ABSOLUTE POWER - Daily Script

1 ABSOLUTE POWERW ritten byWILLIAM GOLDMANB ased on the book byDAVID BALDACCIMay 1996 DraftFOR EDUCATIONALPURPOSES ONLYFADE IN:1 INT. WASHINGTON MUSEUM - DAY 1 The saddest eyes you ever are looking at an El Greco drawing. It is a study forone of his BACK TO REVEAL --A bunch of art students are doing sketches of the eyes,the elongated fingers, the slender hands El Greco drew of the students are around 20. A couple of suburbanhousewives are there one older is LUTHER WHITNEY. Mid 60s, very fit, neatlydressed. At quick glance, he seems as if he might be asuccessful company we watch him draw we can tell he is capable of greatconcentration.

2 And patient. With eyes that missnothing: He has pilot s ll find out more about him as time goes on, but thisis all you really have to know: Luther Whitney is thehero of this piece. As we watch him draw --Luther s sketchbook. He is finishing his work on theeyes, and he s caught the sadness: It s good It s not good enough for him. He looks at hiswork a moment, shakes his STUDENTDon t give never STUDENTMay I?She s indicated his sketchbook. He nods. She startsthumbing sketchbook as the pages work. Eyes and hands. The eyes are good. Thehands are better. Very skillful.(CONTINUED))B( ABSOLUTE POWER - Rev. 5/16/96 CONTINUED: 1 The GIRL hands it back.

3 STUDENTYou work with your hands, don tyou?CLOSEUP - LUTHER *An enigmatic smile. Now, from that --2 EXT. RED S BAR - DAY 2A nice working class part of town. Nothing fancy herebut there s a pleasant feel. The streets are clean, thehouses neat and well , carrying his sketchbook, walks along. It safternoon now. Up ahead is a local bar: RED INT. RED S BAR - DAY 3 Luther walks in. Nothing fancy here. Strictly workingclass. And relatively empty. An overweight bald manLuther s age works behind the bar. This is RED. Theyare good enough friends not to ask each other (as they nod toeach other) (as Luther handshim a videotape)Your life would be a whole lotsimpler if you could learn tooperate a only he turns --4 EXT.

4 NEIGHBORHOOD - LUTHER S HOUSE - DAY 4A street of small row houses. Clean, well walks toward one. Later in the afternoon. Hecarries half a dozen small shopping bags, from themarket, the hardware store, the drug store, the EXT. LUTHER S HOUSE - DAY 5A terra cotta planter to the right of the front shifts his packages, tilts the planter slightly,bends down, pulls out a key, inserts it in the INT. LUTHER S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY 6as he enters. Neat, tidy. A Cuisinart, a cheese slicer,lots of other nice equipment. As he begins putting foodaway --7 INT. LUTHER S HOUSE - DINING AREA - NIGHT 7 Evening now.

5 Table set for one. A single the candle is Luther s sketch pad. Now Lutherhimself moves INTO VIEW, carrying a tray. He puts gorgeous omelet is on a fine china plate, parsleysprinkled neatly on top. An elegant green salad is onanother plate, covered with thinly sliced parmesancheese. An expensive water pitcher, a lovely , a great deal of thought has gone into lights the single candle. We are now aware of aphotograph nearby. The picture is old. A pretty littlegirl stands in the center, smiling. Her mother standsalongside, smiling too. A man is with them, looking atthem happily. It s Luther. When he was studies the photo a moment. Then he turns, looksout the POV SHOT - SLIVER OF MOON 8is visible.

6 Lovely. LUTHER 9 Now Luther opens the sketch pad, quickly flips past thehands and eyes and faces ---- we are looking at something totally different: ON Luther s drawing of the BACK to reveal EXT. SULLIVAN MANSION - NIGHT 10In the moonlight -- it looks exactly like his no drawing could convey the size of the place -- weare looking at ten thousand square feet. Wealth re in rolling hill country. The mansion is deserted. a sound - TIRES ON GRAVEL. A car comes rolling INTOVIEW. The motor of the car has been turned off. Thelights of the car have been turned off. The car slidesto a stop.

7 Again, ON mansion, a couple of hundred yards away. Thereis a small field between the car and the estate. Now --11 EXT. SULLIVAN MANSION/INT. LUTHER S CAR - NIGHT 11A man holds binoculars, studying the place. He wearsdark clothes, tennis shoes. He puts down the binoculars,begins to smear his face with black camouflage cream ---- it s Luther, and he s been a professional thief hisentire life. He s a three-time loser, but his lastsentence was so long ago and his skills are now so vast,so refined, that it is unlikely he will ever get EXT. SULLIVAN MANSION - GROUNDS - NIGHT 12 The grounds as Luther glides through it. He wears night is stops.

8 All that separates him from the mansion now isa stretch of gorgeous lawn. Except for Luther, it isn tgorgeous -- it s no-man s final check of his surroundings -- then he sets off,in graceful motion, long strides eating up the makes no sound at EXT. SULLIVAN MANSION - FRONT DOOR - NIGHT 13 Thick wood with reinforced stops by the door, takes off his backpack, opensit. He puts on plastic gloves that have a special layerof padding at the fingertips and palms. Now he takes akey, inserts it in the front door, turns it, and theinstant he pushes the door open -- ZOOM INT. SULLIVAN MANSION - FOYER - NIGHT 14 The infrared SECURITY DETECTOR -- it immediately startsto BEEP and you can see the seconds being counted down:forty, thirty-nine, thirty --CUT TO:15 LUTHER 15-- in his hands now is an automatic screwdriver, no morethan six inches long ---- he sets to work on the security panel that is insidein the foyer next to the front screwdriver undoes the first screw, the second --CUT TO:16 SECURITY DETECTOR 16 Thirty-one, thirty, twenty --CUT TO.

9 17 SCREWDRIVER 17 Now the third and fourth screws are in hands and he liftsthe security panel BEEPING sound is constant ---- and getting tiny device, no bigger than a pocket calculator. Ithas two wires protruding from it. It is, we are about tofind out, a tiny computer. Luther holds it like a TO:18 SECURITY DETECTOR 18 Eighteen, seventeen --CUT TO:19 LUTHER 19probing with the wires into the heart of the securitypanel.(CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 19 The BEEPING is LOUDER security panel.

10 Luther is attempting delicate workand it s dark so it isn t easy but he continues to probewith the wires and --CUT TO:20 SECURITY DETECTOR 20 Eleven, ten --CUT TO:21 LUTHER 21and he s got it attached!22 COMPUTER 22 Now the face of the tiny computer is alive with numbers-- they fly by much too fast for us to make them TO:23 SECURITY DETECTOR 23 Four, three, two --CUT TO:24 FACE OF TINY COMPUTER 24as five numbers lock -- 7 -- 13 -- 19 -- 8 -- 11 --The BEEPING sound TO:25 LUTHER 25A glance across the foyer -- the lights of the securitydetector go from red to a warm looking (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 25He allows himself to exhale.