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THIRTEEN: IN WHICH many secrets are revealed and our hero learns -- from the very lips of his kidnapper -- the details of a conspiracy desperate, titanic and bold ... AND IN WHICH, many thousands of miles away, Elizabeth uncovers a mean and terrible truth ...

(the sweetest shufflin' tap-dance you ever did see)

EXT. SYKES' CAGE - DAY

Sykes' cage, at the end of its thick black rope, is floating through a dense and billowing cloud. Above, we can see the bi-place, its engine straining under full throttle, racing through the whiteness. Sykes is holding onto the bars of his cage, watching the bi-plane. His eyes are alive and amused and curious, but not at all afraid.

Then, as Sykes watches, the pilot appears, climbing nimbly out of his cockpit, walking back along the wide, stubby bottom wing, and lowering himself skillfully onto the rope that is supporting Sykes' cage. The pilot is carrying a large thick blanket.

He slides down the rope and with a quick grin passes the blanket in through the bars to Sykes, who accepts it with a smile of thanks and watches as the pilot scrambles back up the rope and into his cockpit again.

DISSOLVE TO:


SERIES OF SHOTS

Sykes, bundled now in the blanket, is hunkered down in the bottom of his cage. Beneath us, the landscape races by -- dangerously close by -- as the plane barely skims along above the ground.

Snow-capped mountains race by below ... then snow-clad mountains ... then the ice of glaciers ... then solid, endless fields of ice ...

Snow swirls around the cage, around Sykes, who is shivering ... then beating at himself frantically for warmth ... then stiff and motionless beneath the blanket -- as if frozen into a solid block of ice ...
DISSOLVE TO:


EXT. THE NORTH POLE - DAY

A field of white ... ice and snow ... bright and almost featureless except for -- at its center -- a single black dot ...

The CAMERA -- inside the bi-plane now -- APPROACHES, sweeping forward, still low to the ground. The black dot swells, resolves into a shape -- and we begin to grasp its scale ... It's enormous -- a structure built of tar-blackened timbers into the shape of a hexa~on that stands out sharply now against its gleaming white background.

And from the center of the building, soaring up over two hundred feet into the sky, a slim metal mast supports a bright and shining copper ball.

The plane soars past the huge building. The pilot is watching the terrain closely now. A huge drift of soft snow looms up ahead. The pilot pulls a lever and Sykes' cage is suddenly cut loose, drops the few feet down into the snow, bounces twice, then comes to rest half-buried in the powdery snow bank.

The bi-plane disappears into the whiteness, and suddenly other shapes appear -- from every direction, converging, dozens of OLD MEN and WOMEN running and hobbling forward on snowshoes.

They reach the cage and paw the snow away. Sykes is motionless inside. The old people exchange brief frightened glances, then scurry back out of the way as two very strong old men appear, plodding forward, carrying tanks of oxygen and acetylene. They quickly and nimbly fire up a searingly hot torch and set to work cutting open the bars to Sykes' cage.


INT. THE HEXAGON BUILDING - DAY

The interior of the building is a giant-sized replica of Lastie's laboratory in Montana -- dynamo and condensers and coils: all are the same but much, much larger. And in the space surrounding the huge electrical equipment, long work tables have been arranged into a kind of assembly-line -- stacked high in places with cardboard cartons all bearing the same simple design: the Mohawk Indian and the jagged bolt of lightning.

Sykes is rushed inside and the large door is quickly pushed shut against the cold, snowy wind. A brass bed has been set up in one comer of the single huge room. Sykes is lowered gently into the bed and covered with piles of thick, warm blankets. The old people fuss and hover around him, massaging his hands and face and exhanging looks that are almost frantic in their fear and concern.

Then several of the old people step aside to make room, and there appears now, at the foot of the bed, a very old man. His face is thinner and more wrinkled than when we saw it last, and he is wearing not his thread-bare tuxedo but a checkered flannel workshirt and overalls with suspenders instead -- but he is nevertheless clearly recognizable. It is Lastie MoJoe.

He looks at Sykes with eyes that are filled with concern, and the other old people are all watching Lastie now, as if looking to him for some word or feat of magic that will restore Sykes to life.

And suddenly, as though Lastie's presence had somehow worked a miracle, Sykes' eyes pop open and his body leaps bolt upright. The old people gasp and dart backwards in fear and awe.

Sykes' eyes are fixed straight ahead as if at some hallucination or incredible vision that he is seeing, and he immediately begins to speak -- to shout out, breathless, and filled with passion:


SYKES
L.A.!! You want ta talk about L.A.?! I'll talk about L.A., and how I seen a Cadillac on the freeway in L.A. with the happiest man I ever seen in my life drivin' it! . .. And as I started ta pass him on by, I looked over an' saw the prettiest -- I mean the cutest blond head movin' up an' down there where his lap would normally be -- And I just rode .. on next ta that Cadillac for a while and that guy's expression drivin' it -- it never changed! ... Then the next thing I knowed, he was pointin' ta the exit sign up ahead and we pulled off the road together and I stopped behind him right off the ramp there -- and that driver's-side-door of that Cadillac opened up all of a sudden and that blond curly head wrapped in a soft furry coat was walkin' my way! ... And without a whimper or a sigh, she sat down beside me and I began ta smile and that Cadillac drove away! Then instead of sittin' she curled up like a kitten on the seat beside me and undid my whachamacallit -- and I stepped on the accelerator and pulled back on the freeway -- and drove -- and FLOATED -- and DROVE!...

The old people are tittering and looking at each other and at Lastie -- simultaneously confused and embarrased and intrigued by the story. They try to push Sykes back under the covers, but his body is rigid and unyielding, so they settle for draping the blankets around his shoulders, as -- all the while - Sykes continues to shout in a voice charged with passion:


SYKES
And about twenty-five miles up the road, from outta the comer of my eye I noticed a plumber in one of them high-off-the-ground kinda plumber's trucks smilin' and lookin' down on me -- An' I smiled back on over ta him and pointed ta the next exit and pulled off the road! . .. And the same as it happened ta me, it happened ta him!... And I began wonderin' if she ever stopped -- If she ever had a place ta light -- Or if she just did what she did day an' night -- And I thought -- if she's doin' what she's doin' in L.A., then she's probably not the only one that does it -- And I started wonderin' what the other ones looked like and if they'd be as pretty -- So I stayed on that freeway all day an' all night long lookin' an' searchin' in every car I passed -- And figurin' out -- That's the reason -- THAT'S THE REASON there's so much God-damned traffic on them freeways in L.A.!!

At which exact point -- to the astonishment of Lastie and the others, who despite themselves are chuckling and laughing at the story, Sykes simply closes his eyes and collapses backwards into the bed.


INf. LASTIE'S LABORATORY IN MONfANA - DAY

The hologram -- or three dimensional image - of Lastie, as he was eight years ago, is pacing back and forth inside the dusty, abandoned laboratory. All around him, investigators and POLICE are swarming in frantic activity -- dusting for fingerprints, examining the pages of notes and designs through high-powered magnifying glasses, and trying -- amid the chaos -- to avoid the eerie and unsettling experience of having the image of Lastie walk straight through them.

The CAMERA MOVES, and we can see, in the foreground, P.P. Peoria, watching the activity with a senile and pleased and spaced-out smile. He is tucked into his wheelchair with a bright plaid blanket. Charles, his Negro retainer, very tall and also very old, stands dutifully behind him. A new set of gorgeous (and obviously untested) "Just-in-Case" Girls are clustered around nearby.

Elizabeth and Aames are standing, a few paces off, watching quietly.

When P.P. Peoria speaks now, it is in a very high, quavering voice, and although he never turns towards him, he is talking to Charles:


P.P.PEORIA
I was a mean son-of-a-bitch when I was young ... Wasn't I, Charles ... ?

CHARLES
(Just like Uncle Remus)
Yes, sir, Masta Peoria. You sunly was mean.

P.P.PEORIA
And everybody hated me, then ... Didn't they, Charles ... ?

CHARLES
Yes, sir, Masta Peoria... They sunly did.

P.P.PEORIA
But when Lastie MoJoe gives me my eternal life pill, and I give the world happiness, then everyone will love me ... Won't they, Charles ... ?

CHARLES
Yes, sir, Masta Peoria... They sunly will.

P.P. Peoria smiles reassuringly to himself. A beat; he's trying to remember something.


P.P.PEORIA
Is it Christmas yet, Charles ... ? I can't remember ...

CHARLES
Yes, sir, Masta Peoria... It sunly is Christmas.

Charles' answer seems to have put P.P. Peoria into a peaceful swoon, and he instantly nods off to sleep. Charles -- his duty performed turns and smiles warmly at Elizabeth.

CHARLES
And that's the way it's been every day for the last twenty-five years or more, now ...
(sadly)
He's just been waitin' around here for that old eternal life pill that he wants so bad ... So he won't die ...

The hologram of Lastie paces over and walks straight through P.P. Peoria, asleep in his wheelchair. Elizabeth watches it walk outside, then turns back to Charles.


ELIZABETH
And you had no idea that Lastie MoJoe had gone away ... ?


CHARLES
(scratching his head; watching
the hologram; perplexed)
That's right, Ma'am ... That old Lastie MoJoe done fooled us real bad ...

ELIZABETH
And the "happiness machine" ... Did you ever see it work...?

Charles' face lights up. His smile broadens and he speaks now with a genuine enthusiasm:

CHARLES
Yes, sir, Ma'am. I sholy did! And it sunly was somethin'!
(a beat; remembering)
And yes, sir, Ma' am, I sholy did feel genuinely happy. I didn't feel no oppression or nothin' when it was on... It was just like bein' a little boy again -- shufflin' around an' tappin' around at one a them dances we used ta have back then ...

He leaves his position behind the wheelchair. His smile becomes dreamier, and broader, and he begins to do the sweetest shuffling tap dance you ever did see.

CHARLES
(shufflin' and tappin')
And smilin' an' bein' filled with nothin' but the sweet, sweet feelin' of joy!. .. An' Masta Peoria - there weren't no way on God's good earth that he was gonna give Masta MoJoe the money ta buy the power ta run that happiness machine of his by -- 'till -- he -- got -- his -- pill!

He is still dancing and floating and lapsing further into the joy of remembering:


CHARLES
(really Uncle Remus-like now)
Then one day Ole Masta Diamond Jim came shufflin' along ... An' man, o'man -- I can tell ya rightly, Ma'am, that the shit sunly did hit the fan!

He laughs -- a high shrill remembering laugh -- shaking his head as though he's seeing it there in front of him. He continues dancing:


CHARLES
Tusselin' -- an' fightin' == an' chasin' -- an' screamin' -- An' Masta Diamond Jim thinkin' he killed a body -- when rightly he didn't kill a body at all!

Elizabeth, startled by this, looks at Aames. Aames shrugs; it's news to him, too.


,
CHARLES
(dancing; starry-eyed with remembering)
An' all of us laughin -- till I thought I'd die as they carried his wise-ass ass off ta prison ... Yes, sir, Ma'am, we sunly did have ourselves a time that day ...
(his biggest, broadest grin)
We sunly was mean!



INT. THE HEXAGON BUILDING - NIGHT

Lastie is sitting on the edge of the big brass bed, anxiously watching Sykes, whose eyes are still closed in sleep. The other old people -- including now the pilot of the bi-plane -- all are sitting or squatting around nearby. They all seem tired or nervous - as if their vigil has been a long one. They cast worried little looks off toward a clock that ticks away loudly somewhere across the room -- the only sound in the entire cavernous laboratory.

Then Sykes begins to stir; his eyes begin to open. The old people draw closer, and as Sykes' eyes focus on them, they smile at him sweetly and reassuringly.

Sykes' eyes come to rest on Lastie, who smiles, hopefully and gently, and begins now to speak:

LASTIE
Do you remember me, son ... ? I'm your long lost friend, Lastie MoJoe ... I'm sorry that you got so cold -- but I couldn't think of any other way of getting you here ...

Sykes is looking at Lastie with clear eyes that seem to register what he is saying, but Sykes makes no response at all. Except for his brief and hysterical outburst after he was first brought in out of the snow, he seems to be maintaining the silence he began several days before.

Lastie waits hopefully for a long and uncomfortable moment, then clears his throat nervously and continues:

LASTIE
Now, I know that you've made the decision not to talk again ... And I'm sure that you have your reasons for making that decision ... And I want you to know that no matter what those reasons are ... I respect them ... Because I respect you ...

Having said this, Lastie, pleased with himself, turns to his friends for approval. They all nod and smile encouragement to him, and he turns back to Sykes and continues, really sweetly now:

LASTIE
I just wanted you to know how important that little pep talk you gave me eight years ago was to me ...
(a beat)
Everything you said about me was true, son ... I was feeling sorry for myself -- and forlorn and dejected ... And if it hadn't been for you -- I'm certain that I would have given up the ghost and the world would have never known what it felt like to have everybody in it happy and gay -- all at the same time ...

All the old people smile happily and proudly.


LASTIE
But since that day when Fate, I'm sure, brought us together, everything has changed ...

Lastie stands now, and begins to walk out toward the center of the huge laboratory. Several of the old people begin to push Sykes' brass bed, to roll it along, across the creaking floorboards, beside Lastie.

Lastie, still speaking softly and gently to Sykes, waves his arm in a broad arc to encompass his new laboratory:

LASTIE
First, I moved my whole operation North -- to free myself from the confining presence of P.P. Peoria... .

He puts his arm across the shoulders of one of the sweet old people who are trailing along, beside Sykes' bed, as it is rolled around the laboratory .

LASTIE
And then I advertised in the papers and found a wonderful group of people just like myself who needed to continue to do useful and exciting things with their lives...

They are cruising along beside the crude assembly line of long work tables. We can see now that some of the tables are piled high with rectangular sheets of pink bubble-gum, while others are covered with stacks of colorful cardboard pictures.


LASTIE
And then, together with my new-found friends and associates -- and in order to achieve financial independence -- I established the Lastie MoJoe Bubble-Gum and Baseball Trading Card Corporation of America ...

They pass a table that almost sags beneath the weight of a miniature mountain of bright, shining pennies.

LASTIE
And it's worked ... Kids just love bubble- gum ... And they desperately need heroes...

He picks up one of the small colored cardboard rectangles; a picture of Babe Ruth smiles heroically back at him. Lastie continues:

LASTIE
And we've been able to raise enough capital to at least buy the cable to hook up to the power that I needed to functionalize my "happiness machine" ...

They have reached the other side of the laboratory now. Two massive 1940s vintage television sets with tiny circular screens have been placed on a raised dias -- one on either side of a stately Grandfather's clock. Lastie goes up to one of the sets and pushes a button on a black box that has been bolted to the top of the television.

A full-color three-dimensional image appears in the air right over the set. It shows a band of four old men creeping stealthily along a ridge that overlooks the vast concrete wall of Boulder Dam. The old men are dragging a thick electrical cable, at the end of which is attached a gigantic version of a conventional two-prong plug.

Lastie watches their progress for a moment, then smiles with satisfaction and turns back to Sykes. A huge switch is mounted on the wall beside him.


LASTIE
(still filled with enthusiasm)
And now we're all set and ready to pull the switch -- and enchant the world with happiness -- and to leave Old Man Worry and strife and woe behind ...

The other old people become so excited, they can no longer contain their enthusiasm. They begin to applaud.

And Lastie is almost in tears now; his voice becomes very nostalgic:

LASTIE
... And you're the true inspiration behind us, son -- You're the true Father of Happiness ... I'm the Mother because I gave birth to it...
(a fond glance at the others)
And they're the mid-wives that helped deliver it. .. But you, son, sired and inspired it-- You are it's Father.

The old people applaud again, genuinely moved. But as their applause dies, they begin to exchange worried glances. It is as if they realize that there is still one more thing that Lastie must tell Sykes -- the most important thing of all ...

Lastie clears his throat again; his air of nervousness has returned:

LASTIE
(sitting again on the edge
of Sykes' brass bed)
But there's still one itsy-bitsy problem yet to be solved, son ... When I pull the switch, for a long ten minutes -- as the power in these coils is building, and the fields are intensifying and reaching their peaks -- the world will go completely dark... And no one will know why ... And they'll need an explanation ... And they'll need to be soothed, and calmed, and told not to panic, until the joy of happiness comes to them, and the dark cloud of despair is lifted ...
(looking at the still unresponding
Sykes with a terrible urgency now)
And it's those very same ten minutes, son, that frightens us so terribly ... That could ruin our project so thoroughly... That you can do something about ...

A long, long pause. Sykes makes no response at all. Lastie pulls his resolve together and plunges on.

LASTIE
As the sun sets in the West, the moon rises in the East and sets in the West -- and rises again in the East tomorrow... And when Full and the sky is clear, a face the size of a planet could be projected there -- Your face, Diamond Jim -- And your familiar voice -- transmitted through the fillings in their teeth -- could soothe them -- and orient them toward their happiness to come ..
(his nervousness at a peak; after
a long beat and no repsonse)
I know that it's a chance in a million, son, that you'll break your vow of silence and accept the challenge, and do us the favor of helping us ... But in the words of your words: "A man's got ta do, What he's got ta do ... " And for most of us, this is our last chance -- our last opportunity to do something significant with our lives ... We're all so tired, son ... We've all worked so hard ...

Lastie and all the other old people are almost in tears.

LASTIE
(a last plea)
Please... Help us...

Another long and -- for Lastie and the others -- sadly silent moment. Lastie pulls himself together enough to stand, to walk over to the second old television and activate its floating. three-dimensional image:

The sun is almost down, and we see an old Indian -- a Mohawk Indian -- WILL-HOOK -- scaling the side of the Empire State Building. He is wearing a breechclout and carrying a bulky piece of electrical apparatus strapped to his back. A plug at the end of a long wire dangles down behind him. He is about at the level of the eightieth floor now, pulling himself impossibly upward with the aid of large suction cups -- the kind that "human flies" used fifty years ago.

Lastie looks from the image of Will-Hook to the Grandfather's clock nearby.

LASTIE
(to Sykes)
It's eleven 0' clock now ... And in just one hour, Will-Hook -- that's the Indian you see there climbing the Empire State Building -- will hopefully have plugged us into the tower and -- if you agree -- we'll be ready to transmit your image onto the moon... It'll be twelve 0' clock then, and -- one way or the other -- time for me to pull the switch ...

Lastie looks at the others, as if to make sure there isn't something more he can say or do to persuade the still unresponding Sykes. No one can think of anything else, so Lastie looks at Sykes again, with eyes filled with hope and fear and simply says:

LASTIE
Now, we'll leave you in peace to think it over ... May God protect you always, and fill your heart with nothing but joy ...

Lastie moves away and the others follow him, leaving Sykes alone in his brass bed in front of the Grandfather's clock and the image of Will-Hook -- old and proud and brave -- climbing slowly and steadily toward the top ...


FADE OUT




Part 6