Get Away

EXT. CHARLIE AND LISA’S HOUSE DAY

The weather is bright and sunny, the couple are packing their car
ready for their cabin get away. CHARLIE looks over at LISA and
playfully rolls his eyes, gesturing with his hands to hurry up.
LISA is holding the phone to her ear using her shoulder as she
fumbles to lock the door behind her. The shot is framed in a way
we can see LISA’s hands which look bruised.

LISA
(in foreign language)
Yes mum, I know! I... mum! We're leaving for the
beach hut now! I’ll call you when we get there.

LISA looks over her shoulder at CHARLIE who is tapping his

wristwatch and looks impatient as the color becomes desaturated.
LISA turns back around and begins to whisper into the phone, the
saturation returns to bright and colorful.

(whispering)
Mum... Charlie needs this. I need this. We just need to
forget about what happened for a week and
everything will be okay again.

LISA pauses as we hear muffled audio coming from the phone as her
mother responds.

(in foreign language)

I love you too. Bye.
LISA hangs up the phone and walks towards the car, we can see
CHARLIE waiting leaned against the door with a tight, forced
smile. LISA opens the car door and gets into the backseat.

INT. CAR EVENING

The weather is still cheerful as CHARLIE is driving with a smile

on his face, he glances back at LISA briefly who is on her phone
and his smile begins to fade. He lifts his fingers off the wheel
slightly and taps them back down trying to grab her attention.

CHARLIE
So! Are we excited for our lovely get away? You and me,
cocktails and a cozy little beach hut eh. Gonna be grand,
ain’t it?

LISA continues to stay fixated on her phone, she’s tapping away

typing up an email.

LISA
(no emotion)
Mhm.

CHARLIE grips the wheel tighter.

CHARLIE
(sarcastic)
Oh no! Lisa, we’re going off a cliff!

LISA continues to tap away at her phone.

 LISA
(no emotion)
Yeah.

The camera begins to zoom into CHARLIE’s face, everything around

him unfocuses and the colors desaturate once more as we hear
audio of a car wreckage and LISA screaming.

LISA
Babe?

CHARLIE snaps back to reality and chuckles nervously, the camera

quickly zooms back out and brings the frame into focus as the
colors return to normal.

CHARLIE
(not focused)
Sorry, what’s up?

LISA
Can we pull over for a second? My legs are tired.

CHARLIE begins to pull the car over to the side of the road.

EXT. CAR, SIDE OF THE ROAD AFTERNOON

It’s beginning to get dark out. CHARLIE is leaning against the

side of the car smoking a cigarette whilst LISA is sorting out
the luggage in the boot to fit better. LISA sighs and looks up at
CHARLIE.
 LISA
(internal monologue)
Charlie... the doctor said we need to communicate
better but, I don’t want to upset you. Poor guy, I
can’t imagine how much he must be hurting, every time
someone brings it up, he just...

CHARLIE throws his cigarette butt onto the ground, immediately

pulling out another one and lighting it, we see his brow furrow
and his eyes shift to his right. The camera pans slightly and
shows LISA answering a phone call. The colors desaturate once
again.

CHARLIE
(internal monologue)
Stupid bitch on her stupid phone, with her stupid
overbearing mother and her stupid job. Why can’t she
ever talk to ME instead? She gets to be on her phone
24/7 for ‘work’ but whenever I’m on my phone she
thinks I'm cheating! I looked at Sarah once! It was
window shopping at best.

CHARLIE takes a long drag of his cigarette, and we hear muffled

talking as everything comes back into focus, except this time the
color does not become saturated again and remains moody. The
talking gradually becomes clearer as we see LISA on her phone
once more.

LISA
(into phone)
Haha, yes, yes you too Mr. Otonashi! Haha, yes,
arigato, arigato, thank you! Bye!
LISA hangs up her phone and sighs as she walks towards CHARLIE.
She places her phone back into her pocket and leans against the
car next to him.

LISA
(hesitant)
Sorry babe, I’m all yours now.

CHARLIE scoffs and throws another cigarette butt onto the ground.

CHARLIE
(sarcastic)
Yeah, sure.

LISA
Listen Charlie, I’ve been thinking and I think that if we
want things to go back to normal we’re going to need to
talk about the last few months...

CHARLIE
(impatient)
What is there to talk about? Mum dies, I get sad, I get
better. Happily, ever after.

LISA looks down at her feet passively, she furrows her brow a bit
and looks up at CHARLIE.

LISA
(stern)
You know what I mean Charlie. The Sarah situation
and... your temper.
CHARLIE steps away from the car and looks at LISA. He looks
furious.

CHARLIE
(angry)
No no no, don’t you start this! Nothing happened
between me and Sarah I looked at her once! And you
got in front of me I didn’t mean to hit you!

LISA
(stern)
I know babe but if we don’t talk about these things and
just bottle them up, we won’t be able to be happy
together! Maybe mum was right, maybe we do need to
spend some time apart.

CHARLIE grits his teeth as he gets more and more infuriated.

Stepping towards LISA and pointing his finger directly into her
face.

CHARLIE
(angry)
Of course she would say that! And of course you would
listen to her! Why don’t you think for yourself for
once instead of letting your awful mother think for
you!

LISA grabs her coat out of the back seat and storms off in front
of the car. She looks back at CHARLIE as she continues to walk.

LISA
 (shouting)
You and Sarah can have each other! I’m done Charlie!

CHARLIE looks stunned.

CHARLIE
(shouting)
Lisa wait!

CHARLIE climbs back into the car and starts it up. We see a shot
of LISA’s back walking as the camera follows from behind. After a
few seconds we see lights appearing on her back getting larger
and larger.

INT. CAR NIGHT

We see CHARLIE sat in the front seat, the camera is focused on

him, and we hear the radio playing. He is looking forward
stoically as he drives with the back of the car out of focus we
can see a silhouette of what looks like LISA in the back.
Suddenly the music stops as the radio is interrupted with a
broadcast.

RADIO
We’ve just received a report that beloved manager of the
Otonashi Group, ‘Lisa White’ has gone missing. The report
has been called in by her mother after she stopped
answering her calls mysteriously, several other members
of the Otonashi Group have also tried to contact her to no
avail. If anybody has any information on her
whereabouts please...
The radio broadcast fades as the back of the car focuses,
revealing that the silhouette of LISA is just luggage and CHARLIE
is in the car alone.

CUT TO BLACK