Midnight Express

PROLOGUE BLACK SCREEN - SUPERIMPOSE:

THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY.

IT OCTOBER 6, 1970 ISTANBUL,

TURKEY -

SOUND UNDER, SHARP: CRACKLE - RIP - SNIP...

FADE IN:

A SET OF CLOTHES ON A HOTEL ROOM BED -- trenchcoat, bulky

white turtle-neck sweater, T-shirt, jeans, Western style

boots. SOUNDS continue, Accentuated. MOVE Across open

TRAVEL BAGS On The bed. Clothes, possessions. CONTINUE

Across FURNITURE, WASHBASIN, TOILET...A large room, high

old ceilings And windows suggesting Ancient Europe & design,

A haunting greenish AFTERNOON light.

We MOVE to HANDS, TIGHT - drawing out a strip of adhesive

tape,

SCISSORS move in TIGHT...SNIP!

UNDERARM, TIGHT. Tape being laid over it.

BACK OF SHOULDER. TIGHT. Tape going on.

BELLYBUTTON, TIGHT. TAPE going Then: a harsh RIP! SOUND

and the tape comes off the bellybutton.

HANDS with new strip of tape. Moving to:

HASHISH PLAQUE. Four of them, thinly pressed. One on top

of the other. The HAND wrapping a portion of the TAPE around

them and:

BELLY, TIGHT. SOUNDS of BREATHING stop. The belly is sucked

in. The TAPE is pulled HARD across, then CLINCHED. We

hear F.X. of HEART BEAT--

MOVE UP THE CHEST TO:

BILLY HAYES - 21, baby-face, attractive, medium build an

aura of innocence. His eyes moving off his belly to:

MIRROR. FULL SHOT. Climax. A creature in a bondage of

his own devise, he is naked in his underpants, his body

criss-crossed by a network of TAPE and 40 tightly pressed

plaques of HASHISH in every conceivable crevice of his

body. The eyes are hard.

NIX THROUGH HEART BEAT, SOUNDS OF AIRPORT.

CUT:

INTERIOR:

ISTANBUL AIR TERMINAL dirty, crowded, wooden benches,

peddlers. Turkish flight instructions on LOUDSPEAKER,

followed by mediocre English translations. NOTE: ALL

DIALOGUE IN TURKISH TO FOLLOW WILL BE MARKED OFF BY

PARENTHESIS. A CERTAIN WILL BE SUBTITLED, BUT SOME NOT.

LOUDSPEAKER VOICE

Pan American Flight 1 to Frankfurt,

London, and New York has arrived

and will be ready for boarding at

Gate 7 in 20 minutes.

REPEAT IN ENGLISH over:

BILL walking down a long CORRIDOR. He moves somewhat stuffly

in the clothes we saw laid out on the bed; his face

complicated by dark, rather ridiculous aviator sunglasses

and an increasing edge of nervousness to his actions. With

him is:

SUSAN 23, healthy outdoor looks, dressed casually colorful

like an American student abroad.

APPROACHING P.O.V. - a group of TURKISH SECURITY GUARDS,

in rumpled green uniforms, at a security CHECKPOINT inspect

the carry-on bags of several PASSENGERS.

BILLY tensely contemplating the guards as he walks.

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