
What Goes Up
CAMPBELL:
In my line of workthere are two cardinal rules.
Tell the truth,
and never, ever become
emotionally involved with
your subject.
The trouble is, you see, all
truths are in fact half true,
like when you
read the newspaper.
It's never just the facts.
There's always judgment.
It goes all the way
back to when Jesus died.
No one really knew
what to think of him,
it on paper and said,
"Here,
here's the gospel truth."
Legends aren't born,
they're written.
And really, that's what we
all do one way or another,
when someone we love dies,
(LUCY CRYING)
and not just anyone,
when it's someone extraordinary,
your own personal Jesus.
Why not? A hero.
When they up and die,
we're left with nothing.
Nothing but the task.
Make them immortal.
(CAT SCREECHING)
Only a magnificent epitaph
and it's up to us,
the ones left behind,
to write it
however we see fit.
# Rockets away, my boys
Rockets away
# Into the air we soar
and in a blaze of glory ever #
CAMPBELL:
This is 1986,a few days before
the whole Challenger
Space Shuttle mishap.
...for soon-to-be teacher
in space, Christa McAuliffe.
This is her hometown.
Proud, overjoyed.
For a few more days,
at any rate.
(WHISTLE BLOWING)
(BAND PLAYING)
And in the same town, this very
same week, another teacher died.
Their teacher.
They were the unteachable,
the outcasts, the freaks,
the future fuckups
of America,
and they loved him back.
Well, most of them did.
Before their story
collided with mine,
there was another hero
who left this world,
my world, New York City,
three weeks earlier.
I was a newspaper reporter,
and like most, I was a cynic,
but I secretly yearned
to be proved wrong.
MAN:
Hey, Babbitt, nice article.
Thank you.
To believe in something,
someone.
And once you're a believer,
well, what's to say?
It's very potent stuff.
(CAMERA CLICKING)
Perfect.
She was witness to a murder, so
I couldn't use her real name.
I called her Angela,
because Angela saw the face
of the boy who killed her son.
She saw his shock and pain.
"The fullness of his action
coming down on his adolescent face,
"still just a child himself."
I painted her as a hero,
and she was.
I just don't know what she
My baby.
I never got
the chance to ask.
(GAS HISSING)
(DOOR OPENS)
(ANGELA COUGHING)
CAMPBELL:
No, no, no!(GLASS SHATTERING)
(TYPING)
CAMPBELL:
I didn't really lie.All right, f*ck it. I lied.
I kept her alive doing the things
I thought she should have done.
I went a bit overboard, perhaps,
but this is what we do.
You want them to live on,
turn the life into a legend.
Your latest,
it's a little baroque.
I'm going to tone it down.
It's gotta stop,
and that's that.
You're obsessing,
and frankly, you smell.
But in the workplace, personal
crusades tend to make others...
DONNA:
Stop that....uncomfortable.
I'm sending you
to New Hampshire.
Local hero, your favorite.
Teacher in space, hometown
hoopla, blah, blah, blah.
(BURSTING)
DONNA:
I hope youfucking die up there.
(BAND PLAYING
Shit. Shit!
(HORN BLARING)
# Hurrah for the flag
of the free!
# May it wave
as our standard forever
# The gem of the land
and the sea
# And the banner of the right
# Let despots remember the day
# When our fathers
with mighty endeavor
(TESS RETCHING)
# Proclaimed as they marched
to the fray
# That by their might
and by their right
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Citation
Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:
"What Goes Up" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 16 Jan. 2021. <https://www.scripts.com/script/what_goes_up_23269>.