19 February 2004

This is the second draft of the screenplay, retitled 'Apathy'. It shows clear story development from the last draft and also has a more conclusive ending.

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APATHY (2ND DRAFT)

BY ADAM CHESHIRE



1. INT. ROOM. DAY.

Cardiff, Present day. Light reflects off of a television
set, framing a doorway. Voices can be dimly heard in the
background getting louder, joined by echoing footsteps. The
door opens and TRENT JONES and RICHARD CHAPMAN enter the
room. They are arguing ferociously with each other;
shouting, pushing and shoving, generally getting up in each
others face.

RICHARD CHAPMAN
...in The middle of queen street!

TRENT JONES
Nobody saw shit.

TRENT walks over to the couch and sits down. He fiddles
with things nervously before picking up a knife that is on
the coffee table in front of him. He gesticulates with the
knife. The table is covered with spliff making debris; torn
up cigarettes, tobacco and papers. RICHARD paces around the
room.

RICHARD CHAPMAN
How the fuck do you know?

TRENT JONES
Psssh... You really think people
pay that much attention to each
other on Queen Street? You really
think the average consumer ever
lifts his head out of his own
shopping agenda? Get a grip, man.
The only time they put any
thought into the people around
them is to make a note of where
all the big issue sellers and
charity workers are so they can
avoid them. Everybody is too
wrapped up in their own shit to
give a fuck about anybody else.

TRENT scratches the word 'apathy' into the table surface.

RICHARD CHAPMAN
Your one to speak, always with
your head in the clouds....

TRENT stands up and begins to wander around the room as
RICHARD is. He still has the knife is his hand. RICHARD
picks up a book and flicks through the pages.

TRENT JONES
Can you fucking blame me? You
seen the papers lately?

RICHARD shoves TRENT.

RICHARD CHAPMAN
What a cop-out. "ooooh, life is
so fucking hard, nobody
understands me." Why don't you
just kill yourself?

TRENT shoves RICHARD back.

TRENT JONES
Wouldn't want to give you the
satisfaction, you sanctimonious
asshole!

RICHARD walks around TRENT as he talks.

RICHARD CHAPMAN
You know what your problem is?
Your a walking cliche, spouting
your cynical little observations
and your witty little ironies.
Your so fucking myopic, you can't
even think outside of your own
box, can you? Everything you say
or think is filtered through the
same fucking gen-x, hipper-than
thou lens.

TRENT JONES
You motherfucker, you
intellectual asswipe! Read a
couple of books and you think
your Jean-Paul fucking Sartre,
Howard Bloom and Einstein rolled
into one! You go around
regurgitating half-remembered
quotes trying to come across as
some great thinker when you
haven't got an original thought
in your head, you pretentious
cunt!

RICHARD CHAPMAN
Fuck you, shit-bird. Least my
personal reading matter doesn't
consist of second-hand Hate
comics and the backs of cereal
boxes. At least I don't spend my
entire giro on getting fucked off
my face on whatever I can get my
hands on. At least I'm doing
something with my life.

TRENT JONES
You pompous little prick! You
really think what your doing is
better? You think your going
somewhere?
It's all just a distraction man,
we're just wasting oxygen till we
pop our clogs. The only place
your going is back to the ground,
when they bury your ass. It
doesn't matter what we do in the
meantime, none of it means shit.
The human race is a fucking virus
with shoes, you think we're going
to last another 1000 years? Or
even 100? Shit, I'd be surprised
if mankind is still around in 10.

RICHARD CHAPMAN
You know what your problem is?
You think you know it all, you
think it's all laid out in front
of you like a fucking map. You've
already reached your conclusion
and now preaching the apocalypse.
You know what I think? I think
this doom and gloom attitude is
just an excuse so you can shrug
off all responsibility and
continue your hedonistic
lifestyle without guilt. Look
what you did to your own mother,
man, and you won't even visit her
at the hospital, you selfish self
obsessed shithead.

TRENT storms right up to RICHARD, his eyes ablaze with
anger, one hand closed into a fist, the other closed around
the knife handle. His entire body physically shaking.
RICHARD looks nervous, becomes frightened. He knows what
TRENT is capable of when he is angry. TRENT looks RICHARD
right in the eyes and points at his face with his knife. We
see a flash of what is going through TRENT'S head; him
standing over RICHARDS corpse with the knife, a pool of
blood beneath the body. Trent drops the knife on the floor.

TRENT JONES
I'm going for a walk.

TRENT storms out of the room slamming the door behind him.
The look of relief on RICHARD'S face is blatantly apparent,
as is the internal telling-off he is giving himself for
over-stepping TRENT'S personal boundaries.



2. EXT. NEWPORT ROAD. DAY.

TRENT walks down the street, his ears buried in headphones,
his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched, his brow
creased and his eyes staring straight ahead. Noise can be
heard on the soundtrack and we're not sure whether we're
hearing what TRENT is or whether the sound is non-diagetic.



3. EXT. QUEEN STREET. DAY.

The crowd is heaving and it flows around TRENT like water
around a rock. Everybody is doing the consumer thing.
Charity workers and big issue sellers try and make eye
contact with TRENT but he just keeps on walking, driven on
by the noise in his ears. As he walks past Starbucks he
knocks a table, spilling a business man's coffee all over
him.

SUIT
Watch where the fuck your going you little shit head! This is a £500 suit! Fucking punk kid...


TRENT picks a coffee mug up off the table and smashes it over his head,
before dragging him around the corner and beating him to
death. The shoppers ignore him, like nothing is happening.
TRENT rejoins the flow of consumers covered in the business
man's blood.



4. EXT. ENTRANCE TO CASTLE GROUNDS. DAY.

The soundtrack suddenly becomes silent as TRENT pulls his
earphones out and stands in the entrance to the castle
grounds. He enters the grounds and starts walking. He walks
along in a daze thinking about something. He looks around
at his surroundings at people on bicycles, couples walking
slowly hand in hand, children playing football. He keeps on
walking. He sits and watches students playing frisbee. He
stares up at a kite flying in the wind.



5. EXT. RIVER SIDE. DAY.

The river flows quickly TRENT washes the blood off his face
and hands. Afterwards He watches debris floating
downstream.



6. EXT. STREET. DAY.

TRENT walks along the pavement completely spaced out. He
watches the oncoming traffic deep in thought. He makes up
his mind about something and suddenly veers off into the
middle of the road. He is hit by a car which kills him
instantly. The car keeps going.

[THE END]