A W A K E N I N G S - Daily Script

1 AWAKENINGSS creenplay bySteven 2ai11 IanBased on the Book byOliver SacksOCTOBER 2, 1,2/15/89(BLUE)(PINK)(YELLOW)(GREEN)(GOL DENROD(SALMON)(LAVENDER)(CHERRY)(WHITE)( BLUE)(PINK)(YELLOW)(GREEN) 1. A dusty deserted street - saloon, livery stable, sunset . Only there is something unsettling about it all. The colors are too muted and the angles not quite in perspective. Pullingslowly back eventually reveals the edges of a narrow woodenpicture frame ..INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT - 1930 Drifting away from the painting and slowly across a Venetian blinds, open, letting in moonlight, acrossintricate handmade wooden models, dime novels and comic books,across the arm of a metronome gently slapping back and forth,and settling finally on a small hand writing slowly anddeliberately, over and over, in synchronization, it seems, tothe rhythm of the metronome, the word, "LEONARD.)

2 "2. INT. DINING ROOM - MORNING - 1930 The pendulum of a clock. An adult hand placing a bowl ofcereal on a table. Leonard, ten or eleven, waits a moment forthe adult to leave, grasps his spoon, and manipulates it frombowl to mouth in time with the soft regular rhythm of EXT. STREET - NEW YORK - MORNING - 1930 slung over their shoulders, Leonard and another boyhis age, a classmate, move along a around them are "visual rhythms" - lines in the sidewalk,the even placement of trees, the sunlight breaking through thebranches above them - and somewhere unseen, the rhythmicpounding of an elevator they climb a fence, a pocket watch, Leonard's, falls to INT.

3 CLASSROOM - DAY - 1930 adult hand chalking the words of a poem on a at desks dutifully transcribing the but one. Leonard. Whose hands are trembling slightly andwhose paper is blank. There is a noticeable lack of cold silence. The broken watch rests on his boy from the train, glancing at Leonard, begins gentlytapping the end of his pen against his desk. Leonard, "guided"by the cadence of his friend's tapping, begins to write.(ooThe teacher's hand at the blackboard hesitates. Distracted by rhythmic noise, he traces it to the offender and silenceshim with a look.)

4 \ 'Without the rhythm, and without, apparently, inner naturalrhythms to replace it, Leonard's hand begins dragging the penacross the paper, forming vague scrawl, each word less definedthan the last, until they begin melding together into whatresembles nothing so much as a child's rendering of teacher resumes chalking on the board. The boy from thetrain begins tapping his pen again, and, "guided" again by therhythm, Leonard is able to give definition to the "oceanwaves," to form recognizable teacher hesitates again and glares at the boy making theirritating noise.

5 The boy stops tapping and Leonard's writingagain becomes INT. LATER - DAY - 1930 finished poem on the blackboard. The sounds of children atplay on the schoolyard. The teacher, alone in the classroom,at his desk grading the penmanship circles offending errors on the last page of the lastcomposition book. He scribbles a grade opposite the student'sname in a grade book. He notices the absence of a grade inLeonard's column..Leonard's desk. The teacher locates the missing compositionbook buried under textbooks.

6 He takes it back to his own desk,opens it, and stares curiously at the last lesson, the poem, orrather Leonard's illegible representation of considers earlier lessons in the book. He begins to see inthe Script a pattern of deterioration. He reaches the lastentry again and stares at the few recognizable words drowningIn "the waves."<6. INT. LEONARD'S BEDROOM - DAY - 1930 - WINTER 6 The painting on the wall. The intricate wooden models and dimenovels. The Venetian blinds, closed, shutting out , barely audible, from somewhere else in the house:BOY'S VOICEWhen can I see him?

7 WOMAN'S VOICEWhen he's (GREEN) BOY'S VOICE ,When will he be well?After a moment WOMAN'S VOICEI don't know. and the sound of a door small twisted hand lifts a slat of the Venetian blindsrevealing the snow-patched street below. Leonard's friend,crossing it, glances back .. then disappears around a the small gnarled hand lets the slat slide down,extinguishing the single ray of TO BLACK6A. EXT. BAINBRIDGE -HOSPITAL - THE. BRONX - DAY - 1970 . 6 ATight on the face of a man (SAYER), late thirties, glasses,staring up at the face of a building, imposing in itsinstitutional INT.

8 LOBBY - BAINBRIDGE - DAY dim, sleepy cavern of a lobby. No one but a switchboardoperator thumbing through a magazine. Echoing footsteps reachher station and she glances up and at the man from INT. ADMINISTRATION OFFICE - BAINBRIDGE - DAYHe seems uncomfortable. Perhaps it's the suit. Or the the situation. Or the hard straight-backed chair he's he does finally speak, it's with great sincerity SAYERWhen you say people .. you meanliving people, .Behind an old oak desk, the hospital's Director glances overto its Chief of Medicine, Dr.

9 Kaufman, with a look that seemsto wonder, As opposed to what?DIRECTORL iving people, yes. (GREEN) 7. There's some mistake. And Sayer's chair begins to feel more *uncomfortable. He tries to clear up the confusion - SAYER *I'm here for the research *position .. in your neurology * Neurology lab?

10 He doesn't laugh at Sayer, just at the thought of it. DIRECTOR We have an x-ray room. Sayer tries to share the Director's amusement with a good- *natured smile, but doesn't really understand it. Kaufman seems *to have less time for this, and in plain English, unadorned - *KAUFMAN - The-position-ds-Staff-^Neurologist.