A wilderness in your heart

WGA #   1109093

Robin Dunn
1501 Madison St. #205
Oakland, CA 94612
650-591-3392
bigbadgerjohnny@sbcglobal.net
INT.  CAFE.   DAY.
In a café, Sam sets down a cup of coffee on Julia's table.  She looks up at him.
EXT.  ROOFTOP. DAY.
JULIA
What is the first thing you learn?
SAM
To hate.  You learn to hate.
JULIA
And what is the last?
SAM
To love.
They lower each other down the rooftop over the rusty cement, drilling each other in rhetoric.
SAM
What is the easement that defines where your consciousness ends and the other's begins?
JULIA
It is the sound of my feet rapping on your stairs, writhing against the doorway of your soul.
SAM
Why won't I let you in?
JULIA
Because you're cruel.
SAM
Am I always cruel?
JULIA
Always. [pause]  When aren't you cruel?
SAM
When you leave.  When I'm alone.
JULIA
Is there meaning in existence?
SAM
I don't want you to leave me.
JULIA
Don't leave me.
SAM
Don't leave me.
JULIA
I want you always to be here.
SAM
I want you always to be here.
JULIA
If I ask you to do something for me, will you do it?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Are you sure?
SAM
Should I be sure?
JULIA
I don't know.
SAM
Well I'm sure.
JULIA
OK.
SAM
What do you want me to do?
JULIA
I want you to kill me.
SAM
You don't want me to do that.
JULIA
You're right.  I don't.
SAM
Look at me.
He stares at her.  She avoids his gaze.
SAM
Will you always love me?
JULIA
I'll always love you.
SAM
Even after you're dead?
JULIA
Yes.
EXT.  FOREST.  DAY.
She is disappearing into the trees in the distance.
EXT.  STAIRWELL.  DAY.
They're descending a long series of industrial stairs, leading off the roof.
SAM
What does it mean to be dead?
JULIA
Dead.  Dead means dead.
SAM
Yes, but what does dead mean?
JULIA
Worms.  Decay.  Afterlife.
SAM
What kind of afterlife?
JULIA
Whatever you want, I guess.
SAM
What kind do you want?
JULIA
I want you to be there with me.
SAM
Isn't that what everybody wants?
JULIA
Everybody better not want you.
He laughs.  They kiss.
SAM
Is there a beginning and an end to things?
JULIA
You ask of a lot of questions.  You really think I know the answers to these things?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
And what if I do?   You want to know them?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Even if knowing means the mystery falls out of the universe and your cock shrivels up and you die?
SAM
Well not if my cock shrivels up.
JULIA
If I tell you about the alpha and the omega and the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning, your pecker will rot instantly, and you'll be peckerless.
SAM
Shit.
JULIA
You peckerless motherfucker.
The ferocity of Julia's line is echoed in a series of close-ups, her contorted lips, eyes, nostrils.
He starts to cry.
She stares out at the horizon.
SAM
Why are you so cruel to me?
JULIA
You're the cruel one.
SAM
Why is hate first and love last?
JULIA
That's just the way things are.
SAM
I think they should be reversed.  Love should be first, before hate.
JULIA
Tough.
SAM
So when you visualize heaven, do you see a whole universe of people and everything?  Is it like this, only better?
JULIA
No, I think heaven is worse than here.  It's like half of here.  You can see it all but you can't feel it.  Like you're looking through gauze or something, and the sound is muffled too.
SAM
That doesn't sound too heavenly.
JULIA
Can I ask you something?
He looks at her intently.
JULIA
Why do you like me?
SAM
I love you.
JULIA
Ok.
SAM
I don't necessarily like you.
JULIA
You don't like me?
SAM
No I like you, but it's only so much.   You can be so fucking unbelievably ridiculous.  I want to kill you every other day I think.
JULIA
What about today?
SAM
Not today.
JULIA
Don't leave me.
SAM
I won't.
JULIA
What will the world do to us?
SAM
It'll kill us.
JULIA
Why does it always do that?
SAM
That's what worlds do.  They kill and they're killed.
JULIA
Who kills them?
SAM
Gods, men, acrobats.
JULIA
Acrobats?
SAM
Farmers, philanderers, pharmacists.
JULIA
Are you a philanderer?
SAM
Yes.
She slaps him.  He slaps her back.
They caress each other's cheeks.
EXT. FOREST POOL.   DAY.
They go to the woods to bathe.  They go in the water and bathe each other carefully, slowly.
Afterwards, lying on towels:
SAM
You're beautiful.
JULIA
I don't like being beautiful.
SAM
It's hard, isn't it?
JULIA
People think it's easy.
SAM
People are idiots.
JULIA
No, people aren't idiots.  They want things.  And they want beauty so much.  and it becomes more something I have than something I am.  They want to take it away from me.
SAM
I don't want to take it away from you.  I want you to hold onto it.  Ok?
JULIA
Ok.
SAM
Do you remember when we met?
JULIA
No.
CUT TO:
INT CAFE.   DAY.   FLASHBACK.
We see him setting coffee down in the café,  her looking up at him.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST POOL.  DAY.
He's laughing.
SAM
No??
JULIA
I mean, I remember it.  I remember how I felt.  But I don't remember what happened or where we were.
SAM
You don't?
JULIA
No.  That's funny, isn't it?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Do you think I can tell you something?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
I think your face is beautiful.
SAM
No it isn't.
JULIA
Yes it is!  You have the most beautiful face.
He kisses her.
He dresses her.
CUT TO:
INT CAFE.   DAY.
Their hair wet, they sit in a cafe, saying nothing.  The camera watches the other patrons, watches their coffee cups.
Watches their hands.
EXT.  STREET.  EARLY EVENING.
Afterwards, walking down the street, sunset.
JULIA
Do you want to make love to me?
SAM
Haven't I always?
JULIA
But do you, right now?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Is it a great feeling?
SAM
It's a terrible feeling.
JULIA
Is it?
SAM
Like dying.
JULIA
Yes?
SAM
Like being born.
JULIA
Do you want me?
He stops, and gazes at her.  They have arrived at the front of their apartment building.
We hear music.
We hear footsteps.
Another man (Ar Ren) is there.  He's arrived.  He's out of breath.  He stops and looks at the girl.
CUT TO:
INT. BATHROOM.  DAY.
They're in the bathroom.  She spits out the toothpaste.  he's reading a book sitting on the toilet seat.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST / FIELD   DAY.
He's running through the woods.  We see her disappear through a field.  We hear him panting.
CUT TO:
INT. BATHROOM.  DAY.
SAM
I dreamt about you last night.
JULIA
What did you dream?
SAM
I dreamt you were running from me.   And I was running after you.
JULIA
Did you want to kill me?
SAM
No.  I wanted to catch you.  I don't think you wanted to be with me anymore.
JULIA
Well obviously not if I was running from you.
SAM
Obviously.
JULIA
That's sad, though.  [she spits again]
SAM
Yes.
CUT TO:
INT. KITCHEN.  DAY.
They walk into the kitchen
JULIA
Do you want eggs?
SAM
What kind?
JULIA
Any kind.
SAM
Goose eggs?
JULIA
No goose eggs.
SAM
What kind then?
JULIA
Chicken eggs.
SAM
Oh, chicken eggs.
JULIA
You want some or not?
SAM
Definitely.  Fried, over medium.
JULIA
MMmmmm.
We watch the egg, supersaturated, as it cooks.  It seems to glow in the pan.
We watch a fork scrape plate.  We watch him swallow.  We watch her watch him.
She throws herself on him kissing him.  They make out.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM.  DAY.
Lying in bed.
JULIA
What is the first thing you learn?
SAM
To hate.
JULIA
Why to hate?
SAM
Hating is easier.  It keeps the world at bay.  The world is less interested in you if you hate it.  It makes you normal.  If the world gets interested in you, it generally wants you dead.
JULIA
Isn't that a bit simplistic?
SAM
You wanted subtle?
JULIA
I guess.
SAM
Hate is pure.
JULIA
But so is love.
SAM
Love isn't pure.
JULIA
Neither is death.
SAM
No, neither is death.
He strokes her face.
JULIA
What do men want from women?
SAM
Aside from the obvious?
JULIA
Yes, aside from that.
SAM
Well, they want your eggs.
He strokes her ovaries.
JULIA
Do you want my eggs?
SAM
Are you feeling broody?
JULIA
Don't say that.
SAM
What, broody?
JULIA
Don't say that!
SAM
Why not?
JULIA
Just don't!
[pause]
SAM
Look at me.
They stare into each other's eyes.
JULIA
Look at me.  What do you want from me?
SAM
Don't ask me that.
JULIA
Do you think that love gets easier over time?
SAM
No.  I think if it's still there over time, it gets harder.
JULIA
But it's supposed to mellow over time, like wine.  isn't it?
SAM
Wine turns to vinegar over time.
JULIA
But it takes years.
SAM
Yeah, it takes years.
JULIA
How many years?
SAM
A thousand.
JULIA
You know what I like about you?
SAM
What?
JULIA
I like that you think you're smarter than you are.  I like being one step ahead of you.
He laughs.
JULIA
[she laughs, says:   ]  You think that's funny.
He laughs harder.
JULIA
You don't know how far ahead I am.
SAM
[still laughing]  How far ahead are you?
She gets up, wrapping the sheet around her.  She leaves the room, smiling enigmatically.  He looks up, lost, confused.
CUT TO:
EXT. BEACH.  DAY.
We are at the ocean.
We see:  her toes, scrunching into the wet sand
His eyes.
The sand, an expanse.
The waves.
her toes in the water.
Her fingertips.
Her lips.
her feet, running.
His feet, running.
CUT TO:
EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING STOOP.  NIGHT.  RAINING.
She's fighting him, pushing him away.
JULIA
What if I said I didn't love you?
SAM
Say it, then!  Say it!
JULIA
What if I don't love you any more?
He forces himself on her, kissing her, she pushes him away.
JULIA
You're a stupid self-centered arrogant son of a bitch.  You don't even know how fucking smug, how fucking arrogant you  are!
SAM
And you're a little lamb, all lost in the forest, looking for your great big daddy to protect you.
JULIA
Oh, and you're my great big daddy?
SAM
isn't that what you want?
She laughs, half crying.
JULIA
It's like you never understood me for one second. (quietly)
She's leaning against a pillar.
he sits on a curb, hand in hair, soaked.
CUT TO:
INT. BASEMENT.  NIGHT.
She's sitting in the dark, lit by a surreal spotlight.
She's wearing a white dress.
She looks up, smiling, as the camera approaches.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.  DAY.
They're walking through the forest, swatting at brambles, tripping, having a rough time of it.  It seems to take forever.
CUT TO:
EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING STOOP.  NIGHT.  RAINING.
They're screaming, fighting, in the rain.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.  DAY.
They're walking, in the forest.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST / FIELD.  DAY.
They're sitting in a field.
JULIA
I'm sick of you
SAM
I'm sick of you too.
JULIA
let's break up.
SAM
Ok.
JULIA
I never want to see you again.
SAM
Me neither.
JULIA
What did you bring for lunch.
SAM
what do you care.
JULIA
Lunch.  Lunch is lunch.
SAM
It's my lunch.
JULIA
You'd better have brought my fucking lunch.
SAM
If only it were that easy.
JULIA
Oh, if only it were that easy! [incredulous]
SAM
You think it's just as easy as bringing a lunch!
JULIA
Yes, clearly it's a feat second only to brushing your teeth in difficulty.
He smiles ironically.
SAM
What do you want from me?
JULIA
What do you want from me?
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  NIGHT.
They're watching television and eating potato chips.
JULIA
ugh
SAM
hrmmph
They groan and grunt satirically back and forth for an extended period of time.
CUT TO:
He is running his hand down her naked back.
she is shivering.
CUT TO:
EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING STOOP.  NIGHT.  RAINING.
we watch from behind, his arm around her shoulders, as they sit on the stoop and watch traffic.  It is early evening, last light.
She puts her head on his shoulder.
Her hear rain.  We watch it fall.  we watch a cat running through the rain.
JULIA
Oh, that poor kitty
SAM
time to go inside, kitty
JULIA
time for us to go inside
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  NIGHT, OR DAY.
She opens her mouth wide.
Her orgasm is slow, hesitant, almost painful.  She looks like she's crying as she's cumming.
CUT TO:
They are slow dancing, whispering in each other's ears.
JULIA
Patience, patience, a forest of ideas like silence registering its eager intent on the marks of your face like breaking daylight, ancient dreams, terrible visions, starlight, starbright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight, all shadows till the reign of dawn, a dawn, a dawn, a dawn, a dawn . . .
SAM
Don't stop.
JULIA
You are a sweep of patience.  You are a rigid and forgiving warrior, you are a firebreather, you are a scintillating power structure brokered in the night like weapons of war, bright and terrible and stinking of death, and beautiful.
SAM
Tell me your name
They continue to dance, slowly, he twists her out, slowly, slowly, in a spin.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.  DAY.
He continues to follow her at a distance, running through fields and forests.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT KITCHEN.  NIGHT.
It's night, they're in the kitchen.  barely lit.
SAM
Every day is too much.
JULIA
Too much for what?
SAM
Too much to live through.
JULIA
Oh yes?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Are you ashamed of being alive?
SAM
Not ashamed, afraid.
JULIA
Are you afraid of me?
SAM
No, not of you.
They pour tea.
JULIA
Do you think your love will be enough for me?
SAM
Enough for what?
JULIA
Enough to live on.
SAM
I don't know, will it?
JULIA
I don't know.
SAM
What more do you want?
JULIA
Doesn't everybody want more?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
When does it stop?
SAM
It doesn't.
JULIA
Where do we stop?
SAM
We don't.
JULIA
And you still love me?
SAM
I look at you, in the morning, and sometimes your face is ugly and I love you anyway.
JULIA
Yeah, sometimes you're a real ugly motherfucker too.
SAM
And sometimes it's beautiful and I can't move or think and I am unable to speak because of you.
JULIA
That's nice.
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Will you always feel that way?
SAM
I think so.
JULIA
You think so?
SAM
I think so.
JULIA
You only think so?
SAM
I know so.
JULIA
Oh so now you know so?
He sighs, sips his tea, looks out kitchen window.
SAM
Do you remember when we met?
CUT TO:
INT.  BASEMENT.  NIGHT, OR DAY.
She's crouched on the floor, looking up into surreal spotlight.
CUT TO:
INT.  CAFÉ.  DAY.
He is putting his coffee down at her table, in the café.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT KITCHEN.  NIGHT.
JULIA
No.
SAM
It was like I already knew you.
JULIA
That's a big cliché.
SAM
Yes, it is.  But true.
JULIA
Yes.  Yes.
SAM
So you felt the same?
JULIA
I don't remember!
SAM
Is remembering the same as forgetting?
JULIA
How can it be the same?
SAM
Is it the same when you look at me?  Am I going to remember and forget you over and over and never unleash anything that isn't yours, or mine, both?
JULIA
What?
SAM
You know what I mean.
JULIA
You're crazy.
SAM
So are you.
[pause]
JULIA
Once when I was a child there was a house and my room had stars on the walls.
INT.  APARTMENT KITCHEN.  NIGHT. (flashback)
[we intercut with a subjective camera, a child's room]
We see toys, little girl decorations.
CUT TO:
Little girl in her room, sitting, staring out window.
INT.  APARTMENT KITCHEN.  NIGHT.
JULIA
And there were toys, and I would play with them, and there was a moment in the playing where you would forget everything, and the inertia of starting to forget would be gone and there would be nothing but dolls, or blocks, or drawing.  Nothing else.  Even I didn't exist.  Just the game, just the room, and my hands.
SAM
and your hands?
JULIA
Yes, my hands.
SAM
you remember the time all your shoes were soaked from the rainstorm and you had to jump around the apartment  sliding from one towel to the other? You were so depressed that week from the dog that kept barking at you when you'd go out the front door and it always looked like it really wanted to kill you.
JULIA
It had the scariest eyes.
SAM
You ever hear of Stendhal syndrome?
JULIA
No.
SAM
The world becomes too much for you, like in a foreign church, or in a national park, a sacred grove, a piece of beauty that overwhelms your mind and body and you can die from it.
JULIA
Yeah?
SAM
You can die from beauty.
JULIA
I remember you looking at me for weeks like you hated me.  You never said anything about it.  You'd just stare and stare and stare and you'd tap your feet to music you were listening to, only your feet weren't tapping to the beat of the music, they were doing something else.  You must have come out of it eventually, because I didn't leave you.
SAM
Always ready to jump ship at a moment's notice, aren't you?
JULIA
Mmm.
SAM
Do you remember that trip we took to eastern Europe and we stumbled into that dusty little bar in Romania or Slovakia or somewhere and we were just sitting in the beer garden and speaking in bad German and the men sitting out back were speaking to us in bad German too.
JULIA
They were all mobsters.
SAM
That really skinny one wanted to sleep with you I'm sure, he wouldn't stop staring at you, hungrily.
JULIA
He wouldn't?
SAM
You were perfectly at home with all that male attention of course.  I said something to that skinny guy, and he said in German "you really don't know who we are do you?"  And all those guys laughed when the skinny guy told  them, they thought it was really hilarious.
JULIA
It's a good thing you didn't ask them about drugs or anything, they would have thought you were competition.
SAM
[He grins.]  Yeah.
[pause]
SAM
    But you wouldn't look at me all the way back.  And the waiter in the dining car kept coming up and asking if we were okay, because it looked like your whole family had just died.
    And they had those red and gold napkins in that car, I think they changed them at every border crossing to honor the local flag or something, and you had a whole collection of them, piling up, every time that waiter would stop and offer you one, like he thought they would help.

[they adopt the rote rhythm again]
SAM
What is the easement that defines where your consciousness ends and other's begins?
JULIA
I am a negotiation between the two of us.  I speak to listen and hear to speak that I might be silent in the journey between us.
SAM
I am part of you.
JULIA
I am you, apart.
SAM
A part of you.
JULIA
Parting you.
He runs his hand through her hair, over her scalp, pressing his other hand against her cheek.
She squeezes her eyes shut, almost as though she's in pain.
The room grows darker.
SAM
They are without rhythm.
JULIA
They are without light.
SAM
They know no storm.
JULIA
Or fire
SAM
Or sun
JULIA
Or moon
SAM
Or stars
JULIA
Life is one
SAM
Particle of
JULIA
Evergreen.
SAM
No one can
JULIA
understand
SAM
anything
JULIA
without
SAM
holding it
JULIA
in your hands.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT DINING AREA.  NIGHT.
She's making him dinner.
We watch brightly colored pasta and pasta sauce cook, boil.
We cut slowly, disinterestedly back and forth between eating and preparing.
She is bringing dishes to the table.
We hear the sounds of plates being set on tabletop, pots being opened, exaggerated sounds.
We hear him swallow.
We see her watch him eat.
We watch fork swirl pasta.
Mouth eating.
Her eyes watching.
Her hand, sliding over his.
His lips against her neck.
His hand on her breast.
She leans back against the wall.
His hand lifting her skirt, sliding it up over her leg.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT BEDROOM.  MORNING
Dawn.
He's waking up.
She's asleep.
He watches the light.
CUT TO:
INT.  TRAIN.  DAY
He's on a train.
He watches the scenery flow past.
CUT TO:
EXT.  CITY, DOWNTOWN.  DAY
He's walking through downtown.
EXT.  CITY, OUTSIDE SHOP.  DAY
He's bought something, emerging from a boutique with a bag in his hand.
CUT TO:
INT.  LIBRARY. DAY
He's in the library.
He's getting a book.
CUT TO:
EXT.  CITY, DOWNTOWN.  DAY
he's walking through the city
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT BEDROOM.  MORNING
She's dreaming, her eyelids flashing, moving flashing.
In the dream, she's swimming.
CUT TO:
EXT.  COMMUNITY SWIMMING POOL.  DAY
The man who ran into them on the street is there when she emerges from the water, staring at her poolside.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT BEDROOM.  MORNING
She jerks awake.
She watches curtains blow in a breeze.
CUT TO:
They are in bed, embracing.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST HILLSIDE.  DAY
SAM
I don't want you to run away from me.
She turns to face him.  Her hair blowing in the wind.
SAM
Everything that I've ever done has been for you.
JULIA
That's such a lot of bullshit.  You think this is some fucking Hollywood romance?
SAM
I want you to love me.
JULIA
And what do you think I want?  You think I want to sit here, watching you build something, or be something, and not know you?  And not touch you?
They embrace.
JULIA
Don't ever leave me.
SAM
I won't.  Even if you're bad in bed.
JULIA
Even if your socks stink.
SAM
Even if I fuck other women?
JULIA
As long as I get to fuck other men.
SAM
And then we'll tell each other about it afterwards.
JULIA
Yeah.
She kisses him.
SAM
Do you think that we're spiritually destined to be together?
Do you think that out under the sun somewhere is another couple like us, full of something like a beam of light, and that we'll meet them someday and tell them how to live, and how to love, and how to breathe, and how to become closer and closer until there's no telling us apart?
JULIA
That sounds pretty fucking claustrophobic to me.
SAM
Do you think that god loves us?
They stare into the sky.
JULIA
I don't care much one way or the other.
SAM
You don't care if God loves us?
JULIA
No.  Cause I know he doesn't care if we love him.   It's like sexual harassment -- there's too great a power differential.
SAM
Oh.
INT.  BASEMENT.  NIGHT, OR DAY.
In the dark basement, we see their 2 faces lit with spotlights, standing next to one another, abut 5 feet apart.
SAM
There's something about the way you walk.
JULIA
Is there?
SAM
A grace.
JULIA
Yes?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Would you like to join me?
SAM
Yes.
CUT TO:
EXT.  BEACH.  DAY.
They take each other's hands as they walk on the beach.
CUT TO:
INT.  BASEMENT.  NIGHT, OR DAY.
SAM
I don't have the grace of your walk.
JULIA
Not everyone can.
SAM
[chuckles]  no.
JULIA
Do you see that?
SAM
What?
JULIA
That man standing over there.
SAM
What man?
JULIA
over there.
SAM
Over where?
JULIA
Over . . .
DISSOLVE SLOWLY TO:
INT.  APARTMENT BEDROOM.  DAY.
her in bed.
CUT TO:
She emerges from the bathroom, hair in towel.  She is putting on lipstick.
She is putting on a dress.
CUT TO:
EXT.  CITY, DOWNTOWN, BY THE LAKE.  DAY.
She is on the street.
She is fixing her shoe.
She is staring at the lake.
She is half smiling at the flirtatious comment of a stranger as she walks.
CUT TO:
EXT.  LAKESIDE, PICNIC AREA.  DAY.
She is having lunch with a friend.  We see them laughing, talking.
We don't hear their words.
She is staring off into the distance, her friend stops talking, stares at her.  She stops herself, looks a little guilty, resumes the conversation.
CUT TO:
EXT.  CITY STREET.  DAY.
They are walking back to the apartment, having met at the station.
JULIA
No one looks at me like you do.
SAM
I'm sure you've had many men look at you with desire, with love.
JULIA
Yes . . . but not like you.
SAM
Was it a good day?
JULIA
Yeah.    Did you remember to bring me my present?
SAM
What present?
She kisses him, melancholy, laughs throatily, defeatedly, angrily.
JULIA
You didn't remember.
SAM
I'm supposed to remember everything?
JULIA
You remember all right.   You always remember everything.  Everything you want to remember.
SAM
You remember where you're supposed to be right now?
JULIA
You are such a sweetheart.
SAM
In the store, handing over your prescription, telling the truth.
JULIA
It's not like that right n--
SAM
Fuckin' telling the truth.
JULIA
I've got more truth than you want to know about, most days, you . . . you . . . smarty man.  I know more than you know about a lot of stuff.
SAM
What do you know about?
JULIA (uneasy, edgy)
I know about what you're thinking right now.
SAM
What am I thinking about?
JULIA
And what is wrought quietly in the night, working its way underneath our bodies like deadly foam, it's always there, in your face.  Right now it's in your face.
SAM  (a whisper)
You crazy bitch.
JULIA
Don't you still want to love me, Sam?  Don't you still want to BE me?  Isn't that what you wanted all along?  You think I don't know who you are?  You think I don't know what you've wanted all this time?
She tries to peek into the bag.
He whisks it out of reach.
EXT.  CITY STREET, CLOSE TO APARTMENT.  DAY.
SAM
What do you see when you look at me?
JULIA
I see everything.
SAM
Everything?
JULIA
Everything.
SAM
What do you see?
JULIA
Your sadness, your patience, your childishness, your love.
SAM
My love.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  DAY.
In the apartment, he is taking out a colored scarf and whirling it around her, putting it on her neck.
He touches her neck.
She presses him against the wall.  She takes off his shirt.  She rubs her cheek against the skin and hair of his chest.
CUT TO:
She is wrapping her fingers around his fingers, out the window, as they stare out.
SAM
Are you sure this is what we should be doing?
JULIA
No.
SAM
Maybe we should be doing something else.
JULIA
Maybe.  But what?
SAM
Maybe I should pick up with the next hot blonde I see.
JULIA
Good luck with that.
SAM
Thanks.
[pause]
SAM
Do you think that we mean anything?
JULIA
Do we mean anything?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Yes.  You mean something.  I mean something.  I don't know if we mean something.
SAM
Why don't we mean anything?
JULIA
Because it's too complicated.  You give it a meaning, and then it has to mean that.  It has to be something particular, instead of what it is, which is just here and now.  It's dangerous to give it a name.
SAM
But that's what people have been doing for centuries.
JULIA
People are idiots.
SAM
So you think we're smarter than the rest?
JULIA
Yeah, I do.
SAM
Maybe we're stupider than the rest.
JULIA
Maybe that too.
SAM
You act like you don't want it to be anything.  Like you just want us to be on hold.  Stay like this forever.
JULIA
I do want us to stay like this forever.
SAM
But we won't.  No one does.
JULIA
Yes they do.
SAM
No they don't.
JULIA
yes they do.
SAM
I don't mean people don't stay in love all their lives.  But no one can maintain this, like this, indefinitely.  Like we are.
JULIA
what are we like?
SAM
You know what we're like.
JULIA
Tell me something.
SAM
Yeah? [ him]
JULIA
If I told you I didn't want to see you anymore, would you pack your bags and get out of my life without a look back?
SAM
I might look back once or twice.
JULIA
So you'd do it?  You'd leave right now if I asked you?
SAM
Are you asking me?
JULIA
No, I'm saying IF I asked you, would you do like I wanted?
SAM
Would you?
JULIA
I asked first.
He sighs.
SAM
I guess I would.  If you didn't love me anymore I wouldn't want to be with you.
JULIA
And after you left, would you think that I'd been wrong, would you try to change my mind?
SAM
I'd think you'd been wrong, but I wouldn't try to change your mind.
JULIA
You wouldn't even try to get me back?
SAM
I wouldn't want to bargain for your love.
JULIA
Bargain for my love?  What does that mean?
SAM
It means that if you didn't love me, nothing I could say would change your mind.
JULIA
Don't you think I know more about myself than that?  Words are half of love.
SAM
What is the other half?
JULIA
Lust is a quarter of love.
SAM
Ok, what's the other quarter?
JULIA
Nobody knows.
SAM
Ahhh.  And what about all the illiterate wrecks out there?  Is love half words for them too?
JULIA
Well I mean for us.
SAM
Ahh.
JULIA
But even for them, they have to say they love each other.  It means more when they say it.
SAM
Perhaps.
JULIA
Come on, I want to show you something.
SAM
What?
JULIA
Come on!
SAM
What? (chuckling)
She drags him up.
CUT TO:
EXT.  STREET.  DAY.
They're running down the street.
EXT.  UNDER OVERPASS.  DAY.
They duck under an overpass.
They're surrounded by graffiti.
JULIA
What is the first thing you learn?
SAM
To hate.  You learn to hate.
He kisses her.
JULIA
[breaking off from the kiss]  And what is the last?
SAM
To love.
JULIA
Do you love me?
he steps back from her.  Stares at her.
Subjective camera, we see her staring at us.
The camera moves forward, and the camera begins to ravish her.
DISSOLVE SLOWLY TO:
EXT.  DOCKS.  DAY.
He is standing by the docks.  Watching ships come in.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.  DAY.
he is chasing her over the fields.  A branch tears at his arm.  She looks back at him.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  NIGHT.
he is asleep, twisting in the sheets.
she is slipping out of bed, putting on a coat.
CUT TO:
EXT.  CITY STREET.  NIGHT.
she is walking the street at night, cold.  lost.
She lifts the receiver of a phone, just to listen to it.  she lets it hang and walks off.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.  DAY.
he is getting closer to her
She goes around a corner of a rock
He runs around it, and she is gone.
CUT TO:
EXT.  CITY STREET, IN DOORWAY.  NIGHT.
She is huddled against the wall.  shivering.
INT.  APARTMENT.  NIGHT.
he awakes.  she is gone, he grabs his coat and runs out.
EXT.  CITY STREET.  NIGHT.
SAM
Julia!
Julia!
EXT.  CITY STREET, IN DOORWAY.  NIGHT.
He finds her.  her eyes are lost.
he picks her up, carries her home.
INT.  APARTMENT.  NIGHT.
He wraps her up in the blankets.  brings her tea.  She won't drink it.  She won't speak.
SAM
Julia?
When he stares at her face for a long period, there is a faint hint of a smile on her face.
But she still won't respond to words.
He sits across the room, huddled like she was, staring at her.
CUT TO:
He is holding her tight.
SAM
Don't leave me.  Don't leave me.  Don't leave me.  Don't leave me.
CUT TO:
EXT.  BY THE BAY.  DAY.
He goes out for a walk.  He see him crying before some heart wrenchingly beautiful scenery.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  AFTERNOON.
He is lost in her hair.  We watch him stroke it, wrap his face in it.
JULIA
You don't know where I've been.
SAM
Where have you been?
JULIA
You don't know!  That's the point.  That's the point.
SAM
Ok.  Fine.  I don't know.
JULIA
You're goddamned right.  You think you're so smart.   You think you're so fucking smart.
SAM
Everything I do is for you.  Everything.
JULIA
That is such a fucking lie.  What happened to Mr Me?  Mr Selfish?  Mr "I am Cruel to You Always"?
SAM
That's just a game we play.
JULIA
Oh, so it's just a game now?  Oh, I see.  What is the first thing you learn?
[he is silent]
JULIA
WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU LEARN?
SAM
To hate.
She smiles, evilly.
JULIA
That's right.  [she coughs]   That's right.   What is the easement that defines where your consciousness ends and the other's begins?
SAM
Julia . . .
JULIA
Answer me.
SAM
It is the sound of my feet rapping on your stairs, writhing against the doorway of your soul.
JULIA
But you don't know where my stairs are leading.   Only I know that.
SAM
You shouldn't keep that a secret from me.
JULIA
Oh shouldn't I?  Why not?
SAM
Because.
JULIA
Because we're lovers?  Because I'm fucking you?  This gives you special privileges?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
You think this is about revealing everything of ourselves, everything to the last drop, and not having anything left?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Well fuck that.  Fuck that.  Fuck that!
He slaps her.
She slaps him back.
She holds onto his shoulders, grimacing into his face.
JULIA
Give me what I need.  Come on, give it to me.  Give it to me.
And she is tearing off his shirt, and unbuttoning hers, ferociously, cruelly.
He hesitates, puts his head in his hands.
JULIA
Come on, stud.  Come on!
He looks up at her.
JULIA
Come on!
He kisses her tentatively, she responds in force, pulling him down.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  EARLY EVENING.
SAM
I'm not like I always was.  There's no point in you forcing me to be like this.  You think that I'll change and that we'll come out of it, and it'll be perfect?  What planet are you living on?
JULIA
What about you?   You think that you can just take some pretty girl and make her into your savior?  Oh, oh my savior, save me!  Save me from myself!  Be my mommy, tell me it's going to be ok!  Tell me.
SAM
Tell me it's going to be ok.
JULIA
Oh, it'll be OK, baby.  Mommy's here.
[pause]
SAM
Did you think love was supposed to be easy?
JULIA
I don't know what I thought.
SAM
You weren't thinking.
JULIA
Oh, I see, this is about thinking now.  Who was thinking?  What were we contemplating ? [she draws out the syllables]
SAM
Maybe we should go for a ride.
JULIA
It's like you never even look at me anymore.
SAM
Look at me.
JULIA
Like you never even listen to a single thing that comes out of my mouth.
SAM
Everything that I say.
JULIA
Are you even listening now?
SAM
And in listening, under awareness – [they overlap now] –

JULIA
Everything that you say is bullshit.
Some kind of goddamned demagogue with your speeches and spells and rituals . . .
You don't even love me any more!
There is nothing between us.  We're strangers.  You're looking at me but you don't see me.
I am not your guide, I am not your slave, I don't even know why I let you talk to me this way it's childish like I'm still five and you know some stupid rhyme and I'm supposed to come running every time you . . .
SAM
We can see outside of ourselves, see a shape forming between us
out of love and pain.  We are the deliverer of the mind and body, a shape for the soul, a pattern, a caress
of love, rich in rhythm and harmony and texture, a terrible embrace, a song, a world without pattern or reason,
where every last step of yours will be in movement towards an awareness of the rhythm between our breaths.
He touches her face, and she starts to fall into his rhythm, her words dropping off.  Eventually she takes up the same rhyme.
SAM
No one is looking and there is no tomorrow and I am nothing but the senses that dream of your face as an ocean or a bear, a tree, a wilderness, a wilderness in your heart.
JULIA
And I'm running out on the sea, a wave coming, coming, coming, nowhere to but inside, take a ride on the highway, lover, lover, lover, lover.
She laughs.  And they dance, slow.
CUT TO:
INT.  TRAIN.  DAY.
They're on the train together.
He's playing with a bit of her hair.
She stares out of the window.
CUT TO:
EXT.  COMMUNITY POOL.  DAY.
We see the man above the pool.
We see her emerging from the water.
She is ten feet away from him.
She stares at him.
We see his eyes, intense, unwavering.
CUT TO:
EXT.  OUTSIDE APARTMENT BUILDING.  DAY.
We see him running up to them, again, out on the street.
CUT TO:
INT.  TRAIN.  DAY.
Them on the train.
CUT TO:
EXT.  OUTSIDE BOOK STORE.  DAY.
They are standing outside a bookstore.
SAM
Do you ever dream of living a life different than yours?
JULIA
Different than mine?
SAM
Different than what it is now.  You, but a different you.
JULIA
Sometimes.
SAM
What are you like in the dream?
JULIA
Me, only sexier.  Smarter.  More beautiful.
SAM
I'm not sure about the smarter part, but I know you couldn't be any more of the other two.
She snorts.
CUT TO:
EXT.  COMMUNITY POOL.  DAY.
They are floating the pool, his face adjacent to her feet and vice versa.  They slowly spin in the water.
CUT TO:
EXT.  SUBURBAN STREET.  DAY.
They're walking.
SAM
Can I tell you something?
JULIA
Sure.
SAM
There's something about me I want you to know.
She smiles uncertainly.
JULIA
Ok.
SAM
Maybe it isn't important, maybe I shouldn't be telling you anyway, but I feel like I need to.  Because every time I look at you I get this feeling like you're the one I'm supposed to tell this to, and no one else.
JULIA
I'll bet you say that to all the girls.
SAM
Only the pretty ones.
She laughs, shocked.
JULIA
Oh I see!
SAM
No, I mean it.  I've never told this to anyone before.
JULIA
Ok.
SAM
There's a place I go in my head sometimes.  I think I could take you with me.
JULIA
Where's that?
SAM
Let me show you.
He whispers into her ear.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT BEDROOM.  NIGHT.
They are lying in bed.
JULIA
Do you know why I listened to you, that first day?
SAM
You remember now?
JULIA
I remember.
SAM
Why?
JULIA
It wasn't what you said, or how you said it.  I'd heard plenty of weirder shit from guys before.
She looks at him.  He looks back.
JULIA
When you told me about the way that you talk to yourself, in a particular rhythm, with particular images, like we do, it was like I had always known that.   Almost like I had always done that myself, although I know I hadn't.  It wasn't like you knew me, or I knew you already, no, it was like I was meeting myself.  Like you had reminded me of something about the look of things, and the way I would look at them, that I had always wanted to remember.  You saw them again for me.
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Show me again.
He gets up out of bed.  He stands before her, proudly.
SAM
No one.  No one!   No one.   No one.  No one.  No one.  No one.  No one.  No one. No one.
He alternates between shouting and whispering these lines, as he is approaching her on the bed.  He touches her face, squeezes her cheeks together, runs his index finger along the inside of her lower lip, and she shivers.
JULIA
Don't stop.
SAM
God.  Fainting.   On the Edge.  Of Breath.
He continues to speak.  She begins to shake her head from side to side, in abandonment.
SAM
Patience.  Patience.  Patience.  Patience.  Patience.   Race Around.   Up.  Up.  From Somewhere.  Around.  Race Around.  Around.  Around.
CUT TO:
Moment later, after her orgasm, she's lying on her side.   She's sad about something.  She rolls over on top of him,  her bra still on, and as though she has no choice but to continue, hesitantly, she gives him back these words, almost mournfully:
JULIA
Embracing.  Embracing.  Love.   Error.  Erase.  Endless.  Incense.  Endless.  Utterly.  Heart.  Less.  Sound.  Love.
He smiles knowingly at the beginning of her speech, but drifts off into a kind of opium daze, his face slack, as the words go to work on him.
XCU: Her lips next to his ear, as she says.
JULIA
"You.   You.    You."
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  DAY.
They are folding laundry.  She separates out her clothes and he separates out his, just come from the dryer.  They fold.  They do not speak.
They exchange a few looks.  A variety of moods seem to pass between them.
INT.  APARTMENT.  CLOSET.  DAY
They put their clothes into drawers.  They slam them at the same time.
SAM
What is it?
JULIA
Where do you go when I'm inside you like that?
SAM
Where do I go?
JULIA
You hide from me in a way I don't ever hide from you.
SAM
Maybe.
JULIA
Oh, you do.
SAM
Maybe.
JULIA
I don't hide from you.
He smiles.
SAM
I know.
JULIA
Don't I deserve the same in return?
SAM
Maybe.
JULIA
Oh I see.
She brushes past him.  Goes to the kitchen.  She pours a glass of orange juice, angrily.
JULIA
Did you think I wouldn't notice?  Did you think I was blind?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
So you thought I was blind?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
This is all beginning to make sense then.  [she takes a deep drink]  So I'm just a toy for you.  I'm just a toy.
He hesitates.
SAM
You're not just a toy.
JULIA
No?
SAM
No.
JULIA
You sure about that?
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
What do you see when you look at me?
SAM
Everything.
JULIA
Everything?
SAM
Everything.
JULIA
So, you see stars on my cheeks and the universe in my hair?  [she grows increasingly sarcastic]  You see moonbeams and butterflies in my eyes?
SAM
Something like that.
JULIA
Why don't I tell you what I see looking at you.
SAM
Yes, why don't you.
She starts to speak.  He stops her.
SAM
Don't leave me.  Julia.
JULIA
You always do that.   You're so fucking scared.  You're such a little scaredy cat.
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
Always.
SAM
I know.
JULIA
You are!
SAM
I know.
JULIA
Like the worst thing would be me gone?  But us together and miserable is somehow ok?
SAM
Are you miserable?
[long pause]
JULIA
No, I'm not miserable.   [pause]   Tell me something.
SAM
Anything.
JULIA
Where were you last night?
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.  NIGHT.
He is cutting through the woods at night.
He gets to a rock outcrop and climbs onto it.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  DAY
JULIA
Where were you?
SAM
I was waiting for you.
JULIA
Where were you?
SAM
Outside.  I was outside.  Waiting for you.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.  NIGHT.
He is writing, out on the outcrop.   He writes:
: :    Ar  Ren 
       2 Chesapeake 
       Halifax
\   \     \        \        \          \        \        \
there is a beautiful girl.      named Julia.
\   \     \        \        \          \        \        \
she wants to die.
\   \     \        \        \          \        \        \
                                                1 -  42

We watch him, flashlight in hand, as he finishes writing and folds the paper in a particular way and puts it under a rock.
INT.  APARTMENT.  DAY
CUT TO:
JULIA
You weren't waiting for me.
SAM
No.  I wasn't.
JULIA
What were you doing?
SAM
Nothing.
JULIA
Oh, nothing!  How tedious!
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
What were you doing?
SAM
I was waiting for you.
She walks away from him.
SAM
You wanted it!    You wanted it!
JULIA
Not any more.
She leaves the apartment.
He stares out the window, watches her go.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.  NIGHT.
AR  REN is picking up the paper from under the rock, in daylight.
EXT.  ROOFTOP.  DAY.
We cut back to the beginning, briefly.
JULIA
If I ask you to do something for me, will you do it?
SAM
yes.
JULIA
Are you sure?
SAM
Should I be sure?
JULIA
I don't know.
SAM
Well I'm sure.
JULIA
OK.
SAM
What do you want me to do?
JULIA
I want you to kill me.
CUT TO:
EXT.  LAKESIDE.  DAY.
They are eating sandwiches by the lake.
INT.  APARTMENT.   EARLY EVENING.
They are watching a video at home.
They drink wine.
Someone knocks at the door.
The other man, AR REN, arrives, steps in.
AR REN
Hi
JULIA
Hi.
Our hero stands there, motionless, watches Julia take Ar Ren's hand and lead him into the apartment.   Throughout the following conversation, he takes a seat, stares out the window, watches the two talk, off and on.
SAM
You knew what I was doing.
JULIA
I knew.
SAM
Did you mind?
JULIA
In a way I did.
SAM
Why?
JULIA
Because you were so goddamned arrogant about it.
SAM
How else could I be?
JULIA (sarcastic as all hell)
I don't know.   How else COULD you be?
SAM
Did you think I'd let you do it?
JULIA
Let me?
SAM
Let you.
JULIA
Let me?
SAM
It's not like you aren't in control now, anyway.  He's just a symptom, isn't he?
JULIA
Yes.
CUT TO:
It's later now.  Our couple kneels on the floor, hands touching.  Ar Ren stands over them, rather menacingly.
JULIA
Does this really have to be so dramatic?
SAM
I'm afraid so.
JULIA
I feel pretty foolish.
SAM
That's ok.
JULIA
So this is how you planned it?
SAM
Well, if you're going to die, you might as well do it properly, right?
JULIA
Am I going to die?
SAM
Do you want to?
CUT TO:
EXT.  CITY STREET.  NIGHT. (flashback)
Another series of flashbacks:
We see her sobbing outdoors.  We see her leaving the phone off the hook.  We see him picking her up and carrying her home.
CUT TO:
INT.  LIBRARY.  DAY.
He's in the library, picking out a book.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST / FIELD.  DAY.
He's walking through a field.
She's there, on the outcrop where the message was hidden.  Daylight.
INT.  APARTMENT.  DAY.
CUT TO:
JULIA
I want to fuck in your ear like a powerhungry leopard princess.
He laughs.
JULIA
I want to fuck you so hard the light turns to shadow, your eyes pop out and you forget how to speak, and you can't move, and you can't say you're sorry, and every time you open your eyes, you see me, staring back at you.
He gazes at her.
JULIA
And I want you to remember my name like it was burning through your brain, burning right through like a fucking death ray, I want you to remember it even when you want to forget, even when you can't remember my face or the smell of my skin or my voice or my thoughts, I want you to remember my name.
SAM
What's your name?
[long pause]    She sighs.
JULIA
This is a planet, kid.  It's a planet and you have to walk on it, okay, you have to walk on it and be happy if you can, cause there's no where else you can get to.  There's nowhere else.
SAM
Did you think you were going to enlighten me?
JULIA
Yeah, yeah I thought I was gonna fucking tell you something.  Something maybe you needed to hear.
SAM
What?
JULIA
Like maybe you need to stop thinking that you're the be-all end-all here.  Stop thinking you're the king.
SAM
Why?
JULIA
Because I don't love you anymore.
SAM
I don't care.
JULIA
You don't care if I don't love you anymore?
SAM
No.
She start to walks out.
He stops her.
SAM
No, wait.  I do care.
She keeps walking.
SAM
Julia.  Julia!
She turns.
JULIA
Everything that you do, from the faces that your lips and teeth and tongue make, to the way that you smile at me when you're afraid and ashamed and hungry and depressed and sad and arrogant, is a façade that I'm tired of seeing through.
If you went and put a gun in your mouth, and pulled the trigger . . .
SAM
Yes?
JULIA
If you went and put a gun in your mouth, and pulled the trigger . . .
SAM
Yes?
JULIA
I wouldn't . . .
SAM
Yes?
JULIA
Wouldn't that be interesting?
SAM
Interesting?
JULIA
Yes.
She takes out a gun.
SAM
You'd like that, wouldn't you?
JULIA
Maybe I would.
SAM
There'd be a kind of logic to it.
JULIA
What kind of logic would that be?
SAM
Higher logic.
She hands him the gun.
JULIA
Like God's logic?
SAM
No, like Timothy Leary.
He plays around with the gun, tests it out.
JULIA
Oh, higher logic.  Wasn't Timothy Leary God for a brief period, though?
SAM
Yeah, I think he was.
JULIA
Yeah.   So you going to kill yourself?
SAM
I don't think so.
JULIA
Really?
SAM
You disappointed?
JULIA
Mesmerized.
She smiles.  She tosses him a strange object of some kind.
CUT TO:
EXT.  MOUNTAIN POOL.  DAY.
They're sitting by the mountain pool.
JULIA
Did you really think that would work?
SAM
What?
JULIA
Loving me.
SAM
Yes.   I thought . . . that maybe you'd put something into all of this.  Make it realer than real.  AS real as anything and more real than that.  And I thought you'd like doing that.
JULIA
I have liked doing that.
Sam
Really?
JULIA
She laughs.   Yeah.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT DINING AREA.  EVENING.
They're eating dinner.
JULIA
I told my mother about you.
SAM
Why'd you do that?
He keeps eating.  She stops eating.  He keeps eating.   Eventually he stops eating too.
SAM
What's your mother have to do with us?
JULIA
Nothing.
SAM
So why'd you tell her about us?
JULIA
Why do you think?
SAM
Because you thought you'd get a little parental approval and sock it away for good luck somewhere, when the game gets old and you've grown tired, and you want a bit to remember it all by.
JULIA
What?
SAM
You thought you'd get my attention.
JULIA
Haven't I?
He laughs.
SAM
I'm a selfish man.  I want you for myself.
JULIA
You've got me.
SAM
Not enough.  I want more of you.
JULIA
What more do you want?
SAM
What else do you have?
JULIA
I think you've got all of it.
SAM
All of it?
JULIA
All of it.
Sam
Isn't there something left?   [he takes another bite]
JULIA
Would you like there to be something left?
SAM
Well  you know how men like the pursuit, the thrill of the chase, the chance to see your ass in motion as you're running . . . . running, running, away from me . . .
He smiles.
JULIA
Yes.  [she smiles]  What is the easement that defines where your consciousness ends and other's begins?
SAM
It is the sound of my feet rapping on your stairs, writhing against the doorway of your soul.
JULIA
What's an easement anyway?
SAM
Legal term.  Property borderlines, permissions for use, that sort of thing.
JULIA
You're such a nerd.
SAM
Yes.
JULIA
And you take that as a metaphor and apply it to us?
SAM
Us, and it.
JULIA
It's inside both of us now isn't it?
SAM
Wasn't it always?
JULIA
I still keep noticing it.  Sometimes.   In the morning, I smell it, and at night, it's there in your movements, even before you look at me or speak to it, it's there, waiting and wanting, and reading us, wanting us.
SAM
Language is like that.
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.
He's running through the forest.
We see his feet.
We see him breathing.
EXT.  FOREST, STEEP HILL.  DAY
We see him climb a large hill, from the top of the hill.
EXT.  TWO HILLS.  DAY.
At the top of the hill, he sees her, standing on top of an adjacent one.
He cries out something.  We don't hear his words.
She looks at him.
Her eyes are mesmerizing.
We watch him catch his breath.
she stoops and rubs grass between her fingers and smells it
CUT TO:
EXT.  FOREST.
she is stepping through the woods
he runs up, stops
they are 30 feet apart
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT.  DAY.
We see him caressing her cheek in bed
EXT.  FOREST. DAY.
CUT TO:
She turns away, vanishes behind a tree
He looks behind it, she's gone
We duck and dodge behind tree and dodge forward, always moving, we seem to see her in fragments at the middle distance
She ducks to drink water from a stream, keeps running.
EXT.  BEAUTIFUL FOREST MEADOW
They see each other on opposite sides of a grove
They do a kind of chess-move dance, advancing in precise controlled, oblique movements across a central meadow, meeting and standing on two rocks facing each other.
They extend their hands and barely touch the tips . . .
We watch their expressions
He starts to breathe faster
He has trouble standing up.
He collapses back onto the grass.
She leans down to make sure he's ok.  She touches his face.
Then she returns to the rock, and looks outwards.
CUT TO:
EXT.  TWO HILLS.  DAY.
Sun moving across sky at the 2-hill location, fast-forward.
EXT.  BEAUTIFUL FOREST MEADOW  DAY.
We fade slowly to black, on the meadow scene.
CUT TO:
INT.  BASEMENT.  NIGHT.
Their 2 faces in the basement, lit bright and stark.
SAM
I was looking for you.
JULIA
Why do you want to find me?
CUT TO:
EXT.  BEACH.  DAY.
On the beach:
SAM
Love isn't a good enough reason any more, is it?   It's both more and less than that.  I wish I'd never met you.
JULIA
Everything we see is a boundary.  There's no lines except the ones we make and we're always making them.  When were you my friend and not my lover?  When were you my lover and not my friend?
SAM
It's your biochemistry, not your logic.  You're a prisoner, babycakes.
JULIA
I love that dream.
SAM
Yes?
JULIA
You're so happy chasing me, and you're so sad when you get me.  And your sadness, the disappointment, it's not like the French little death of orgasm because you're so willful about it!  It's like you decide, like you decide to forget that I was what you wanted.
SAM
If I say I never wanted anyone but you, would that cinch the deal?
JULIA
Cinch the deal?  Oh, well excuse me, Mr. corporation man, I think I should have my subordinates review your business plan first.  Are we sure this is the appropriate step, moving forward, for both our companies?
SAM
You know what I mean.
JULIA
I know what I feel.
SAM
I know you're a crazy fucking bitch.
JULIA
Thank you, kind sir.
CUT TO:
EXT.  GRASSY HILLSIDE.  DAY.
They are rolling down a grassy hill.
Laughing.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT BATHROOM
She is staring at a package of white pills, in the bathroom.
CUT TO:
EXT.  BOAT DOCKS, MARINA.  NIGHT
She's on a boat, at night.
We hear jazz music playing.
She is like the prow of a Viking ship, stark and firm and erect, in a red dress.
She arrives and puts her hands in his, like a royal welcoming party circa 1590.
They step through a door, into a building.
INT.  ANTISEPTIC BUILDING.  DAY
They are walking down a long hallway.
SAM
Did you think it would be something different?
JULIA
Like what?
SAM
When you started to be in pain?  Did you think you could will it away?  What was it?
JULIA
I didn't want to feel like I was stuck.  I didn't want you to look at me and see someone different.
SAM
Who would I have seen?
JULIA
Me, unadulterated.  Unveiled.  Unknown.  Uncared for.  Unwanted.
SAM
I've always wanted you.
JULIA
Do you want me now?
He smiles.
JULIA
She smiles, says :    it's funny how men are so easily pleased.
SAM
Are we?
JULIA
God knows.
SAM
Does he?
INT.  ANTISEPTIC BUILDING.  ROOM WITH DESK.  DAY
They reach another door.
There's a man at a desk.
They fill out some paperwork.  He stamps it.
The man goes back to other forms.
They hold hands, and step through a final door.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT BEDROOM.  DAY
She is lying in bed, asleep.
We hear, in voiceover, overlaying an ave maria rendition :
[OR, he is leaning over her talking half to himself, half to her]
SAM
Do you see what I see?   Where would you put anything else?   Can you see anything else?  And if you had to die to look at her, in a medieval dungeon and renouncing all your friends and family, and your life was altered and shifted and changed, could you live with that one glance that she gave you before she went away?
She catches her breath in a starling gasp, the music hisses up and it quiet in a musical cinching-up.
CUT TO:
EXT.  SWINGSET.  early evening.
They're on swings.
We hear drums, akin to 'explosions in the sky.'
CUT TO:
EXT.  OUTSIDE APARTMENT BUILDING.  DAY.
We see the other man arriving.  He is running up to them, outside the apartment.
CUT TO:
INT.  ANTISEPTIC BUILDING.  ROOM WITH DESK.  DAY
They're in the paperwork room.
JULIA
Do you think you're up to this?
SAM
Do I have any choice?
JULIA
You always have a choice.
SAM
I'm ready for it.
EXT.  LOT BEHIND ANTISEPTIC BUILDING.  DAY.
They go through the door, and emerge into a parking lot / cement area.
They're surrounded by reporters.  We watch from above as the reporters swarm around them.
CUT TO:
INT. DINGY ROOM.  NIGHT.
We see Ar Ren, well dressed and sitting in a dingy room, narrating:
AR REN
My first view - a panorama of brilliant deep blue ocean, shot with shades of green and gray and white - was of atolls and clouds. Close to the window I could see that this Pacific scene in motion was rimmed by the great curved limb of the Earth. It had a thin halo of blue held close, and beyond, black space. I held my breath, but something was missing - I felt strangely unfulfilled. Here was a tremendous visual spectacle, but viewed in silence. There was no grand musical accompaniment; no triumphant, inspired sonata or symphony. Each one of us must write the music of this sphere for ourselves.   (- Charles Walker, astronaut, USA )
CUT TO:
EXT.  BY THE LAKE.  DAY.
We see Julia's friend, in a business suit, standing by the lake.
JULIA'S  FRIEND
Looking outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a universe of lights, I saw majesty - but no welcome. Below was a welcoming planet. There, contained in the thin, moving, incredibly fragile shell of the biosphere is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy. That's where life is; that's were all the good stuff is.
(- Loren Acton, USA )
CUT TO:
EXT.  LOT BEHIND ANTISEPTIC BUILDING.  DAY.
In the midst of the reporters, the two have put their arms around each other's shoulders.
Reporter:  
 Is it true that you don't believe in God?
SAM
God doesn't love us.
Reporter:   
Is it true you're both dangerous terrorists?
JULIA
Absolutely true.
Reporter:  
How do you explain your situation?

SAM
There's no explaining it!  If I were Isaac Newton would I explain the apples without explaining their falling?
Reporter:  
you're an idiot.
Reporter:   
you're a sophist
Reporter:   
Why do you command so much attention?
SAM
Shouldn't we be asking you that?
Reporter:   
hey, my boss just told me to come over here, a couple of lunatics with an axe to grind wanted to make public statement.
JULIA
We do want to make a public statement.
Reporter:  
so?
SAM
Life is what you make of it.
JULIA
Love one another and be happy!
Reporter 
(under her breath)  trite bullshit.
SAM
What?  Don't like that one?
Pause.
SAM
Then how about this?  There is no mercy without death.  There is no cruelty without a face to be cruel to, without love there is no face, no voice, no arms, no tongue.
JULIA
The first thing you learn is to hate.  And sometimes it's the last too.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT. EARLY EVENING.
They are kneeling before Ar Ren.
Ar Ren checks his watch.  He reaches inside his shirt.
They kiss.
EXT.  LAKESIDE.  DAY.
CUT TO:
They're walking on a street adjacent to the water.
JULIA
There is no reason to die alone and unfulfilled.
SAM
I can think of several good reasons.
JULIA
Yeah?
SAM
Everybody stinks, they don't care, so death is an act of protest.
JULIA
But they won't care.
SAM
But you will.
JULIA
You meaning me, me, or the rhetorical you meaning one?
SAM
Rhetorical you meaning 'one.'  One who kills him or herself will care that that death is an act of protest.  And it's a good protest, I say.
JULIA
Hrmph.  And?
SAM
The American dream of rich shit and 2 cars in every garage and everything is, naturally, ridiculous.  Why fulfill that?
JULIA
I'm not talking about stereotypical fulfillment.  Why can't you define it yourself?
SAM
Fine.  But what about if you can 't get it?  Regardless of what you want, what do you do when you can't get it?
JULIA
Well, what do you want that you can't get?
SAM
Well, obviously, I want to be rich and famous.  And have five wives.
JULIA
Ahhh.   How are your five wives going to like that?
SAM
I'm sure they'll like me being rich and famous just fine.
JULIA
The rich and famous bit is sort of a prerequisite for the five wives, it's true.
SAM
C'est vrai!
JULIA
You're a real asshole, you know that?
SAM
You're so sweet to me.
JULIA
I know.
[pause]
SAM
But you didn't answer my question.
JULIA
[sighs]  What was your question?
SAM
What do you when you cant' get what you want?  You're just supposed to sigh, and reconcile yourself to a life with limitations full of cruelty and pain and such, and treasure your happy moments when they come along and recognize they are fleeting?
JULIA
I think that's what adults do, yeah.
SAM
Not only is that a bum racket, it's suicidal in its own right.
JULIA
It's suicidal to want to live?
SAM
To want to live against all odds and in all situations, regardless of desire or peace, yes.
JULIA
Your greed is really disgusting.  You don't want anything but women and money and fame.   The ancient Greeks could've told you that you were heading for disaster – it's no wonder your empty life will seem worth getting rid of.
SAM
Such a moralist.  So, ambition, desire, want, you get rid of those, ok.  You move to a farm, fix cars, father children, pay taxes, die.  And then your children do the same thing.  And this is what?  Success?  Happiness?  Peace?
JULIA
It is peaceful, yes.
SAM
Maybe peace is just an excuse for being boring.
JULIA
So death is more exciting?
SAM
Maybe.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  DAY.
We are entering the bedroom, slow, slow, slow,
We slide up onto the bed.
She is in a slip, swinging from side to side, slowly, caught in dream.   She opens her mouth to scream.  We do not hear her scream.  She screams.  We do not hear her.
Her face is wide and afraid and vulnerable.
CUT TO:
INT.  CAR.  DAY.
He is driving.  Moving across the landscape.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  DAY.
She is curled up in a ball, on the bed.
CUT TO:
INT.  CAR.  DAY.
We watch his fingers clench on the steering wheel, tighter.
CUT TO:
INT.  APARTMENT.  DAY.
He is coming around the corner, entering the bedroom again.
She looks up at him, astonished.
CUT TO:
INT.  CAR.  DAY.
She is curled up on the backseat.