MIRAMAX INTERNATIONAL EQUILIBRIUM LIBRIUM DIRECTED ANE WRITTEN BY Kurt Wirumer PRODUCED BY Jan de Bont Lucas Foster4 ‘TELEVISION SCREEN . A DOCUMENTARY. IMAGES from the ravaging wars of our century. TELEVISION NARRATOR + -.+ fox decades, for ac better reason than mutual contemp:, civilization bevered on the brink of nuclear war, Peeples in eastern Europe massacred each other over forgotten cultural grudges. ‘Tensiona have again escalated’ was the familiar refrain ... Wow inages of CHEMISTS diligently working in labs NARRATOR it became inesrapable - 4f Man were to survive ints the fucures he must find » way to govern his emotions kefore they governed him inte ron-exigcence ... But it is lost on the FIGURE in the FOREGROUND of this SUBURSAN LIVING ROOM. Ragged, desperate - a modern-day pirate - ha gently, almost lovingly, places a seratched black platter onte an old PLAYSEOOL RECORD PLAYER. Watching, cesmerized, ag the dise goas round and a child’s lullaby - Hushabye street - begine to ska out the set‘s tinny epeakere: His Adam's apple rises, knotting -.- Abruptly, his eyes snap out the window. Sereeching arcund the distant commer, a phalanx of FOLICE CARS. Forgetting the luliaby, he moves. & INT. ROOM - DAY The qan’s spiritual brochers sit kere scattered. Long braided hair some, tattened others, pierced all, they sit telling jokes, playing cards, laughing with each other. Don't be deceived. They are, in fact, a rolling army. Wolves, living on the move, taking what they need where they find ic. The deor flies open, the men bursting in. MAN POLICEI 1 - At the wirdow, SEAMUS CLANCY. handooms and brilliant beyond e his years, hits his feet milliseconds ahead of his neo.SEAMUS You know what ta dot They jump to it, snarchine op the CANVASES that lean agains: the walls around the room + VAN GOGH'S SUNFLOWERS, MONBT’S HAYSTACKS ... MURCH'S SCREAM: some of the greatest artworks of mankind in the hands of these criminals In the straat below outside, UNMARKED POLICE CARS are screeching vp at the curb. Dropping a SHOTGUN from beneath his coat Seamus shacks! in the firet snell.and faces his men. Around the room, every heart is pounding, every chest rising With raw emotion. t SEAMUS It all comes down to this. EXT. QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD = DAY and, under the soothing strains of Hushabye Street, it does. A swarm o£ yellow-jackers, the police cars slam the curb outside the house. The front door flies open .. FIRST MAN HYAAARAH!!! The desperadoes come streaming out PAPOW!PAFON! guns blazing, spreading cut across the law, OPENING fire without quartar on the law enforcers who ... Return fire with automatic weapons, bullets thickening the air, chewing the house, cartwheeling great tufts of sod aa one by one, across the lawn, Seamus’ men begin to drop. In what seems nothing more than a moment, they are all down and SPECIAL TACTICS TEAMS are swaxming past their dying bodies up the steps and inte the house ...- TACTICS COMMANDER GolGelGor Tha sound of gunfite erupts within the house. At the curb, a BLACK SEDAN stops. Out of it, steps a MAN. He surveys the house with a keen eye. Thoughtful. Quiet, soothing to look at. JOM PRESTON looks to HIG PARTNER emerging out the other sida of cha car - PARTRIDGE,EE Page 3 INT. HOUSE - DAY they move quickly, quietly inside the front door. Sounds of gunfire rigging through distant parts of the. house. + A glance exchanged. Yea: INT. HOUSE - DAY syachvonized, like a machine, Preston and Partridge move silently through the house. A DESPERADO steps abrupcly our of a doorway ahead, shotgun not an inch from Partridge’s head. of experience there. Pows, almost before he even appeared, Preston has pur him down with a bulset to the brain. The twe lock ac each other. Close, INT. BOUSE - DAY Thay vaach a tight ZNOT of police farses, clustered comhat-styls ourside 5 CLOSED DOOR at the and of a hall. The OFPECER IN CHARGE, quickly approackes, speaking in whispers. OFFICER IN CHARGE Lights our. May be as many as a dozen inside. Preston nods. PRESTON Ones the door's down, blow the bulns. The 0.1.0, nods, snapping his fingers at the security forces, wha scramble to take position, Preston stands, eyes clesed for a moment, leveling his breathing. Two officers quickly place pistols into his hanging hands woile three nore take position at the door - zeroing the hinges and lock with shotguns One deep, steady breath. Preston opens his eyes. Wade. PAPOW!POW!POW! the threa officers BLOW out the hinges ... INT. ROO A doorway of light opens into a world of black as the dark slab of the door collapses inward under the feet of a SILHOUETTED FIGURE in a flowing dark coat. BABLAM! the security forces BLOW the lights behind. raining down fiery xed sparks as everything drops to PITCH BLACK.Page + BOWTPADAPOW! POW! Like a string of fire-crackers, the darkneso GOES OFF with the stroboscopic action of John Preston's guns, punetuating the black world inro a discotheque of instantaneovs spit-Zire globes of light ... A black vorid defined by fleeting recinal-puret images of his adversaries slamming the walls with the impact of his bullets. dnd then, three blinding seconds and thirty bullets Later, Eis guna fall silent and blackness rules again. Behind him, FLASHLIGHTS strobe. {nto the darkness from the Rall as the police forceg enter the room - fresh young faces mirroxing theix astonishment as they count the fallen, werdlessly, Preston turns and exirs. INT. HOUSE - DAY The dust has settled now. It is quiet, Praston is met in the battle-scarred main hall by the Tactics Cotmander and his team who have secured the upper flcor. TACTICS COMMANDER House is clean. We found nothing. freston nods, taking in every detail from floor co ceiling. ‘PRESTON Clear it. The Tactics Commander glances at partridge - who nods with simple gravity. The Tactics Officer jumps to it, ushering his men streaming out. Preston turns to leok briefly to Partridge ... INT. RITCHEY - DAY Preston stands in the kitchen, taking ic in, feeling it. A nan lies dead, talf on the kitchen table, half off ... But he takes no notice, se intent his communicn with the Foon. INT, UPPER ROOM - DAY He stope in the decrway of an ampty sacond fleor room, Light eking sickly through a dysty window. He stands for a long moment, feeling the air. PRESTON This is it.i i | Partridge nods to the SFECIAL TEAMS who move quickly up- PARTRIDGE Where . Preston nods to a SPACE in the middle of the fleorboards, * covered by a threadbare mg. PRESTON ‘there. - Tne Special Teams jump quickly to it; stripping away the tug, splintering up the fleorboarding with crowbare. Revealing, within a jagged hole, atop many other similar sized canvassas, the MONA LISA. Smiling back at tham with her quiet smile. Specie] Teams back off to let A MAN WITH GLASSES through. He keels at the edge of che Hole, swabs an edge of the painting @ Q-tip and drops it into a small test tube. He shakes it, studying tha reactant chemicals. Turns, vodding with gravity at Preston. CHEMIST It's real. Without turning, Prestcn says to the Conflagration teats whe step abruptly in beside him with FLAME THROWERS: PRESTON Burn it. WHOOOSH! the two Conflagrarien Unite unleash = torrent of FLAME into the jagged hole. Igniting the great paintings in burning petroleum jelly. Preston turns wordlessiy and walks cut. He de cur hero. PARTRIDGE lingers for a moment, staring at Mona Lisa's amile as it curls up in the flames along with a billion dojlars of mankind’s other greatest artworks. INT. POLICE VERICLE - DAY Prestom and Partridge ride in silence in the back of the vehicle, watching the quadnc, :ilent neighborhood go by. odd, but there ism't a soul to be seen in this neighborhood. Every door has been painted with a plague-era black ‘T‘, and every 5th pr so house, has been burned to the ground ...Page & fut it seens to make no impression on Preston, He looks over at Partridge, his parrner's strong jaw tensed, contemplative, ag he stares out Che window at the empty, passing neighbotheed. : Preston studies his partner of many years. There axe things Presten can know by simply leoking at a person that would border on mind-reading for the rect of us. PRESTON You're thinking something ... Partridge blinks over from the window, PARTRIDGE Oh... no... nothing «5 He shakes his head, gesturing the vacan> neighborhood. PARTRIDGS why dont we just burr it al! to the ground - and be done with it? PRESTON Resources are tight. &n uncontrolled fire in che Zone could spread to the city Partridge nods. Sure .., Bure ... Ahead, out the windshield, the suburban neighborhood abruptly ends, as though crushed in mid-thought by a giant stone foor. A MASSIVE GATE girded by MASSIVE WALLS some 75 feat tall and stratehing off cut ‘af sight in either diraction like the Great Wall of China. Atop the gate, carved in granite, massive stone Hitlerian latters proclaim LISRTA. And, in swaller script below that: Librium «st fibertas Standing atop the precipice, a SENTRY clad in white watches through the featureless black glass of his helmet as Preston and Partridge’s car is checked through the gate below. Barrel of hia white-metal machinegun following as the car passes from the faded flower that is the Zone ... Through the vast, opening dears ... To the vista of a VAST WALLED CITYSCAPE. Nothing less than a stunning constructivist black and white gaonetry.Page 7 LIBRIA. Le Corbusier’s "machines for living é: Cold and beaut ifel A bichromatic masterpiece in whick more has been done with tha clegant simplicity of black and white than other who bave gone before have managed with all the spectrum of the rainbow .... And unlike the neighborhood - sealed off like East Berlin - ths city is teeming with people. A peaceful mass - flowing with quiet fluidity. PRESTON, in the car, watches a FAMILY preparing to crosa the street. Father, Mother, Son, Deughter, holding hands ... Waiting for the light to change. Kis caze staya on them - lonyar maybe, than warranted. abruptly a SHARP BEEPING blinks him out of His momentary Gream. He joins the others in the car as they rates their wrists and flick off their alarms, all beeping in concart. Wordlessiy, around the vehicle, the men flip open WHITE CASES marked with MORNING and EVENING SLOTS for each day. With mechenized routineness, sach extracts thi: GLASS AMPULE - marked £yening, 6/18 ... PRESTON ireflective] Every time ve make this drive into the city - it Hits me... (neds) How very far we've come, evening's Partridge does not lock up as he clicks his vial inte the stall PNEUMATIC SYRINGE tucked inte the bottom of his case. PARTRIDGE We have? Preston iccks sharply over - not certain he heard correctly, Cocks his head. PRESTON I beg your parden? There is a-pneumatic pop! as Partridge and the otherg imject themselves. Finally, he turns to look at Preston a frank moment - eyes searching. Then - simply - nods, PRESTON We have.—_ eee 1 Page B Pyesten holds en hin a narrow instant. But i= interrupted es the Driver looks. suddenly ver his shoulder. DRIVER + Excuse me - a gituation at the Stad - de we want to stop? EXT. STAD LIBREA - DAY * A great suroe of APPLAUSE gives as Partridge and Preston _ Proceed rapidly through the two great stone eolumis that form Ehe gateway to the city’s vast communal stadiun. The Stands ara packed with intenc on-lookers as, on-field, corps of black-unifarmed, tow-headed CHILDREN are going - through a synchronized wartiak choreography ... } The crowd, ten thousand-scrong, applauds, enjoying che ; spectacle thoroughly | Pregton and Partridge ara met immediately by two white-clad SWEEPERS whe fall into quick. lock-step with cher. I SWEEPER We can't take tha shet without andangering people ... Preston acds, on it. PRESTON Shaw mo. #0 ERT. STADIUM COMMON - DAY Just outeide the stadium-oroper, Preston and Partridge are Jed through a large knot of concerned-looking people into an : OPEN SPACE ringed by ARMED SWEEPERS. -- «+. all giving ample space ce a SWEAT-SuUICKENED, DESPERATE MAN who holde a GUN and is railing at the surrounding crowd, NAN You stupid fucks! Look ar yeu! You're sheep! Fucking sheep! POW! be fires a SHOT over their heads. The cxowd flinches. but déee not budge . MAN You see! You see: What kind of fucking reaction de that! 2 - Rt his feet bies a DEAD WOMAN. Bullet in her heart, Preston and Partridge exchanga a glance.i Page 9 Preston unholsters his om gune, handing then co his partner. And steps out inte the ring. A MURMUR travels through che crowd. The Man snaps the gun round towards hin. Preston raiseé his hands. 5 PRESTON fasy. No Gné here means you any hath. NEIE Well they should! POWL he fires another suet over the crowi. They flinch again, but remain rooted. MAN You seal?! Leraway Hello? falta? I just killed my wife. She fucked another men s0 ft killed her. He locks very particularly at Preston. MAM I'm a menace to your fucked up society. A displeased mureur ripples through che crawd. PRESTON A manace mayba ... terowd) But you've wrong About them. This ts something that works. Setter than it ever has. MAN Works!?1 Ali these freaking sheep should he running for their lives! Shitting their pants; feeling terrified, feeling. scared for their fucking lives; feeling something. PRESTON Like what you're feeling now? The min grinds silent, Preston's words hitting home. Preston takes a step forward. PRESTON “" tctowd) Lock at them ... In spite of bimpelf, the man does. Unlike him, everyone healthy, relaxed-looking, innocent, in balance.Page io PRESTON Whac’s missing? Stress? Depression? can you remember, in your whole life, ever Seeing an overweight person? He shakes his head. 2 PRESTON ALL the reasons to overeat - anxiety, worry, unhappiness - all gone. Re takss a step forward. PRESTON _ Along with sadness, ager, hate ... He lonks at the dead woman at the man’s feet. Eack ... PRESTON . fealousy. The Wan’ s angry facade strains. struggling. seginning to break, MAN What the fuck do you want from me... PRESTON All I wast - is for you to stop shaking. The Man looke at him = surprised at the compassionate words. Preston. takes another step PRESTON Iwant you to stop ... dreading want you to stop... raging inaide,.. In spite of himself, the Man swallows hard. Preston stops nets yard away - closed FIST rising up between them. The Man tenves his grip on the gun - but Presten dees not blink. PRESTON want the rushing in your brain - all of de... Like a flower, his £4ngers blcom open. PRESTON +++ t@ stop. In his open palm - glinting’- an AMPYLE of goiden Liquid. LIBRIUM. The Man holds on it - tears brimming into his eyes.Page 11 ie LA ol ae Suddenly, faster than thought, Preston st: his hangs and slams hig te the conerete- pe the gun out of ead Instantly, the Sweepers swarm the man, gagging and binding him with stunning swiftness, The crowd politely applauds. Preston's ayes meet Partridge’s im the crowd. Brestcn smiles. Parcridge doesn’t. g EY, PALACE OF JUSTICE - DUSK A great edifice, at whose crast.is a great white & INT, OFFICES OF THE VICE-COUNCIL - DUSK PRESTON stands at attention before a dask situated at the end of a Vast hall at which a mat in an elagant suit sits stamping the crest of the Tetragrammaton - ai ornate /T’ onte | a stack of papers. Behind him a great ‘T' hes been cut through the wall and the | sun's sectiag rays bleze chrough it. | PRESTOMs eyes fall on a lavish GLOBE of the earth atandiag dn aa ornate pedestal by the desk, Across the continent of North America, ‘Libria' ig pranted in aa ornate script ... and, fading aroutd the sphere, other namas, xylyX, Entropia, and ¢thers, mark the lesser continents ... Setting aside his papers. the MAN looks Preston over a keen moment, assessing him. wAN Thank you for coming, Cleric. 1 assume you know whe I am? PRESTON Yea Siz, Cf course, Sir. You are Vice~ Council DuPont of the Third Councillary of the Tetragranmaten. You axe Father‘ 5 voice. | DUPONT. (thoughtfully! Yes ... Tam at that. (aitting back} I’ve heard a great deal about you, Preston. They say you're the veritable Fourth Horseman of the TetraGram. That you were taised from childhood in the 2 Cleric Monasteries, @ghooled in the arte of intuition and strife, That there is me one better,Page 22 PRESTON I do only what 7 can, sir. DUPONT + They also cell me you are deeply empathetic. That you can find contraband wherever it may be hidden; you've a nose for it... PRESTON eve a goed record, Sir. Vice-Couned1 Dupont considers hin a moment. DUPONT Way do you imagina that is, Clerie? - PRESTON I I’m not sure Vice-Council. I just ++- put ayself in their position. Where would 1 conceal illegal material. DUPONT. 1f you had ceased your Librium interval, If you were ... a Sense Offender ... PRESTON Yes Sir, of course, Sir. DuPont considers Kim with bright, intelligent eyes. DUBONT You were senior officer on an Apprehension and Recovery today? PRESTON Yes Sir. In the restzicted zone. OUPONT Ik was paintings this tine wae ic not? PRESTON Yes Sir. DUPONT And the result was? PRESTON Combustion, Sir. Ag always. DUPONT Hew did you feel about that? Preston blinks at him a confused moment.Paga 13 PRESTON I’m... sorry. 2 don’t understand. DUPONT How did you feel - watching those paintings burning, Sublinating away inco invisible gas - never again to be leid upon by human eyes. PRESTON fstill confused! 1 +. didntt feel anything. Twas just doing my job. - DUPONT Yes ... yes, of course you wore. He considers a moment. Refocuses on Preston, DUPONT You're a family man? Children ? PRESTON . A boy and a girl, Sir. The boy is in the wondstery > en path to becoming 4 Cleric. DUPONT Very good - and ... the nether? PRESTON My spouse was arrested and incinerated for Sense Offenye four years age, Sir. BGPONT T see. By yourself? Preston hasitates a miaro-instant. PRESTON No Sir. Zy another. DURONT Really? How did you come to miss it? PRESTON 1... I've asked myself that game question, Sir. I... I don’t know, DuPont focuses on him vay intently for a deep menent. DUPONT: Bo not let your vigilance flag, Cleric. You may still be needad in thia battle. Something in. the very specific way he says it givas Preston «Page 14 twinge. He node ... PRESTON Yes Sit. Qufont waves a hand, dismissing him. Preston hesitates ah instant + then turns sharply on his heel and walks out. EXT, PALACE OF JUSTICE Halfway down the palatial steps, he drifts to = stop, blinking into the space before bin. Remembering sometaing. INT. DESK SPACE - HALE, OF ENFORCEMENT - RIGHT Empty this time of night. Preston sits watching DIGITAL REPLAY of the car ride back from the Apprehension and Recovery cn his desk monitor. PRESTON’S IMAGE Every time we wake this drive inte the icy - dt hice me... (meds) How vary far weve come. PARTRIOGE'S IMAGE We have? Freezing it - he playa Partridge’s quiet PARTRIDGE'S 3MAGE a have? is face is turned partially frou the camera. Preston consider Then SHITCRES to surveillance replay from the STADIUM. PRESTON’S IMAGE Easy. Ke one here means you any harm. MAN'S IMAGE Well chey should! POW! he fires another shot over the crowd. Preston freezes the image. None of the Enforcers or people in the background have moved or started in the siightest. Except one . Preston sooms in on the grainy image of the one man who, with a look of diseinct alarm, has reached fer his gun. Partridge, Afraid for his parrner - Preston's - life.* * * Page 15 Preston ponders this very human reaction, frozen on his screen, ior a long, very dark time. INT. LOCKER ROOM - NIGHT . He stands before a LOCKER marked ‘Partridge’. Feels with his fingers the tumbler that Locks it. With a crowbar, he cracks it open. INT. APARTMENT CORRIDOR - WIGHT Preston stands crowded into the dimly Lit hall with a TEAM OF ENFORCERS. He knocks sharply at the door. PRESTON Cleric Pertridge! Open, upi Nothing. He nods te ene Enforcement Team who blows off the hinges and goes atxeeming in. INT, PARTRIDGS'S APARTMENT - NICHT Preston scane the living unit as tke searck team flows in avcurd kim - moving inte the back rooms to tear it to pieces. INT, CORRIDOR - NIGHT Sounds of the catastrophic search coing on in the apartment behind, Preston fades cut into the hall. Ha pauses, feeling the air - cowmining with it. His eyes fall on the LIGHT FIXTURE - the only prominent ebjact in the otherwise featureless hallway. Moving INTUITIVELY to it, he touches it. Feeling ite lcoseness, he twists it sideways ... Revealing, lying hidden in the space in the wall behind it. a huge supply Of unused Librium. Preston stares at his partner's death warrant. EXT. GATE 36-B - NIGET A Small CONVOY of VEHICLES pulls to the tewering edifice of GRTE 34-b to the unlit darkness of the Zona. The Armed Guard snaps to attention. PRESTON You confirm he came through this gate this evening?* Page 16 GUARD Yee Sir. Our records show #19 P.M. And siz... : He hesivates. 4 PRESTON Speak. GUARD Well Sir, we assumed it was Enforcement related. He's been coming through every night for the leat two weeks ... Presten absorbs thig a mortal beat. Putting the window back up, he waves to the drivar and the convoy-rells past, under the keea gaze of 8 SWERPER CREW in ite distinativa white uniferms, and through the massive gates of 34-8. Ext. T!E ZONE - WIGHT ‘The car sits, just the idle rumble of irs ignicion in the silence of a great empty intersection in the unlit dead ciey. BRANDY, MAN, sate ton's freshly assiened partner, a HANDSOME YOUNG the shadows of the driver’s sear. He locks to Preston - an eagerness in hie oyes. BRANDT T hope you're as pleased to be assigned me as 7 am for the placement. I'm told it's a carser-making advancement. freston says noching, silently surveying the abandoned city. Byes sifting through the silhouettes of the buildings. BRANDT mot that it's the only reason I’m pleaced te be here. You're the most intuitive of tha Grummaton Clerics. Everyone knows it. I'm intuitive teo. {can learn from you. How te focus. Sa that I mise no detail. So that I know when they're feeling before they even know it themselves «.. Along beat. Finally, quietly, Preston speaks. Nodding towards the dark spires of 2 great, DEAD CATHEDRAL caught in the distant moonlight. PRESTON He‘s there.Page 17 INT. CATHEDRAL - ZONE ~ NIGHT veal cathedral - a still-standing relic from ages-gone-by FARTRIDGE sits in the front pew, candles Lit on either sige, reading a DOG-EANED PAPERBACK. ‘The great cathedral doors behind him creak open. His eyes neither rige ner turn ... only continuing to read as rhe footeteps approach echoing down the aizie. PRESTON etops alone in front of his partner. PARTRIDGE You always knaw. You just couldn't bring yourself to admit it. With che tip of his GUM, Breston raises the cover of the hock, THE POETRY OF ¥EATS. PARTRIDGE Ever had the pleasure ... PRESTON Have you lost your mind. PARTRIDGE (reada) But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreans under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. (oaks upt t assume you dxeam, Preston? PRESTON You've got te cowe with me. Partridge only looks back at him, spattered in the colered Reonlight splintaring daw through the cathedral’s great, broken STAINED GLASS WHEEL. PARTRIDGE How can you be ‘muna te it, John? Preston logke up to the great window. Back. Immune te it. PRESTON You have to come with me. 2/11 do what I can ty see they go easy on you. ©" PARTRIDGE Wa both know - they never go easy on anybody. A steady silence as the two man regard each other is theif Page 18 flickering candlelight. PRESTON (finally? Then I'm serry. + But Partridge just sadly shakes his head. PARTRIDGE Ne. You’re not. You don’t even kuow the meaning. [t/a just 2 vestigial word for a feeling you've never felt. Preston is silent. PARTRIDGE Don’t you sea, Preston - it's gone. Bverything that makes ws: what we are: traded away. PRESTON I’m what I am. There‘s ne war. No murder. Paztridge searches his eyes through the colored gloom. | PARTRIDGE Woat ie it you think we do? A hard silence, Preston's testh grinding, Anyone else would be dead already. PRESTON You've wrong. You've been with me; yout ve deen how it can bé. Jealousy and rage. Anger. Hate. Slowly. sadly, silently, Partridge neds. BRRTRIDGE A very heavy cost His hand FALLS te a DARK OsgeCT dn his lap ... PARTRIDGE T pay it gladly ... Preston ages, in the moonlight’s aolorad glint, that the object is PARTRIDGE'S GUN. His bend resting on ic... Preston pulls his own gun up in line with Partridga‘s ayas. Those eyes look past the gin - up into his own eyes. Then Partridge raises the open book. Between their eyes ... Ending the conversation. Forever.* Page 19 In hie lap, hig thumb eldek? cocks back the hammer on his gun. Ad eternal moment ... PCH! Prascon puts a bullet through the book. His friend erumples behind it in che muted colar of the shadows. 5 Preston looks for a moment at the dark form of his former partner and friend huddled in the pew before him. amd feels @ strange, ungettling chill. Something, some strange, distant voices knocking on the door of his uionseieve, Turning, he sees a DARE FIGURE standing in the doorway of the cathedral - watching him. That figure takes one step forward inte the splintered moonlight. BRANDT. A feral excitement in his eyes. EXT. PRESTON’ S QUARTERS - NIGKT Tee cay pulis te a step at the curb befere she concrete bunker bAac comprises the ten thousand unit building chat contains the cubicle that Preston lives in. PMEECON SLEDS out. Brandt's voice floats out of the car. BRANDT Cleric ... Presson glances momentarily back. Brandt's eyes are‘bright. BRANDT I could onty hope to one day be as uncompromising ag you. and, pulling the door shut, he drives off. Preston watches aiter him a moment. Within him, something... not quite right. INT. FRESTON'S UNIT - NIGHT ATEN YEAR-OLD BOY, dregged in the severs black uniform of Ene CLERIC YOUTH, the same uniform of the children at the etadium, sics at the kitchen table werking from schooltexts, On a TELEVISION, a NAN speaks frankly into the camera. TELEVES1ON mae Baw Father. He smiles. TELEVISIOM/MAN You are Father.Page 20 and changes - seamlessly - inte a wou TELEVISION / WOMAN He ie Father. We are Father. + Then a boy. TELEVISTON/20Y She is Facher. ‘They are Father, Who becomes a young girl. TELEVISION/GIRL Father is Everywhere. _ These are the FACES OF LIBRIA, always chancing, always playing, everywhere, all the time. ; AB Preston comes through the door, the boy, his TEN YEAR-OLD SON, ROBBIE, looke up. PRESTON Lisa's asleep? ROBBIE. Yes. For about en hour. Preston nods, hanging up his coat. degias flipping through the mail. PRESTON School, how was it? ROBBIE Good, thank you. Work? Preston pauses, vealizing the boy is watching him, intantly Enterested in anything he might tell about his day. And he is etruck - by how oddly hard it is to say ... BRESTON My partner stopped taking his Tose. He had to be destreyed. The bey perks. ROBBIE You? By you? The thinnast beat. PRESTON Yes.Page 21 Robbie looks back at him - eyes bright. RORBLE I'm very proud. + Preston dogen‘t know why - but saying thig mext word feels like climbing a mountain. PRESTON ‘Thanks. # INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT : Wife-leng gone, Freston lies down on one side of a bed made fer two. The other side vacant. He stares at the wall for a long time before closing his eyep. INT, BEDROOM - DAW ea Hié ayes blink opsn. Dawn. Finding himself still crowded oate his sida of the bed. It's the way be has slept every night since his wife was taken. Sut, for some reason, this morning - he notfces ir. Be makes his way into the tiny haghroom. ust a sink, a toilet and @ small personal maintenance mirror. Opening a drawer, ha pulls cut his DOSE CASE and, flipping it open, Withdraws che ampule marked MORNING 6/17. He sets it on the counter and bende te brush hie ceath when a tinkling craeh brings his eyes up. He sees, to his surprise, that, with his arm, he has knocked The morning's dosage off the counter onte the concrete floor. Tt lies thera - shattered. He stares for 4 motent ar the TINY POOL of liquid and glass on th= fioor. VOICE What are you doing? He tums, startled, ROBBIE stands thete in his uniform, | already ready to go te school. ‘The boy's eyes move to the pool of amber and glass on the fieor. . Shooting sharply back up to his father's. J ROBBIE - 1 said what are you doing?Page 22 PRESTON 2 I... 2 accidentally dropped my morning | wa interval. I... AP (perplexed) q T took i: out before T brushed my teeth... + He looke at the bey, somewhat baffled. PRESTON . T never take it out before I brugh my teach ... The ten year-old holds on him a narrow moment. ROBSIE Of course you'll go by Equilibrium, log the loss and get a replacement ... PRESTON, Yes. Of course. The boy lingers an instant Longer - then, cacdsfied, leaves. Preston's eyes retumm to the enigmatic amber pool evaporating off hig bathraen floor. PRESTON | ves DE course... # INT. RITCHEN - moRWING When Preston enters, Robbie and Preston’s SEVEN YEAR-OLD DAUGITER LISk are already sitting eating breakfast. Preston sits down tp his food. ROWEIE Thia came, we hands his father a piece of PAPER. ROBBIE A Sense Offender here in the city. Your partner's to pick you up at 10 for the : ALR. Preston holds on the boy who is beaming. We nods ... PRESTON ‘Thanks ... and, for some reason umablé to hold his son’s eyes, his own move to his daughter Lisa who. bored, ics amusing herself by eS : stirring her cereal and watching it swirl around the bowl. ROBBIE, ageing Preston watching his sister, immediately FixesPage 23 the girl with a dark look. ROBBIE Steg that. s The girl locks furtively to her father .., then returns to eating with the same mechanical torper ag her brother. INT. DUPONT’S OFFICES - MORNING : Preston stands before VICE CQUNCTL DUPONT who ie makiag hand-written nctea- BUBONT This 4s strictly routine, you understand... PRESTON i do undexstand, of course. DUPONT You encountered your partner, Errol Partridge within a cathadral in the yestrictad searoy ... PRESTON that's correct paoxT How would you desoribe hig state of mind? PRESTON He wag ... amational. DUPORT (glances up} Emotional? PRESTON Ke was... (thinks? s+. not making rational decisions. He was, I believe, governed by ... passions. DUPONT So you shot bir. PRESTON Destruction is the penalty fer cessation o£ the Dose. ‘The penakty for feeling. DUPONT Unguestionably. But prior no destruction could he not conceivably have been interrogated by more systematic, by mereclinical means here at the Palace of duetice? Potentially leading to crucial evidence? Possibly aven confederatas? Preston hesitates an instant. Pactyidge? ‘Clinical’ interrogation? He feels a flush of confusion. PRESTON 1... felt he world oot come willingly. It was iikely that damage to either myself or my backup would have resulted. DUPONT . (considering) Yes ... yes... and, in amy case, I Buppose somthing like that aoula not have been easy in the first place ... PRESTON {cf guard) Tem... sorzy? pipout Shooting this man, Whow you'd spent so much time with. Ke was what you might call a friend, was he nou? PRESTON thesitates) Tee. DUPONT Please - speak openly. What did you feel? PRESTON (kardening) T felt nothing. After a studied moment, Dupont sica back. DUPONT You've a 10 O'cleck Arrest and Recovery? Preston is surprisad. FRESTON Yes Sir, f was just informed this morning. PUPONT Then I suppose you'd better hurry - that is, if you expect to make the Hall of Squilibriva first. Preston is doubly startled. DuPent swilés faintly. Page 24I I Page 25, DUPONT There’s very Little T don’t know, Preston. Preston heeitates an instant, coming to grips with it - theo, with an abrupt nod and a click of hig heels, he nodg, rume and heads for the doer. EAT, HALL OF EQUILIBRIUM - DAY Preston pauses on the sidewalk outside the massive Frita’ Langian edifice - deeply engraved with the solemn words FALL OF EQUILIBRIGM and the motto ’Librium est Libertas’. It's massively stark conerete columns rising upwards, shoulders upon which the mighty building sits. t INT. HALL OF RQUILTBRYUM - DAY Presten stands in line. On either side, as far up and us far down as he can gee, stretch similar lines. multitudes of people. Waiting te get their Librium replacements. ‘On monitors Lining the wall - the changing faces of Libria... FACES OF LIBRIA You are Father; We are Pather; Father is Everywhere ue glances at his watch, shifts impatiently. Looks around. Ro one else agens ‘apatient. He glances av hie watch again, Aimest ten. The lime movas one person closer to rhe windew. Two more people and he‘ll finally be there. He glances at his watch again. Still almost ten. The line moves one forward. Abruptly, he steps out of the queue and heads for the doors. A PROCTOR encounters him before he has made a dozen staps. PROCTOR Six, is everything okay? PRESTON (quickly? Ne, no, everything's fine. I'm just late. I'm bate ... Wa eteps around the Proctot, walking backward towards the deers AOW AB he continues to explain, tapping hig watch ... FRESTON Late. I‘ 11 be back later ...4 Page 26 and he is gone. Leaving the Proctor staring curiously after. EXT. HALL OF EQUILISATUM - DAY As Preston cones down the steps, a CAR skids up to the cust passenger door swinging open. BRANDT de behiné the whee: BRANDT Just ia time - hop in, Prestoa, surprised, looks into the car for a moment, Then, without much choice, he gets in. INT, CAR = DAY Brandt guides the car ineo traffic. BRANDT, How're the lines? Presten leaks at him - what? BRANCT The lings. They're always terrible at that place. I'm suprised you were able to get your dose and get out so quickly. sed at how much he knows. PRESTON they were fine. Preston hesitates, surp: They were . Nodding, Brandt reaches inside hie coat, puiling out his GUN and checking it as he drives. BRANDT maybe 1/12 dvop by later. I got on the seale this texting. Deo you know I've lest neatly 20 pounds in the last @ months? Naturally, T/11 want to go by and have my Dose adjusted. PRESTON Well you ... shouldn't have much problem. He watches as Brandt snaps his gun closed, reholerering it- PRESTON Expecting resistance? Brandt lecke at him. Swilep thinly. BRANDT That's something you'll find me, Cleric. I'm a wary person.. Cautious by nature. Always expecting the worst.INT. HOUSE + LIBAIA - DAY pay! a door explodes inward aff itg hinges as che BATTERING BRAM TEAMS make way for PRESTON and BRANDT ertering the 4ouse. Preston ig inmediately accosted by a FURIOUS DARK-uarRED WOMAN coming at him down the hall WOMAN You caa’r do this! You camiot dé this! Preston brushes past her. SRESTON We're TetraGrammaton? there's nothing we can't do - Her eyes go dark and she CHARGES him. ROMAN You aon of a Bitch! He easily ducks her charge and, grabbing her, twlete her arm avound behind her, growling into her ear. PRESTON How long Save you been off the Bose? She doesn't anewer, shaking with emetion and anger. PRESTON Leek at you. He spine her around hy her twisted arm to face an ornate UNREGISTERED MIRROR in the hall. PRESTON Leek ar you! They both stand these, in the illegal mirror’s reflection. His face looking over her shoulder. and hers, Flushed with mor‘on, strands of wavy dark hair drifting wildly into blazing eyes ... lips red, full ... Preston catches himeslé staring at her ... Abruptly, he releases her. Suddenly finding that he cannot hold her eyes any longer. All he cam think to mumble ig... “PRESTON Lock at you ... And leaving her in Brandt’s custody, he abruptly turns and moves into the house. Szandt watches after him. Curiously.