Independence Day Page #3

NEW YORK SKYLINE - EARLY MORNING

A slow crane down from the Manhattan skyline, revealing...

EXT. CLIFFSIDE PARK - NEW JERSEY - MORNING

With the New York skyline across the Hudson behind them, old

men sit in this small park playing chess. Unlike the others,

DAVID MARTIN is in his early thirties, sixties hippie meets

nineties yuppie nerd.

He concentrates intensely on his next move. MOISHE. sixties.

smokes a cigar impatiently.

MOISHE:

What are you waiting? My social

security will expire, you'll still

be sitting there.

DAVID:

I'm thinking.

MOISHE:

So think already.

David makes a move. Instantly Moishe counters his move.

David furls his brow in thought.

MOISHE:

Again he's thinking.

Moishe reaches into a paper bag and retrieves a coffee in a

Styrofoam cup.

DAVID:

You have any idea how long it

takes for those things to

decompose?

MOISHE:

You don't move soon. I'll begin to

decompose.

Just as David finally makes his move, Moishe counters again.

David shoots him a look and stares back down to the board.

MOISHE (cont'd)

David, I've been meaning to talk

with you. It's nice you've been

spending so much time with me,

but...

DAVID:

Dad, don't start.

MOISHE:

I'm only saying, it's been what?

Four years, you still haven't

signed your divorce papers.

DAVID:

Three years.

MOISHE:

Three, four. Move on. It's not

healthy.

Moishe takes a big puff on the cigar and coughs.

DAVID:

Look who's talking healthy.

Suddenly David's beeper goes off.

MOISHE:

How many times is that now? You

trying to get fired?

David moves his queen.

DAVID:

Checkmate. See you tomorrow, Dad.

He gives his father a quick kiss and hurries away.

MOISHE:

That's not checkmate I can

still... Oh.

(yelling after him)

You could let an old man win once

in a while, it wouldn't kill you.

CUT TO:

EXT. NEW YORK CITY STREETS - MINUTES LATER

David pedals his bike through mid-town Manhattan. He arrives

at COMPACT CABLE SYSTEMS.

INT. COMPACT CABLE OFFICES - LATER

His bike hoisted on his shoulder, David squeezes through the

revolving doors. MARTY GILBERT, short, nervous and harried,

comes rushing over.

MARTY:

What the hell is the point of

having a beeper if you don't turn

it on?

DAVID:

It was turned on. I was ignoring

you. What's the big emergency?

MARTY:

Started this morning. Every

channel is making like it's

nineteen fifty. Snow, static, all

kinds of distortions. No one

knows what the hell is going on.

David deposits his bike in the kitchenette as Marty tosses his

coke bottle in the trash. David retrieves it.

DAVID:

Damn it, Marty. There's a reason

we have bins labeled "recycle."

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes