My Sister's Keeper

Synopsis: In Los Angeles, the eleven year old Anna Fitzgerald seeks the successful lawyer Campbell Alexander trying to hire him to earn medical emancipation from her mother Sara that wants Anna to donate her kidney to her sister. She tells the lawyer the story of her family after the discovery that her older sister Kate has had leukemia; how she was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; and the medical procedures she has been submitted since she was five years old to donate to her sister. Campbell accepts to work pro bono and the obsessed Sara decides to go to court to force Anna to help her sister.
Genre: Drama, Family
Director(s): Nick Cassavetes
Production: Warner Bros. Pictures
  4 wins & 3 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.4
Metacritic:
51
Rotten Tomatoes:
49%
PG-13
Year:
2009
109 min
$49,069,310
Website
7,189 Views


ANNA:
When I was a kid, my mother told me

that I was a little piece of blue sky...

...that came into this world

because she and Dad loved me so much.

It was only later that I realized

that it wasn't exactly true.

Most babies are coincidences.

I mean, up in space

you got all these souls flying around...

...looking for bodies to live in.

Then, down here on Earth,

two people have sex or whatever...

...and bam, coincidence.

Sure, you hear all these stories about

how everyone plans these perfect families...

...but the truth is that most babies...

...are products of drunken evenings

and lack of birth control.

They're accidents.

Only people who have trouble

making babies actually plan for them.

I, on the other hand,

am not a coincidence.

I was engineered.

Born for a particular reason.

A scientist hooked up my mother's eggs

and my father's sperm...

...to make a specific

combination of genes.

He did it to save my sister's life.

Sometimes I wonder what would have

happened if Kate had been healthy.

I'd probably still be up in heaven

or wherever...

...waiting to be attached to a body

down here on Earth.

But coincidence or not...

...I'm here.

What can I do for you?

Fourteen karat gold, hardly ever worn.

That's my sister, Kate.

She's dying.

ANNA:

Montana? I don't get it.

- It looks like a whole bunch of nothing.

KATE:
It is a whole bunch of nothing.

- Just you and the big old sky.

- Why do you like it?

I don't know. I like big things.

I like wide-open spaces.

Besides,

it's the only place I've ever been.

That's Mom and Aunt Kelly

making dinner.

Since my sister got sick,

things have changed.

Aunt Kelly only works part-time

and Mom quit her job as a lawyer.

Her life now revolves around

keeping Kate alive.

Cooking and cleaning.

Everything steamed,

organic and germ-free.

- Have a good night.

- Bye.

I guess you could say

that we're a little dysfunctional.

But everybody loves each other,

and we do the best we can.

- That's not a word.

BRIAN:
What about that language?

- Nice shirt, sissy.

- Good, right?

- Hey, Mom, you wanna see our routine?

- What routine?

- Come on, Anna, let's do it.

- Hey, baby, what's your sign?

- Cancer.

- You're a Cancer?

- No, I'm a Leo...

KATE & BRIAN:
But I have cancer.

- It's not even funny.

- Yes, it is.

JESSE:
I agree with Dad.

- It was pretty clever.

- Boo.

GIRLS:
Boo.

JESSE:

It's not funny. It's not.

Nice. Nice. These your kids?

Yes, they are.

Question is, are they yours?

You believe that?

Hey, sweetie, where's your locket?

Oh, I didn't feel like wearing it today.

- Eat, Kate.

- I'm eating.

SARA:
Is it not good?

- It's really good, Mom.

BRIAN:

It's good to me.

I have lentils in the fridge

if you want some.

I'm fine, Mom.

- You're not hungry?

- I bet she needs to breathe a little bit.

- Maybe you should try to breathe a bit.

- Maybe I will a bit later.

Gross.

- Where are you going?

KATE:
Bathroom, wanna come?

SARA:

Will you breathe on me later?

BRIAN:
Having a child who is sick

is a full-time occupation.

Sure, we still enjoy the usual

day-to-day happinesses of family life.

Big house, great kids, beautiful wife.

But beneath the exterior,

there are cracks...

...resentments...

...alliances that threaten

the very foundation of our lives...

...as at any moment our whole world

could come tumbling down.

BRIAN:
I don't know when it started,

but probably around 11 it was 103.

ANNA:
Hey, what's going on?

SARA:
Your sister's sick.

She's been up all night with a fever.

ANNA:

Kate?

Kate?

[COUGHING]

ANNA:

Hey.

JESSE:

You ready? Come on, let's go.

Are you sure you want to do this?

You know you're nuts, right?

- I'll be right back.

- All right, I'll be waiting.

CAMPBELL:
When Anna Fitzgerald

first stepped into my office...

...I thought she was selling

Girl Scout cookies.

Thank you.

- Oh, my gosh, it's really you.

- It really is.

"I'm Campbell Alexander.

- I have a 90 percent success rate.

- Ninety-one.

What can I do for you?"

You've seen my commercials.

All of them. I mean, that's why I'm here.

- Hi. - Please don't touch.

Judge is a service dog.

- What service?

- I have an iron lung...

...and Judge helps me steer clear

of magnets.

Please, sit down.

- What is your name?

- Anna Fitzgerald.

What can I do for you, Anna?

That is so cool.

I want to sue my parents

for the rights to my own body.

Would you repeat that, please?

I want to sue my parents

for the rights to my own body.

My sister has leukemia. They're trying to

force me to give her my body parts.

You're supposed to give her a kidney?

She's been in renal failure

for months now.

No one can force you to donate

if you don't want to, can they?

They think they can.

- I'm under 18, they're my legal guardians.

- They can't do that.

That's what I want you to tell them...

...they've been doing it to me

my whole life.

I wouldn't even be alive

if Kate wasn't sick.

I'm a designer baby.

I was made in a dish

to be spare parts for Kate.

You're kidding, right?

CAMPBELL:

The kid wasn't lying.

The doctors started taking things

from her the moment she was born.

Cord blood as an infant,

white-cell transfusions...

...bone marrow, lymphocytes...

...injections to add more stem cells,

and then they took them too.

But it was never enough.

You do know what will happen if you don't

give your sister your kidney, don't you?

Rate this script:4.5 / 2 votes

Jeremy Leven

Jeremy Leven (born 1941) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. Born in South Bend, Indiana, Leven lives in Woodbridge, Connecticut, Paris, and New York City. more…

All Jeremy Leven scripts | Jeremy Leven Scripts

1 fan

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "My Sister's Keeper" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/my_sister's_keeper_14383>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    My Sister's Keeper

    Browse Scripts.com

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.