by Leyner, Mark
(into telephone)
Hello? Dad? Your voice sounds kinda funny. (Covers receiver, whispers to Warden) He’s dusted. (Back into telephone, to father) Where are you?… Uh-huh. (To Warden) Where’s the Princeton Marriott?
WARDEN
The Marriott? It’s only about ten minutes from here.
MARK
(into telephone)
Dad, don’t you think it’s sort of, like, dangerous for you to be so close?… Uh-huh. OK. I know it’s due tomorrow. I will, Dad. I know I should have started it earlier. I will. I’m gonna go home soon. OK. OK, ’bye.
WARDEN
Your father cares very much about you, doesn’t he?
MARK takes the WARDEN’s hand and playfully tugs her away from the desk, to the far end of the room, across from the windows affording a view of the gazebo.
Standing directly under one of the suspended speakers (from which we now hear Offramp Tavanipupu’s “Mi Laik Kai-Kai Dim-Dim,” as sung by Vanessa Williams), they embrace each other in an oblique column of moonlight.
MARK
Listen, if I’m going to win that award, I guess I better get going pretty soon and start working on this screenplay. I just wanted to tell you that this afternoon and this evening—hanging out with you and everything—it was really, really great. Really. And … I want you to have this.
MARK removes the ring from his finger—the oval Burmese sapphire flanked by heart-shaped diamonds that his father had given him just prior to the abortive execution attempt—and he slides it on the WARDEN’s left-hand ring finger.
EXT. THE SKIES OVER THE PRINCETON MARRIOTT
Three NJSDE F-117 stealth bombers swoop down over the hotel, each delivering a 2,000-pound, laser-guided bomb.
Several moments later, from high altitude, an NJSDE B-52 Stratofortress delivers its devastating 70,000-pound bomb load on the Marriott.
We HEAR the THUNDEROUS, EAR-POPPING BOOMS of the shells hitting the hotel and its environs.
Towering black plumes of smoke and shafts of brilliant orange flame shoot into the sky.
INT. WARDEN’S OFFICE
Shock waves from the NJSDE air strike on the Princeton Marriott are causing the prison to shake violently.
The gigantic Meridian DSP-8000 speaker is swaying back and forth over MARK and the WARDEN, who are kissing passionately and feverishly caressing each other.
Suddenly, THE FOUR LENGTHS OF OSHIMITSU SYNTHETIC SPIDER-SILK SPEAKER-SUSPENSION LINE SNAP, IN RAPID SUCCESSION, WITH FOUR DISTINCT TWANGS—a grotesque pizzicato comprising the first four notes of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
The 300-pound SPEAKER PLUMMETS to the ground, CRUSHING the WARDEN and MARK.
The WARDEN is killed instantly.
MARK has suffered massive head trauma and internal injuries.
SOFT-FOCUS CLOSE SHOT of NAKED, HEMORRHAGING MARK lying pinned beneath the huge speaker.
MARK
Yo—what the fuck …?
He dies.
FADE TO BLACK
ROLL CREDITS OVER BLOOPER OUTTAKES