Sample Script 2: Shattered Profiles

Synopsis:

A group of psyhic profilers coming to terms with the sudden death of one of them and the disturbing dreams they've been having.

PAGE 1:

Panel 1:

Bird-eye view of a dining room. Seven people are seated round a table and a vacant seat at the head of the table. Their ages range from midthirties to late forties. They are all casually dressed. The table is littered with ashtrays, cigarette butts and spilled ashes, stained coffee mugs, half-eaten pies, breadcrumbs, crumpled and soiled napkins, discarded cutleries and a half-emptied bottle of whiskey. Nearest to the vacant head of the table from the right-hand side with thinning hairs, a lean, tired face and an unlit cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth is Vincent Park. Next to him Dan Atkins, a coloured man in his early forties who looks absent-mindedly as he stab at the piece of pie in front of him. Nancy Smith, a woman in her midthirties wearing a black leather jacket over a short, white t-shirt is next to him. John Oldman, bald, plumy looks uncomfortable in his three-piece suit, a suit that threatens to rip apart is next to her. On the left-hand side of the table is Sue Armstrong, preoccupied with the pattern of the smoke from her cigarette (i.e. she is looking at us, quizzically), the only one who had tried to dress for dinner in her red, business jacket. Next to her is Owen Spikes, a man in his midforties, looking tired with his shallow pallor, he has the thinning hair on his forehead wet and paste against his forehead, while twirling an empty glass, drunkenly, before his eyes with one hand and reaching for the half-emptied bottle of whiskey with the other. After him is Jackie Wayne (another coloured person, female) in her late thirties, the only one with an appetite for food, which consists of a loaf of bread and a cup of coffee.

CAPS: "There is nothing wrong with a group of worn-out profilers having dinner to discuss the fragments of our dreams, a dream they now live in…"

DAN: God bless Pete’s soul

Panel 2:

Long shot of the group: Vincent is about to light the cigarette stuck at the corner of his mouth. Dan still stabs at his pie. Nancy is stirring her cup of coffee. John is tightening the knot of his tie. Sue is studying the uncanny, miniature, humanoid form spirally spinning upwards with her cloud of smoke and Owen is helping himself to a generous quantity of the wine. Jackie takes another bite at the loaf.

CAPS: "a nightmare, now all too real"

VINCENT: Don't you think you've had enough, Owen.

OWEN: Not for what we're here for. This might as well be the last I'll ever have. I don't think I'm going to heaven when I die.

SUE: I can't afford to die.

JACKIE: Nobody's dying yet when there's a second choice.

Panel 3:

This is a scene where we see Vincent, Dan, Nancy and John in the foreground with their backs to us. The midground is the table, while the background has the rest of the group. Vincent is angrily trying to bring his dead lighter to life. Dan is pushing his plate away. Nancy is slipping from her cup. John is looking at us, side profile, as he rises from his seat. Sue is stubbing out her cigarette in the ashtray without taking her eyes from the strangely, disturbing patterns of her smoke. Owen, drunkenly, spill wine on the table, while Jackie who is barking angrily at him.

VINCENT: Dammit!

DAN: The P.M. said he suffocated with a leather bag over his head.

JOHN: Excuse me

SUE: All I wanna know is the S.O.B. who did this! I never saw the face in my dreams.

JACKIE: Get a grip on yourself Owen. Even if I'm gonna die, I wanna dine!

Panel 4:

Close shot of the table with Owen’s hand in the foreground as the bottle slips from his hand and shatters on the table, throwing its content into the air. In the background, the others recoil.

CAPS: We were profilers, with a difference. We could collectively dream the events of a crime -murder - and fit in the pieces to get the big picture for those that needed it.

SFX: Smash!

Panel 5:

Bird-eye view of the group all getting up to their feet to avoid further stain, except for Owen:

CAPS: But tonight, we were not here to solve another one before it happened. We were here to find who among us was guilty of the death of one of us, Pete Hill…

PAGE 2:

Panel 1:

Shot of John walking briskly away with a hand tucked beneath his jacket. He looks apprehensively behind at his scurrying mates in the midground and background; except for Owen who is still seating stupefied. Nancy stands over him angrily, while Vincent hurls his lighter against the wall with the best of his rage.

CAPS: whose house we had gathered. We were all afraid of ourselves...

NANCY: The dream says we will all die or find the killer.

OWEN: Who? Me?

Panel 2:

Sue is in the foreground, looking furious as she walks away with a hand in her opened handbag. Vincent is in the midground leaning on the table wearily. Dan is awkwardly pushing his seat away. Nancy storms away from Owen in the opposite direction from John who we see disappearing behind a door. Jackie follows a few feet behind Nancy.

CAPS: It was one of us, could've been anybody. But why? Our worst fear was knowing who.

VINCENT: We’re losing it all.

NANCY: I'm going to freshen up.

JACKIE: Me too. You should know just how much this dress cost, Owen!

OWEN: Sue’s got it hotter than ye

Panel 3:

Bird-eye view of the male toilet: John is leaning his bulky form against the door as he clips a magazine into a pistol. The tap is running into the sink, freely.

CAPS: In all our experiences as profilers, this was one case we never imagined to profile, save for the killer among us.

JOHN (thought): I know it doesn't have to come to this, but I've got a life to live...

Panel 4:

Close shot his hands as the magazine clips in.

JOHN (thought): I can't wind up like Pete! Christ, what am I doing here!

SFX: Click!

Panel 5:

John is bent over the tap and has his back to us. His right-hand is under the running tap, while his left-hand tucks the gun into the holster clipped to the back of his trouser.

CAPS: What we thought personally resolved it among ourselves without putting our jobs on the line...

JOHN: I hate these dreams, I hate this powers! I’m quitting!

Panel 6:

John is staring at us in alarm. His face is wet and his hair is pasted to his forehead, his eyes and mouth are wide opened. There is a long, humanoid silhouette in his eyes.

CAPS: or so we thought.

JOHN: Oh ... Christ!

SFX: Creeeeak!

PAGE 3:

Panel 1:

View of Nancy and Jackie posing before a large makeup mirror. They are refreshing their makeup.

CAPS: Some minutes later.

NANCY: Why someone kill Pete?

JACKIE: You should be asking yourself, I'm not a killer.

NANCY: Can you be believed? I can't even trust myself. Wish I never had that stupid dream.

Panel 2:

Jackie is the foreground looking cynically at Nancy, who is in the background, as she repairs her lips.

JACKIE: Take away the dreams and they'll drop us like a piece of hot coal, our live is gone.

NANCY: ...

Panel 3:

Close shot of the women looking startled/frightened and are almost running away from the shattered makeup mirror.

NANCY: Arrh!

SFX: BANG!

SFX: SOUND OF SHATTERING GLASS

Panel 4:

Bird-eye view of the opened doors of the male and female toilets: The women are standing slightly away from their toilet. Nancy has her hand over her mouth, while Jackie looks like someone about to take to her heels. Lying in a pool of blood in front of the male toilet is John with a red patch over his chest, clutching a smoking gun. Beside him, we can see the outline of fleeing shoeprints.

NANCY: Oh my God, it's like my dream again.

JACKIE: You dreamt of this too?

NANCY (whisper): Look, the killer has his print all over.

Panel 5:

Nancy is walking, frightfully, away in the foreground, drawing out a small handgun from her purse; while in the background, Jackie looks startled, trying to call Nancy's attention while fleeing in the opposite direction with a hand over her ears.

CAPS: It was supposed to be a confession...

JACKIE: What're doing with a gun, Nancy? It doesn't have to come to this!

NANCY: I wouldn't wait helplessly like Pete, to be killed senselessly.

Panel 6:

Side profile of Dan in the foreground. The background is made up of silhouettes of cutleries. He is clipping a magazine to a gun and there are beads of perspirations on his face.

CAPS: Moment later

DAN (thought): Why should I kill somebody? Probably, I would inherit their powers. Hmm, that's a sick one from the movies...

SFX: Click!

PAGE 4:

Panel 1:

Dan's headshot: He is looking over his shoulders at an off-Panel distraction.

DAN (thought): Probably, the benefits would be greater, cosmic powers ... Hey, who goes there!

SFX: Thud!

Panel 2:

Close shot of Dan in the foreground dragged into the shadows from behind by the silhouette of a man. The silhouette has one hand covering Dan’s mouth and the other holding a blade that slit open Dan's throat, sprouting blood in the air. The only visible glance of the silhouette of the man is an olive-green jacket and the brown gloves. Dan has a petrified look on his face.

KILLER: Sweet dreams...

DAN: gaggg

SFX: Slash!

Panel 3:

We see the lower part of the killer departing from the scene of the crime (i.e. towards us) in the foreground. The murder weapon and one of the gloves lies in the midground, while the other glove fall-offs from the killer's hand. Dan is lying in a pool of blood, gushing from the slit throat in the background. The neck is oddly twisted and his face still has the petrified look.

KILLER: … or a damning nightmare

Panel 4:

Long shot of a door thrown opened and Nancy comes running through.

CAPS: Meanwhile

NANCY (thought): I'm not losing these all to some self-contained maniac.

Panel 5:

Close shot of Nancy's legs standing astride in the foreground. The background is the image of a partly opened door, curtained, but beneath the curtain, we see a pair of blood-soiled sneakers.

NANCY (thought): There!

NANCY (whisper): Oh my God!

Panel 6:

Nancy is standing near the door with a handover the doorknob and the muzzle of her gun trained at the part opening. She looks shaken.

PAGE 5:

Panel 1:

The door and the curtain is thrown wide opened. Dangling above the sneakers are a pair of limp looking, bare legs.

NANCY (off-Panel): No!

Panel 2:

Worm-eye view of Owens’ corpse dangling stiffly by a cord tightly woven round his broken neck from the roof. Nancy is clutching his legs, tears running freely down her face. In the midground are a mallet, a broken gun and a magazine, lying on the floor. In the background is the silhouette of a man dashing past behind the opened door and the curtain.

NANCY: Don't leave me Owen, don't do this us! Owen?

Panel 3:

Nancy is in the foreground with a hand wrapped around the corpse's ankle, while the other points her gun at us. There is fear in her eyes.

NANCY (whisper): I-it can’t be

Panel 4:

Medium shot of Jackie crouching behind a closet.

CAPS: Later

JACKIE (thought): Would they want to believe me now? I should have told them about the haunting

Panel 6:

Bird-eye view of the outside the toilets. There is a pool of blood were John lied, but his corpse is nowhere in sight. Jackie stands in the lower corner of the Panel.

JACKIE (thought): He's no more, but I'm supposed to be doing this, or are our dreams wrong again?

PAGE 6:

Panel 1:

Jackie's headshot peering through a door; in the background is a flight of stairs, a landing and a door.

JACKIE (thought): What's happening to us? I've got to tell before it gets worst.

JACKIE: Guys?

SFX: Creaaak (from the stairs, like a floating noise).

Panel 2:

In the foreground are hooded, shadowy forms ascendingwards. Jackie is standing on the first landing in front of a door, where we can see other doors.

JACKIE (thought): We shouldn't have gone into the head of that boy, Pete. He was more devilish than we ever reckoned. We could've spared ourselves this carnage...

Panel 3:

Medium shot of Jackie recoiling in horror away from the door, which now has the form of a man (i.e. from the chest to the head) trying to tear itself away from within the door. It is marble white.

FORM: Kill me again Jackie, kill me!

JACKIE (Scream): Pete!

Panel 4:

Close shot of Jackie with her face buried in her palms, tears seeping through her fingers.

JACKIE: Pete, please don't make me go crazy, you’re dead! Can't you tell?

JACKIE (second balloon): I'm seeing what I shouldn't be seeing. You're dead, stay away from me!

Panel 5:

The door is thrown opened. Sue is standing menacingly in the doorway with a blade in her hand. In the background, Jackie is on her knees looking sorrowfully at her.

SUE: So you killed him?

JACKIE: Believe me, I never wanted to do it. He begged me to. He said the boy-Stanley- was in his head. His body was decaying beyond any medical help. He said it was his wish - to die, quickly.

Panel 6:

Jackie is in the foreground with her back to us. Sue is in the midground standing away from the door to allow us see the background, which is the interior of a bare, small room except for a bed in the centre containing a body with a white sheet thrown over it.

JACKIE: You brought him here!

SUE: I figured out his unknown presence would influence his murderer. I had him smuggled from the morgue with Vincent and Owens’s aid.

JACKIE: I didn't murder him. He needed help and chose me.

PAGE 7:

Panel 1:

Jackie's headshot: There is a pleading look in her eyes.

JACKIE: I'm sorry we never told you, but he said it was what he wanted, the haunting were too much and you shouldn't have got Vinny involved.

Panel 2:

Headshot of both women: Sue is the foreground holding a threat in the way she banishes the glittering blade before Jackie's face, who looks terrified in the background.

SUE: So, it's Vinny not Vincent any more, huh? Isn't enough you took Pete away from me and murdered him, now you've got Vincent too?

JACKIE: There's nothing between us, I...

Panel 3:

Sue is swept off her feet in the foreground by a blast that rips open her innards, but as she sails backward, she lets go of the blade in the origin of the blast; Jackie is screaming in the background.

SUE: Nooo...

JACKIE: Aaah!

SFX: BANG!

SFX: Swish

Panel 4:

Close shot of a boot kicking the blade backward (i.e. returning the blade back the path it came)

SFX: Clink!

Panel 5:

Long view of the landing, angled 45 degrees to the left; Jackie is in the foreground, thrown backward with her back to us ands just breaking through the rear railing of the balcony. We can see blood sprouting from her belly into the midground, trailing her flight midair. In the background, we can vaguely see the form of a powerful, stocking masked figure.

Panel 6:

Close shot of the lower part of the killer standing over the wrapped corpse. He is holding a blade before the corpse's face.

KILLER: I can tell we're all possessed. All I'm trying to do exorcise the spirits. At least, I'll live as you guys legacy.

PAGE 8:

Panel 1:

The blade slashes through the sheet covering the corpse, revealing the corpse's face to be John.

KILLER (off-Panel): And they thought you were Pete, John. Ha!

Panel 2:

Bird-eye view of the kitchen: There are bloodstains on the walls, the sink and on the floor. There is a dark pool of blood surrounding Dan's spread-eagled body. Vincent is kneeing beside him with his ears over his mate's mouth, but he has the murder weapon raised and posed over the dying man's heart as if about to strike. In the doorway stands Nancy, looking horrified.

CAPS: Meanwhile...

DAN (whisper): Nancy's...

VINCENT: Don't be afraid, I'll be merciful on your poor soul, like Jackie did to Pete.

NANCY: Vincent!

Panel 3:

Vincent has risen to head and he is looking at us petrified. The blade is raised high above his head.

VINCENT: I swear it's not the way you see it. Somebody...dammit, you've got a gun too...it's just like my dream...

VINCENT (whisper): this is where I die too

Panel 4:

Close shot of Vincent running forward (i.e. towards us) with the blade raised threateningly manner as if he is about to launch out of the Panel and strike at us.

VINCENT: Like that psycho boy, I'm gonna prove all our dreams wrong! I'll not die!

NANCY (off-Panel): Stay away from me!

Panel 5:

We see Nancy's gun in the foreground, pumping lead shots into Vincent's body, which hurls him backward and throws the knife harmlessly out of her way. His face is in agony.

NANCY: Stay away ... from me.

VINCENT: Arrgh!

Panel 6:

Close shot of Nancy and smoking gun. We see the motion of her head as she swings it in the opposite direction at a distraction, tears stream down her face.

NANCY (whisper, first head position): Oh my God, oh my God

OFF-PANEL VOICE: It's incredible how easy you're all making my job tonight.

NANCY (second head position): It can't be....

SFX: BANG!

PAGE 9:

Panel 1:

Nancy is bent over in the foreground, clutching her stomach with hands that could barely stop the blood seeping through. We can see the corpses of Vincent and Dan in the midground. In the background stands the killer's silhouette with a pointed gun.

NANCY: You shot me!

KILLER: You look cute in pain, Nancy. I never knew you could be this beautiful Nancy...

Panel 2:

Shot of Nancy in pain being pulled across the floor by her hair.

KILLER: I never knew it would be this easy to exorcise the evils we've committed on that innocent boy

NANCY (Gasps): You...Owen...whe-re's he?

Panel 3:

Bird-eye view of a parlour: Nancy is, savagely, pulled across the floor, by her hair, into the room.

KILLER: You disappoint me, Nancy. After all these years, you still don't know how my body feels?

Panel 4:

Close shot of the killer's face as we see his face for the first time. It is Owens’s with a fresh, long scar running down the side of his face.

OWEN: You saw Pete with my facial prosthetics, why was I late! You're seeing somebody else aren’t you?

Panel 5:

Medium shot of Owen standing between 3 walls, which creates the impression that he is standing in an opened box. Fighting to free themselves from the inner force within the walls are dark forms of several monstrous beings.

OWEN: This house is haunted by that innocent boy because your Jackie and Pete couldn't wait to fuck with his mind. He died…

NANCY (off-Panel): Owen, No!

Panel 6: Close shot of Jackie's head. Her eyes are wide opened and blank, there is blood trickling down the corners of her mouth.

OWEN (off-Panel): at the hands of those he trusted.

NANCY (off-Panel): You...you need he-lp. You sug-gest-ed his death.

PAGE 10:

Panel 1:

Medium shot of Owen splashing gasoline on the walls from an opened can. The monstrous forms lung, protesting, at him.

OWEN: The word is suggested, Nancy. The Agency's got our files I saw, we’re nothing but a bunch of lunatics they say...

NANCY: You're over-suing your pow-ers...

Panel 2:

Bird-eye view of the room, which is the floor beneath the landing where Sue and Jackie had met their death. Jackie is lying on her side with a hand trying to keep the knife in place and cover the knife wound in her stomach, while pointing a gun at Owen with the other hand. Owen looks stunned. Nancy is struggling to roll over.

JACKIE: We abused our powers for our selfish interests, but it was you who planned that boy's murder and now ours. You used our follies...

Panel 3:

Close shot of Nancy and the pointed gun, fired.

JACKIE: to become the perfect profiler, it's nature for our powers to be absorbed into your body. Nancy. If you've got a second life to live...

Panel 4:

Medium shot of Nancy with a hand over her wound, leaping through a shattered window as part of the house explodes. The flame of the explosion bears uncanny likeness to the head-forms of her deceased mates, screaming.

CAPS: "...make a run for it for I'm too dead to live again."

OWEN (from within the house): Noooo!

Panel 5:

A piece of paper plunges downward in the foreground, while Nancy staggers away from the raging inferno in the midground; the forms of the flames in the background now have Owens’s screeching head-form.

CAPS: "The boy, Stanley Keys, was charged with the murder of Ashley Hills, Pete's mother. We saw her death in our dreams, but he was not supposed to do the murder..."

Panel 6:

Close shot of the piece of paper lying on the floor and Nancy's shoe standing beside it. Scribbled on the paper in red are the words: I'M DEAD TOO.

CAPS: But he had the same dream too and decided to do it in Pete's room and we for the love of ourselves pushed him over the bridge. We saw the future, but he changed it.

THE END