Machinima Script
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“Irreversible Damage” By Marie Galetto Scene 1: INT. PRISON CELL – MORNING Camera sees a dark, dirty prison cell with a teenage inmate sitting alone on his cot. DARRYL is a thick-set young man with his elbows on his knees, staring at nothing. Zoom in on Darryl. The sound of distant footsteps is heard and a cell door opens. He looks in the direction of the noise. DARRYL (almost to himself) Marcus? Darryl stands up and walks toward the cell door. Faint talking and shuffling is heard down the hall still. DARRYL (louder now, getting increasingly frantic) Marcus? Beat. Marcus! Marcus, is that you? Marcus! Suddenly a GUARD comes and starts banging on the cell door with his night stick. GUARD Shut the hell up! Darryl returns to his cot looking worn and lies down. He puts his hands over his eyes. DARRYL (V.O.) How did I get here? What are they doing to Marcus? Damn…what’s going to happen to me? They’re so…ruthless. He better have just given them the information this time. It would make his life a whole lot easier anyway. God, sometimes that kid can be such a pain… Shot of MARCUS in an interrogation room looking worn, being tirelessly questioned. DARRYL (V.O.) I wonder what they’re doing to him. Hopefully nothing worse than what I got. I mean, I wasn’t even the one holding out on them and I'm still here. I wonder how long it’s been. Seems like forever in here. One day would be enough to make me never want to come back. Cut to shot of Marcus, JOLU, VAN, and Darryl at their favorite pizza place at a table talking and laughing. DARRYL (V.O.) I don’t get it. I mean, we’re good kids. Marcus and I have pulled some stupid pranks, sure, but we aren’t like some of those drug-dealing, criminals that go to our school. It’s a simple wrong place, wrong time situation. Cut to black. But they just won’t listen. Darryl is shown, as if in a dream, running out of his cell and down the hallway looking in the other cells. He finds Van and they leave together. DARRYL (V.O.) If only I could just break out of here. Take down the guards. Find Van. We could escape together. I could save her from this and she wouldn’t have to be treated this way. She doesn’t deserve that. Darryl’s dream fades into a scene of Darryl and Van standing facing each other on a deserted, tropical beach. Van has her arms around Darryl’s neck. They are looking into each others’ eyes. DARRYL (V.O.) I could be her hero. She would finally see me as more than just that stupid, scared, chubby kid who’s always in Marcus’ shadow. I would be strong, her protector, the one she wants to be around… The dream is abruptly cut off by the banging on Darryl’s cell door. Darryl shoots up in his cot. He realizes what has happened and slowly gets out of bed and walks toward the door. DARRYL (V.O.) Who am I trying to fool? I'm not that guy. Cut to black. EXT. SAN FRANCISCO STREET – AFTERNOON Van is seen talking with friends outside the gates of her school. They are dressed in private school uniforms. DARRYL (V.O) She’s probably forgotten I exist. I mean, who knows how long I've actually been in here anyway? Days? Weeks? Months? Time is something strange in here. Something nonexistent and yet it’s always on your mind. Van’s friends leave and she begins to walk. Her face looks sad and worried. I wonder if she worries about me the way I worry about her. She must be out by now, why would they keep her? Marcus is the only one they ever ask me about… The scene fades to a shot of Marcus at his computer busily working on something the camera cannot see. I wonder if Marcus has told my dad about what happened to me. I wonder if he knows I'm alive. I wonder if Marcus has told anyone, if done anything about this. I wonder if he still thinks about what happened. I wonder why I can’t shake this feeling like Marcus hasn’t done any of those things… Marcus is seen shutting the computer down and going to bed. Fade to black. INT. PRISON CELL Darryl and cellmate ZEB enter the cell. They both look tired and discouraged. A guard locks the door and leaves. They each lie on their respective cots. Zeb rolls over to face Darryl. ZEB Hey, Darryl, you awake? DARRYL Yeah. What? ZEB Hey, I just talked to this new guy, Andre, today. Guess what he told me? He was talking some real big talk about some anti-government computer network called XNET. Crazy right? I mean, he was talking about how there’s practically this whole army of teens out there fighting against these damn idiots who locked us up! It’s great, right? Hey, you never know, maybe we’ll get out of here after all, huh? DARRYL (V.O.) If I know Marcus, I know he’s in on this XNET business. I wonder if he’s trying to get us out of here. DARRYL Yeah, well they better act fast because I've about had it with this prison food. Darryl turns to face the wall. Fade to scene of Van with her friends in front of the school again. This time when she breaks away from her friends she meets a handsome young man and they walk off together smiling. Fade to black. INT. PRISON CELL Darryl looks thinner and more worn. He is sitting in the corner of his cell on the ground with his hands in his face. He is rocking back and forth slightly. DARRYL (V.O) Why me? What did I do? What did I do to deserve to be locked up here for God knows how long? You know, it’s funny. Prison is the one place I never envisioned myself. I mean, I would have guessed I'd be homeless way before I ever thought I would get landed in jail. What did I do to deserve this anyway? The image cuts to a scene of a San Francisco street during the daytime. Marcus and Van are seen strolling together, happily talking about something. DARRYL (V.O) I don’t deserve this. Marcus was the one with the grand ideas. He was the mastermind, always has been. Maybe this was his grand scheme. Get me out of the way so he could be with Van. He always knew I had a thing for her. I don’t know why he never noticed the way she oogled at him sometimes. But maybe he did. Maybe he told them something about me to get me stuck in here. Maybe they’re having a good laugh at my expense. I should have seen it coming really, Marcus screwing me over. It’s not like he cared much about anything that didn’t directly benefit himself. Greedy backstabber. I could have been free if it weren’t for him. If I had just ignored him that day I could have been safe at school and none of this would have ever happened. If he had just listened to me. But no, everything has to be about Marcus. It always has and it always will be. He probably isn’t even working to get me out. Just sitting around, enjoying his freedom. Now that’s something Marcus would do. He’s the one who wanted to break the rules. So why isn’t he being punished? All I ever did was be a good friend to that scumbag and look where I get landed! Partway through this interior monologue, Darryl is shown pacing back and forth wringing his hands in the prison cell. Zeb looks on worriedly. Eventually Zeb gets off his bed and physically stops Darryl from pacing.
Hey man, you ok? Without looking up, Darryl shakes Zeb off and punches his square in the jaw. DARRYL You deserve this, not me damnit! You ruined my life! Cut to black. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM Darryl is sitting in a small interrogation room across from SEVERE HAIRCUT LADY. She is sitting back in her chair, looking relaxed and smug. Darryl is sitting with his head down and eyes staring at his hands which are in his lap. SEVERE HAIRCUT LADY So tell me, Darryl, what were Marcus’ plans for after the bombs went off? Silence. Darryl, now come on. I thought we had an understanding…? Silence. There’s really no need for this attitude. You just tell us what you know… DARRYL You know that I don’t know anything. SEVERE HAIRCUT LADY Do I know that Darryl? Your friend Marcus seems to be involved in a pretty big scheme here. It seems like he had some sort of idea what he wanted to do after the bombs went off. Silence. So if you’ll just let me in on what you know, we can get this whole messy situation sorted out… Suddenly Darryl stands up and puts his hands on the table leaning toward Severe Haircut Lady. DARRYL You KNOW I don’t know anything! I don’t have any information that you want! None! So just leave me alone! If I had any information I would have given it to you by now! I told you everything I knew the first day I got here! I've got nothing to hide from you people but you keep insisting that I'm lying! If I had any information on Marcus I would give it to you. I WISH I had information on Marcus to give to you! He was never my friend and he never will be my friend and he deserves to rot in here a million times more than I do! So just leave me be… With that, Darryl collapses into his chair and is overwhelmed with tears.
INT. VAN’S ROOM A dream sequence of Van’s room begins with Darryl sitting in a desk chair facing Van who is sitting on her bed. VAN I can’t believe you would say something like that about your friend, Darryl. He never meant for any of this to happen… DARRYL I know Van but… VAN What do you have to say for what you’ve done? Silence. Darryl, don’t you regret saying those things about Marcus? DARRYL No, Van. No I don’t. VAN (staring in disbelief at Darryl) But Darryl, he’s your friend… DARRYL No Van, he’s not. Not anymore. Not after what’s happened. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t be his puppet, waiting at his beck and call whenever he wants to do something stupid. I'm not going to let him use me anymore. I should have known I'd be punished for being a good friend to him. He’s always been too self interested to really care about anyone else. Van is crying now shaking her head. VAN I don’t understand… DARRYL (getting angry) What is there to understand? There’s nothing left to explain! He ruined my life and I just wish I could repay the favor! Darryl stands up and the camera cuts to Darryl shooting up in his cot in prison. He is panting and sweating as if just being awoken from a bad dream. He looking around and calms down. DARRYL (V.O.) Damn, that interview really got to me. I wonder what I would do if I actually had something on Marcus. Well they’d probably get it out of me. What I'd give to get something on Marcus… You know, the DHS would probably reward me for that kind of information. I mean, maybe I could even get out of this hell hole. Maybe I could convince them. Yeah, you know, convince them that I’m on their side now. I'll spy on Marcus for them, get them what they want, and I'll get out of here. I just need to convince them… Fade to black. INT. PRISON CELL Some time has passed since the dream but everything seems the same. Darryl is sitting in the corner of his cell. DARRYL (V.O.) I wonder what will become of me? Everyone back home must think I'm dead. I mean, even everyone who knows I’m in here probably thinks I'm long gone. Maybe if I get out I'll just go somewhere far away, save everyone a lot of trouble readjusting to my presence…if I get out of here. My plan has to work. They’re desperate for information. But things have gotten so quiet around here lately, I don’t understand. They haven’t called me in for questioning in…I can’t remember how long… A noise down the hall is heard. It sounds like a group of people talking and walking. It grows louder and Darryl looks up. The noises become more distinct and he hears his name being called. UNKNOWN VOICE (from a distance) Darryl?! Darryl where are you?! Darryl’s eyes get wide. He starts to shake his head. DARRYL (V.O.) No, no it can’t be. It can’t be him… The shouting comes closer until it is in front of Darryl’s cell. A shadow of a man is seen in front of Darryl’s cell. MARCUS Darryl? Darryl it’s me Marcus. I'm here to get you out! DARRYL (V.O.) And there he is, the one person in the whole world who I can honestly say I despise. Who I honestly wouldn’t care if he got flattened by a bus right in front of my face. The person who ruined my life. And now my savior. He’ll expect me to be thankful and gracious. To love him for getting me out. But what about what he did before? I’m supposed to forget that he was the one who did this to me? I can never forget. This is real, actual, physical hurt he put me through and I’ll know that as long as I live, Marcus Yallow will be nothing more than the sad excuse of a man who tried to heal this gaping wound with a band-aid. That will never suffice to stop the bleeding. I can never stop this bleeding. I will always hurt. I will always remember. As Darryl’s interior monologue is heard the audience sees Marcus come into the cell and walk toward Darryl who is in the corner. He kneels down in front of Darryl and puts his arms on Darryl’s shoulders.
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