The Men Who Stare at Goats
- Boone?
- Yes, General?
I'm going into the next office.
Yes, sir.
Damn it!
My name is Bob Wilton.
I'm a journalist.
Part of my job is finding
where the story begins.
If you were looking at my story,
when I got a job at the
Or you might think it began...
...when I married
my college sweetheart Debora.
But you'd be wrong.
Because the real story of my life
began a few years back,
when my editor sent me
he'd heard on the talk radio show.
The guy claimed to have
some kind of psychic powers.
That he could travel with just his mind
anywhere he wanted.
He called it "Remote Viewing".
The man's name was Gus Lacey.
What have you seen lately?
Lately, I've been watching
the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.
Thanks, Mom.
Uh, and it turns...
I got it. I got it.
Mom, I got it.
Thank you.
It turns out...
It's the ghost of a dinosaur.
Okay. Wow.
So, when did this all
start for you, Gus?
It started when I was a kid.
Gus told me that
back in the eighties,
he was part of a top-secret unit
that got their training in the army.
In a program sanctioned
by the highest levels of government.
When I asked him what's the purpose
of this unit was, he said:
We were Psychic Spies, mainly.
That was our initial tasking.
Once they realized
what they were sitting on...
We were trained to kill animals.
- What? With...
- With our minds. That is correct.
Just by staring at them.
What kind of animals?
One of our unit's
stopped the heart of a goat.
Power... they unleashed in us.
Last week I killed my hamster.
You wanna see?
There! Look!
You ever seen a hamster
do that before?
- I've never owned a hamster, Gus, so...
- Just look! Look!
See the way it's glaring
at its wheel.
Yeah, I guess our hamster-owning
readers will know what's...
aberrant behavior and what...
what's...
- Oh, sh*t! Sh*t! He's down!
- Yeah, he's down.
At this point I'd been staring at him
Bizarre, right?
What is that?
It didn't die.
You said, you killed it?
Yeah, well...
Mom said no.
She said:
"Don't show the hamster dying"
"Show the tape where
the hamster acts bizarre instead. "
You should have seen
the Skipper at work.
- Who's the Skipper?
- Lyn Cassady.
For me, after Bill he was the
most gifted psych I've ever met.
He was like an occultic force.
I think he runs a dance studio now.
dismissed Lacey as a nut.
You know, the little man.
He's the one who says:
"Keep your head down. "
"Stay in your little town,
your little job. "
"You're a lucky guy,
your wife loves you. "
"You have everything you want. "
"You're not looking for
some great adventure. "
"But then, one day...
"The great adventure finds you!"
Ron's sudden death
was the catalyst for everything.
Deborah told me later that
it had been like a wake-up call for her.
What people used to call:
"The memento mori".
Ron's massive coronary
had reminded her that
...life was just too short to
waste any chance of true happiness.
to put everything in perspective.
A week after the funeral...
...she left me for my editor.
It seemed like such a tragedy
at the time.
We couldn't see beyond
our little lives...
...to the great events of history
unfolding out there in the world.
I was like a child or a Hobbit,
safe in the Shire.
Or a blond farm boy
in a distant, desert planet,
...unaware that he was already
taking the first steps on the path...
...that would lead him relentlessly
towards the heart of a conflict...
...between the forces of
Good and Evil.
Americans are a resolute people,
...who have risen
to every test of our time.
Adversity has revealed
the character of our country,
...to the world.
would lead,
...had a soft wind from my future
brought me the name of Bill Django,
But as it was,
I did what so many men
have done throughout history
...when a woman has broken
their heart...
I went to war.
- So, have you seen any combat?
- Yeah, no it's, uh...
Well, I won't lie to you Debora,
it's been pretty damn hairy.
Yeah. We've been
watching it on Fox.
Yeah, it's not, uh...
I've seen things that
you shouldn't, you know...
Well, I don't even know
why you're there.
Well, I think it's important,
people get an accurate picture of what's
- What?
- Ready to go?
- what's happening, so...
- Yeah.
- So, what is that... is that Dave?
- Yeah.
He says "Hi. "
Oh, that's, huh...
Is he gonna get his stuff
out of here?
That's...
I... I gotta go.
north to cover the fighting there
Wait, Bob, I'm just...
So, what's a useful phrase?
La tutlek. Ana sahaffi.
- La tutlek. Ana sahaffi.
- Right.
- What's that mean?
- Don't shoot. I'm a reporter.
Okay, that I'll mind.
La tutlek. Ana sahaffi.
I've been waiting for months for
permission to cross the border into Iraq.
All that time, I'd seen
the embedded war correspondents
...coming back,
swapping stories.
They all ignored me.
I had to get into Iraq somehow.
be able to face myself.
My wife, or that
one-armed fuckhead Dave.
DeWitt Resources, uh,
out of Arkansas.
That's right.
We make trash cans.
You're here for the conference, right?
Looking for a contract?
- I guess.
- What's your pitch?
Well... we're real cheap.
- Bob Wilton.
- Skip.
- Do you mind if I...?
- No.
- So you're from Arkansas?
- No.
- Been here long?
- No.
Be careful what you wish for.
And for my sins...
Faith taught me a lesson.
Lyn Cassady?
Lyn Cassady.
For me, after Bill he was the
most gifted psych I've ever met.
Do you know a Gus Lacey?
Skip?
Hello?
Lyn?
I've your hat.
Skip?
- You work for Hooper?
- Hooper? No.
I work for the Ann
Arbor Daily Telegram.
How do you know about Lacey?
I interviewed him a few months ago
for my paper.
Prick.
Follow me.
Let me ask you something.
What color were the chairs
in the hotel bar?
You were in there for hours.
What color were the chairs?
- Green.
- Beige.
How many lights are there
in this room?
A Super Soldier wouldn't have to look.
He would just know.
- A Super Soldier?
- A Jedi Warrior.
He would know
where all the lights were.
and he could tell you...
...how many power outlets
there were.
People are walking around
with their eyes closed.
At Level One, we were trained to
instantly absorb all details.
- What's, uh, what's a Jedi Warrior?
- You're looking at one.
- You're a Jedi Warrior?
- That's correct.
I don't...
I don't know what that means.
I'm Sergeant First Class Lyn Cassady,
Special Forces, retired.
In the eighties,
I was trained at Fort Bragg
...under a secret initiative
codenamed "Project Jedi. "
The objective of the project
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
"The Men Who Stare at Goats" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 Oct. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_men_who_stare_at_goats_13633>.
Discuss this script with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In