A Storm of Strings

 

BLACK.

 

JACK (VO)

Would you put the window up – It’s freezing.

 

CUT TO:

INT: JACK’S CAR – MORNING

 

We see JACK and MAGGIE driving through Anywhere-town, USA. It is WINTER and both are dressed accordingly. The passenger window is down. Jack (19) is driving and Maggie (18) is sitting beside him with an annoyed look on her face. They bicker constantly because of the major differences in their personalities and interests. However, their arguments are dripping with sarcasm, and rarely have lasting effect. They are very much in love.

 

MAGGIE

But it’s too hot in here.

 

JACK

So, turn the heat down.

 

MAGGIE

But whenever I do that you just turn it back up.

 

JACK

Because it’s freezing.

 

MAGGIE

Yea, outside. It’s not inside, though. Inside it’s boiling.

 

JACK

Well it won’t be, if you keep the window open.

 

MAGGIE

But it’s too hot in here.

 

JACK

So, turn the heat down.

 

MAGGIE

But whenever I do that – Oh My God! – I’m not doing this. Not again, it’s stupid.

 

JACK

No, it’s logic.

 

MAGGIE

Well, logic is stupid.

 

Pause. The passenger side window goes up. Maggie looks at Jack.

 

MAGGIE

Hey!

 

JACK

(smirking)

Oh, calm down.

 

He turns the heat down.

 

MAGGIE

Thank you.

 

JACK

Mmhmm

 

CUT TO:

INT: DINER – MORNING

 

Stripped of their winter-wear, we see the couple sitting in the booth of a diner. They’ve obviously been here for a while. Jack is finished and sits back in his chair, arms crossed, staring out the window, or off into space. Maggie is looking down at her plate, still picking at her food.

 

JACK

(looking at her)

Are you going to go tonight?

 

Maggie looks up from her plate, her mouth is half-full; she covers it daintily.

 

MAGGIE

Oh. Right.

(swallows)

I almost forgot about that – It’s tonight?

      (pauses as she wipes her mouth)

I’d rather not, but I guess I have to.

 

JACK

You don’t have to.

 

MAGGIE

Meh... I should though.

       

JACK

You should, but you don’t have to.

 

MAGGIE

Make an appearance, at least. You know, just long enough so that I can say I was there; and someone can be like, “Oh yea, I saw Maggie. She was there.”

 

JACK

      (laughs)

Kind of like Hitchcock.

 

MAGGIE

Who?

 

JACK

Nevermind.

 

MAGGIE

It sounds as if I’m like setting up an alibi, or something. Like:

      (deviously)

“Oh yea, I’ll stay there as long as it takes for someone to see me.” That’s what someone would say if, like, they were trying to rob a bank, or going to kill someone, and they needed to set up an alibi.

 

JACK

      (looking out the window)

If only our lives were that interesting.

 

MAGGIE

We could do it.

 

JACK

      (looking back)

What kill people? Or rob banks?

 

MAGGIE

Rob banks, silly. I couldn’t kill someone.

 

JACK

And how would we go about doing that?

 

MAGGIE

You know like in that movie you showed me last night.

 

JACK

What? Hold up a diner?

 

MAGGIE

Yea; or like, do it how the guy said, like with a phone.

 

JACK

That’d never work, though.

 

MAGGIE

Why not?

 

JACK

No one robs a bank with only a phone, you need a gun, or some kind of weapon. You especially can’t rob people without using a gun, or knife, or something.

 

MAGGIE

Burglars do.

 

JACK

Burglars don’t rob people, though; they rob houses, and museums, and stuff. (>>>)

JACK (CONT)

Houses and museums won’t fight back. A person will though, if you just go at them throwing wind-mills.

 

MAGGIE

So, we’ll rob a bank when it won’t fight back.

 

JACK

Why would you want to go and do that anyway? Your daddy’s already rich.

 

MAGGIE

I don’t know. It’d be a good story.

 

JACK

So is having sex with your friend at Hebrew Camp, but you never want to tell that one.

 

MAGGIE

Shut up!

 

She kicks his leg under the table.

 

MAGGIE (CONT)

(trying to be quiet)

You’re such a jerk! We were drunk!

 

JACK

(rubbing his shin)

That makes it so much better, though.

 

MAGGIE

(annoyed)

Right.

 

She crosses her arms and looks out the window.

 

JACK

You need to laugh at yourself more.

 

MAGGIE

Why? So, when you make fun of me, I laugh?

 

JACK

It’s going to happen a lot. I’m just saying be prepared.

 

MAGGIE

      (dismissive)

Right... And it wasn’t Hebrew Camp either; it was just regular summer camp.

 

JACK

      (skeptically)

Run by the JCC?

 

 

MAGGIE

(a beat; looking back)

You know when we rob banks you can’t make fun of me?

 

JACK

Why is that?

 

MAGGIE

Because I’ll have a gun then.

 

JACK

Don’t I get one?

 

MAGGIE

No. You’re the driver.

 

JACK

Oh, thank Christ. If you drove we probably wouldn’t even make it to the bank.

 

Maggie laughs.

JACK (CONT)

See that’s better.

(pause) 

How many of his movies have I shown you?

 

MAGGIE

Who? That guy?

 

JACK

Yea.

 

MAGGIE

Um... I don’t know.

(thinking)

About about two or three. I saw the one last night. 

 

JACK

(counting with his fingers)

Pulp Fiction.

 

MAGGIE

Um... that one where everyone is a color. 

 

JACK

Reservoir Dogs.

 

MAGGIE

And those two with um... Uma Thurman? – right that’s her name?

 

JACK

Yes it is, very good... You want to know something funny about each of those movies?

 

MAGGIE

Not really.

(smiles sarcastically)

But you’re probably going to tell me anyway.

 

JACK

      (smiling back)

Of course I am.

(continues his previous thought)

Did you notice that they all start the same way?

 

MAGGIE

Umm... not really.

 

JACK

Well, they do... Kind of.

 

MAGGIE

How do they start?

 

JACK

Well look at that first one – Reservoir Dogs. What happens in the opening scene?

 

MAGGIE

(unsure)

They talk about Madonna, right?

 

JACK

Mmhmm. And then they talk about tipping, because Mr. Pink won’t tip.

 

MAGGIE

Who’s Mr. Pink?

 

JACK

The guy with the goatee.

 

MAGGIE

... Oh right, the guy in The Island!

 

JACK

(scoffs; hanging his head in shame)

Why do I hang out with you?

 

MAGGIE

(cutesy)

Because you love me.

 

JACK

You’ll waste time on lame movies like The Island, but you have no idea who Alfred Hitchcock is.

 

MAGGIE

Well, I am a child of my generation. (>>>)

MAGGIE (CONT)

Unlike you, who’s stuck in several.

 

JACK

Yea, yea, yea. Anyway. The point is that it’s a long, cold opening in a diner.

 

MAGGIE

What’s a cold opening?

 

JACK

I really should’ve expected that... A cold opening is a scene that happens before the credits. And he puts one in every one of his movies-

(thinks)

most of his movies... Pulp Fiction has one too - you know the one where they talk about robbing banks. And both of those take place in diners. Then the one in Kill Bill I, takes place in a church.

 

MAGGIE

So, he puts a cold opening in his movies. I bet a lot of people do that.

 

JACK

Oh, but it gets more interesting than that.

 

MAGGIE

      (uninterested)

I’m sure it does.

 

JACK

After the cold opening, the credits come on, always with a hit from the 60’s playing over them. And then as soon as the credits are over, the next scene is in a car, or has at the very least a shot of a car. He’s got this formula: cold opening with a monologue by some gangster, credits sequence with a song that no one will know but everyone will like, and then a scene with a car in it. Reservoir Dogs: Diner Scene with the ‘Madonna’ and ‘Tipping’ monologues, “Little Green Bag,” Mr. White and Orange in the car. Pulp Fiction: Diner Scene with the “Robbery” monologue, “Misirlou,” Jules and Vincent in the car. Kill Bill I: Bill’s soliloquy in the church, “Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down),” followed by the shot of the Buck’s truck.

 

MAGGIE

Is that a fact?... What about the second one?

 

JACK

Well that one deviates somewhat, but not so much.

 

 

 

MAGGIE

(fake excitement)

Like, oh my God, really?

 

JACK

Kill Bill II has the cold opening from Kill Bill I playing over the opening credits. Then it cuts to Uma Thurman, in a car, and she gives a monologue about how she’s going to kill Bill.

 

MAGGIE

Do you not like it or something? That he’s got this formula?

 

JACK

No, not at all, it’s a great way to start a movie. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, he’s successful, so he must be doing something right. It’s just surprising to me that he can start off four movies in almost same exact way and no one calls him on it. The chrome-plated balls on that man. He probably has his assistant carry them around in a wheelbarrow behind him.

 

MAGGIE

... Well, that’s a lovely image to have after breakfast.

(looks up; beckoning with her finger)

Check.

 

CUT TO:

EXT: DINER – MOMENTS LATER

 

We see Jack and Maggie walk into frame, arm in arm, as they round the corner of the diner.

 

JACK

So, what are we going to do? We have about.

      (looking at his watch that isn’t there)  

oh, eleven hours till you need to be at her house.

 

MAGGIE

      (hopefully)

There’s always robbing a bank.

 

JACK

(laughing)

If I didn’t feel some sort of need to make you watch good movies, I wouldn’t let you watch anymore. You get too many ideas.

 

MAGGIE

We could go to the mall.

 

 

 

JACK

We went yesterday. And plus, it’ll be packed with shoppers.

 

MAGGIE

Yea... Park?

 

JACK

Did I not just have an argument with you about the temperature?

 

MAGGIE

Alright, fine... Movie?

 

JACK

That’s why we were at the mall, dear.

 

MAGGIE

(with just the slightest hint of disgust)

I guess, we could see what your friends are doing.

 

JACK

I can guarantee that it’s nothing you’d want to do. And you know they’re good guys. They’re the two funniest people I know.

 

MAGGIE

They’re certainly the strangest... Then there’s really only one thing left to do.

 

JACK

What’s that?

 

MAGGIE

      (casually)

... F**k.

 

Jack freezes, but Maggie keeps walking. After a few seconds, Jack walks after begins to walk after her.

 

JACK

(slightly confused)

What, like now?

 

BLACK.

 

Opening credits....

Author's Note

(>>>) This means that on the original document there's a page break in the middle of the line.

Reviews

[cloister]

Interesting.

Generally speaking, this is pretty good. I am assuming that this scene is itself a cold opening before the credits. It hints at a movie that intentionally follows the Hitchcock/Tarentino structure Jack has explained, with the further quasi-fourth-wall stuff of Jack periodically explaining that structure as the movie goes on.

Doing so in a way that still maintains drama, suspense, and surprise for viewers who are students of film will be a good trick, and a challenge.

I did feel at the very end that you needed a little bit of a reaction shot from Maggie right before the fade to black. Like, Jack says "What, like now?" and Maggie just turns her head over one shoulder, a sly smile playing on her face, as she continues walking back to the car. Just a quick look from her that says "yes, you loveable idiot, now."