Halt and Catch Fire Page #5

ANGLE ON the garage space. The family cars never come in

here. This is a Silicon Valley DIY workshop right out of

1975. A sanctuary and homage to the life Clark once led.

Mixed in with the landscaping tools and power drills are

pristine circuit boards, monitors, monstrosities of

electronics. Apple II’s, Atari 2600’s, Altairs, TI-99’s in

various states of functionality, assembly.

The MUSIC continues as we...

CUT TO:

INT. MACMILLAN’S CONDO -- LATE NIGHT

Sleek, all-business housing of the new Reagan-era. This unit

is sprawling, but has hardly any furniture. A handful of

cardboard moving boxes lie on the floor unopened. A tube TV

on the floor has silver-haired Johnny Carson on mute.

ANGLE ON one moving box as MacMillan--in suit pants and a

white undershirt--rips open the top. He pulls out a back

issue of Byte magazine.

CLOSE ON the vicious scars down his left arm. Far worse than

the superficial glance near his eye.

INTERCUT -- MACMILLAN’S CONDO / CLARK’S GARAGE

-- Clark sits at a fold-out card table, working on an

original Apple I hooked to an old tube TV...

-- ANGLE ON the screen, almost all the light in the room

coming from the glow of BASIC as it scrawls across the

screen, Clark rapidly typing out the programming language...

-- ANGLE ON MacMillan sitting at small table eating a peanut

butter and jelly sandwich, drinking a glass of milk as he

reads under a single overhead light, Byte next to him...

-- LATER, Clark pulls apart a Commodore computer box in his

lap, his face betraying the joy of a kid opening a Christmas

present...

13.

-- CLOSER ON the article MacMillan reads. Entitled:

IBM’S TROJAN HORSE: HOW OPEN ARCHITECTURE WILL UNDO BIG BLUE

The phone RINGS. A cordless plugged in on the floor.

MacMillan looks up. Goes to it, answers.

MACMILLAN:

Hello?

(long pause)

Yes, I cancelled the prescriptions.

(long pause)

Because I don’t need them anymore.

-- ANGLE ON a big brimming tool box as Clark looks for just

the right screwdriver. He checks a few drawers, finds one,

then finds a rolled-up bag of choice pot...

-- ANGLE ON MacMillan as he hangs up. Returns to the table.

Stares off for a moment. Then comes back to the magazine.

-- ANGLE ON Clark now grooving more easily to the music as he

furiously types more lines of BASIC into the Apple I...

-- ANGLE ON Donna, reading in bed. She puts her book on the

night stand, turns the lamp off. The digital clock reads 1:35

a.m. She rolls over. No one there. Only MUFFLED SUPERTRAMP

still coming from the garage.

-- ANGLE ON MacMillan as he continues to read. CLOSER ON the

magazine byline. MacMillan takes a red pen and underlines the

name until the paper grows wet and soft with ink. It reads...

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