wake.
INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT 55
Massive crowds surround three rings of wrestling. Every
conceivable kind of match, in costumes, etc.
VIEW OF THE SPECTACLE
Big sweaty wrestler is slammed on his back. The crowd ROARS
in approval. News photographers are everywhere, and ;
hundreds of TV interviews are going on. Men dressed in
crimson tunics with brass-studded belts carrying the Roman
fasces: bundles of rods with an axe in them.
MOVING VIEW
Meade Milo enters with his exquisite wife FOSTER on his arn,
blazing jewels. Nush Berman trails in their wake, looking
dapper, wearing a red carnation. He looks up at Gene
Hamilton who’s just stepping into his box, obviously crazy
about his new wife.
NUSH
They say the only thing on earth
bigger than Gene Hamilton’s bank
account is his cock.
MEADE
I’m impressed, Nush.
(CONTTNURD }
55
56
57
76.
CONTINUED : 55
THEIR POV
Club Claude making its ostentatious entrance.
VIEW ON MEADE AND NUSH
As Nush shakes his head disapprovingly.
NUSH
Bad kids.
VIEW ON THE HUGE JUMBOTRON SCREENS
Projecting the games to all. The crowds love them, gorging
on sausages and drinking deep from their ‘Hamilton National’
paper cups.
INT. THE FASHION TENTS - NIGHT 56
TRUCKING SHOTS
As rows of lifeless mannequins parade the newest fashions to
thousands of FLASHES and LOUD ROCK MUSIC BLARES.
INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT 57
MOVING VIEW
Rushing to the next important entrance. The running crowds,
paparazzi and cameras move to the main double doors, and
then SWISHES to a large electric sign: ‘WELCOME MAYOR FRANK
CICERO!” The doors swing open and Frank, Terry and her
elderly mother come shyly in, followed by Al Morgenthau and
his wife, and Commissioner Hart and his wife. Cheers and
boos follow them as they are led to the official city box,
somewhat less ostentatious than Gene Hamilton’s.
VIEW ON GENE HAMILTON’S BOX
Wow rests back like the Empress Messalina, Gene makes a big
show of leaping up to applaud the Mayor.
CLOSE ON WOW
Her big, lustrous eyes are always on Serge.
(CONTTNUED }
57
77.
CONTINUED : 57
MOVING VIEW ON SERGE
It’s clear that Serge is mainly there to promote his ideas
for young people, and is hawking them with young Vesta in a
PR tie-up. Some PR handlers take Vesta and her mother away
somewhere, and Serge igs able to be cut loose, and steals
away on his typical hedonistic binge.
SERGE
(popping a pill)
Here goes.
He guzzles whiskey, snorts cocaine, hobnobs with celebrity
athletes and up-market call girls. Men and women of all
classes approach him, greet him, compliment him, want to
know him and get his signature on anything they can find.
MOVING VIEW
Club Claude is based on outrageous behavior in public.
Claude loves mixing pleasure with politics, and his gorgeous
sisters and their friends are always a big attraction,
helping him draw more supporters. He glances over to Serge,
hoping he’s impressed.
VIEW ON CLAUDE
With Anton moving with various ethnics; a Sikh in a turban,
an African in dashiki, some West Indians. The Sikh is being
offered a cigar by Claude.
CLAUDE
Political clout, Mr. Singh, that’s
what we have to acquire!
(few words of Hindi)
Political and economic clout.
Mr. Singh bows his way out, happy.
ANTON
What exactly are you doing?
CLAUDE
Field research, Anton old chum.
I’m finding out fascinating stuff,
like ethnic distribution across
our seething city. The immigrants
are mucho scattered. Big numbers
everywhere! Enough to swing city
elections.
(his eyes light up)
(MORE)
(CONTTNITED }
CONTINUED : 57
CLAUDE (cont'd)
Ah, Sharif -- you came. I have
something for you.
He slips an envelope into his hand. Then in Arabic:
CLAUDE
The donation to your mosque we
spoke of.
SHARIF
It will go for charity, my friend.
-- for many good purposes, God
willing.
ANTON
Huh?
Sharif bleeds into the group of clients and supplicants.
CLAUDE
I’m gonna run this city.
ANTON
Sounds to me as if you're giving
the city to a bunch of mongrels.
VIEW ON THE WRESTLING
Three rings of spectacle -- six wrestlers having it out in
the center. A lithe woman wrestler runs in and flips one of
them.
WIDE FULL ON THE STANDS
The crowd HOWLS.
UP ANGLE ON GENE’S BOX
Gene is in top form these days, cheering the games on. He
Blides his hand up Wow’s stylish slit dress while his face
remains serene. Wow responds as a good wife should, but is
frustrated that her quarry moves out of range.
MOVING VIEW ON SERGE
Through the fashion tents, we SEE Serge wander through the
beautiful fabrics that are displayed. He seems a man in
conflict, who keeps his life in separate compartments,
trying to avoid the essential fact that he is incapable of
intimacy with any person -- only with pattern, shape, color
and texture. A WOMAN moves through.
CCONTTNUED )
78.
57
79.
CONTINUED : 57
WOMAN
Hi, handsome. Love your work.
VIEW ON JULIA AND CLODIA
Abandoned in an erotic dance. Claudine and another woman
join them, taking delight in tantalizing the men watching.
Serge is always within Fundi’s view.
SERGE (0.S.)
(sighing)
They’re so perfectly beautiful.
What is it Fundi, when they get
stuck in your mind?
(to Fundi)
When you can’t stop thinking about
them?
FUNDI
Slavery, Mr. Serge.
Despondent tonight, Serge exhales, feeling the liquor and
drugs.
SERGE (0.S.)
I am Cortez looking for cunt. I
won a Nobel Prize, you know, but
the only prize that’s worth
anything is tremendous pussy.
CLOSE ON JULIA
Julia leaves the other women still going at it on the dance
floor and returns to the table, out of breath. She sees
Serge watching at her.
JULIA
What is that look? You
disapprove?
SERGE
Me?
JULIA
Why are you using Vesta Sweetwater
for your PR? She’s tacky.
SERGE
But useful. Millions of kids want
anything she wants.
(CONT TNUED }
57
CONTINUED: 57
JULIA
She seems to want a father figure.
SERGE
Doesn’t everyone?
Julia’s red lips draw back from the perfect teeth in a
snarl.
JULIA
I have a father. A wonderful
father -- who doesn’t have huge
feet of clay.
She starts to leave in a huff. Serge stops her, holding her
shoulder.
SERGE
(softly)
I know you’re going to be in my
life Julia.
Then she breaks away.
JULIA
What is this prowling around? You
only do that when your demons gnaw
at you.
SERGE
You can’t know that.
JULIA
I do know that. I know all about
you like an instinct.
SERGE
Instincts are overrated.
(softening)
Forgive me Julia, I can’t say it.
JULIA
You don’t have to. I understand.
SERGE
How can you when I don’t myself.
JULIA .
Because you’re in my life, Serge.
Because you’ve become my life.
You don’t have to say or do
anything. Just accept me.
(CONT TNIED \
80.
57
Be ie ; ; ‘9 >
* a
81.
CONTINUED : 57
They gaze at each other, their inner emotions shining forth
and time stops.
FRANK (0.S.)
They’re together. I can see them.
VIEW ON THE MAYOR’S BOX
Frank is next to Terry, speaking sotto voce. The box is
full; Al and Sylvia Morgenthau, Rebecca Silver and her date,
plus the person they’re all attentive to, Terry's mother.
Deaf as a tent post, determined to see everything, screaming
a thousand questions and refusing to hear a single answer
shouted to her.
TERRY
(watching)
They’re not touching, Frank, and
now she’s left him. Look, she’s
coming up here.
(sighing, smiling)
Isn’t she beautiful, honey? Far
more beautiful than she used to
be. Having a purpose suits her.
Frank scowls, but when Julia enters he summons up the effort
to greet her pleasantly. Julia kisses her grandmother.
JULIA
Hi, Grandma. Having a good time?
GRANDMA
I SURE AM!
Julia kisses her mother and father.
TERRY
It must be time for the concert.
Look, the wrestling’s finished.
Below we can see little tractors pulling the separate rings
into a unified stage. The LIGHTS lower and excitement fills
the arena.
TERRY
(shouting to her
mother)
Vesta Sweetwater is next, Mama!
GRANDMA
WHO?
(CONTTNUED }
57
82.
CONTINUED : 57
JULIA
Vesta Sweetwater.
(under her breath)
Slut. Bitch.
GRANDMA
SOUNDS INDIAN.
JULIA
Native American, Grandma, but she
isn’t. It’s a stage name.
MUSIC brings Vesta on in her Megalon outfit, her hair
sparkling with gold dust, to thunderous applause. She works
the audience brilliantly, up and down, back and forth, her
spiked heeled golden boots glittering, one hand holding out
the little gold cross and chain around her neck.
PRANK
Now there’s a youngster with real
values.
Julia rolls her eyes.
GRANDMA
IS SHE A MARCHING GIRL? A
MAJORETTE?
TERRY
No Mama, she’s New York’s own
special virgin, she made the ‘Pure
Love Pledge’! She’s the Christian
ideal, a heroine to young people
everywhere!
GRANDMA
EH, WHAT?
JULIA
Just sit back and enjoy, Grandma,
don’t worry about it
A policeman comes to the box, whispers something into
Commissioner Hart’s ear; he rises and excusing himself,
leaves.
Julia slumps down in her chair and tries to find a spot
where there isn’t a Jumbotron showing Vesta’s face ten feet
high as she breaks into her original hit "MY PLEDGE.”
(CONT TNIED }
57
CONTINUED : 57
JULIA
(muttering)
Bitch. Cow. Siut. Porkpig.
VIEW ON VIDEO DISPLAY
The Vesta cult: photos, gold and platinum discs, various
Christian icons and memorabilia.
VIEW ON THE BONI BANK SECTION
The Boni twins have invited Meade and Foster Milo to join
them with their wives, and included Nush Berman with them
and rather oddly, Davy Cato and his wife, what’s-her-name.
VESTA
(singing)
“,.the keeper of the flame,
I'll never be to blame,
My pure love pledge is true,
Pure, so pure for yooouuu..”
Foster Milo is always smothered in jewels; her superb body
sheathed in an opalescent ice-green satin tube. Tonight's
gems are emeralds surrounded by diamonds.
TIM BONI
(to Nush)
We’re trying to persuade Davy to
join us at Boni Budget.
NUSH
Good idea.
MEADE
It would be handier to have a spy
in Gene Hamilton’s camp.
DAVY
(blanches )
I couldn't do that! While I take
a salary from Hamilton National,
my loyalty is with him.
MEADE
Oh, come now. Loyalty is as
loyalty does. You know perfectly
well, as soon as it suits Gene,
you’re going to get chopped.
You’re almost forty, Davy.
(CONTTNIUED }
83.
57
58
59
CONTINUED : 57
DAVY
(struggling)
Which is why I am interested in
the offer from Tim and Tom.
Though I haven’t said yes yet. I
may not say yes.
NUSH
I would be very pleased if you
transferred to the place where I
bank, Davy. But Meade has a
point. I hope, Davy pal, that
you're not stupid enough to refuse
to spit out what you know about
Hamilton National before you
change horses.
(conspiratorially)
You know the bank's going to that
nephew Claude -- who never obeys
orders or shows up for work.
DAVY
I hope he never does, he’d pull
the wings off a butterfly.
INT. BACKSTAGE OF THE GARDEN - NIGHT 58
Claude and his cohorts are moving toward the main control
room, carrying a package.
CLAUDE
(muttering)
A little something from my purple
files.
Sneering, he pulls a glistening disc out, and using his
infinite supply of $100 bills to bribe his way through,
disappears into the control room.
INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT 59
THE JUMBOTRON SCREEN
Vesta, holding her mike, prances and grinds waving to the
crowds amid the frenzy of flashbulbs.
WIDE VIEW
Hundreds of thousands of spectators focused on the prurient
dance which belies the lyrics she bellows out.
(CONTTNUED }
84.
59
CONTINUED : 59
CLOSE VIEW
Bathed in follow-spots, she leaps up and turns her dress of
Megalon into its transparency mode and becomes almost
transparent. The crowd SCREAMS its adulation.
VIEW ON FRANK
Listening, oozing approval. Suddenly, he lurches forward,
unable to believe his eyes.
FRANK
Terry!
VIEW ON THE JUMBOTRON
The IMAGE of Vesta on stage is replaced by Claude’s amateur
video footage of a huge glass bowl filled with Tootsie Rolls
in which Vesta is gamboling, then to Serge Catiline,
removing the teen star’s blouse.
VIEW ON GENE HAMILTON’S BOX
Wow is suddenly attentive; it takes Gene a moment to catch
on.
VIEW ON VESTA
Blissfully turning her transparency on and off, unaware of
what’s on the Jumbotron screen, singing her song about
virginity and saving oneself for marriage.
FULL VIEW
Showing the performance and the many huge screens with
another message, that of Serge and Vesta cavorting in his
Cloud Tower.
VIEW ON THE MAYOR’S BOX
Now the crowd is beginning to understand. The screens show
Serge having gotten all her clothes off, now beginning to
remove his own.
FRANK
How did this -- filth get on that
screen? .
(CONTTNIUED \
85.
59
CONTINUED : 59
TRUCKING VIEW
A group of detectives led by Commissioner Hart and some
uniformed officers making their way to the Mayor’s box --
Hart holds an official envelope in his hand. We HEAR the
outraged CRY from the crowd and their booing and hissing of
Vesta.
VIEW ON VESTA
Doesn’t understand the sudden change.
VIEW ON THE JUMBOTRON
The glass bowl of Tootsie Rolls in which a naked Vesta is
frolicking, then to Serge Catiline, moving in on top of her.
VIEW ON THE MAYOR’S BOX
The Mayor, looking stunned, rises to receive the detectives.
FRANK
What is this?
HART
I don’t know, Frank, but Vesta’s
mother called my office an hour
ago, and gave my deputy a video
disc to back up her complaint of
unlawful intercourse with a minor,
probably the same one we’ve just
had the privilege of watching.
This seeps into Frank’s mind, he understands what has been
delivered to him. A rush of blood fires his eyes, flooded
through him in wave upon wave of heat, ecstasy, final
vindication.
FRANK
I want him ruined.
(rising)
Arrest him. Throw the book at the
bastard!
VIEW ON VESTA
Standing on the stage looking terrified, shielding her eyes
from the lights, trying to understand the colossal boos,
catcalls.
(CONTTNUED }
86.
59
CONTINUED : 59
VIEW ON THE SCREENS
IMAGES of Serge and FILE FOOTAGE of Vesta reciting the Pure
Love pledge.
VIEW ON THE MAYOR'S BOX
TV cameras and press reporters rush the box, assault the
Mayor.
VIEW ON HAMILTON’S BOX
Gene stands looking grim, signaling to whomever can see to
cut the projection. Finally it goes off, and is replaced by
on-the-spot recording of the Mayor.
Wow is furious, jealous and vengeful, then pleased.
VIEW ON MAYOR’S BOX
Frank seizes the opportunity and begins an impromptu speech
to the crowd.
FRANK
-..within this city today, Serge
Catiline, there is nothing that
can give you satisfaction any
more.
SCREENS ALL AROUND THE COLOSSAL ARENA show different views
of Mayor Frank Cicero, his voice ECHOING throughout.
FRANK
Apart from your own degraded group
of hangers-on, no man exists who
does not hold you in
detestation...
VIEW ON JULIA
Transfixed by what is happening around her as her father’s
resounding oratory dominates the crowd.
FRANK
Your life is marked with every
sort of scandalous blot....
(CONTTNIED \
87.
59
CONTINUED : 59
VIEW ON SERGE
Wasted, wandering in the seedy collection of sports world
types and their women, bottle in hand deeply mired in
oblivion, self-hate, self-pity. Unaware of why all except
Fundi are repelled from him.
FUNDI
Please Mr. Serge, we gotta get out
of here.
Serge falls into a chair outside the fashion tent and takes
another swig.
FRANK (0.S.)
There is no imaginable form of
dishonor which does not stain your
private affairs.
Tabloid newspaper headlines, photos of Vesta with the
caption “She’s no VIRGIN!”; “Design Czar accused of unlawful
intercourse, and on the ‘Daily News’ simply “SEX FRAUD”.
Julia steps up to her seething, but satisfied father, her
mouth opens about to make a passionate appeal, but Frank
holds his hand up.
FRANK
Not a word. Not -- one -- word.
Make yourself useful, take care of
Grandma.
And he leads his women out through the crowds. Julia
vanishes from the entourage.
NEW VIEW
Fundi tries to coax his boss from his curled up position on
the floor.
FUNDI
I can’t get him moving, he’s
hopeless!
Serge’s eyes blur. He looks up to where he senses a woman.
SERGE
(muttering)
-..tremendous pussy. It’s all
that matters. I am Cortez!
A hand takes the bottle out of his hand.
(CONTTNUED )
88.
59
CONTINUED : 59
JULIA (0.S.)
Tomorrow Serge, what you need now
is caffeine and bed.
SERGE
Julia? Is that Julia?
He tries to crawl under the chair.
SERGE
Julia! Can’t let Julia see me
like this. Hide, gotta hide.
VOICE (0.S.)
Serge Catiline?
LIEUTENANT LORETTA CLARK and her men hover over Serge, still
under the chair, Julia cradling his head against her side.
LIEUT.
Serge Catiline?
He does move, eyes closed in a peaceful sleep.
JULIA
He’s asleep.
LIEUT.
Pick him up.
The two uniformed cops go under Julia’s protecting arms, fix
their hands on his shoulders and haul him upright to hang
between them.
SERGE
(groaning)
No, no.
LIEUT.
Cuff him.
JULIA
You can’t do that, Loretta!
What’s happening?
LIEUT.
Mr. Catiline is under arrest.
JULIA
On what charge? He hasn’t done
anything!
(CONT TNUED )
89.
59
60
CONTINUED : 59
LIEUT.
Unlawful intercourse with a minor.
JULIA
(begging)
Serge, Serge, wake up!
Hand cuffed behind his back, they lead Serge off.
LIEUT.
(friendly warning)
If you’re smart Julia, you’ll stay
out of this.
Julia follows after, pleading, beseeching.
EXT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - NIGHT 60
They march him down the packed street to a squad car and
shove him into the rear with a cop on either side.
JULIA
You haven’t read him his rights.
LIEUT.
He’1l be read his rights the
moment he indicates he’s capable
of understanding what he hears.
Until then, Miss Cicero, we’ll
call this protective custody.
JULIA
(trying to get in)
I’m going.
LIEUT.
Those days are over, Julia. Word
from the top.
The squad car and several others speed off, leaving Julia
standing watching their flashing lights dwindle away. Fundi
finds her there.
FUNDI
Never got him that coffee. Come
on Miss Julia, I‘1ll take you home.
One arm around her waist to support her faltering footsteps,
Fundi leads her tenderly away.
90.
61
62
63
64
INT. CLAUDE’S LOFT - NIGHT 61
Claude bounces in, whooping with laughter. He moves to a
safe, holds his finger against it and the door pops open.
Out comes the ‘Revenge’ book in leather and gilt and a
purple pen. He opens it, flips a couple of pages.
CLAUDE
Bye bye, cousin Serge. You’re
finished. And who did this to
you? Me!
CLOSE ON CLAUDE’S FACE
His eyes gleam maliciously.
INSERT --
The name “Serge Catiline” is crossed out in purple ink.
FADE OUT.
AcT IT
FADE IN:
EXT. FULL VIEWS OF THE CITY - DAY 62
It’s fall, beautiful colors, patterns of leaves. The great
city shows its spectacle of skyscrapers.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - DAY 63
An open wound in the city; preparations are evident. The
strange markings and structures growing out of the trenches
and strange concentric circle earthworks. The monocars are
ganged up and stilled.
EXT. GENE HAMILTON’S TERRACE — DAY 64
Atop one of the most beautiful classical buildings is Gene
Hamilton’s garden, looking over an incredible view of the
city.
MEDIUM VIEW
Gene ia dressed in workout clothes. Serge is there,
standing by like a boy called into the principal’s office.
(CONT TNIED }
91.
64
CONTINUED: 64
Gene’s holding a beautifully crafted modern aluminum
crossbow, loaded. He lifts it casually. THUNK! The arrow
hits the exact center of the target.
GENE (0.S.)
Bad timing, bad, bad timing. My
wife doesn’t like it, and I like
my wife.
He puts the bow down and crosses to sit with his nephew who
is calm and steely, unabashed.
THE VIEW MOVES CLOSER
SERGE
I can see why she’d be offended.
GENE
A fifteen year old; for God's
sake! Were your brains in your
ass?
SERGE
I don’t know where my brains were,
and that’s the truth. I believe
the phrase is “I’m amnesic for the
event.”
Wow steps into the garden clad in a beautiful negligee. She
purposefully ignores Serge.
Wow
Gene darling, Davy Cato needs to
see you urgently. You have to
gave the city today.
GENE
I’m warning you Serge, you’re not
sowing your wild oats like Claude -
- you’re a man!
(to Wow)
Tell Davy I’1l be with him in
five.
Wow, seeing Serge chastened, smiles as she returns to Davy
Cato.
GENE
Romans ruled the world, but their
wives ruled at home.
92.
65 INT. HAMILTON’S LIBRARY -— DAY
Davy Cato’s been waiting with a briefcase full of city
documents. She makes him sweaty and uncomfortable,
especially in a negligee.
wow
Five minutes and you can go out.
DAVY
Thanks, Mrs. Hamilton.
WOW
Davy -- what did I tell you?
DAVY
Excuse me --~ Wow.
66 EXT. HAMILTON’S TERRACE - DAY
GENE
This Vesta business makes it very
difficult for me to stay on board
your Megalopolis project, you
know.
SERGE
Need I remind you that you own the
Megalon patents? You and your
bank stand to lose hundreds of
millions if you don’t back me.
GENE
I’1l give you this, Nephew, you're
not a wimp. I just wish my wife
liked you more.
Davy Cato comes out lugging his briefcase.
SERGE
Rather too little than too much.
GENE
Now get back to the task, man.
Make the family proud of you.
Like when you won that prize.
(turning)
Wow, where are you? I have a
little surprise for you, my little
foxy!
65
66
67
INT. CITY HALL - DAY 67
HIGH MOVING ANGLE
A large doughnut-shaped table with business chairs around
the edge, and side tables with literally thousands of
papers, sorted in racks. It resembles an operating room,
with the city staff, bankers, lawyers and assistants the
doctors and nurses. The city itself is the patient. The
Mayor, as he believes it, is the saviour and protector, the
hero who was prophesied as the first man of the city -- the
only way Frank can accept the power which he craves so
deeply.
The meeting begins: coffee is passed around, bagels and
pastries.
Al Morgenthau lays documents on the table, the compromise
they are offering.
MORGENTHAU
We’re almost there.
FRANK
We're bleeding the city to death,
Mr. Cato.
DAVY
Then default.
FRANK
Default? Not in my
administration. Admit that I
can’t govern? No, no and no!
DAVY
I draw your attention to the fact,
Mr. Mayor, that the entire system
is in jeopardy.
FRANK
You are forcing me to implement
the most stringent economies in
New York’s history, Mr. Cato.
DAVY
Let’s not call them actualities
yet, sir.
({CONTTNUED }
94.
67
95.
CONTINUED : 67
FRANK
You’re raping the city and
charging us with prostitution!
REBECCA
Mayor --
FRANK
(capitulating)
All right, give us the loans and
I’1l push the button.
DAVY
Push the button first.
(nondescript)
Then we’ll give you the loans.
Frank sits down, takes out his pen. Aides on either side
ready the paperwork and feed it to him. Signatures.
Sips coffee. Stacks of paper are moved. Signature.
Remove document. Firehouses fly away. Assistant brings him
coffee and smiles at him
Another signature. As schools and libraries fly away. The
aides carry a new stack of papers into the circular room.
A five-man fire crew becomes a four-man crew.
Some of the lawyers are on the phone. Some joking with
aides. Signature. A school for design arts disappears. A
brigade of police is reduced by half.
Stacks of papers moved, etc.
Sequence out of these elements until the final document.
Frank must sign it after writing "fair and reasonable" on
it. He puts down the pen.
FRANK
No.
DAVY
Then, it’s a stalemate, Mr. Mayor.
You must understand that Eugene
Hamilton is deeply committed to
the Megalopolis program.
(CONTTNURD }
67
CONTINUED : 67
FRANK
Eugene Hamilton is a desert, toxic
waste, an empty void -- he’s Pluto
hanging on to Prosperpina while
the earth withers!
THE VIEW TIGHTENS CONSPIRATORIALLY
DAVY
I couldn't have said it better
myself. lLet’s have a walk, Mr.
Mayor.
The two walk to a more private area.
TRUCKING TWO SHOT
DAVY
If Hamilton National drops out,
Boni Budget.would consider
becoming the lead underwriters.
FRANK
You speak for the Boni twins?
DAVY .
Put it this way, your honor. If
the city should agree to give its
business as a monopoly to the Boni
Budget, I would accept its offer
to become CEO and chairman. Thus
personally guiding the city out of
its -- ah-- present slough of
despond.
FRANK
Holy Moses!
DAVY
(dispassionately)
Holiness was highly valued in
those days. Unfortunately, it
counts for little in our time.
(he turns)
If you’re interested, we’ll meet
again soon. Privately.
96.
68
INT. CLOUD TOWER - DAY
HIGH ANGLE
Julia and Serge are having a picnic in the middle of the
floor, surrounded by plans and renderings.
one of them.
JULIA
I never got this. What is this
ball?
SERGE
The center of the city, the main
public gathering area.
JULIA
Isn’t a huge ball sort of passe?
SERGE
It’s a sphere, not a ball.
Saturnus, Kronos, Tane Mahuta, the.
Grip Reaper, the Lord of Misrule --
no beginning and no end: it’s
time, Julia. Time, the eater of
his own children.
JULIA
Oh Serge, no wonder I love you so
much. More!
SERGE
I deal in little ideas, little
inventions really -- and then they
grow on their own. Taking things
off the pedestal; shunning the
perpendicular with its wasted.
corners and embracing the curve.
Curves like the sun, our mothers,
our earth.
Without thinking Serge hugs Julia. Then he becomes
embarrassed with that and drops his arms.
JULIA
You didn’t need to do that.
SERGE
I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.
Julia picks up
68
(CONTTNUED )
97.
68
CONTINUED :
68
JULIA
Sometimes Serge, you are a total
idiot. I didn’t mean the hug, I
meant stopping the hug.
SERGE
(muttering)
I don’t feel right about touching
you.
JULIA
Because of Vesta? All the others?
They don’t matter to me, so why
should they matter to you?
SERGE
The old word was -- unclean.
JULIA
(scornfully)
Oh, garbage! Or if you prefer,
Megalon!
SERGE
A lot of the things your father
has called me are true, Julia. I
am a profligate libertine, I ama
hedonist. Vesta? She was --
JULIA
“Tremendous pussy. That’s all
that matters.”
His face blanches, he shudders and stands up.
SERGE
My words.
JULIA
Sometimes I hear your thoughts. I
swim through your mind.
SERGE
I’m embarrassed.
JULIA
Vesta‘’s no virgin, I knew that the
first time I saw her, at a
concert. She’s an advertising con
job about as chaste as Wow
Baltimore, your new aunt.
(MORE }
(CONTTNIUED )
98.
68
69
CONTINUED : 68
JULIA (cont'd)
And that one -- she’s as dangerous
as Claude, who, incidentally set
you up, Serge.
SERGE
Claude?
JULIA
I warned you. But did you listen?
No! He was here at your party
with his tiny video camera.
Somehow he had hidden it in your
bedroom. He left the party for
five minutes and it wasn’t to go
to the bathroom. They’1l argue
figurative rape through drugs and
alcohol. I know you weren’t
feeding them to her, I knew she
was higher than a kite before we
left the wedding. I’d testify to
that, but if they cross-examine
and push, I’d have to admit that I
adore you. A prejudiced witness.
SERGE
It’s my own fault, no one else is
to blame. And if you, with all
your joy and optimism can’t see a
way out, how can I?
JULIA
I honestly don’t know. However, I
am going to try. You know, I’ma
talented detective.
She throws her arms around him and hugs him tightly just as
Charles steps in.
CHARLES
I’m sorry Serge, maybe you ought
to come downstairs.
Serge sees something is wrong from his face, immediately
starts down the stairs, Julia following.
INT. DESIGN STUDIO - DAY 69
MOVING VIEW
Down the stairs, into the design studio.
(CONTTNURD }
99.
69
100.
CONTINUED : 69
VIEW ON JULIA
Astonished.
WHAT THEY SEE:
Everything has been destroyed. The carefully crafted model
buildings are broken up, plans ransacked; all the file
drawers opened, the contents ripped up and tossed
everywhere.
Julia moves to the swinging door of the safe. The cash
drawers have been opened.
JULIA
It’s supposed to look like a
robbery.
SERGE
It is a robbery.
CHARLES
They’re been to the site also;
looked liked paid hoods. One of
our guards was hurt.
JULIA.
Listen, I have friends in the
detectives; don’t touch anything,
don’t report it yet.
SERGE
Detectives -- the city’s
detectives?
JULIA
(knows what he’s
thinking)
My father had nothing to do with
this.
SERGE
I can play dirty too.
JULIA
Don’t stoop to their level.
They’re going to attack you every
way they can, hoping you’ll
respond and get you in more
trouble.
(CONT TNUED \
69
A70
CONTINUED :
SERGE
You, my Joan of Arc of a new age,
afraid of trouble?
JULIA
I mean -- for you. I’m not afraid
for myself, but --
SERGE
What are you saying, Julia?
JULIA
I feel it’s my job to -- protect
you.
(awkwardly )
I care for you.
SERGE
(smiling)
I’m going to start building full
swing before they find a way to
stop me.
EXT. POLICE YARD - DAY
69
A70
Julia enters the yard where many squad cars are parked. She
passes by officers who say hello, and goes right up to MAC,
Other officers are hanging out, having lunch,
etc. They all brighten up when they see her.
her friend.
JULIA
Whattaya say, Mac. Give me my
badge back.
MAC
I can’t. And Actually you can’t
even hang around with the police
anymore, badge or no badge. There
are spies everywhere -- it came
from the Commissioner.
JULIA
What'd I do? What am I guilty of?
MAC
You’re a sharp girl, Julia, you
can figure it out. Not you -—
they need Catiline to be guilty.
Julia gives him a look that can’t fail.
(CONT TNURD )
101.
A70
70
CONTINUED : A70
JULIA
Ah, Mac, my best buddy -- won’t
you help me? We could have made
great partners.
MAC
In a movie maybe.
Mac feels through his car’s glove compartment. Takes out a
little detective badge and flips it to Julia.
MAC
I’ve got drawers full of them.
They’re worthless.
INT. CITY HALL - DAY 70
Al Morgenthau hurries up to Frank, and leans over his ear.
MORGENTHAU
Could I speak with you a minute,
Mayor?
He walks off with him.
MORGENTHAU
Frank, the team of bloodhounds we
put to work on the Design
Authority charter have come up
with something.
FRANK
Oh fantastic. What? Where?
MORGENTHAU
Just a little hitch in the wording
about the designated uses of toll
income -- it’s abstruse in two
places.
FRANK
Open to legal interpretation, you
mean?
MORGENTHAU
Exactly. The conclusion’s
arguable, but we can at least put
a temporary freeze on Megalopolis.
(CONTTNUED )
102.
70
71
103.
CONTINUED : 70
FRANK
Al, I love your homely face
forever! Is Judge DeFalco willing
to issue an injunction?
MORGENTHAU
You’1l have to request it
yourself, but I think so.
Al hands the Mayor the phone.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - NIGHT 71
Sheets of Megalon everywhere, massive forklifts, parts of
cranes and booms, huge trucks and tractors loaded up ready
to go. The Design Authority flag flies everywhere. The
place is lit by high-powered searchlights.
MOVING VIEW ON SERGE
His team follows. A Design Authority car pulls up; ARAM
KAVAKIAN, finance director, steps out and moves to Serge
quickly.
ARAM
I filed the papers with the state;
the bonds are liquid, so all you
have to do is direct me to move
the funds.
SERGE
I so instruct you, Aram.
CLOSE SHOT
Hands collecting tolls, etc.
ARAM (0.S.)
These are Authority funds, signed
by its chairman -- you. Just
think, all those toll booths
collecting just to pay off our
bonds.
Serge signs and then steps up to a simple platform where a
microphone is waiting. He looks through his team for Julia,
smiles broadly. This is the great moment -- Megalopolis is
about to rise. There is a tremendous air of excitement.
A simple gesture of Serge’s hand and twenty bulldozers move
forward.
(CONTTNIED }
71
CONTINUED :
NEW VIEW
SERGE
Megalopolis isn’t a utopian dream,
it‘s a reality! A vision showing
what can be done today, and what
will be routine tomorrow!
A row of searchlights spill upward to the sky.
mad with FLASH photography.
Suddenly squad cars arrive, sirens wailing.
slew of police and detectives march up to Serge.
He takes the
LIEUT.
Serge Catiline, director of the
Design Authority?
SERGE
I am he.
LIEUT.
(barking)
I have here an injunction
terminating all construction on
this site pending investigation of
the Design Authority’s charter.
SERGE
It would be nice, if just once I
couid hear you speak in a pleasant
voice.
papers and glances at them.
SERGE
This won’t hold up, Lieutenant.
LIEUT.
Until that is fact and not
opinion, Mr. Catiline, all work on
this site ceases as of this
moment.
SERGE
I'm sorry, I can’t do that. Work
continues.
LIEUT.
Issue the order to stop work or
I‘1ll arrest you on charges of
contempt.
71
The press go
Serge acknowledges his team.
An aggressive
(CONTTNIUED }
104.
71
CONTINUED : 71
SERGE
Arrest away, Lieutenant -- work
continues.
The Lieut. nods, and proceeds to put cuffs on Serge.
Charles’s eyes are swimming with tears. They take Serge to
a waiting patrol car; jam him in and drive off.
CHARLES
Oh, Jesus!
(turns to Vera)
We close down completely in
compliance with the injunction.
Everybody home -- including us.
JULIA
Don’t.
ARAM
Julia, we have to.
JULIA
You heard what Serge said, work
continues! He knows what’s
happening, what they can do to
him. So if he says we build, we
build!
CHARLES
Julia...
JULIA
What are you, Charles.
Overwhelmed by a few sheets of
paper? Serge said to build so0 we
build.
CHARLES
There will be cops everywhere.
They’11 shut us down anyway. I
can’t condone violence, and that’s
what’s going to happen.
JULIA
The city doesn’t have enough cops
to shut us down, they’ve fired
them all. They’1ll concentrate on
Serge. Build Charles, build, damn
you.
CHARLES
Do you all agree?
(CONT TNURD \
105.
71
72
73
74
75
CONTINUED: 71
He asks the others.
BALIN
Bet your ass!
ALI
(ad lib)
Agreed. Julia speaks for us.
Julia steps up to the microphone.
JULIA
You’re here to build the future.
Build it!
MUSIC UP. Work begins in full force as forklifts drop their
loads of Megalon primary fabric and huge boring machines
move into position to begin to drill the 100-foot casements
that will provide the structure of above-ground MEGALOPOLIS.
INT. SQUAD CAR - NIGHT ; 72
Serge being driven away into the shadows. He clicks his
gold watch and the second hand begins its sweep:
WIPE TO:
LEAP FORWARD IMAGES MONTAGE 73
Individual clips of the team; Vera, Balin, Charles all
directing their projects. STILL PHOTOS, TV CLIPS, SOUND
BITES. We witness the future being constructed.
EXT. GARBAGE BARGE DEPOT - DAY 74
Nush Berman and Meade Milo approach the foreman. Meade
shakes his head, Nush signs an order, and the Design
Authority garbage barges are stopped.
INT. NEW YORK GRAND JURY - DAY 75
Preliminary hearing -- receiving testimony of Vesta‘s
mother.
106.
76
77
78
TOLL GATES - DAY 76
Millions of cars keep passing through, hands reaching out to
INT. MAYOR'S OFFICE — DAY 77
Frank sits at his desk reading the newspapers about Serge
and Megalopolis. He is infuriated.
FRANK
What do you mean we can't stop the
building, Al?
MORGENTHAU
They're Design Authority bonds and
we have no power to intercede.
They're paid back by tolls all
over this city. It would take a
congressional act, and even that
might not break the covenant of
the Authority's bonds.
FRANK
This is my city, not this
maniac's. Have the police stop
them, Stan.
HART
Your judge's injunction didn't
stand up. I can’t stop this and I
don’t have the police to do it.
FRANK
(bitterly)
Who can you trust, when you can't
trust your friends?
(then gleefully)
But we’ve got him in prison,
that’s something.
POLICE STATION ~— DAY 78
MOVE CLOSER TO Serge, being detained and questioned by
detectives.
107.
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
INT. DESIGN STUDIO - DAY/NIGHT 79
INSERT - COUNTLESS DRAWINGS begin to define each part of
Megalopolis. Huge sheets of designs pinned to the walls,
details of the project.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - DAY/NIGHT 80
Vast machines dig and bore and lay foundations. Huge trucks
turn out sheets of plastic from molds and looms.
INT. MODEL STUDIOS - DAY/NIGHT 81
Model makers cutting cardboard, balsa wood, plastic.
INT. FACTORY - DAY 82
Basic new ‘weave’ plastic pours down a chute and onto a
grid.
EXT. GARBAGE BARGES FROM NEW JERSEY - EVENING 83
Charles arranges for the shipments to begin. The barges
carrying garbage move out.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE — DAY 84
Space-age materials being spun into feather-light structures
that are cheap, insulating and have great acoustics.
MEGALON shapes grow out of webs controlled by software,
making things structurally stronger than steel, but free as
liquid glass.
CANDID STILL PHOTOS of the mushrooming Megalopolis. Earth-
moving equipment sculpt the basic checkerboard of twelve
parks.
INT. DESIGN STUDIO - DAY 85
VIEW ON JULIA
Now an essential part of the team; directing the progress in
Serge’s absence.
(CONTTNITED 5
108.
85
86
87
88
109.
CONTINUED : 85
The model of the Saturn globe splits apart. Inside we SEE
auditoriums, stadiums, plazas, fountains, gardens.
EXT. TOLL GATES - DAY 86
CLOSE SHOTS -- Many hands, much cash. Toll gate after toll
gate.
INT. HAMILTON'S LIBRARY - DAY 87
VIEW ON WOW
So sexy as she brings Gene’s medicine to him. He’s trying
to concentrate on reports he’s reading.
GENE
Damn, damn, my pills multiply like
rabbits.
WOW
Don’t worry, I’ll read this for
‘you, honey -- then I’11 give you a
summary.
A MOVIE SCREEN shows IMAGES of Serge and progress of
Megalopolis, then Wow's SHADOW as she undresses.
Wow moves next to Gene, distracting him -- until he is no
longer watching. She closes in on him, pressing a button
shutting the projection off.
INT. JAIL - VISITING ROOM - DAY 88
Aram joins Serge.
ARAM
Hamilton National cut off our
local accounts.
SERGE
Don't you have the upstate ones?
ARAM
Yes, but it's so maddening, like
someone's playing with us. Is it
your Uncle?
89
90
91
92
93
94
INT. ELECTRONICS FACTORY - DAY/NIGHT 89
Workers in dust-proof suits work spinning yokes of fiber-
optics to go into the information hub deep below the city.
VIEW THROUGH ELECTRON MICROSCOPE -- the nano-circuitry.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - NIGHT 90
CLOSE ON HANDS -- building, joining, creating.
Workers grow and affix the skeleton of a vast globe.
EXT. DESIGN AUTHORITY BLDG. - DAY 91
Ite distinctive flag flying proudly in the wind.
EXT. CLOSE ON HANDS 92
Paying tolls, cash changing hands.
EXT. THE CHRYSLER BLDG. - MORNING 93
MOVING CLOSER TO THE TOWER, and into the great triangular
windows.
INT. MAYOR’S OFFICE - AFTERNOON 94
Frank sits near his phone, listening to Gene’s voice booming
through the room.
GENE (0.S.)
I don’t care what the city’s
objection to double bail for
double offenses is, Frank! I want
my nephew released and I will not
lie down under this order that
construction of Megalopolis cease!
FRANK
Listen, Mr. Hamilton, you may own
this city’s largest bank and the
patents on Megalon. But you do
not own me or this city’s
administration.
(MORE )
(CONTTNITEN }
110.
94 CONTINUED :
94
FRANK (cont'd)
Dr. Catiline’s in a cell where he
should be, and there he stays!
A pause; everyone in the office, Al, Rebecca, Hart look at
each other.
Frank breaks
GENE (0.S.)
(softly)
I don’t own you and this city’s
administration? I rather thought
I did, actually. Don’t oblige me
to issue a public statement that
the Hamilton National Bank has no
faith in the city’s credit because
said credit is a figment of the
Mayor’s imagination. Your paper's
not worth diddlysquat, your honor,
the city’s broke.
the connection with a fictitious stab.
FRANK
Damn and blast him!
MORGENTHAU
Your honor, be reasonable. Let
the guy out, don’t make it worse
for us.
(to Hart)
Stan, back me!
HART
Al’‘s right, your honor. If
DeFalco’s court refuses bail, old
man Hamilton will not only issue
his statement, he’ll also accuse
you of mounting a vendetta against
his nephew.
Rebecca moves to look Frank in the face sternly.
REBECCA
Boss, in the last week you’ve shot
off your mouth about the Vesta
case to any reporter who’d listen,
and Catiline’s attorneys are
suggesting bias.
FRANK
Bias smias, the man copulated with
a fifteen year old!
(CONTTNUED }
lil.
94
CONTINUED :
Frank slumps
Frank shrugs.
94
REBECCA
But you’re smearing him, denying
him bail, you’ve made it personal,
as though it was your daughter --
LAWYER
You see, your honor, our
contentions about those two
Clauses in the charter aren’t
watertight, so it might be smart
to ease up.
FRANK
(through his teeth)
That wasn’t your opinion
yesterday.
LAWYER
Well, I commissioned an external
opinion too, and it’s just back.
One of my jobs is to keep the
public informed about the city’s
affairs, including legal ones, and
I wanted us to look impartial.
FRANK
I take it you’re attempting to
tell me that the external opinion
doesn’t agree with our own
experts?
LAWYER
Correct. Sorry.
into his chair.
Therefore, you are all advising me
to turn a blind eye to continued
building on the Cityworld site,
and content myself with that poor
little soul, Vesta Sweetwater?
MORGENTHAU
We are.
(CONTTNIUED \
112.
94
CONTINUED :
94
FRANK
Very well, then we turn a blind
eye to the matter of holding a
legally binding injunction in
contempt. However, Walter, tell
Norm O’Brien from me that he’d
better get the Grand Jury moving,
I want Catiline convicted as soon
as possible. Hear me?
MORGENTHAU
I hear you.
They all scuttle out except for Rebecca, who stands behind
the Mayor and massages his neck with strong fingers. He
relaxes and breaths.
FRANK
Oh, that feels good.
She finishes, grins at him putting her thumbs up.
PRANK
You know Rebecca, in all the years
we’ve worked together, no one has
ever been more loyal. I prize
that. But you think I’m going too
far with Serge the Scourge, don’t
you?
REBECCA
I do.
FRANK
He’s got my Julia in his snare.
REBECCA
I realize that, Frank.
FRANK
How else can I set her free, than
to jail him?
REBECCA
He’ll get a stiff sentence for
Vesta Sweetwater.
FRANK
And good riddance, I hope it’s
life.
(CONTTNUED }
113.
94
95
96
97
CONTINUED : 94
REBECCA
Boss, why don’t you take the rest
of the day off?
He reaches out and picks up the two legal opinions
concerning the Design Authority charter.
FRANK
Good idea. I want to arrive at
‘my’ opinion and it’s quieter at
Gracie Mansion. Thanks, Rebecca.
He lumbers out, but stops to make a call on his cell phone.
INSERT
Scramble mode.
CLOSE ON FRANK
FRANK
Cato? This is Frank Cicero. Just
to let you know I’m in favor of
our suggestion about the Boni
Budget... I should add that the
city has had an offer of a gratis
block of midtown land on which to
build a casino. Yes, there will
certainly be future collateral --
No matter what the fate of the
Cityworld site, the casino is
assured.
EXT. GRACIE MANSION - EVENING 95
Frank geta out of his car, waves to the copa in the security
booth on his way to the house.
INT. GRACIE MANSION - EVENING 96
Frank enters, and hearing Julia’s laughter, eavesdrops as
she talks to her mother.
INT. SITTING ROOM - EVENING 97
Terry and Julia eating together, both laughing.
(CONT TNIED }
114.
97
CONTINUED :
97
TERRY
I don’t know why we’re laughing,
it isn’t funny.
JULIA
No Mom, it isn’t funny.
TERRY
You’re going to stick by him.
JULIA
Through thick and thin, to the
death.
TERRY
You love him that much, honey?
JULIA
That much and more. I don’t think
God made a device to measure my
kind of love.
TERRY
How long has this affair been
going on?
JULIA
Oh, there is no affair! The time
for that isn’t right.
TERRY
Why?
JULIA
There are a lot of negative things
working on Serge. Things that eat
at him, things I don’t always
understand. His mind doesn’t work
like other minds.
TERRY
Is he unbalanced?
JULIA
(laughing)
Totally! But not crazily. He has
such visions, such passions.
Megalopolis obsesses him.
TERRY
Well honey, the cards say the pair
of you will get there.
(CONTTNIEN }
115.
116.
97 CONTINUED : 97
Suddenly Frank roars into the room.
FRANK
Oh, do they?
(heart pounding,
trembling)
You and your cards, woman! You
and your delusions, girl!
JULIA
I‘d better go.
She scrambles to her feet, kisses her mother, and tries to
get around her crimson-faced father.
FRANK
After listening to that mawkish
sentimentality, I don’t know why
you ever came, you serpent’s
tooth. God didn’t make a
measuring device, huh? Oh yes he
did, but not for deviates like
your lover-boy! Visions and
passions indeed!
JULIA
Daddy, you’re wrong about Serge --
so wrong!
FRANK
Seducing a fifteen-year old girl?
JULIA
(wringing her hands)
It wasn’t the way it looked and if
it had been, it’s irrelevant. What
matters are his ideas, the
children of his mind -- they’re so
fantastic, so worthwhile! Serge
the person is just a vessel filled
with ideas. Don’t you see, Daddy?
He’s a tragedy because his mind
and spirit are some place his body
doesn’t know, can’t follow.
FRANK
(fury dying down)
You are lost.
Tears pour down Julia’s face.
(CONT TNURD }
97
CONTINUED; 97
JULIA
Whatever happened to your dreams?
She slips past him and is gone.
Frank slouches down, exhausted. Terry picks up her cards.
TERRY
If she’s lost, Frank, accept it.
FRANK
How dare you ask her here.
TERRY
God would say, how dare I not.
She is my child. Motherhood is
unconditional.
She starts to clear the dishes away.
TERRY ;
Go and do some work, I don’t want
to see you until you can at least
be civil.
Frank drags his heavy briefcase to his study.
FRANK
(muttering)
Why did she have to fall in love
with the one man I cannot condone?
And why is she so blind to the
evil in him?
He sits down.
FRANK
I haven’t forgotten my dreams. I
was going to be another father of
my country, to have a thousand
statues in a thousand squares. I
was going to be primus inter
pares, the first among my equals.
I had dreams --
(falling asleep)
But they weren’t dreams --- they
were fantasies.
The HOOTING of owls in the Gracie Mansion gardens.
DISSOLVE TO:
117.
98
INT.
BEDROOM - NIGHT 98
Frank sleeps restlessly, almost screaming.
TERRY
Frank. You’re having that same
nightmare again.
FRANK
I’m fine -- I’m fine.
TERRY
The same dream?
FRANK
A cloud swallows the moon.
TERRY
The moon. The feminine principle,
the left hand, imagination,
intuition. Ruled by Pisces, rules
Cancer. Hmmm.
‘She sits up in the bed, puzzling.
TERRY
I‘ll spread the tarot, but it’s
hard to interpret dreams from
either the tarot or the stars. I
think you need to see a psychic.
FRANK
Pah.
TERRY
Truly, honey, psychics can be very
helpful. You’re soaked! Lord be,
Frank, you’re not telling me
everything. There’s a Psychic
named Ablo in the Brooklyn
tunnels, and she’s an expert on
dreams. Why not see her, huh?
For me?
FRANK
What’s her name, Gobble?
TERRY
Ablo.
(CONTTNUED )
118.
119.
98 CONTINUED : 98
FRANK
And she occupies a palace in the
Brooklyn tunnels.
(rolling to one side)
Go to sleep, Terry -- and no more
Ablo.
99 INT. CITY HALL BOARDROOM - DAY 99
Al Morgenthau hangs up the phone.
Those in the
MORGENTHAU
The panel of judge ruled in favor
of the Design Authority.
room are disappointed but not surprised.
FRANK
If we had those tolls, Al, we’d be
on easy street.
MORGENTHAU
There’s no denying that having the
toll revenues would help, but we
don’t have them and I can’t see
that we ever will have them.
FRANK
(leaning back in
chair)
‘Actually, the city will shortly be
enjoying its rightful toll
revenues.
MORGENTHAU
(gaping)
Impossible.
FRANK
No, no, no, not impossible --
actual. There’s an old saying
that the best job is one you do
yourself, and I’ve just been going
through the Design Authority
charter with a microscope.
MORGENTHAU
And found?
(CONTTNITED J
99
CONTINUED :
FRANK
That in the event of death,
incapacitation or conviction on a
felony of the Director -- Serge
Catiline -- the Authority and its
funds fall into control of a
caretaker panel.
MORGENTHAU
Jeeee-sus! How did we miss that
one?
FRANK
When the charter was ratified, we
hadn‘t moved into City Hall.
Nobody's bothered with it until
recently and then we gave our
bloodhounds the wrong scent.
MORGENTHAU
Who appoints the caretaker panel,
Frank?
FRANK
The Mayor, the Public Advocate and
your good self, Al.
(complacently)
What’s more, in the fullness of
time we appoint the new Director.
That means when Dr. Serge Catiline
hears the guilty verdict we’ve got
him in every way. His funds will
be our funds. Nor will Uncle Gene
kick -- if we agree to build
Cityworld out of Megalon. He’s as
hard nosed as they come.
MORGENTHAU
(dubious )
That won’t please Nush Berman.
FRANK
I have a feeling I can reach an
accommodation with Nush. There
are the Brooklyn tunnels, and he’s
begun to lobby for a new airport.
He turns, conspiratorially.
99
(CONTTNUEN }
120.
99
100
101
CONTINUED : 99
FRANK
I’‘ll just take the Design
Authority over and use it to build
my Cityworld. I have dreams. I
don‘t have to set up new
foundations -- I could just use
Catiline’s and redesign on top of
it. Rebecca, see if you can
arrange a meeting with Charles
Eddington.
EXT. GRAND JURY - DAY 100
Crowds, some carrying crosses, have come to chant for
Catiline’s head on a platter
INT. NEW YORK GRAND JURY -— DAY 101
Wealthy matrons, media and citizens are among the spectators
who sit in judgment on the Serge Catiline case.
MED. VIEW MOVING
Vesta's mother is weeping and shredding Kleenex in the
witness box. She's clearly an alcoholic cleaned up for her
appearance. Serge sits next to his lawyers.
VERDICT CHORUS
We, the Grand Jury, indict the
defendant, Serge Catiline on
charges of unlawful intercourse
with a minor, rape, child
molestation, oral copulation,
sodomy, and providing drugs to a
minor.
VIEW ON SERGE
Sitting quietly. He holds an antique pocket watch, turns it
over.
INSERT:
‘The inscription, "Col. Alexander Hamilton, 1781."
When the verdict is delivered, he bows his head. Then he
stops the chronometer button. CLICK.
CUT TO BLACK
(CCONTTNUED \
121.
101
102
103
CONTINUED:
FADE IN:
EXT. THE CITY - DAY
New York in the RAIN.
INT. CLOUD TOWER - DAY
101
102
103
Serge sits in a cloud of despondent gloom; Charles Eddington
enters tentatively under Fundi’s watchful eyes.
CHARLES
May I?
Serge nods to his old colleague.
CHARLES
Serge, I think we must stop work
on Megalopolis.
SERGE
(bewildered)
Why?
CHARLES
Sabotage, among other things.
According to the cops it’s a
constant potential riot situation
and Commissioner Hart told me
flatly he doesn’t have the
manpower to contain that number of
people should you appear.
SERGE
The commissioner? Did you see the
Mayor as well?
CHARLES
The Mayor -- he was there for a
moment .
SERGE
But you didn’t speak with him?
CHARLES
I said, for a moment. They insist
there are already too many police
tied up guarding you.
Serge’s shoulders heave with sudden laughter.
(CONTTNTED }
122.
103
CONTINUED :
103
SERGE
All this over a bowl of Tootsie
Rolls! Why do we have senses of
humor?
CHARLES
(almost begging)
Serge, please. Issue an order to
stop work. I have it here, all I
need is your signature.
SERGE
Who prepared the document?
CHARLES
Aram did.
SERGE
When the trial is over, I’1l be in
jail anyway.
(standing up)
God, I’m so tired of walking this
room! Give me the order, I’11l
sign it.
Fundi lets Julia in.
JULIA
You won’t go to jail.
(kissing Charles on
cheek)
What’s up?
CHARLES
We‘re closing Megalopolis down,
. temporarily.
JULIA
Oh, no!
CHARLES
We have no choice.
He takes papers out of his briefcase, puts them on table.
CHARLES
Well, I’m off. When you feel like
it Serge, the team is down below.
We may not be building but there’s
plenty to do.
(CONT TNITTED J
123.
103
CONTINUED : 103
CLOSE ON JULIA
Observing how badly Serge looks.
JULIA
Let’s watch TV or something.
A talk show comes on -~ and there sits Vesta Sweetwater at
right angles to the host.
JULIA
Oops.
About to change it; Serge stays her hand.
VESTA (0.S.)
I go on -- I know I let a lot of
people down, but I must go on.
HOST
Oh, Vesta, you poor child. No one
blames you!
Gets up and gives the teenager a hug while the studio
audience signals their approval with applause. The TV
SCREEN goes blank.
SERGE
What a bitch you are, Julia!
He grabs the control and blanks the big wall screen.
JULIA
At least I got a reaction.
SERGE
Go away -- just go away.
JULIA
And leave you like this? I can’t.
She crouches on the carpet at his feet and looks up into his
face.
JULIA
Serge, you’ll never go to jail.
Will you?
SERGE
No.
(CONTTNUED \
124.
103
104
105
CONTINUED : 103
JULIA
You’‘1ll kill yourself first.
SERGE
Yes.
JULIA
I couldn’t live without you.
SERGE
You think that now, but I’m not
who you believe I am. I got
myself into this and no one knows
better than I do. It’s not that
silly girl’s fault, it’s mine.
You can’t get around these
particular charges, Julia. I am
guilty. I admit I’m guilty.
That’s how I’m going to plead.
JULIA
You’ll be all right now. Go to
work downstairs, and don’t think
about tomorrow or any other day.
You don’t need to, Serge.
SERGE
Where are you going?
And she is gone, her perfume lingering.
EXT. CLAUDE’S LOFT - DAY 104
The loft is in a clock tower at the base of the Brooklyn
Bridge. The great hand moves steadily, showing the hour.
INT. CLAUDE’S LOFT - DAY 105
Two young girls are lying on an overstuffed couch reading a
magazine, while Clodina sits, looking bored. The girls are
doing a jigsaw puzzle; a large bowl of jelly beans stands
near the table’s edge, and both girls absently dip into it
as they study the pieces. Julia enters, seemingly with her
own key.
CLODINA
My goodness. Thrown Sergie boy to
the wolves, Julia?
(CONTTNIED }
125 e
105
106
CONTINUED : 105
JULIA
The wolves are right here in Club
Claude!
CLODINA
You don’t sound in a good mood,
darling.
JULIA
That’s because I’m not. How much
do you know about this plot to
frame Serge, Clodina?
CLODINA
(her blue eyes
widening)
Plot? What plot?
JULIA
Where’s Claude?
CLODINA
In the conference room, which is
verboten to all females.
JULIA
Then get him out. I’m not leaving
until I see him.
CLAUDINE
I’1l tell him.
INT. SO-CALLED CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY 106
A working office, more like a magnate’s office; leather
chairs, expensive antique tables and cabinets, Persian rugs,
windows shuttered in maple.
NEW VIEW
Claude sits in Arctic fluorescent austerity before a
computer; the walls are covered with maps and charts of New
York City’s five boroughs, lists of statistics, all
dominated by one very large outline map of the city’s
electoral districts.
ANTON
For the hundredth time, Claude --
what the fuck are you up to?
(CONTTNUED }
126.
106
127.
CONTINUED : 106
Claude parks his mouse, and marks a quarter of the electoral
district map with a crayon from the box of many colors on
his plain steel desk.
CLAUDE
Turks. Time to let you into the
new enterprise as a - ah - junior
partner. See that?
ANTON
There’s not much else to see.
CLAUDE
(dreamily)
At first, I wondered if it would
be possible to gerrymander the
electoral districts. But then,
after I met Mohammed Aziz, a much
easier alternative popped into my
mind. So I sat down at my
computer and did some research.
Anton sits there with his eyelids drooping.
ANTON
Huh.
CLAUDE
It began with my unparalleled
genius for language. What if, I
asked myself, Anton old chum,
there’s no need to gerrymander?
The immigrants are spread far and
wide! They just move into an
area, and slowly take it over.
Since the dawn of the new
millennium, the steady trickle has
become a full torrent and a great
many have been here now long
enough to become American
citizens. By fair means or, I
suspect, foul.
ANTON
Jesus Christ, Claude -- is all
this shit necessary?
CLAUDE
(looking shocked)
Necessary? Not necessary, Anton -
! I’ve found a way to
become King of New York City!
(CONT TNIUED )
106
CONTINUED:
106
ANTON
Oh, sure. How? Tell me how?
CLAUDE
By controlling the immigrant vote
in every one of the five boroughs,
you dodo!
ANTON
Absolutely fucking shit, Claude!
Even I know that the immigrants
hate each other -- I mean, didn’t
you listen to Josaphat the Haitian
on the subject of the Dominicans?
Or the Russians about the Arabs.
The Rumanians hate the Bulgarians,
the Biafrans hate the Nigerians,
The Turks hate the Greeks and the
Arabs, the Greeks hate the Turks
and the Macedonians, the Chinese
hate the Vietnamese, the Korean
hate them both, the Indians hate
the Pakistanis -- it goes on and
on!
CLAUDE
My good Anton, you conceived a
thought!
ANTON
Yeah, well. They’re all un-
American trash, Claude baby, but
you’ll never get them to agree
with each other.
CLAUDE
Oh yes, I will. I promise you, I
will. I’m going to go among them,
I'll speak their tongues, I’1l lay
my hands upon them as of little
sheep. I am going to become their
messiah.
ANTON
(gaping)
Even you don‘t have that many
languages.
CLAUDE
Give me a week, and I’1ll speak any
language you can name. In fact,
I’ve already begun.
(MORE )
(CONTTNITED }
128 e
106
CONTINUED :
106
CLAUDE (cont’d)
I’ve added Hindi, Urdu, Cantonese
and Korean to the list. I shall
unite the immigrants in a common
cause. Do you think they don’t
know they’re despised, looked down
upon? To Mayor Cicero they’re the
main cause of our bankruptcy, so
does he love them? Does he
comfort them? Only like a
politician, Anton, and that’s as
shallow as a hasty grave. Whereas
I will love them, I will comfort
them, I will contribute to their
causes and give them a proper
sense of their own power.
ANTON
Do that, and you’1ll be stomped to
déath in the revolution. They‘ll
get away on you.
CLAUDE
Why should they? They’1l look to
me as to their savior, as their
guiding light. Revolution is my
prerogative, not theirs.
ANTON
(stubbornly)
They are a bunch of un-Americans.
There is a KNOCK on the door.
CLODINA (0O.S.)
Claude, Julia’s here and she
insists on seeing you.
CLAUDE
Ah. I was wondering when she'd
come begging. On your feet,
Anton. Let’s go see how we can
make her life even unhappier.
JULIA
Hi. Doing anything constructive?
ANTON
(grinning)
Un-American activities.
(CONTTNITED )
129.
106
CONTINUED:
CLAUDE
(yawning)
Are you here as a Club Claude
member or as ambassador
extraordinary for the Empire of
Serge?
106
Julia nods in the direction of the two young girls.
Even Clodina and Claudine are puzzled and afraid.
young girls avert their eyes, grabbing handful of
jellybeans.
JULIA
How come you’re not up on charges
of unlawful intercourse with
minors?
CLAUDE
Unworthy, Julia. Because I’m the
one owns the camera. And the
tapes.
JULIA
You are so disgustingly low.
CLAUDE
Thank you.
(angrily)
What’s gotten into you, Julia?
Don‘t you remember Club Claude’s
mission statement?
JULIA
That was a thousand years ago.
You are cursed.
CLAUDE
(slight laugh)
No one can curse me.
JULIA
And to think you were once a hero
to me, giving the finger to a
stodgy old world!
CLAUDE
What until you see the new world.
New Claude City. Claudington,
D.C. The United States of Claude.
The two
(CONTTNUED )
130.
106
107
CONTINUED : 106
JULIA
I came to ask you to help free
Serge.
CLAUDE
Help free Serge? Oh no,
Serge is going to die.
He's flying to the sky.
Now, not by and bye.
JULIA
Somehow, I’m going to clear Serge.
She realizes she sounds pathetic.
CLAUDE
You?
JULIA
You made several bad mistakes,
Claude. First, you chose Serge as
your victim. And another, showing
your real face to me. I have
‘power, I have power. And you will
fall like Lucifer.
CLAUDE.
(unimpressed)
What a load of shit. I have the
power, you sappy little ignoramus.
You don’t remember my production
of Sleeping Beauty, with you
starring as the prince, do you? I
have that tape, I think.
JULIA
Claude, just try to pull something
like that on me. I will have you
in court in two seconds and Uncle
Gene will bounce you so hard you
might land on Mars!
She walks out.
INT. HALLWAY - DAY 107
She sags against a wall, shivering, trembling, horrified.
131.
108
109
110
111
132.
EXT. BROOKLYN/BRONX - DAY 108
MONTAGE :
Claude has come to a neighborhood Haitian grocery store;
takes Mohammed Aziz to the lobby of a Hamilton Bank and
arranges a line of credit for the mosque’s charitable
programs; enjoys a band concert from a Dominican band whose
instruments were donated by Claude.
Soon all the groups are calling him "Monsigneur,” “Bey,”
“Sayyed,” “Effendi,” etc.
EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD GROCERY STORE - DAY 109
A fluttering banner announces its grand opening. Claude
beams as he speaks Creole to the proprietors and throng.
CLAUDE
Congratulations and good luck on
your business, my friends.
OWNER
Thank you for helping arrange all
this, Monseigneur.
EXT. DISTRICT POLITICAL OFFICE - DAY 110
This is the Haitian political action office for their
present Bronx district. Claude meets the old populist
leader, revered Papa Boneme. Josaphat embraces him.
JOSAPHAT
Dear Uncle -- this is Claude, the
one you heard about.
BONEME
Welcome, welcome! The family is
waiting for you, Claude.
INT. HAITIAN BASEMENT - DAY 111
A tiny room where there are huge stacks of cardboard boxes
containing goods being sent back to Haiti. Several people
are waiting, all Haitians. The Haitians have crammed some
old kitchen chairs into a ring, in the midst of the clutter.
(CONTTNUED }
lil
CONTINUED : 111
Some men open large plastic bottles of Pepsi Cola, pour it
into plastic glasses which are passed around as if they were
champagne. An old woman, TANTE MOMO, steps forward.
MOMO
He is your chosen?
JOSAPHAT
Yes, Tante Momo. He can do what
we cannot.
There is a small ALTAR with a statue of the Virgin Mary, a
snake under her feet, $5 bills, crucifixes, cuff-links,
decorated beer bottles and candles. Tante Momo speaks in
Creole, apparently blessing the proceedings. She puts a
bottle decorated with pink and blue glass beads in a
prominent place -- and removes the cork.
JOSAPHAT
I bring you my brother Claude. He
was born from a family of lords.
Papa Boneme beckons Claude to him, takes his hand.
BONEME
I am here with my son, Tante Momo.
He will help our people.
MOMO
We present to you, Erzulie, our
brother Papa Boneme, who takes
this young man Claude Hamilton as
his son, to be known as Claude
Boneme.
BONEME
So be it. Erzulie, bless my son
Claude.
The assembled group chant something in patois that includes
the name Claude several times, and conclude with "Baron
Samedi." Something overtakes them all as though the
presence of a powerful spirit, which leaves Tante Momo
exhausted. They help her to her feet. She pops the cork on
the bottle and puts it in its place of honor on the altar.
From behind it comes a multicolored SNAKE.
VIEW ON CLAUDE
Watching the snake fixedly. Its tongue flickers at him.
133.
134.
112 INT. DESIGN STUDIO - DAY 112
Julia finds herself working with Charles Eddington.
JULIA
I’ve seen Serge’s attorneys.
CHARLES
What did they say?
JULIA
That they doubt my testimony will
sway the jury much. It turna out
that Claude and his sisters have
already been to see the D.A., and
are prepared to swear on a stack
of bibles that Serge fed her speed
in her dessert and spiked her
orange juice with vodka.
CHARLES
(under his breath)
May they rot.
JULIA
I had a sudden wild hope, that
maybe our dear darling Vesta was
thirty-five years old, but Serge’s
legal team shot that down. All I
could find out was that there was
an Older sister who died.
CHARLES
It’s her mother ought to go to
jail. Anyone with a particle of
sense could see that she’s a lush,
but the D.A.’s bunch cleaned her
up superbly.
JULIA
I couldn’t face going to the
trial.
CHARLES
A wise decision.
JULIA
(whispered)
I can’t live without him.
Charles laughs, and kisses her on the lips.
(CONTTNUED \
112
113
114
135 e
CONTINUED : 112
CHARLES
It doesn’t matter, Julia, it
really doesn’t. Serge will
survive. And it’s all because of
you. Now go talk to him, will
you? He’s on the site. Balin
thinks he’s suicidal. He lives
with a lot of ghosts, Julia.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS ‘COLOSSOS’ SATURN TOWER - DAY 113
JULIA
Where is he?
Charles and Aram just look upwards.
JULIA
How is he?
They shake their heads. Julia heads over to a site
elevator.
EXT. SITE ELEVATOR AT TOP - DAY 114
Julia arrives at the top, looks out.
WHAT SHE SEES:
Serge sitting despondently on the emerging Megalon girder
structure. Julia walks along the unfinished structure. He
senses her there, looking at him, but doesn’t turn.
SERGE
It’s all my own fault. How could
I blame anybody else?
JULIA
Lighten up, Chief.
SERGE
No, I didn’t murder my wife, but
my moods, my mania, my
indiscretions drove her to try to
kill herself...
JULIA
Look at it this way: your
appetites are part of the creative
fire.
(MORE)
(CONT TNIIED \
136.
114 CONTINUED : 114
JULIA (cont'd)
You are the incarnation of
creativity and that uses the same
stuff as hedonism.
SERGE
Your theory?
JULIA
I just made it up.
He has turned to stare at her. He points to the site below.
SERGE
What could be worse than seeing an
ersatz Cityworld go up here
instead of Megalopolis? See the
drama never fulfilled? All
because of my own base instincts?
JULIA
You’re avoiding the issue, Serge.
Tell me.
SERGE
I’ve lost my power over time. I
can’t control it anymore.
JULIA
All creative artists have the gift
of controlling time, you told me
that. You can’t lose it.
SERGE
I have lost it. Look.
(to the sky)
Stop!
The clouds keep rushing by. Serge turns away from her.
JULIA
Serge?
CLOSE ON JULIA
Clouds raging behind her.
JULIA
Stop it for me.
SERGE
What?
(CONT TNUED }
114
CONTINUED : 114
JULIA
Stop time for me.
He turns toward her.
WHAT HE SEES:
Julia standing, wind-beaten, the incarnation of a good
goddess.
JULIA
Stop time for me. For me!
Serge stares wide-eyed, his stature visibly growing, then he
grabs her arm with one hand, points the other upward, where
the clouds now scud in a racing stream, boiling.
SERGE
Stop!
The clouds STOP. Julia peers down, sees everything on the
site FROZEN. In the distance, traffic FROZEN.
CLOSE ON JULIA
Enchantingly beautiful.
JULIA
You see? You’re everything you
always were, everything you’ll
always be.
SERGE
I wouldn't mind, being frozen in
time as long as I could see you,
look into your eyes for all
eternity.
JULIA
You're describing heaven.
Slowly he leans to her, and they kiss for the first time.
MUSIC UP.
SERGE
One thing I regret, is that I’ve
come between you and your father.
JULIA
I regret it too, but he forced me
to choose.
(CONTTNIED }
137.
114
CONTINUED :
114
SERGE
That’s the measure of his love,
Julia. Nothing but the best for
you could have satisfied him.
Instead, you picked a notorious...
well, for what it’s worth, I agree
with your father. I don’t approve
of your choice either. That’s why
I’m waiting for you to come to
your senses, dearest Julia.
JULIA
Serge, that will never happen.
I’ve forever lost my senses, I
have a bad case of runaway heart --
No, what I pray for is that one
day my Daddy will see that he’s
wrong about you. You, are the
best man I’ve ever met. Ina
different way, so is Dad. Which
means that somehow I have to make
him see what I see in you. Make
you see what I see in him.
SERGE
I see a posturing political animal
with delusions of grandeur and an
outmoded philosophy.
JULIA
A lot of that’s true. But you’re
not giving him his full measure.
Under the posing and the
vaingloriousness is a decent,
scrupulously honest idealist who
has never compromised his beliefs,
his honor.
SERGE
I concede it.
JULIA
Then there’s hope. I’11 think of
a place you two can meet.
Suddenly alive, Serge moves into another compartment of his
personality.
SERGE
I’m so excited -- I want to
institute a new holiday.
(MORE )
(CONTTNITED }
138.
114
115
CONTINUED:
114
SERGE (cont'd)
For everything to stop and
celebrate the progress of
Megalopolis. Actually it’s a very
old one -- we’ll call it
Saturnalia.
JULIA
The winter solstice.
SERGE
Yes, Saturnalia. City wide.
Times Square redecorated, an
effigy of Kronos in Herald Square,
the whole of Central Park filled
with marquees and entertainment
shells, a great costume ball in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art --
All the people of the city will go
among each other and celebrate the
lengthening of the days, the
coming of spring.
The images are in his head, not hers.
JULIA
It sounds marvelous. But don’t
you want to focus on Megalopolis --
(sarcastically)
I mean you’ve already got a lot
cut out for yourself.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. GREAT MODEL OF THE CITY - DAY 115
Frank and Serge walk together along the hanging catwalks
over the great model of the city.
MEDIUM VIEW - MOVING TWO SHOT
Walking, speaking quietly, trying to work out some sort of
agreement.
They are tailed by Rebecca and Julia.
FRANK
I can forbid it.
SERGE
You can’t, Mr. Mayor. All the
festivities will take place in my
purlieu, the parks and squares of
the city.
(CONTTNURD 1}
139.
115
CONTINUED :
115
FRANK
The Metropolitan Museum of Art may
intrude into a park, sir, but it
is not in your purlieu!
SERGE
Eugene Hamilton chairs its board,
and my mother also is a member of
the board, which intends to hold a
costume ball by invitation only,
proceeds to the museum.
FRANK
Saturnalia, for heaven’s sake! A
pagan festival revived in our new
millennium -- it’s an offense to
Christians of all denominations!
Muslims too, I’1l warrant.
SERGE
The Church in desperation turned
it into a feast day of the Virgin
Mary, called it Christmas, and
thus finally managed to snuff it
out.
FRANK
By New Year’s, Catiline, you won’t
have the power to throw any pagan
festivals. The Director of the
Design Authority will be appointed
by me and my colleagues, and
you’ll be rotting in a cell ina
maximum security prison.
Preferably located near Buffalo.
By all means proclaim your
Saturnalia! But the moment you’re
convicted, I will announce its
cancellation on the grounds that
it offends Christian and Islamic
morality. People can visit Times
Square, that’s a city tradition.
SERGE
I will go ahead and proclaim it,
have no doubt on that.
Serge walks to the exit.
Wait.
(CONTTNITED \
140.
115
CONTINUED : 115
THE VIEW MOVES CLOSER
Serge turns back, brows raised.
SERGE
Yes?
We see that Frank is trembling.
FRANK
My daughter. Do me one favor, and
I won’t oppose Saturnalia. She’s
such a little fish, Catiline, and
the ocean’s full of fish. Throw
her back, let her swim away!
Please!
SERGE
Do you think I wouldn’t if I
could, Frank? But a fish isn’t
the right metaphor for Julia.
She’s a bird and she flies free,
following her own path. I've
tossed her into the sky a dozen
times, but she always comes back
to me. I find no joy in that, yet
it’s the greatest joy of my life.
And if it’s any comfort, Julia is
sacred. I’m powerless to harm
her.
FRANK
You’ve ruined her already!
SERGE
No.
{seriously)
But if you’re not careful, Frank,
it’s you who’ll ruin her. All it
takes is one projectile to the
heart to bring down a bird. She
idolizes you for your honesty,
your integrity. But I’ve watched
you change since you’ve sat behind
this desk. It’s a hard row for an
honest man to hoe, isn’t it. And
aren’t you tempted, Frank? If you
love her as much as you think you
do, remain the man she believes
you are.
He leaves. Rebecca and Julia follow, leaving Frank alone.
(CONTTNITED 3
141.
115
116
117
118
CONTINUED : 115
FRANK
(whispers )
It’s already too late.
He leans against the railing and weeps.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. CITY HALL - DAY 116
MONTAGE OF SECURITY CAMERA RECOLLECTIONS:
Tim and Tom Boni, brought by Nush Berman. Davy Cato signs a
document.
INSERT - THE DEAL
Giving the BONI BUDGET BANK the monopoly of city business,
with Cato a traitor to Hamilton in order to gain power for
himself.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - DAY 117
VIEW ON MEGALOPOLIS PROGRESS
Growing out of the existing city.
EXT. GRANT’S TOMB ~— DAY 118
MOVING VIEW
Frank and the two Boni twins.
FRANK
Megalopolis, damn it to hell, it
will be completed. Become one of
the wonders of the modern world --
if Gaudi and the rest of those
poseurs, why not?
(turning)
I’ve decided, Mr. Boni, to accept
the Concord foundation’s offer on
that midtown block for our city’s
casino.
The Boni twins break into smiles.
TIM BONI
Splendid, Mr. Mayor, splendid.
(CONTTNIUED \
142.
118 CONTINUED :
118
Shaking him warmly by the hand, a gesture repeated by Tom.
FRANK
Naturally, the project will
require underwriters.
TOM BONI
There can be no doubt that if the
bond issue were to be in the
entire care of the Boni Budget
bank, underwriting would be
greatly facilitated.
TIM BONI
Hamilton National would be
difficuit for us to work with.
FRANK
Not the Cityworld design,
something different, better. An
arcade and mall in classical
Corinthian style, with the casino
itself centered in a gardened
temple precinct like Jupitor
Optimus Maximus on the Capitol of
Rome. Marble facades and pillars -
~- the Concord Casino Complex.
What better perpetuation of the
Foundation than to put its name
upon such a magnificent
undertaking?
TOM BONT
Perfect, perfect.
‘VIEW ON TIM BONT
Steeples his fingers, lifts an eyebrow like a hairy
caterpillar.
TIM BONI
There remains the question of
endowing the Concord Foundation
with an income in perpetuity.
Frank’s shoulders sag.
FRANK
That’s implicit in my asking for
the land, Tim. It shall be as you
wish, but strictly entre nous.
(CCONTTNITED )
143.
118
119
120
CONTINUED :
118
TOM BONI
Naturally.
TIM BONT
The details do not need to be
worked out until the moment comes.
for calling management tenders.
FRANK
That’s understood. Some time ago
I spoke to Davy Cato, who
indicated that he might be
transferring to the Boni Budget as
CEO and Chairman -- is that, uh --
TOM BONI
Definitely in the pipeline, Frank,
but not yet a done deal. It
depends on whether or not Boni
Budget could obtain the city’s
business as a monopoly. You might
say that this decision rests on
your own administration’s
decision.
INT. ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL — EVENING 119
CLOSE UP IN THE CONFESSIONAL
FRANK
Dear Lord, dear, sweet Jesus,
never let her find out. Please, I
beg! Mass and communion every
morning of my life, if you keep my
Julia from finding out that I am
not what she believes. And
confession every afternoon. I’11l
be shriven of my sins. I do moat
sincerely repent, I have the
comfort of knowing that, in
sinning, I have saved my city from
the ignominy of default.
EXT. ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL - EVENING 120
(CONTTNIUED }
144.
120
121
122
123
CONTINUED : 120
LONG SHOT
Frank steps out of the Cathedral, his bodyguards join him,
escort him to his waiting car, preceded by unmarked police
cars.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT 121
DREAM MONTAGE - FRANK’S DREAM
He stands upright in his bed, the chill wind blows in the
hooting of the owl and cause him to shiver. He pulls the
sheets up around his shoulders, and looks out toward silver
pastures looking at the wonderful moon.
EXT. SKY -— NIGHT 122
FRANK’S POV:
The hand forms out of clouds and engulfs his moon.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT 123
He wakes up. Terry has started to take on the tones of a
martyr.
TERRY
You are going to consult Ablo in
the Brooklyn tunnels, and that’s
that.
FRANK
(whispered)
Go back to sleep. Just go back to
sleep. I am still my own man.
ORACLE’S VOICE
Liar, Frank Cicero, liar! The
Boni twins have bought you as a
present for Nush Berman and Meade
Milo.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
145.
124
125
INT. CLUB CLAUDE - DAY 124
The foyer is now a waiting room with a dozen comfortable
chairs, filled with immigrants of all origins.
Anton Smith opens the Club Claude door like a dental nurse.
ANTON
Mr. Singh?
INT. CLAUDE’S OFFICE - DAY 125
The Sikh is ushered into Claude’s presence, to a big leather
chair in front of Claude’s imposing desk and offered an
expensive cigar.
CLAUDE
You must bury your differences
with those other peoples who at
home in your own lands are
traditional enemies. Here, in
America, in New York City, they
Cannot be your enemies! They must
become your allies, you and they
must think like one people -- the
immigrants. My aunt is the
governor of this state, my uncle
is richer and more powerful than a
thousand maharajahs, my family’s
connections in this nation’s
capital are legion. I can help
the Sikhs attain their objectives —
- easier credit lines for business
loans, better and cheaper housing,
the finest medical treatment and
facilities, safe and excellent
schools, a life free of
persecution, racial and religious
wars and profound unrest. But I
cannot help you achieve these
things without a joining of all
the immigrant peoples under one
banner. Mine.
Mr Singh, who does not smoke cigars, puts his head down and
rises to bow.
CLAUDE
Economic clout is a consequence of
political clout.
(CONTTNITED )
146.
125
CONTINUED : 125
MR. SINGH
Sahib Claude, what you say is
common sense. We will cooperate
with all our hearts.
Claude puts his arm around the massive Sikh’s shoulder and
escorts him to the door, opens it.
CLAUDE
Thank you, Mr. Singh. How’s the
spice store going?
MR. SINGH
Very well, Sahib Claude, very
well.
He leaves, Claude shuts the door.
ANTON
Another one?
CLAUDE
In a minute. I’m on a coffee
break.
He makes himself an espresso.
CLAUDE
It’s going like a dream. Tarik, I
have a job for you.
TARIK
Sure, anything.
Claude pulls two small packets out of a safe.
CLAUDE
A gift for Mullah Ahmed, and for
Papa Boneme, the Haitian. Take my
car and run them to the Bronx,
would you.
Delighted, Tarik takes the keys and the two packets (no
doubt of cash) and bounds out of the room thrilled to drive
the expensive car.
ANTON
What did you do that for?
(CONTTNUED }
147.
125
CONTINUED :
125
CLAUDE
Because my next client is one I’ve
been angling for since I realized
just how many Egyptians there are
around Astoria, and I don’t want
Tarik to know that I‘m building a
secret regime of Egyptian hoods.
So you don’t say a word, okay?
ANTON
I‘m dumb.
CLAUDE
That’s true. Bring in Mr.
Mohammed Aziz, junior partner.
MOHAMMED AZIZ is ideal for Claude’s purpose. As feral as he
is handsome, as ruthless as he is passionate, he burns to
make his mark, if possible with Egyptians, but if that’s not
possible, for himself alone.
CLAUDE
I will need a cadre of thirty men
to accompany me and Colonel Smith
here, on my roads. And I’ve
decided that the cadre should be
Wahbey Muslims, because you are
such fierce street warriors.
AZIZ
The Haitians won’t like that.
CLAUDE
The Haitians won't know. Not all
the immigrant leaders quite trust
me, Aziz, which is such a pity!
They seem to prefer an old man
named Nush Berman and his Negro
compadre, Meade Milo.
AZIZ
I understand completely, Ya
Sayyed.
CLAUDE
Can you ride a Harley Davidson?
AZIZ
I wish.
(CONT TNURED }
148.
125
126
CONTINUED : 125
CLAUDE
Then your wish will come true,
Major Aziz. Purple Harleys,
purple leather jackets. Purple...
(dreamily)
Is the prerogative of royalty.
And of course, big purple helmets.
The kind you can’t see a face
through. Not all of Ya Sayyed’s
outings can be -- ah -- public.
ANTON
(eagerly)
With a death's head on the
jackets!
CLAUDE
Absolutely not, Anton. Our color
will proclaim us a cadre, but we
ride unmarked.
EXT. NUSH BERMAN’S BREEZEWAY - DAY 126
Nush and Meade sit in the cool, airy breezeway Nush had
built onto his prosperous but not ostentatious house, its
walls black-tinted insect screening which permit the full
glory of the view across Jamaica Bay. In the far distance,
the winking lights of aircraft rising higher or sinking
lower, the red flash of beacons, the faint thunder of jet
engines.
NUSH
It’s worked out just great. We
get the casino building contracts,
later on we get the casino. Did
the Mayor send his ferrets to rat
through the Concord Foundation
records?
MEADE
Very industrious ferrets too, but
the burrows were empty. Not even
a whiff of prey.
(pause)
How does the appointment of Davy
Cato affect us?
NUSH
It won’t. Yeah, Tim and Tom are
stepping down from joint CEOs and
joint chairmen, but they’ve uh...
(MORE )
(CONT TNUED \
149.
126
CONTINUED :
126
NUSH (cont'd)
gotta get the lingo right...
reserved the right to administer
certain accounts and activities
personally. One big, happy
family.
MEADE
Indeed.
NUSH
Something on your mind, Meade?
MEADE
You remember old man Hamilton’s
other nephew, Claude?
NUSH
Yeah, from the model room and the
wedding. Rhyming, yet! He was
nastier at the wedding.
MEADE
It was Claude Hamilton took that
video of Serge Catiline with the
girl.
NUSH
(sits up straight)
No!
MEADE
Yes, I heard it from Foster, who
pumped old man Hamilton‘s new wife
over lunch. Well, why else would
Foster bother?
NUSH
You mean Gene Hamilton knows. And
okays it?
MEADE
No, It’s Wow Hamilton’s private
theory. She’d love to see the guy
in jail. And according to her,
Claude wants the guy in jail too.
His own first cousin. Makes what
we do look purer than the driven
snow, huh?
NUSH
Then there’s more to kid Claude
than meets the eye.
(CONTTNIUEN }
150.
126
CONTINUED :
126
MEADE
That’s my point, Nush. Until
‘recently I had him down as a
fruitcake plain and simple, but
now I’ve changed my mind. Claude
is very, very dangerous.
NUSH
Because of what Foster told you.
MEADE
No, that was just confirmation.
Claude Hamilton is taking control
of the city’s foreigners. The
immigrants.
NUSH
(stammering)
But he - he’s a-- kid! Oh sure, a
nasty one, but -- no, I don’t
believe it. I can’t believe it.
MEADE
The nasty kid is a bomb going off
in our faces, Nush. I tell you,
he’s wooing the immigrant vote
wholesale! He lends them money,
he speaks their languages, he
doles out sympathy and cigars.
He’s sure sold himself to them --
they worship him like a god.
NUSH
What do you mean, Meade, he talks
their lingos?
MEADE
He’s some kind of weird genius, he
can talk everything. Also, he’s
gotten himself adopted as a son by
your friend Papa Boneme of the
Haitians. You’ve lost them.
NUSH
A Hamilton playing kissy-face with
Haitians?
MEADE
And Jamaicans, Turks, Hispanics,
Pakistanis, Kurds...
Nush Berman clutches his chest.
(CONTTNUED }
151.
152.
126 CONTINUED : 126
NUSH
Meade! My medicine.
Meade ministers to Nush tenderly, waiting until the grey
skin turns pink again.
NUSH
Is Claude Hamilton totally nuts?
MEADE
Not certifiable, you can bet on
that. He is one brilliant
operator, Nush -- brilliant! He’s
stealing over votes by the tens of
thousands, and if it continues,
we'll never get Frank Cicero back
as mayor.
NUSH
We've gotta, Meade! Otherwise we
lose the casino.
MEADE
Indeed.
Nush struggles to his feet.
NUSH
I think we’d better arrange a meet
with Mr. Claude Hamilton and see
how good he speaks Yiddish.
MEADE
I‘l1l set it up, but where?
NUSH
In Brooklyn. In the old Tammany
Temple.
MEADE
Oh, excellent. Very quiet after
dark. No one to hear the
gunshots.
Meade takes Nush’s hand.
MEADE
How about we take the pickup and
try out those new night glasses at
Baywater Point Park?
{CONT TNUED }
126
127
128
CONTINUED : 126
NUSH
Great!
(then he signed,
drooped)
A rich kid, already! Just when I
was thinking our troubles were
over.
MEADE
Our troubles are over. That’s a
promise.
Meade helps Nush into a jacket, and fits a cap on his head.
INT. GRACIE MANSION LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 127
Al Morgenthau stands behind Mayor Cicero, flipping pages of
the municipal budget.
FRANK
Damn that Catiline, resisting the
better interests of the city. We
need things now! Not to dream
about a world we'll never live to
see.
Rebecca Silver enters with a grave expression on her face,
whispers to the Mayor.
REBECCA
Mr. Nush Berman would like a
minute of your time.
INT. BANQUET ROOM ~- NIGHT 128
Large and empty. Nush understands that Frank didn’t want
them in the private part of the residence. He deferentially
takes a seat by an uncovered banquet table. Meade remains
standing.
NUSH
Claude Hamilton is taking control
of the foreigners. I know he’s a
friend of your daughter so I
wanted to come to you first --
FRANK
What?
(CONTTNITED }
153.
128
129
130
CONTINUED : 128
NUSH
Just what I said.
MEADE
He's going around every ethnic
party group from Haitian to
Chinese to Greek, wooing their
votes -- and he’s succeeding.
FRANK
He’s no friend of Julia’s, merely
an acquaintance, a bad influence.
But nothing to fear politically.
(cautiously)
Is she involved? Is that why
you’re here?
(pause)
You know how to handle it, Nush --
talk to him, make a deal --
politics as usual, I don’t need to
know.
NUSH
Okay. Just wanted to check with
you first because... You know...
Julia.
He smiles like a Grandpa to Frank -- it is chilling.
EXT. TAMMANY EXCHANGE - DAY 129
A convoy of Cadillacs, Lincolns, luxury Jeeps and limos
arrive at the old exchange building, a crumbling, round
stone structure that looks like the Pantheon. Meade Milo's
limo is already there, parked; the area appears deserted.
Nush gets out of his Cadillac as several old party machine
bosses also disembark, along with their bodyguards.
INT. TAMMANY EXCHANGE - DAY 130
The building is abandoned. Light filters through the big
round hole in the center of the dome high above. There is
rubble on the stone floor, dead leaves. It is utterly
Silent. Nush is frowning, edgy, annoyed.
NUSH
Where is he?
(CONTTNITED \
154.
130
131
132
133
CONTINUED : 130
Suddenly, there is a huge NOISE: the bolt on the bronze
doors being shot. Someone laughs insanely from upwards.
‘The men on the floor stare up to the dome and its open
center.
VIEW UP TO THE DOME
A ring of men in silhouette peer down. Claude and his
cohorts. Then the dome starts to cave in, great chunks of
concrete scream down on the old party bosses.
NEW VIEW
Meade pulls his gun, runs to the locked door. The old
bosses scattering, to find no shelter from the great pieces
of stone, brick and mortar crashing down on them. Meade
looks up.
WHAT HE SEES:
Claude and his immigrants wielding sledgehammers, breaking
the dome apart.
Meade scrambles to a wall, where he huddles as the air rains
missiles. He tries to get a shot at Claude, but the masonry
stops falling, and slowly amid clinks and clunks, the air
full of dust, the noise stops. Meade fights his way through
a collapsed wall as the sound of many Harley Davidsons
thunder away down the deserted street.
EXT. STREET - NIGHT 131
Newspaper abandoned on pavement, the headline: “LABOR
BOSSES CRUSHED TO DEATH IN COLLAPSED BUILDING." Some boots
walk on it, a hand reaches down, picks it up to read. We
HEAR the insane laugh and REVEAL a delighted Claude.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. CITY HALL — DAY 132
Julia hops out of a squad car, and runs into City Hall.
INT. CITY HALL RECEPTION AREA - DAY 133
Julia breezes through, face alight, a piece of paper in one
hand. Everybody greets her affectionately, and she blows
them kisses as she goes into her father's office.
155.
134
INT. MAYOR'S OFFICE ~— DAY 134
He is alone, working at his desk stacked with piles of
paper. When he sees her, his eyes light up; she stands
before him, hopping excitedly from one foot to the other.
JULIA
Dad! Look, I have proof!
Frank moves to her, kissing her affectionately. She looks
so wonderful his day has improved.
FRANK
What is it, Julia?
JULIA
Proof that little Vesta
Sweetwater's actually 27 years
old!
Frank's face changes dramatically.
FRANK
(pause )
Sit down, Julia.
JULIA
I figured it out, I researched it,
and I discovered the evidence.
You said I had no future as a
detective, but you were actually
wrong. You can't call Serge a
pervert or child rapist, he isn't.
FRANK
Stop hopping and sit down.
She does. He manages a smile.
JULIA
(calmly )
The older sister wasn’t who died,
the younger sister died. Vesta is
really Anne Marie; her mother
switched their identities so she’d
get younger parts. Look, here
they both are in The Sound of
Music.
She spreads the playbill for him. Frank doesn’t look.
(CONTTNIUED 1
156.
134
CONTINUED : 134
FRANK
It makes me very happy that you
came to me ahead of Catiline. A
father matters, huh?
JULIA
Always Daddy, always.
FRANK
Exactly who else knows?
JULIA
No one, yet. Except Vesta and her
Mom.
FRANK
You're in a spot, I must say.
Exonerate your boss and you ruin
the career of a wonderful symbol
to half this entire country.
JULIA
Oh, come on, Dad! Vesta's a
fraud. Serge is innocent.
FRANK
(unable to restrain
himself)
Catiline is the guiltiest man
unhanged. The enemy of tradition,
of the old ways, of decent people.
JULIA
But this is the real birth
certificate. It exonerates him!
He snatches it and tears it up. Julia, aghast, backs up and
stares.
JULIA
I can get another one.
FRANK
Don't.
He is asking her to choose between them. She leaves without
a word. He calls after her.
FRANK
Julia? Julia!
(CONTTNURD \
157.
134
135
136
CONTINUED : 134
VIEW OUTSIDE THE MAYOR'S OFFICE
She stands outside, tears streaming down her face.
JULIA
Oh, Daddy.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
EXT. CITY - MORNING 135
MUSIC UP. Winter. A light snow is beginning to fall.
WIDE VIEWS -- the great towers of glass and steel; the
financial institutes, the palaces of power and influence.
~The city is turning into ICE.
EXT. BERMAN SQUARE - DAY 136
The sky is grey, the wind chill. Dead leaves swirl and
eddy. A bronze statue of Nush Berman has just been unveiled
by Mayor Cicero to APPLAUSE. Birds are already shitting on
it.
Meade and his wife, Foster, are there; Meade is deeply moved
by the honor afforded his mentor by the city. Claude is
also present, with Anton, Josaphat Boneme, and Mohammed
Aziz. Those who killed Nush.
As the assemblage, including the press, depart, Frank moves
to Meade, Nush's heir.
FRANK
My heart goes out to you, Meade.
I know what Nush meant to you -- a
father.
(nodding respectfully)
Mrs. Milo.
MEADE
Thank you, Mayor Cicero.
The two of them are beginning to get along well together.
FRANK
Please, call me Frank. A terrible
accident -- terrible!
(MORE)
(CONTTNUED }
158.
136
CONTINUED : 136
FRANK (cont'd)
That building had been condemned
forever, it should've already come
down.
MEADE
(eyeing Claude)
I don‘t disagree.
FRANK
I want to work with you, Meade.
Together we can make our city a
better, safer place.
Incensed at the Mayor talking intimately to Meade, Claude
begins to circle around them, trying to hear. Frank
whispers to Meade:
FRANK
The time has come to clean up the
boroughs -- dead men on snow
removal payrolls, parking ticket
fixes, the kickbacks -- padded
contracts --
Suddenly, Claude yells and jumps onto the Nush statue
plinth.
CLAUDE
Why are you talking to that has-
been? I'm the boss of bosses!
Meade is enraged, but has only a couple of bodyguards.
Claude has his thirty bully boys with him.
CLAUDE
You've got a year to run, Cicero,
then I'm in the catbird seat
because I've got the voters to
call the tune at City Hall.
(pointing to himself)
I, Claude Hamilton Boneme.
Those not belonging to Claude back away as from a maniac.
TRUCKING SHOT
Frank can't believe this display.
FRANK
My God.
(CONTTNUED )
159.
136
137
138
CONTINUED :
MEADE
(grimly)
You're looking at the rising sun.
No star, our Claude. No moon.
The sun. He's got the immigrants
pissing in each other's pockets
and the goods on everyone.
Troubled, Frank gets into his car, and is driven away.
CLOSE ON MEADE
Glaring at Claude.
EXT. ABANDONED BROOKLYN SUBWAY STATION - NIGHT
Several squad cars are there, along with the Mayor’s
towncar. Some police bodyguards waiting.
INT. ABANDONED SUBWAY TUNNEL - NIGHT
MUSIC UP. MOVING VIEW as city security officers move in
160.
136
137
138
front of Frank and Terry Cicero. There are some security
lights glowing.
FRANK
I feel like an idiot. In a subway
cave? This is unreal.
TERRY
All my friends swear by Ablo.
She's a mystic psychic.
FRANK
Well, in ancient times I'd have
gone to an oracle. Imagine
consulting the Pythoness at
Delphi! Maybe Ablo is the modern
Pythoness.
TERRY
Frank! Ablo's not a snake!
FRANK
Forget it, Terry.
They arrive at a niche in the tunnel wall, so dim Frank can
see nothing inside it.
(CONTTNIIED }
138
CONTINUED : 138
TERRY
Kneel.
The VOICE when it comes is disembodied.
ABLO (0.S.)}
A malign influence is swallowing
your world. Your entitlements.
FRANK
Is the malign influence from one
of the very old families?
He strains to hear the very faint voice of Ablo, whom we
cannot see. The oracle cave of his nightmare.
ABLO (0.S.)
Yes.
(faintly)
Claude.
FRANK
(mishearing, to Terry)
Catiline, I told you.
ABLO (0.S.)
I see a great man, first among
equals.
FRANK
Me? Is it me?
ABLO (0.S.)
You will know the answer when
Saturn eats his children.
FRANK
The New Year?
ABLO (0.S.)
When Saturn eats time.
TERRY
(whispered)
What does that mean?
Frank is shocked and excited by the prophecy.
FRANK
First among equals. Me?
161.
139
140
141
142
143
162.
EXT. STREETS - NIGHT 139
The black Citroen goes to that neighborhood. It stops.
Serge gets out, and buys the flowers. Then returns to the
Citroen.
A DISTANCE AWAY:
Another car. Inside are Balin and Julia, tailing them. The
Citroen drives off and they follow stealthily.
EXT. LOFT BLDG. - NIGHT 140
Serge enters with the flowers, goes up the steps. A moment
elapses and we SEE Julia follow.
INT. CITROEN - NIGHT 141
Fundi makes himself comfortable in the Citroen, watching TV,
settling in for the night.
EXT. LOFT BLDG. ~ NIGHT 142
There’s a black cat whose spot is by the door. It looks
into Julia’s eyes.
JULIA
Easy, Kitty.
She slips into the bldg.
INT. LOFT BLDG. ~— NIGHT 143
Serge moving down the hallway; a man guards a door. He
rises and steps aside. Serge takes a key out of his pocket,
opens it and lets himself in. The door closes, the guard
waits standing.
PAN TO JULIA
Watching.
JULIA
(whispers)
Holy shit.
She quietly backs up.
144
145
EXT. LOFT BLDG. -— NIGHT 144
A HAND reaches out, picks up the cat, and brings it inside.
VIEW ON THE GUARD
The cat walks by.
GUARD
How’d you get in here.
He carries it out -- Julia stealthily moves to the door,
picks the lock and steps in silently.
INT. ROOM - NIGHT 145
VIEW ON SERGE
Steps out of the shadows and beholds:
MOVING VIEW
The floor with some scenic paint, brushes, tools, stage
flats into a perfect room. A WOMAN is sleeping, in a coma --
dressed in beautiful clothes that Serge has designed. Her
eyes are closed.
She has good shoes, her nails are perfect. She is sitting
in a chair with a beverage next to her. He approaches her.
The people who attend her back away as Serge approaches --
doing their last minute touch up. They remove the plastic
tubes to her nose. She is in a coma.
VIEW ON THE WOMAN
Beautiful in her perpetual sleep. Her eyes are closed; his
hands reach out for the lovely hair, and he begins to braid
it.
SERGE
I learned to braid hair when I was
littie. It was my way of being
close to those little girls that I
admired.
CLOSE ON THE BLOND BRAIDS
His fingers are nimble, expert at the task.
(CONT TNUED 3
163.
145
146
147
148
CONTINUED : 145
SERGE
-». those girls, beautiful like
‘you. If you never die, Lily, you
can never be reborn.
VIEW ON JULIA
JULIA
Oh, my God -- you’ve brought her
to life. You’re an artist --
you’re a creator --
She is so moved, she covers her face, and runs away. Serge
turns, horrified to see her there.
EXT. STREET - NIGHT 146
FULL SHOT
Julia hurries back to the car where Balin is waiting.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
EXT. CITY -—- MORNING 147
MUSIC UP. Winter. A light snow is beginning to fall.
WIDE VIEWS -- the great towers of glass and steel; the
financial institutes, the palaces of power and influence.
The city is turning into ICE.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE — MORNING 148
The beautiful emerging structures covered in sriow. Frost
and white powder everywhere. Serge Catiline walks
despondently, making his morning tour, striding along his
customary route. He stops, looks up.
WHAT HE SEES:
Wow is waiting, her Rolls nearby, exhaust producing white
vapor. She's standing in the cold with nothing over her
shoulders. She waits patiently, smoking a cigarette. She
obviously has been waiting for him.
wow
Serge.
(CONTTNUED
164.
148
149
CONTINUED : 148
SERGE
Where's your coat? You'll freeze.
Here.
He moves to her, taking off his coat, puts it over her
shoulders.
WOW
That's why I waited with no coat.
I knew you'd give me yours. And
it would be warm.
(snuggling in it)
It smells of you, sandalwood and
citrus, sweet, male memories.
She looks at him, clearly offering herself. Serge holds
her. Wow looks up into his eyes.
WOW (CONT'D)
Can't you see, I've lost to you, I
love you Serge, I've done what
I've done only because I love you,
and couldn't find any way to win
you. I love you as an artist, I
worship you as a genius, I want
you as a man.
VIEW INTO HER EYES, tears, passion for Serge.
WOW (CONT'D)
Take me, Serge, take my love, take
everything. I've done it for you.
Serge takes his arms from her. Looks directly into her
eyes, shakes his head sadly.
SERGE
Wow.
Then he walks past her without a word, leaving the coat with
her. She lets it drop down into the snow, and weeping gets
into her Rolls, which drives over it.
INT. CLOUD TOWER ~— MORNING 149
Serge stands looking at Julia. They don’t speak for a
while. The phone RINGS, but he doesn’t answer it.
JULIA
I understand now -- you keep all
the parts of your life separate.
(CONT TNUED )
165 eo
149
150
CONTINUED : 149
SERGE
No one must know. I can’t help
‘it.
He turns and answers the phone.
SERGE
(on phone)
Yes. No, the television is not
turned on. Why? All right.
He moves to the television set and turns it on; Julia steps
forward; their eyes widen at what they see.
SERGE
When did this happen?
They turn, and move toward the great triangular windows.
They see huge clouds of SMOKE surrounding the tower.
EXT. TWIN TOWERS WRECKAGE - DAY 150
A platform lowered by a crane down the face of the twisted
remnants of the Twin Towers.
MONTAGE: AFTERMATH OF THE DEVASTATION
Police and National Guard patrol the city; firehouses are
laden with flowers. Journalists from all over the world are
covering this historic event.
FADE OUT.
166.
151
152
153
154
155
167.
FADE IN:
TIME FORWARD MONTAGE: SIX YEARS FLY AWAY
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS - DAY 151
Time study sequence, they have been photographing the
progress of Megalopolis as a time-exposure, taking a few
frames each day, with “slates” showing the advancing dates.
Megalopolis has emerged miraculously; it will be done in a
few years, in time for the 2012 World’s Olympic Fair. We
get a sense of it as a real place. We follow Serge working,
bringing it to its next stages. It is exhilarating work.
INT. MODEL DWELLING - DAY 152
Julia and Serge walk through, the first citizens of a new
kind of home -- it's a beautiful, highly customizable,
imaginative use of space, with every convenience. Views,
suites, apartments, villas, pavilions, gardens, thousands of
them.
INT. CITY HALL - DAY 153
Some of Frank’s staff cut a cake, congratulating him on his
years of service about to be ended. He has all but been
swallowed up in a series of defending his long
administration from corruption charges. He is in the last
year of his extended term, and has held on tenaciously to
his role as the city’s saviour, the first man. Only
Catiline’s spectacular Megalopolis growing in front of
everyone’s eyes tarnishes his place in history.
EXT. THE CITY - NIGHT 154
Beautiful at night. A million lit windows we can SEE into.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - NIGHT 155
EXTREME FULL VIEW
The progress of the City of Tomorrow is astounding. The new
methods of construction combined with the magic of Megalon
have produced structures previously inconceivable.
(CONTTNIED \
155
156
CONTINUED : 155
The city of the future is emerging, covered in scaffolding,
veiled with dust curtains, but its radiance and desirability
are showing through.
FULL VIEW
Julia and Serge walk apart, like a couple surveying their
new dream house, only it is an entire city. Wandering among
the unfinished streets and plazas of the dream city, covered
in snow.
MOVING VIEW ON SERGE as he looks over the new city, peeking
down to the busy underpass below:
WHAT HE SEES: the existing New York streets pass one level
below.
MOVING VIEW ON JULIA stepping on and off the moving
sidewalks, like a little girl. She looks up:
WHAT SHE SEES: the skyway connecting the futuristic
buildings.
JULIA
It's more wonderful than I could
have ever hoped for.
Hundreds of feet up, a gigantic system of transparent
spheres are suspended by a few threadlike strings of
Megalon, masked by scaffolding. A group of familiar people
have been summoned and are assembled on a platform inside
this vast, empty space, some of them nervous at so much
insubstantiality.
INT. GREAT SATURN GLOBE STRUCTURE - NIGHT 156
Serge stands there, wind whipping through the structure, the
only one completely at ease. Through the transparent walls
we SEE GREAT VIEWS of the city. Present are Mayor Cicero,
Gene Hamilton and Wow, Davy Cato with Tim and Tom Boni, and
Meade Milo, now the major political power in the city and in
a life or death struggle with Claude and his legions of
immigrants.
GENE
Well, having gotten us here Serge,
say whatever it is you want to
say. I don't like it up here.
SERGE
I want to say that I've had it up
to here with all of you.
(MORE )
(CONTTNUED )
168.
156
CONTINUED :
SERGE (cont'd)
The opposition, the rumors, the
fair means or foul you've resorted
to, trying to stop Megalopolis
from going up, to crush me like
some ignominious beetle.
(walks around them)
You're all little men. Even you,
Uncle Gene. How do you like
hanging by a string? Even you,
cousin-by-marriage Wow. You're
here with the men, I call you a
man. You share the same values...
MOVING VIEW ON WOW
156
Defiant, but frightened -- is he going to spill the beans
about their old affair in front of her husband?
SERGE
--- vainglorious notions of your
importance, greed, unscrupulous, a
cold heart.
MOVING VIEW ON FRANK
SERGE
I don't suffer nightmares, don't
flinch and tremble at the sight of
bankers, labor bosses...
VIEW ON MEADE
SERGE
I don't profit from human misery,
I don't count the corpses I
bulldozed under landfill garbage,
I don't buy my wife jewels made of
tears and blood.
MOVING VIEW ON DAVY CATO, THE BONI BROTHERS AT HIS SIDE
SERGE
I am at ease with my morality, I
am not eaten by ambition. I don't
use debt as the secret to profits.
(walks past Gene)
I don't want power over every man
and woman and child on the face of
the earth, I don't give a damn
about the blueness of my blood, I
don't need to advertise the size
of my bank account -- or my prick.
(CONTTNURED )
169.
170.
156 CONTINUED : 156
MOVING VIEW ON GENE HAMILTON
GENE
(laughs)
Pretty colorful, Serge -- but you
should mind your mouth.
SERGE
Shut yours.
({contemptuously)
Banker. Debt~merchant.
Wow
Serge.
MOVING VIEW ON WOW, galvanized by this different Serge.
SERGE
I haven't needed to sell my body,
let alone my soul. I am not mired
down in numbers, statistics, the
most wretched and despicable
elements of my sexuality.
He steps back and looks at them all.
SERGE
You're here to witness the
creative artist build a world. To
understand the slenderness of the
threads that prop you up, hold you
together. For what is life,
except mortality? What is time-
except a finite series of moments?
What is consciousness, except a
sense of the soul inside?
Charles Eddington emerges from the elevator. Serge nods to
him.
SERGE
Take away the illusions that
suspend us here.
Horrified, the group members look down through the
transparent floor, look out through the transparent walls.
WHAT THEY SEE:
The scaffolding falling away with small dynamite charges so
that nothing at all holds the massive structure up. The
platform and globe shake and falter.
(CONTTNIED }
156
157
CONTINUED: 156
Meade moves in fear, Davy and the Boni brothers fall to the
floor, the Mayor drops to his knees, Gene totters, Claude
and Wow hold their ground. Then the globe rights itself,
stabilizes.
NEW VIEW
The entire massive structure is suspended by a delicate line
of the miraculous Megalon.
SERGE
Go now, the play is ended. We are
‘faded into air, into thin air. Go
now, and understand that the world
is changed forever.
FRANK
You're a poseur, Catiline.
VIEW ON JULIA
Ashamed of her father.
Gene regains his balance, looks utterly delighted.
GENE
This Megalon is a marvel! Good
boy, Serge. There are worse fates
than to own the world.
SERGE
Take this as a warning from all
artists and scientists. Leave the
future alone, leave Megalopolis
and me alone. No more tricks to
stop my funds and my work.
Without creative artists and
scientists, you're utterly
impotent.
The group, shaken, begins to walk a bridge to an opening in
the globe wall giving access to the moving rings outside.
NEW ANGLE
As they leave, stepping onto the moving sidewalk rings, we
SEE Julia hidden in a corner by the elevator, her eyes
always on her father, grouped with the villains of society.
She bows her head in shame.
EXT. MOVING SIDEWALK RINGS - NIGHT 157
(CONT TNITRD }
171.
157
CONTINUED : 157
MOVING VIEW
‘Serge crosses to the fastest moving outer ring, where he
looks at his creation, ecstatic. Claude appears at his
side.
CLAUDE
I'm disappointed, Cousin Serge.
That was great, I loved what you
said. But none of it to me.
SERGE
You weren't invited.
CLAUDE
Which pisses me off. Why can't
you understand that alongside me,
Uncle Gene, his floozy bride and
all the rest don't matter? I'm
your real enemy.
SERGE
You're your own enemy, Claude.
CLAUDE
I'm going to destroy you on your
precious Saturnalia festival. It
used to be New Year's Eve, I
remember.
SERGE
I'm shaking in my shoes.
CLAUDE
Don't take me so lightly.
SERGE
You're a simple pain in the ass.
CLAUDE
I'm the razor in your bed.
SERGE
Go do whatever it is you do,
Claude.
CLAUDE
When I rise to power in the city --
and I mean political power, which
is the only kind to have --
(CONT TNIED \
172.
157
158
173.
CONTINUED: . 157
SERGE
(leaving him)
Claude, you're still what you’ve
always been -- the family fool.
Serge disappeare. Josaphat watches Claude, not Serge, from
a little distance.
CLAUDE
(shouting after Serge)
I'm Godzilla, I'm Machiavelli, I'm
Che Guevara, I'm Jesus Christ
leading the multitudes!
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
INT. TIM BONI TOWER - DAY 158
CLOSE UP - DAVY CATO'S youthful yet austere face gazes out a
window up to the sky. He turns.
DAVY
Mrs. Hamilton!
Wow ia standing there. She's dressed beautifully in a
business suit, and today Mrs. Hamilton is all business.
wow
Congratulations -- so now you're
the new CEO of Boni Budget. I'm
impressed, Davy.
Cato is still intimidated by his former boss and mentor's
wife.
DAVY
Thank you, Mrs. Hamilton.
WOW
Wow. It's Wow, Davy.
Cato is staring at her as she strolls to the window to look
at the city. He follows. They stand together in
silhouette.
DAVY
The old city is falling apart.
(CONTTNIED )
158
CONTINUED : 158
WOW
I'm afraid Gene's not paying
attention to his bank these days.
He's... how shall I say?
Distracted. I guess by me. He
doesn't realize how weak he isa at
this moment -- a perfect target.
A pause. She is even more haughty than she is loose in
morals, and she knows how to make a man dance to her tune.
WoW
Shall we just go to bed and talk
later, or should we talk now and
then go to bed?
She takes his hands and inserts them up her skirt under the
garter belt that holds her seamed stocking and kisses him.
DAVY
(nervously)
You see things before they happen,
Wow. I always watched your
business analysis on TV.
WOW
He insisted on a prenuptial
agreement so I couldn't inherit
his bank. Therefore I'll just --
take it.
He kisses and worships her ever-reveaied alluring body.
DAVY
I love you, my baby, I’ve always
loved you, down to the deepest
part of me.
He kisses the hem of her skirt.
wow
You and I are a team, Davy.
DAVY
You know how much I appreciate
your strategic thinking. I do.
He lavishly kisses her breasts, her belly.
wow
Very nice, yes, so very nice. But
don't stop unless I tell you to.
(MORE }
(CONT TNITED }
174.
158
CONTINUED :
158
WOW (cont'd)
(affectionately
petting his head)
You suggest to Gene that you do a
friendly takeover of his bank.
He'll expect to be Chairman and
CEO, and will offer you Vice-
Chairman. You will refuse. Then
the friendly talks will fall
apart.
DAVY
What is it, in the end it's the
soul, the personality, not the
body that strikes that great
resounding GONG in my mind. I
WANT you. I want you. I WANT
YOU.
WOW
When Gene refuses, you will
execute a superbly planned hostile
takeover bid of Hamilton National.
DAVY
Give me everything and I will
worship you...
wow
You were his 'Davy,' his little
protege; so he'll naturally lash
back with an ill-conceived, badly
prepared counter-tender.
DAVY
You own me, my cock my balls my
everything.
wow
(near to coming)
And our strategy, being better
planned, will prevail, and you
will absorb Hamilton National and
you will be hailed as...
(coming)
-..the first man in the city.
(pause)
You can come now, Davy.
DAVY
I'll rule with the Boni and
(coming)
-.--you'll rule me!
(CONT TNUED }
175.
176 e
158 CONTINUED : 158
STEAM rises, obscuring them.
159 EXT. HAMILTON'S STEAM BATH - DAY 159
Gene is wrapped in towels, alongside some of his friends,
the groomsmen from his wedding. Davy Cato is welcomed to
their number.
GENE
How's the view from the Tim Boni
Tower, Davy?
DAVY
Better if I could look at a.
friend, Gene, not an enemy.
GENE
Aha! Snake oil, is it?
DAVY
I'm here to ask if you'd consider
a friendly tender from Boni
Budget.
Gene's eyes light up. He stands, is pleased to show how fit
he is, his physique.
GENE
Our two banks together would be a
powerhouse.
DAVY
Biggest in the world.
GENE
Name me Chairman and CEO, Davy.
Think that would fly? You can be
a vice chairman.
DAVY
(firmly)
My offer says I'd become CEO and
Chairman and you would retire.
GENE
Holy mackerel, are you serious?
DAVY
Is that an answer? Are you
turning down my friendly offer?
(CONTTNUED }
159
160
CONTINUED :
GENE
Put your mouth where your
loyaities are, Davy! This is
hostile, not friendly! Van
Nordland! Courtney!
159
Gene is furious, yelling. The two young AIDES run in.
GENE
We'll buy you, DAVY! Tender for
Boni Budget at market, boys.
ASSOCIATE
Sir, we'll have to prepare...
GENE
I, Eugene Hamilton, need to
prepare? I was banking when...
DAVY
Calm down, Gene -- please. You'll
have a stroke.
GENE
I, Eugene Hamilton, calm down?
He starts walking and raving -- his assistants try to calm
him down. They hustle him out through the steam, but he
tries to hang on.
INT. HAMILTON’S LIBRARY - DAY
160
In his library, Gene thinks it’s all a hilarious joke.
Laughs, the others are relieved and laugh along.
Gene’s
butler DONALD comes in. He straps a blood pressure gauge on
Gene's arm and starts pumping.
GENE
So? You're going to find it sky
high, so what?
DONALD
It puts you in danger.
GENE
Of what? Death? I laugh at
death.
DONALD
Worse.
(CONTTNUED )
177.
160
CONTINUED : 160
GENE
What is worse than death, I ask
you. Death is you're not rich
anymore, what is worse?
He rips the equipment from his arm. The aides are standing,
terrified of Gene in a trembling rage. Davy takes Gene's
arm, tries to calm him.
GENE
Stay away from me, you Benedict
Arnold!
DAVY
Gene, please!
Davy gives in and exits. The VIEW RISES to reveal WOW
watching at the door. She smiles.
GENE
(to his team)
What are you standing there for?
Start buying!
(his speech is
slurred)
Damn, I can't talk right.
MOVE IN CLOSE on Gene. He looks at Wow -- touches the
paralyzed part of his face.
GENE
(slurred)
Yes, buy Boni at market!
He slips to the floor. Wow rushes in, kneels by hin,
knocked off~balance by this development, unsure what to do.
WOW
I'll call an ambulance.
VIEW ON GENE
A wicked, conspiratorial smile crosses his face.
GENE
No! Get me to bed and call my own
doctor. I'll have no idiots
fiddling with me! Buy Boni stock,
buy!
FADE OUT:
(CONTTNITED }
178.
160
161
162
163
164
179 s
CONTINUED : 160
FADE IN:
EXTREME VIEW OF THE STARS AND OF THE COSMOS 161
past a dilapidated Soviet Space Station, beeping ite last.
We move CLOSER to the planet SATURN. A beautiful electric
sign reads: "SATURNALIA."
EXT. THE CITY - DAY 162
A news truck backs in to make its delivery, big posters of
the day's headline: ‘ABANDONED SOVIET SPACE STATION FALLING
TO EARTH! '
MUSIC UP. The Christmas decorations blur, are transformed
into Saturnalia decorations, as the VIEW suddenly reveals a
huge papier-mache figure of KING SATURN, or CHRONOS as he is
sometimes known, the god of time. He and his throne are
made of gold gilt and there are sundials and clocks of all
kinds.
FULL SHOT -- THE CITY IN SNOW
The excitement knifes through the winter air. Parades,
parties, black tie, evening gowns, dominoes, people in
vivid, outlandish costumes.
INT. TIM BONI TOWER - DAY 163
Davy Cato in the costume of ‘Marc Antony’ has called an
emergency meeting with his team of investment bankers and
lawyers. Many are wearing black tie and masks in
‘preparation for the formal masked parties they will be
attending. Some are in costumes.
LAWYER IN MASK
A lash-back tender.
DAVY
OK gentlemen, deliver.
The rooms springs into action, everyone knows what to do.
EXT. WALL STREET - DAY 164
The crowds have thickened and we SEE many costumes depicting
famous figures, lovers, characters as well as the basic
black "domino." The streets are already clogged with taxis.
(CONTTNUED \
164
165
166
CONTINUED : 164
LOW ANGLE ON PHONE BOOTH - A gray-haired takeover specialist
arrives with a portfolio of papers.
LAWYER
It's OK. I'm hard-wired. The
offer is final as of --
(checks his watch)
11:00 A.M., Eastern Standard Time.
Call the Exchange, the lobbying
firms in Washington.
VIEW on electric signs and huge screens: "“BONI BUDGET
HOSTILE TAKEOVER OF HAMILTON NATIONAL" “HAPPY SATURNALIA ONE
AND ALL."
EXT. THE CLOCK TOWER - DAY 165
The hands always moving.
EXT. STREETS UNDER THE GREAT BRIDGE ~- DAY 166
Claude is exhorting his legions. All Claude's field
officers, including Anton, the mysterious Egyptian Aziz;
Josaphat, Fernando, Mr. Singh, are gathered around him as he
appears for his supporters.
CLAUDE
A huge march on Megalopolis on
Catiline's so-called Saturnalia --
New Year's Eve. I want at least a
quarter million, understand?
AZIZ
Even more's possible, chief.
CLAUDE
You and your Egyptians will lead,
Mohammed -- we need numbers and
fierceness in front, and the
Haitians can't deliver those.
VIEW ON JOSAPHAT
Taken aback, angry.
CLAUDE
(in Spanish)
The march is a numbers game, so
I'1l back Mohammed with the Puerto
Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans...
(MORE)
(CONTTNIED }
180.
166
167
168
169
CONTINUED : 166
CLAUDE (cont'd)
(in French)
Josaphat, your people will bring
up the rear behind Asia, Africa,
Eastern Europe and the Middle
East.
Fernando is leering triumphantly at Josaphat -- there is no
love lost between the Haitians and the Dominicans. Josaphat
backs away slowly.
INT. HAITIAN BASEMENT - DAY 167
Josaphat and Papa Boneme. A picture of Claude is put on the
voodoo altar.
EXT. BRONX STREET - DUSK 168
Supporters gather from everywhere for Claude's great
triumphal march. Claude's goons kick-start their Harleys.
Josaphat approaches Claude -- hands him a map.
JOSAPHAT
We hear there might be some
trouble. I've changed the route.
Claude looks, suspiciously at first, then he hands it to
Anton.
CLAUDE
OK, this is better. Takes us
right to his Megalopolis.
In the lead, Claude and Anton pull out, the goons roaring in
their wake as the party heads for Manhattan. The VIEW
settles on Josaphat.
VIEW UPWARD to KING CHRONOS, winking and blinking as the
many clocks tick away.
CUT TO:
INT. HAITIAN BASEMENT - DUSK 169
We HEAR chanting, as the VIEW moves across the altar, the
tins and the bead-painted bottles, a mannequin's hand,
religious paintings, lit candles, and the photo of Claude,
into a CLOSE SHOT of Papa Boneme, and Tante Momo.
BONEME
His string is cut.
181.
170
171
172
173
174
EXT. STREETS DECORATED FOR HOLIDAYS - DUSK 170
Crowds everywhere, holiday shopping frantically. Groups of
store employees singing Christmas carols.
INT. TIM BONI TOWER - DUSK 171
LONG LENS
Davy Cato at his desk, on his private hard-wired phone. We
cannot HEAR what he is saying.
INT. ROLLS LIMO - DAY 172
Wow on her car cell phone, glass partition up. She is
speaking but we cannot HEAR her.
CUT TO:
INT. VAN - DAY 173
A MAN in the back of a van loaded with all sorts of
electronic apparatus. He is listening on headphones.
CUT TO:
INT. HAMILTON'S LIBRARY - DUSK 174
Gene is propped in an easy chair. A discarded meal tray
says he's eaten a good dinner. A white-clad nurse sits on a
chair reading a magazine. The butler, Donald, knocks and
enters, bearing a small tape recorder.
DONALD
The tape you commissioned, sir.
GENE
(slurred)
fake a break, Nurse.
The nurse smiles and leaves. Donald stays.
GENE
(less slurred)
Put it there, Donald, press the
button and leave me alone.
(CONTTNUED }
182.
174
175
176
183.
CONTINUED : 174
Donald does as he's told. Gene listens, face twisting, but
not from the stroke.
DAVY (0.S.)
Your breasts -- your legs in that
fantastic silk --
WoW (0.S.)
Your strong hands -- God, Davy, I
want you. You and Gene's bank.
MOVE IN on Gene listening.
GENE
(clearly)
There's no fool like an old, very
rich fool...
EXT. MEADE MILO’S HOUSE - DUSK 175
Meade's entire army is with him. A convoy of SUVs, a Hummer
in the middle, is parked on the street. Foster Milo comes
out carrying a small box. She approaches her husband. Some
maids bring coolers of refreshments for a lengthy trip. The
group is ready to pull out. Before Foster steps into the
Hummer, she looks at Meade.
FOSTER
Why all these bodyguards, Meade?
MEADE
To protect your jewelry and your
lovely person, my dear. The
police won't have time for people
like us tonight.
Meade puts on his traveling hat, takes his shooting stick
and steps into the limo like a squire going hunting.
EXT. THE BRONX - DUSK 176
Claude's triumph of Harleys are moving, but not fast.
CLOSE ON ANTON squinting ahead at the formerly deserted
street.
ANTON
Big party coming!
(CONTTNIUED }
176
CONTINUED : 176
CLAUDE
Huh?
He signals his goons; the group tightens and moves to the
curb.
VIEW ON CLAUDE looking ahead.
WHAT HE SEES: a group of vehicles approaching quickly.
ANTON
(using field glasses)
It's Meade Milo!
CLAUDE
What?
ANTON
Meade Milo and a big group of
SUVs. How strange.
CLAUDE
C'mon, what's that?
VIEW AHEAD - MEGALOPOLIS
There's some sort of a blockage up ahead, not far from the
futurist city looming over them. Several huge construction
vehicles have pulled in, forcing any traffic to slow. The
Hummer containing Meade and his wife is in the exact middle
of the procession, not letting any opposing traffic get
through. Claude scowls as they come by, then turns his head
to watch them pass.
NEW MOVING SHOT
Meade is craning his head out the window, staring back at
Claude fiercely.
MOVING SHOT
Claude turns his bike, rides back to the limo, passing the
cars in the rear filled with armed bodyguards. Claude's
biker goons swing around to follow his lead, but the cars in
the rear suddenly swing right across the whole road and the
sidewalk, cutting them off.
VIEW ON ANTON
Seeing the trap.
(CONTTNURD \
184.
176
CONTINUED : 176
ANTON
Keep going, Claude! Keep going!
CLAUDE
They've cut off my boys!
He comes to a stop, turns his bike back to Anton's
direction, where his boys are waiting on their bikes.
VIEW ON MEADE'S ENTOURAGE - The men in the last car are his
most trusted muscle, ex-button men.
As Claude now faces them, about to go back to his boys, one
produces a gun and fires at him casually.
VIEW ON CLAUDE
The bullet hits him high in the shoulder with such force
that he flies into the air and crashes, knees first, to the
ground. He lies on his back, blinking, hands clutching his
wound. His goons are huddled together, still on their
bikes, under the assault rifles of two dozen of Meade's men.
CLAUDE
(in pain)
Shit. Imagine running into Meade
Milo like that.
MEADE
Yes, imagine running into Meade
Milo.
SHADOWS loom. Meade is there with several men, looking at
him.
CLAUDE
You can't kill me, Meade, it's in
cold blood and out in the open.
MEADE
There won't be any witnesses. I
acted in self-defense. A total
freak accident I ran into you --
with my wife and all.
Meade rips off Claude's jacket and shirt to look at the
wound, obviously not serious. He sneers.
MEADE
Well, you won't die of that.
Stand him up.
(CONTTNIURED \
185.
186.
176 CONTINUED : 176
They stand Claude up, pulling his pants down and exposing
him.
CLAUDE
Meade! I'll split things with
you. Share power, split down the
middle.
MEADE
I'll give you a chance, more than
you gave Nush. Run for it.
Claude tries to run with his pants down. Meade takes his
time and uses his hunting rifle to shoot him.
His men open fire on Claude's goons, who die. Only Anton
manages to get his bike past a SUV, and takes off down the
road, bullets flying after him.
VIEW ON CLAUDE
Naked except for his boots, lying on the ground in the snow.
But his eyes are not fixed on Meade or his men, but on a
small roadside altar opposite the road.
WHAT HE SEES:
A amall voodoo altar, its base littered with bunches of
flowers, candles, a saucer of milk, a few eggs, a snake.
The sacred snake’s tongue flicks in and out; its eyes never
blink.
VIEW ON CLAUDE
Dying, still staring.
VIEW ON THE ALTAR
The snake staring back.
VIEW ON CLAUDE
‘Trying to get up.
CLAUDE
Fuck everything.
He falls to the ground, dead.
177
178
179
180
EXT. RIVERSIDE DRIVE - NIGHT 177
The elements of a West Indian carnival celebration coupled
with the outrage of having their hero slain have built the
crowd to extraordinary proportions. Thousands of
immigrants, many of them in costumes, some with improvised
black armbands are shaking their fists and chanting Claude's
name.
INT. CITY HALL MEETING ROOM - NIGHT 178
An emergency meeting is being held. Mayor Cicero, in black
tie minus his jacket, is wearing a bullet-proof vest and a
riot helmet, visor up.
FRANK
(to Hart)
Call out the guard, militia. Men
have been murdered on the streets,
restless crowds are everywhere.
What more to you need?
HART
The rule of law, your honor.
INT. LILY'S ROOM - NIGHT 179
SLOW MOVING VIEW TO LILY
Peaceful and beautiful in her eternal coma. She looks
forever young. Lily takes a breath, gasps one last word
before she dies.
LILY
ee. Serge.
The life monitors are stilled, the heartbeat stopped. She
is dead -- her care-givers weep. MUSIC BEGINS.
EXT. METROPOLITAN MUSEUM - NIGHT 180
The figure of SATURN is carried closer to the museum, its
final destination. It is snowing harder now. The people in
this part of the city are still in a fun-loving Saturnalia
mood -- the more savage elements having not yet arrived.
(CONTTNITED )
187.
180
181
188.
CONTINUED: 180
FRANK (V.0O.)
Then Saturn, from whose throne
time fell....
VIEW ON SERGE
He is dressed in black, with a mask. He carries his gold
pocket watch, stopping and starting THE PROCESS of his own
consciousness.
FRANK (V.O.)
.».- passing thereafter into
oblivion and forgetfulness.
People in their various costumes pass through security at
the doors, showing their invitations.
INT. MUSEUM LOBBY - NIGHT 181
Hundreds of well-to-do congregate in the lobby approaching
the sumptuous FEAST of cracked crab, lobster and every sort
of seafood delicacy. Their behavior is heightened by the
anonymity of the traditional masks and costumes. This is a
Hamilton National company party. Some look up at the
beeping sound coming from above.
WHAT THEY SEE:
A beautifully flowered rendition of the SOVIET SPACE STATION
that threatens the city, having become a symbol of this
year's Saturnalia.
VIEW ON EGYPTIAN TOMBS
Everyone is making a fuss over Gene Hamilton in a masked
‘Robin Hood' outfit coming to the party, albeit ina
wheelchair, even after his now well-publicized stroke. He
is with Wow, looking ravishing as ‘Cleopatra.’ Gene is
trying to be his old jovial self, but is clearly
incapacitated by the stroke.
She wheels the wheelchair in front of a mirror. He likes
the way he looks, likes the bow and arrow.
GENE
(slurred)
Alright, bring those people over.
She gestures, and a group of terrified Hamilton National
executives and lawyers approach, also dressed appropriately
for the carnival.
(CONTTNIUED )
181
182
183
CONTINUED : 181
GENE
Happy Holidays. You're all fired.
They are horrified.
GENE
Can't you take a joke?
They relax, but only slightly.
LAWYER
They've delivered; notified the
SEC, and have advance people
already in Delaware.
BANKER
They're bidding up our stock.
Gene lets out a guffaw, and weakly tries to shoot an arrow.
It's a real arrow and sticks in the wall.
INT. SATURNALIA PARTY ~- NIGHT 182
Serge feels ill and tries to make his way out of a party,
going down the back stairs with a red-haired girl who
promised him, what? He doesn't remember, soon she has
disappeared and he re-emerges from a janitorial entrance
amid the snow-covered garbage cans of the building. He
opens the door.
SERGE
Never before did it occur to me
that the ground I was standing on,
the ground... could give way...
EXT. CITY IN SNOW - NIGHT 183
Hosts of snow flakes fly against Serge's face, against his
eyelids, overflow his eyes and make seeing as difficult as
it is now impossible for the dazzling effect of all that
whiteness, and the veiling of his field of vision, so that
his sense of sight is almost put out of action.
SERGE
-..- Could literally break down,
creating a chaos that would last
as long as it took before
rpacaetaed new came along and saved
t.
(CONTTNIURD 1
189.
183
184
185
190.
CONTINUED : 183
He edges uncertainly on this Harlem street. It is
nothingness into which he looks when he forces himself to do
so. Only at intervals do ghostly-seeming forms from the
world of reality loom up before him -- a stranger, a group
of boys, even the pale silhouette of the building he had
lately passed. He is near 147th Street and Broadway, but
can't be sure.
EXT. HAMILTON GRANGE - NIGHT 184
Serge stops, knocks the snow off a plaque affixed to the
dirty clapboards of a dilapidated two-and-a-half story
house. The snow removed, the plaque reads: "Hamilton
Grange. The home of Alexander Hamilton, 1757 AB AM LLM
1804. Statesman. Soldier administrator lawyer. Captain.
Lt. Col. Staff of General Washington. Major General..."
He removes more snow. “He built this house in 1802.”
Serge rings the bell, as the cold wind howls. Looks up at
the now squalid memento of one of the most illustrious of
‘our nation's founders. A light goes out inside and a black
man wearing butler's apron named RAWLEIGH, with a well-worn
overcoat peeks out from the locked door.
RAWLEIGH
The Grange is closed; what are you
doing here this time of night and
in this weather?
SERGE
This is the home of Alexander
Hamilton here in Harlem?
RAWLEIGH
This is the General's home.
SERGE
Can't find my way in this snow,
May I come in?
INT. HAMILTON GRANGE - NIGHT 185
The Grange is a wreck, too little funds, certainly compared
to Monticello or Mount Vernon. Rawleigh leads Serge
carefully with his lantern, as the electricity has gone out.
RAWLEIGH
Be careful walking around here.
Sign the register.
(CONTTNUED }
185
186
CONTINUED: 185
Rawleigh lights a candle and leaves it near the register,
which has very few signatures.
RAWLEIGH
The loose boards pop up as fast as
I nail them down. The old wood
don't hold the nails like it used
to.
Rawleigh points out the snow-covered window.
RAWLEIGH
In the spring I throw a bit of
seed around. The General likes
laurel. And honeysuckle. It was
the honeysuckle that started all
the trouble with Aaron Burr, you
know.
VIEW MOVES CLOSER
The room is bare of furniture, and dominated by the marble
portrait of the General done from life by Giuseppe Ceracchi.
The head has a classical character that suggests one of the
Caesars.
EXT. CITY STREET - NIGHT 186
Serge running through the snow. Dazed and intemperate,
giddy, trembling with excitement.
Serge falling, rolling in the snow. He feels for his watch;
his numbed fingers can scarcely draw it from his pocket.
INSERT ON THE WATCH
His gold watch, with the monogram on the lid, ticking
faithfully away in this lonely waste, Serge Catiline's own
heart. Serge's reflection in it as it ticks.
WHAT HE SEES:
Things begin to speed up; hours become seconds, clouds rush
by as day become hours; months become weeks.
Time accelerates, completing the construction, and clouds
part to reveal the finished Megalopolis shining through the
snowstorm. Towers grown from Megalon into vertical
greenhouses arranged around the neighborhoods; three grand
festival areas, and one large area with the enormous Saturn
sphere.
191.
187
INT. MUSEUM HALLS - NIGHT 187
Serge moves through the crowds at the party, stopping,
starting and reversing TIME at will -- past halls of the
bones of great dinosaurs; and finds himself in the Egyptian
room of the GREAT TEMPLE.
VIEW ON SERGE
Lost in the insides of a pyramid. He turns. A YOUNG WOMAN
sees him, and then disappears. He follows.
WHAT HE SEES:
The girl. Standing in the temple.
SERGE
Who are you? Are you a vision?
She steps back into the shadows, and moves her hand that he
should follow. Serge moves deeper into the pyramid.
SERGE
Is it... Lily? Have you died?
LILY
For a moment.
He loses her and finds himself lost in the pyramid.
SERGE
Where are we?
The girl moves closer to THE VIEW, looking back to a
bewildered Serge. It is Lily, having come back.
SERGE
Where are we going?
LILY
I am an image born of your own
soul.
She moves CLOSER to him. He presses the stop and reset
button of his watch, but it doesn't stop her. He falls to
his knees, and clasps her around her legs, kissing the hem
of her dress passionately, weeping.
(CONTTNITED }
192
187
193.
CONTINUED : 187
SERGE
No, the ache in my heart is too
painful. Can I never stop this --
thinking...
Now into another room, it is Serge's POV as he moves
through, acknowledging the maskers. A little, well-turned
one seems to be flirting.
Serge takes a drink and sits down. No one talks to him, but
there is a solitary domino, sitting by herself. Serge
offers his drink to her and she raises one to him. They
drink. His hand reaches over to her, clasps her perfect
hand, tapered and graceful and small. She looks up at hin,
and then turns, reaches out and puts her arm around his
neck.
She tilts her head. We MOVE CLOSER, kiss her. Her hand
brushes away her mask.
It is Julia. She smiles and comes back for another kiss.
Their hands feel for each other's as if to see if they were
real. He kisses her neck, her throat, her ears, the insides
of her lips. Not simply sensational, but like an explosion.
Her arms thrown up in the air.
SERGE paralyzed; in a SURGE.
CHANTERS
Baron Samedi. Baron Samedi.
JULIA'S body intertwined with Serge's, her legs finding
their way into the shape of his legs. Like a serpent.
JULIA
Rest, baby.
SERGE
(struggling against
paralysis)
I... I... seeee.
JULIA
I love your skin. It smells like
cinnamon.
SERGE
I... I... seee.
JULIA
What do you see?
(CONTTNUED \
187
188
189
CONTINUED : 187
WHAT HE SEES:
A city in the clouds. A momentary illusion of the living
Megalopolis. It drifts by and disappears, but cannot be
forgotten.
EXT. THE STREETS — NIGHT 188
Restless crowds prowl through the night, breaking windows,
challenging police and threatening the peace.
MOMO
Baron Samedi. Baron Samedi.
INT. CITY HALL MEETING ROOM - NIGHT 189
City Hall is now an emergency riot headquarters. On either
side of Frank Cicero is a special police officer; others
ring the perimeter of the room, which contains Commissioner
Hart, attorneys, etc. Frank holds a book of city
regulations. Rebecca Silver enters the office excited and
out of breath.
REBECCA
Your honor. You are not going to
believe this, but that Soviet
space station is not coming down
over Labrador.
FRANK
It’s not?
REBECCA
Right now, it's going to hit
somewhere just off Montauk Point,
so help me God.
FRANK
(opens the book;
reads)
"At such time as the well-being
and order of the city is
threatened by unusual and dire
circumstances, the Mayor may call
upon the provisions..."
REBECCA
(interrupting)
What are the "unusual and dire
circumstances?"
(CONTTNITED \
194.
189
190
191
CONTINUED :
189
FRANK
You ask me what's ‘unusual and
dire?’ Catiline is overthrowing
the government, inciting people to
riot! A nuclear space station is
falling out of the sky! What more
do you need?
MORGENTHAU
If Catiline can be caught on
camera inciting riot, or gives an
inflammatory speech to the mob,
Frank, you've got him.
HART
We have to be real steady now,
Frank. This is no time to start
making history.
FRANK
(delusional)
Yes, history.
HART
Oh Frank, really. We don't have
enough police officers, we've just
fired them.
INT. MEDIA ROOM - NIGHT 190
The press are waiting, many cameras and microphones. The
Mayor enters looking confident and mounts the podium, his
team behind him. Rebecca hurries to him and speaks
confidentially.
REBECCA
Postpone it, your honor. We'd
better all watch what’s going on
at Megalopolis first. The
marchers are there, and Catiline's
going to speak.
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS SITE - NIGHT 191
Serge, in black tie and cape, is running like one possessed
toward a gleaming watchtower on the site perimeter. Julia,
in a beautiful gown, is following him.
(CONTTNITED \
195.
191
CONTINUED : 191
VIEW ON THE MOB
There is an angry Creole cry of support, joined by Spanish
and many tongues. At the front but in their midst is Anton,
carrying Claude's body.
NEW ANGLE
Someone produces a sheet of Megalon, and Anton transfers
Claude’s body to it, then it is raised high for everyone to
see. Screams, cries, shouting voices.
Suddenly a vast SCREEN of Megalon slides down. It
brightens, and there upon it is the IMAGE of Serge Catiline.
He appears also on TV van monitors.
SERGE
That's your future you're looking
at! Look at it!
He throws a switch, and the lights of Megalopolis come on --
a dream of luminescent loveliness. The mob, intent on
pushing the transparent Megalon fence over, stops to look in
awe.
SERGE
You've come to destroy this? To
tear down your own futures? To
sentence yourself to squalor and
poverty forever? Do you want
another city project that will be
a slum before you can blink?
Destroy Megalopolis and you
destroy the future!
The VIEW moves from the screen to Serge in the tower, Julia
out of camera range watching him in adoration.
SERGE
If you have the choice, tear down
the past, not the future! Tear
down debt, tear down the world of
ready-made slums, the ant heaps
the men who run the world shove
you into!
The mob ROARS; in the lights of Megalopolis, Serge looks.
WHAT HE SEES: the body of his cousin Claude held high, the
faces of Anton Smith and Mohammed Aziz, and behind then,
faces of thousands.
(CONT TNUEN 3
196.
191
192
193
194
CONTINUED : 191
SERGE
The future is our shining hope!
Destroy the past, the old ways --
INT. CITY HALL MEETING ROOM - NIGHT 192
VIEW ON Frank watching, smiling as Serge incriminates
himself on TV.
SERGE
(on TV)
-~ old and stale governments,
banking institutions that fasten
on you like leeches, suck you dry
to feed empires of no use to
anyone, even to those who run
them. Don’t you see -- debt
equals easy profits. Rescind all
debt!
VIEWS ON ALL THE TELEVISIONS OF THE CITY 193
The great Jumbotron at Times Square, the other giant screens
and smaller televisions, all showing the IMAGE of Serge, as
people are stopped, watching and listening.
SERGE
You have but one choice -- the
future! You have but one enemy --
the past! Don’t let it hold you
back!
EXT. FULL VIEW -— MEGALOPOLIS ~ NIGHT 194
People looking upwards.
WHAT THEY SEE:
There in the night sky, are what appear to be six shooting
stars, their glorious tails following, as though they
commemorate the end of something. A moment later, there is
a blinding light, coming from somewhere out at sea. Some
burning fragments fall to the city, like an impressive
fireworks show. People are awed in admiration.
CCONTTNUED }
197.
194
195
CONTINUED: 194
VIEW ON SKYSCRAPERS
Enormous Linnenbach shadows of millions of people
silhouetted against the buildings. The great city is not
destroyed, it is ILLUMINATED.
VIEW ON THE CROWDS
Hushed, witnessing this sacred, frozen moment. Then they
erupt. Anton Smith has a microphone and yells to the mob
that they have to destroy governmental authority. The
people swarm over the police cars, overturn them. The TV
units can't pick up what Anton is saying because of the huge
NOISE.
ANTON
City Hall! Let's burn him in City
Hall, brothers!
VIEW ON SERGE AND JULIA
Julia is terrified. She's down from the watchtower and
running to her car, parked inside Megalopolis.
INT. CITY HALL MEETING ROOM - NIGHT 195
Frank is with his team, now augmented by a National Guard
GENERAL. Frank is explaining to him:
FRANK
Those trapped partying in the open
have been escorted to shelter --
Central Park's been evacuated to
the east side --all west side
transit's been frozen temporarily -
- a curfew for those at home.
GENERAL
The on-duty troops are here, but
it's going to take hours to call
the rest up, Mr. Mayor.
REBECCA
The radio and TV stations are
broadcasting your orders non-stop,
your honor.
Frank is clearly dazed as he acts out his role in history.
Meade Milo comes in, immaculate, enjoying the new confidence
Frank has shown in him. He joins Commissioner Hart,
reporting to the Mayor.
(CONTTNITED \
198.
195
196
CONTINUED:
195
MEADE
Crazy Claude Hamilton attacked my
wife and I as we were leaving for
the country. His goons opened
fire on me, and Claude's dead. I
thought you ought to know, Frank,
that Claude was one of the mob's
leaders.
This news makes Frank look even more jubilant.
FRANK
That doesn't surprise me. His
cousin Serge is the mob's
mastermind. This time he's
publicly damned himself out of his
own mouth. Arrest Serge Catiline
now, please, gentlemen.
HART
The charge, Frank?
FRANK
For the moment, inciting mob
vielence. In the end, treason, I
trust.
HART
Don't get your hopes up.
Catiline’s a greased pig -- he's
wriggled out of murder, rape,
injunctions.
FRANK
He won't wiggle out of this.
(pauses, looks
suddenly uncertain)
He can't.
Meade motions to Frank to step outside into the hallway.
INT. HALLWAY -— NIGHT 196
Meade lights a cigarette.
MEADE
Catiline's like one of those
clowns you can't knock over,
Frank.
(CONTTNURD }
199.
196
197
CONTINUED : 196
FRANK
No, he's a phoenix rising from its
own ashes. Burn him, he rises. I
wish someone would scatter his
ashes so far and wide he'd never
be able te collect them to rise.
MEADE
(smiles quietly)
Scattering ashes is easy.
Provided there's no one around to
complain about the mess.
Frank is horrified. His eyes dwell on Meade's face, then
his gaze drops to the bulge in Meade's elegant tweed jacket.
FRANK
But... a ee
There’s some kind of disturbance inside, Frank turns and
goes. Meade puts out his cigarette.
INT. CITY HALL MEETING ROOM - NIGHT 197
Julia rushes to her father, followed by the various
commissioners.
FRANK
Julia! What is it?
JULIA
You have to leave now, all of you.
Hundreds of thousands of people
are coming to City Hall to burn
Claude Hamilton's body.
HART
Our police couldn't control the
mob at Megalopolis, here it will
be worse. The National Guard --
GENERAL
Oh, why the hell is Manhattan an
island? The few units I’ve
scraped up so far will just have
to do what they can.
JULIA
Please, Daddy -- go!
Everyone is evacuated down to the basement.
200.
198
199
200
201
202
203
EXT. CITY HALL - NIGHT 198
The mob has organized itself and marches to its destination.
They are chanting "Claude, Claude..." They sway back and
forth until the security guards are unable to hold them, and
they burst out as a major popular movement, literally
snatching the sheet of Megalon holding Claude out of the
pallbearers' arms. In one great assertive wave, the
chanting proletariat masses BREAK THROUGH the understaffed
police and crush into the seat of government, carrying the
body of Claude inside.
INT. CITY HALL BASEMENT - NIGHT 199
Frank and his entire government wait ‘to be evacuated from
the building. The moment comes, and they are led out by
police with powerful flashlights.
INT. CITY HALL SUBWAY - NIGHT 200
‘The Mayor, Julia, and his team are taken into a eerie secret
underground subway station, abandoned for many years, but
still pristine. It is lit only by the portable lights.
INT. CITY HALL - THE MAIN STAIRCASE - NIGHT 201
Arrton leads the people carrying Claude's body into City Hall
and up to the grand staircase, up to the cantilevered
landing, the very spot where the body of Abraham Lincoln lay
in state. They put down the sheet of Megalon. A few of the
mob, having pillaged florists' shops along the way, toss
flowers onto Claude's body.
INT. CITY HALL SUBWAY - NIGHT 202
A single train car comes, stops. Frank and his group get
on.
INT. SUBWAY CAR - NIGHT 203
Frank ia sitting at the front of the car when Julia boards.
He beckons her to sit with him. The car moves uptown.
201.
204
205
206
207
INT. CITY HALL - NIGHT 204
The crowd is starting to work itself into a rhythmic frenzy.
Some begin breaking up the furniture, chairs, aisles, desks
and construct the basis of a great bonfire, right under the
body of Claude. Someone douses it with gasoline, and the
staircase with Claude's body BURSTS into flame.
VIEW ON THE STATRCASE
Engulfed in fire, the body of Claude is surreal in
illumination.
EXT. CITY HALL - NIGHT 205
In flames. A mob surrounds it.
INT. SUBWAY TUNNEL - NIGHT 206
The ghostly subway car makes it alone through the subways.
INT. SUBWAY CAR - NIGHT 207
MUSIC UP. Frank sits alone with Julia, saying nothing as
the others wait at the extreme side of the car.
FRANK
Shouldn't we be like before?
Can't we? Can't we, Julia?
{he kisses -her)
You were right about Serge. I
don't know what's come over me.
All I cared about was how much I
hated him. I was wrong. Hard to
say to you, but wrong.
Julia's head turns, she stares at him.
FRANK
He's the way to the future. I
know that now. For the good of
all. We're not so very far apart.
I need to talk to him --
CLOSE ON JULIA
What she's been hoping for and despaired of.
(CONTTNIUED \
202.
207
CONTINUED : 207
FRANK
-- Yet I'm sure he's washed his
hands of me. Probably wouid
refuse to see me.
JULIA
He would see you if I asked him.
FRANK
Julia! You'd do that for me, even
after what I did to you?
Julia's answer is to hug him convulsively.
JULIA ,
I'd do anything for you, Daddy.
VIEW ON THE HUGGING JULIA AND FRANK
She kisses her father's brow, his hand on her cheek. Frank
kisses her hand then breaks the hug, looks at her, his eyes
glittering tears. A pause, then:
FRANK
I'll meet with Serge. Will you go
tell your mother everything's all
right? You know her -- the
phone's not enough.
JULIA
As soon as I've found Serge, I'll
go to Mom.
FRANK
Ask him to meet me at the great
model of the city. An appropriate
venue, don't you think?
JULIA
(smiles wanly)
Yes. I've always wanted to be the
daughter you would be proud of.
FRANK
Julia -- you're my jewel.
He kisses her. Then he turns his head and looks to where
Meade Milo sits at the far end of the car.
VIEW ON MEADE
Acknowledging.
203.
208
209
210
211
EXT. TIMES SQUARE -— NIGHT 208
Julia rushes up the subway exit, is mét by two patroiImen who
escort her to a squad car. Julia jumps in, and the car
drives off, lights flashing.
EXT. HAMILTON'S HOME - NIGHT 209
A limousine pulls up; Davy gets out. The door opens, and
‘Wow, ' still in her Cleopatra costume, has been waiting.
wow
He's been asking to see you. I
don't think he has much time.
DAVY
It's not like him to give in so-
easily.
Suddenly, she kisses Davy full on the lips.
INT. HAMILTON'S HALLWAY - NIGHT 210
Donald ushers them through. The house is hushed, the mood
is somber.
WOW
How is Gene, Donald?
DONALD
Very low, Madam. A sudden turn
for the worse. He's been asking
constantly to see you and Mr.
Cato.
INT. HAMILTON'S LIBRARY - NIGHT 211
They are quietly led into the private library. We HEAR the
sound of a TV broadcast about the frozen merger of their
banks.
VIEW ON GENE HAMILTON
The old man is propped up upon several pillows; frail and
helpless-—looking. Some sort of hospital apparatus holds him
in position, causing a bulge under the covers from his waist
down. He's wearing his Robin Hood hat with feather. He is
looking at the TV.
(CONTTNIED \
204.
211
CONTINUED : 211
VIEW ON THE TV
The burning City Hall and rioting.
GENE
Well, our dear old town, master of
the known world, is kaput.
Gene tries to turn his head to look at his former protege.
Davy bows his head; his old mentor is clearly dying.
GENE
(glances at the bulge
under his sheets)
What do you think of this boner
I've got? One look at her and I'm
up.
DAVY
(laughs respectfully)
Quite something, sir.
GENE
(weakly; nostalgic)
‘They used to say of me that the
only thing bigger than my bank
account was my prick.
wow
A family trait.
Gene's eyes do a slight take, as do Davy's.
GENE
(dying)
And now you're taking it all away
from me.
DAVY
I plan to carry on in your
example, fight for your ideals.
GENE
I never had ideals, Davy -- ideals
‘are for debtors. If not for...
this...
(his paralysis)
I could have out-spent you in the.
end. I just wasn't able to--
They cluster closer to hear his last words, like heirs at
the reading of a will.
(CONT TNIED }
205 es
211
212
CONTINUED : 211
The Hamilton fortune is immense, and now combined with
control of Boni Budget, Wow and Davy are powerful beyond
their dreams.
GENE
~- outlive you.
He flips the covers off, revealing the bulge to be a small
arrow. He reaches over to a bedside table and takes his
little bow. At first they think he's going to shoot the TV,
but he puts the arrow right through Davy's throat. Wow is
stunned, then realizes what is happening and rushes toward
the old man.
GENE
And Wow, you Wall Street slut --
this is your closing bell.
One arrow hits perfectly at her chest right between the
jeweled golden cups of her Cleopatra bra.
GENE
(calling out)
Bonaid!
Donald appears immediately. Gene turns back on the TV as he
pumps up the volume with his remote. It's perfectly clear
that he faked the stroke, and had no intention of dying, or
losing in a corporate takeover battle.
‘GENE
(tossing the bow)
Get rid of them. There'll be
plenty of dead on the streets
tonight. I'm going to leave my
entire fortune to the Megalopolis
Foundation! I'll be loved for
eternity.
The TV shows the rioting and crowds on the streets. The
bodies of Davy and Wow as Antony and Cleopatra lie on the
floor, siain by Gene's arrows.
EXT. TIMES SQUARE - NIGHT 212
Empty of revelers, but filling up with the wilder components
of the mob. They rush past the bodies of Antony and
Cleopatra.
206 es
213
214
215
216
EXT. CITROEN - NIGHT 213
It's snowing heavily now. Fundi expertly weaves his way
through the crowds, a portable flashing light on his roof.
The Citroen arrives at the exhibition hall where the meeting
with Julia's father is to take place. Serge steps out,
Julia stays in the car. He kisses her hand. Then turns to
Fundi.
SERGE
Take Julia home, Fundi. Then come
back for me.
Julia watches as Serge's tall, graceful figure walks away
from the car. Then there is nothing more to be seen for
swimming snowflakes.
JULIA
Fundi, wait. Don't go.
INT. ENORMOUS MODEL OF THE CITY - NIGHT 214
The area of catwalks over the model of the city is dark. No
one seems to be there. We HEAR Serge's footsteps as he
moves around the perimeter edge, walks out on a catwalk, and
stops, looking down.
WHAT HE SEES:
THE MODEL -- It is beautiful, the entire Megalopolis project
completed in miniature. Elevated roadways linking all
sections of the city, with speeding monocars and moving
walkways, elevators -- the city of the future!
SERGE
All my life has led to this.
‘Megalopolis! Meygalopolis...
EXT. MEGALOPOLIS - NIGHT 215
The vision is realized. The actual Megalopolis lives,
shining radiantly into the night.
INT. CITROEN - NIGHT 216
The Citroen starts to go into the white nothingness, then
Julia SEES something.
(CONT TNIED }
207.
216
217
CONTINUED : 216
WHAT SHE SEES:
A ghostiy-seeming form from the world of reality; a Huttmer,
other SUVs arriving.
FUNDI
Those aren't city cars. They're --
But Julia has gone, running into the snow. When Fundi tries
to follow, he is prevented by an ambush of Meade's goons.
INT. ENORMOUS MODEL OF THE CITY - NIGHT 217
Gazing at the miniature Megalopolis, Serge is lost in his
dreams. Then the perimeter lights come on, but not those
below in the model.
JULIA
Serge!
He turns, and he sees:
VIEW ON MEADE'S MEN
Approaching on the catwalks.
VIEW ON JULIA
Running toward him, crying out.
VIEW ON SERGE
He starts to run. SHOTS ring out. He is hit, falls from the
catwalk onto the model of New York. But he continues
crawling, knocking down some of the buildings when he is
shot again.
VIEW ON JULIA
coming to him.
VIEW ON MEADE
moving closer.
VIEW ON SERGE
Crawling to safety in the shadows of the model city.
Another SHOT, and he sprawls in a spreading pool of his own
blood on top of the Megalopolis area. Julia is almost
there. She turns and sees Meade.
(CONT TNIED }
208.
217
218
219
220
CONTINUED : 217
VIEW ON THE CATWALKS
The gunmen look to Meade, who is at the edge of the
perimeter.
GUNMAN
What should we do? She saw us.
VIEW ON JULIA
Looking up, straight at Meade.
VIEW ON MEADE
A practical decision; he signals to kill her.
More SHOTS ring out. Julia is hit and falls by Serge in the
model city. We HEAR the assailants' footsteps running away.
EXT. TIMES SQUARE - NIGHT 218
The enormous crowds are gathered for the changing of the New
Year. We HEAR gunfire and laughter in the distance. All
eyes are on the top of the tower where the glass ball is
about to descend.
CROWD
TEN -- NINE -- EIGHT --
EXT. STREET NEAR EXHIBITION HALL - NIGHT 219
VIEW UPWARD - The body of Fundi, nailed spread-eagle to a
telephone pole, crucified. The Citroen abandoned nearby.
EXT. EXHIBITION HALL - NIGHT 220
By now, all is whiteness. Frank arrives in his car. The
environs are seething with police -- no National Guardsman --
this is city business. Hart is standing looking utterly
stunned, bereft. Frank runs out of his car to Hart.
FRANK
Thank God, thank God! The
conspiracy is ended, the crisis is
over, the city will be safe
forever.
(CONTTNITED }
209.
220
221
222
CONTINUED : 220
Hart cannot speak. An officer near him is speaking into a
radio. We HEAR the distant SOUND of an approaching
helicopter.
‘ RADIO VOICE
Rescue, rescue, confirm two
victinis, one Caticasian male, one
Caucasian female...
OFFICER
(into radio)
Confirm. No panic, too late for
them.
Frank stares at Hart's face agonizingly.
FRANK
Two -- victims?
Hart makes a huge effort and manages to speak.
HART
Julia. Julia was with him.
FRANK
(shocked)
Is there hope?
‘Hart shakes his head gravely; begins weeping.
CLOSE ON FRANK'S FACE
The death of a soul. The SOUND of the helicopter grows
louder as he recedes into the darkness until he is gone.
EXT. TIMES SQUARE - NIGHT 221
‘FULL SHOT -- as the glass ball falls. Snow almost
obliterates everything. The city is slowly freezing.
CROWD
SEVEN -- SIX --
EXT. CHRONOS AND CLOCKS - NIGHT 222
FULL SHOT -- the clocks chime on. Millions of people move
through the streets.
210.
223
224
225
226
211.
EXT. EXHIBITION HALL - NIGHT 223
We SEE the Mayor's car, his figure in the back seat, alone
with his head bowed. The VIEW MOVES CLOSER:
VIEW ON FRANK IN HIS CAR
His wrists slit, bleeding to death.
INT. ENORMOUS MODEL OF THE CITY - NIGHT 224
Julia and Serge are reaching for each other's hands across
the bloodied model city, looking into each other's eyes,
smiling, fainting. Police respectfully keep a distance from
them.
CROWD
FIVE -- FOUR --
JULIA
Yes. Take me to heaven.
SERGE
Stop!
EXT. TIMES SQUARE - NIGHT 225
The ball stops three feet from the bottom. The CROWD'S
counting STOPS. No clocks chime.
EXT. ENORMOUS MODEL OF THE CITY - NIGHT 226
Serge and Julia join -hands and look.into each others eyes as
TIME FREEZES.
THE END
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