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                                THE BELIEVER
          
          

                                 Written by
          
                         Henry Bean & Mark Jacobson
          
          
          
          
          
                                                                2000
                                               Final Shooting Script
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          BLACK SCREEN
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    "And God said to Abraham, 'Take your
                    son, your only son, whom you love,
                    Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah
                    and offer him there for a sacrifice
                    upon a mountain that I will show you..."
          
          INT. YESHIVA CLASSROOM -- DAY
          
          A run-down place. A dozen 12-year-old BOYS sit at old-
          fashioned desks. These are not Hasidim, but Orthodox Jews:
          normal American kids in yarmulkes. The teacher, RAV
          ZINGESSER is young, overweight, acnescarred, good-humored.
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    And why did the Holy One -- blessed
                    be He -- do this? Why did he ask
                    Abraham to sacrifice his only son,
                    whom he loved?
          
          Two boys off to one side: AVI (a smart, tough, brownnose)
          and DANNY (the eternal dissident) argue under their breath....
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    Isaac wasn't his only son. Ishmael
                    was his son, too.
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD AVI
                    The only son he loved.
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    Oh, they only kill them when they
                    love them...?
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD STUART
                        (up front; answering Zingesser)
                    It was a test of Abraham's faith. Of
                    his devotion to God.
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    It's not about Abraham's faith. It's
                    about God's power. God says, "You
                    know how powerful I am? I can make
                    you do anything I want, no matter how
                    stupid. Even kill your own son.
                    Because I'm everything, you're nothing."
          
          TITTERS. Danny looks around at his classmates: nerds,
          wankers, nose-pickers. Two kids in back furtively read the
          racing form under their desks. He hates them for their
          indifference as much as he despises Stuart's piety or Avi's
          ass-kissing.
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    But, Danny, if HaShem is everything,
                    and we are nothing how are we to
                    judge His actions?
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    We have free will and intelligence --
                    which God allegedly gave us....
          
                              AVI
                    Anyway, God never lets Abraham kill
                    Isaac. He provides the ram so that --
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    Personally, I think that's a lie. I
                    think he did kill him.
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    You think?! Based on what?
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    There's midrash supporting this. My
                    father read a book by Shalom Spiegel
                    that -- Isaac actually died and was
                    reborn.
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    No one follows that midrash.
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    I do; I follow it. But okay, say God
                    provided the ram. So what? Once
                    Abraham raised the knife, in his
                    heart it was as if he'd killed him.
                    He could never forget that. And
                    neither could Isaac. Look at him:
                    he's traumatized, he's a putz for the
                    rest of his life. By the end he can't
                    tell Jacob from Esau....
          
          The kids laugh. Zingesser CRACKS a ruler against a desk.
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    Watch your language....
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                        (rising impassioned)
                    I think the whole Jewish people were
                    permanently scarred by what happened
                    on Mt. Moriah, and we still live in
                    terror....
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD STUART
                    Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    Fear of God makes you afraid of
                    everything. All the Jews are good at
                    is being afraid. And being sacrificed.
          
          Oooo. CRACK, CRACK, CRACK. Even the guys with the sports
          pages are shocked by that one.
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD STUART
                    Don't you believe in God?
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    I'm the only one here who does
                    believe. You say he's mysterious, yet
                    merciful. I see him for the power-
                    drunk madman He is. And we're
                    supposed to worship such a Deity?? I
                    say Never! I say...fight him. I say --
          
          The ruler has been CRACKING from "power-drunk" on.... Now
          Zingesser grabs Danny, yanks him out of his chair.
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    Avi -- ask Rabbi Springer to come
                    remove Danny from the class....
          
          Avi rises, grinning, as...Danny struggles wildly to get free.
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    And you, if you had come out of Egypt,
                    you would have been destroyed in the
                    desert with those who worshipped the
                    Golden Calf.
          
                              12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
                    Then let Him destroy me now. Let Him
                    crush me like the conceited bully He is.
                        (to the ceiling)
                    Go ahead. Kill me. Here I am. Do it!!
          
          The class sits frozen in terror, waiting for God to kill
          Danny. But nothing happens.
          
          INT. YESHIVA STAIRWELL -- NIGHT
          
          Danny runs down the steps alone.
          
          EXT. RUN-DOWN COMMERCIAL AREA -- TWILIGHT
          
          Danny walking home alone. He sees TWO KIDS (older, tougher,
          blonder) coming toward him. He slips off his yarmulke and
          slants across the street. The kids slant that way. He hears
          a RUMBLING, looks up at an ELEVATED TRAIN entering a station.
          He runs up the steps toward the SHRIEKING train....
          
          INT. 7 TRAIN -- 1998 -- DAY
          
          TITLE: 13 YEARS LATER
          
          The train passes above used car lots, discount furniture
          stores, residential side streets...finally pulls into a
          station. The doors open. People file on, the CAMERA letting
          them go by until it spots a tall, thin COLLEGE STUDENT in a
          YARMULKE. Danny grown up?
          
          PAN with him as he sits, opens an organic chemistry text. The
          doors close. The train starts up, but the Jewish boy hardly
          notices; he is already reading. He sways with the motion of
          the car, half-hidden by other passengers. We realize he is
          being watched.
          
          REVERSE ANGLE: another YOUNG MAN, standing -- a "SUEDE-HEAD"
          (his hair cut so short it's like a fine fabric).
          
          SUEDE-HEAD'S POV: THE JEWISH BOY pushes his glasses back up
          his nose, wipes the nose with a handkerchief, puts the
          handkerchief away, and all the time his eyes have not left
          the page. Suede-head steps between passengers and stands
          directly over the Jewish boy. He looks down at the yarmulke
          pinned to the stiff, wavy hair, at the oversized shirt
          collar, scrawny neck, prominent Adam's apple, pimples,
          dandruff, ingrown facial hair...
          
          He steps closer, crowding the boy's knees. The boy shifts a
          little without looking up. Subtly but relentlessly, Suede-
          head pursues him along the bench until, unable to slide
          farther, the boy flattens his legs against the seat. Suede-
          head presses into the boy's knees.
          
          The boy accidentally bumps a BUSINESSMAN to Suede-head's
          left. The man (late 30s, Wall Street Journal, African-
          American) looks from the boy to Suede-head and understands
          at once what is going on.
          
          Suede-head stares right back -- and the BUSINESSMAN returns
          to his paper. Suede-head eases him aside and steps on the
          boy's shoe.
          
          SHOES -- A HEAVY BLACK BOOT PINS A BROWN WINGTIP TO THE FLOOR
          
          The wingtip wiggles back and forth, finally working free.
          The boy still hasn't looked up.
          
          SUEDE-HEAD & THE JEWISH BOY
          
          swaying, locked in a strange, silent intimacy. Suede-head
          forces the boy into ever more contorted postures,
          increasingly ridiculous denials of what is happening. And
          the boy not only never stops reading the chemistry text, he
          keeps highlighting relevant passages.
          
          The train slows. The boy closes the book, caps the
          highlighter, gathers his things and manages to stand up,
          wriggling awkwardly around Suede-head. The doors open, he
          gets off.
          
          INT. STATION -- DAY
          
          Looking up a long escalator, the Jewish boy riding down
          toward us.
          
          Suede-head arrives on the run at the top, races down a
          flight of stairs, vaults the bannister, slides down a metal
          slope....
          
          Lands on his feet and comes to stand at the foot of the
          escalator.
          
          The boy rides inexorably down. At the bottom, he tries to go
          around Suede-head who blocks this way, then another, driving
          him into a corner.
          
          The boy realizes he has nowhere to go -- finally turns to
          face his tormentor. Their eyes meet for the first time. He
          is actually bigger than Suede-head, but not nearly as strong.
          He won't fight, is simply acknowledging what he can no
          longer deny. There is even an odd relief that disgusts
          Suede-head more than all the rest.
          
                              SUEDE-HEAD
                    Fucking kike.
          
          He slaps him in the face. He stumbles backward. As Suede-
          head goes to hit him again, the boy holds his books in front
          of him. Suede-head punches the books straight into his face.
          The boy falls, curls into a fetal position. Suede-head kicks
          him....
          
                              SUEDE-HEAD
                    Get up.... Get the fuck up....
          
          He won't budge. Suede-head punches him repeatedly until he
          hears VOICES approaching. He runs back up the stairs to the
          train and only as we FOLLOW him do we realize that he is our
          protagonist. This is Danny grown up.
          
                                                      CUT TO:
          
          INT. DANNY'S STUDIO APARTMENT -- NIGHT
          
          Like his brain, the room is at once crowded and tidy and has,
          so far as we can see, neither windows nor doors. Shelves of
          books, CDs, magazines, videotapes loom over a neatly made bed.
          
          Danny, in briefs and boots, is lifting weights. The phone
          rings. A machine picks up: no outgoing message, only a BEEP.
          Then:
          
                              WOMAN'S VOICE
                    Is this working? I'm trying to reach
                    Danny Balint...Danny, it's Vicki, we
                    met at Happy Jack's last month...?
          
          He keeps doing curls.
          
                              WOMAN'S VOICE
                    I was hoping maybe we could...get
                    together again... Give me a call --
                    718-555-0193.
          
          She hangs up. A moment later Danny finishes the set, gasping
          for air, heart pounding, muscles throbbing.
          
          INT. SAME -- NIGHT
          
          A radio is playing the news. Danny sits at a small desk, on
          the phone and browsing the Internet, a take-out menu beside him.
          
                              DANNY (INTO PHONE)
                    ...Is it completely vegetarian?
                    ...What do they make the stock
                    from?... Not chicken, you're sure?...
                    And no dairy... No, no cheese I don't
                    eat cheese... Yeah, all right. And
                    the tropical fruit shake... How long?...
          
          Over this we see: COMPUTER SCREEN: GLIMPSES OF PASSING PHRASES:
          
          ...ZIONIST OCCUPATIONAL GOV'T CONTROLS 78% OF THE SENATE, 62%
          OF THE HOUSE...DYNAMITE CAN BE STOLEN FROM CONSTRUCTION
          SITES & ROAD CREWS, PARTICULARLY IN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS...
          CURTIS ZAMPF IN NYC 5/18...JEWISH PIMPS, DRUG DLRS &
          ABORTIONISTS HAVE AS THEIR MAIN GOAL...CONVERTING THE GLOCK
          901 TO FULLY AUTOMATIC IS RELATIVELY SIMPLE. FIRST, REMOVE
          THE FIRING PIN...
          
          He HIGHLIGHTS the item about Curtis Zampf...
          
          EXT. VOMPADINK -- TWILIGHT
          
          A tough working-class Queens bar.
          
          INT. VOMPADINK -- TWILIGHT
          
          Men drink in clusters, including a group of skinheads....
          Danny takes a place alone at the bar, drawing furtive
          attention from the regulars. When the BARTENDER finally
          comes over...
          
                              DANNY
                    Vodka tonic.
          
          A strange call for this place. As he waits, Danny turns and
          watches the skinheads enough to make them aware of him.
          
          The girls watch him, too. The skins don't like that. One of
          them (Billings) seems ready to do something about it. The
          others try to calm him, and when they look back, Danny has
          left. He barely touched the drink.
          
          The skins are puzzled, but one indicates his watch: time to
          go. They gather their stuff....
          
          EXT. CITY/INT. 7 TRAIN -- EVENING
          
          Looking out the front of the train as it rushes toward
          Manhattan. A dramatic sky rises above the skyline.
          
          EXT. STREET -- NIGHT
          
          The three skins -- O.L., CARLETON, BILLINGS -- walk up an
          East Side street. Billings is telling a story....
          
                              BILLINGS
                    ...So she takes the pants in back --
                    where they try them on? And I think
                    fuck it....
          
                              CARLETON
                    Are you shitting me?? Right in the store?
          
                              BILLINGS
                    She's been giving me the eye. She's
                    hot. So I wait till the owner goes up
                    front....
          
          During this, O.L. starts to SPRAY PAINT a crude SWASTIKA
          onto a BUS KIOSK. A VOICE startles them....
          
                              VOICE
                    What are you doing??
          
          They jump, turn. Danny steps out of the shadows.
          
                              DANNY
                        (indicating swastika)
                    What do you think you're doing?
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Who the fuck are you?
          
                              DANNY
                        (coming toward them)
                    Who am I?? Who are you, you schmucks,
                    you can't even make a decent
                    swastika.... Give me the paint.
                        (O.L. looks to his friends)
                    Give it to me.
          
          Danny's will is stronger; O.L. hands over the spray can.
          Danny shakes it, critiques O.L.'s rendering....
          
                              DANNY
                        (gruff but avuncular)
                    It's too squared off. You got to
                    orient it up and down, diamond-shaped,
                    like this....
                        (sprays an excellent swastika)
                    ...The arms go clockwise.
                        (hands the can back)
                    You're going to Curtis Zampf; me, too.
                    Let's go?
          
          They exchange looks: how did he know about Curtis?
          
                              CURTIS ZAMPF (O.S.)
                    ...Where I grew up in South Boston
                    twenty years ago, when a kid walked
                    down the street, everyone knew who he
                    was...
          
          INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT
          
          Grand but threadbare. The skins enter: O.L. like a child,
          Carleton like a sardonic adolescent, Billings like a
          revolutionary, Danny like an uncrowned prince.
          
          CURTIS ZAMPF is addressing a dozen or so guests. He is 40
          but appears younger; with rough good looks, longish hair and
          a leather jacket, he seems more like an aging rock star or
          sexy novelist that a standard-issue American Nazi.
          
                              CURTIS
                    ...If he ran out in front of a car,
                    some old Mick'd yell at him, "Jimmy
                    Dunne, get back on that sidewalk and
                    stay there...."
          
          He does the Boston Irish accent so well, everybody laughs.
          Up front we notice the only WOMAN in the room. She is in her
          40s, regal, beautiful, forbidding. Her name is LINA MOEBIUS.
          
                              CURTIS
                    ...The day he graduated high school,
                    he'd go see his uncle down at the gas
                    works, or the priest's brother in the
                    shipyard, get his apprentice papers,
                    eight years later he'd be making
                    $16.50 an hour, have four kids, play
                    ball on Sundays in Columbus Park, and
                    when he died, the whole town'd get
                    drunk and cry over him....
          
          The crowd -- nonunion electricians, white taxi drivers,
          unemployed bookkeepers, failed academics, off-duty cops --
          listens quietly.
          
          During this, a young woman (CARLA) appears from the rear of
          the apartment, heading for the kitchen with a coffee cup and
          a history book. She glances into the living room.
          
                              CURTIS
                    ...Today, when that kid walks down
                    the street it's full of trash and
                    half the faces are black. The
                    shipyard's closed, all the jobs at
                    the gas works are set-asides, and by
                    the time he drops out of school, he
                    can barely get a job at Burger King.
                    So he drinks, smokes crack, and when
                    he hangs himself on the front porch
                    at twenty-three, the only people at
                    his wake are a couple of buddies and
                    his mother. The boy's father won't
                    find out he's dead till six months
                    later.
                        (beat)
                    The soul of this country is being
                    destroyed, and all the government can
                    offer is free trade, mutual funds and
                    IPOs.
          
                              GUY DANIELSEN
                    You sound like a leftist.
          
                              CURTIS
                    I used to be one.... No, seriously, I
                    called myself an anarchist. I stood
                    up for the oppressed. I opposed state
                    power.
          
                              AN OLD COOT
                    Don't you still?
          
                              CURTIS
                    I oppose the present state because
                    it's weak. It has been ever since the
                    left emasculated it over Vietnam. But
                    I think the average man is crushed
                    less by accumulated capital than the
                    loss of community or real leadership,
                    the personal emptiness he simply
                    cannot fill on his own....
                        (matter-of-fact)
                    That's why I'm a fascist. It's the
                    only form of government that
                    addresses our deepest needs.
          
          Silence. Danny -- who has spotted Carla -- begins to clap, a
          few others join in. Danny raises his hand; Curtis nods to
          him....
          
                              DANNY
                    What do you think the fascism of the
                    twenty-first century will look like?
          
          Everyone -- including Carla -- turns to see who asked that.
          
                              CURTIS
                    More cultural than political.
          
                              DANNY
                    Obviously.
          
                              CURTIS
                    Decentralized, nonviolent,
                    increasingly mainstream. We'll see
                    antiabortion, anti-immigration groups
                    form alliances with the gun lobby,
                    Christian identity types, tax resisters
                    and even some libertarians....
          
          The crowd seems impressed, but restless and bored.
          
                              OLD COOT
                    What about race?
          
          A stirring: many share the concern. Lina watches closely.
          
                              CURTIS
                    This isn't the time for that.
          
          Murmurs of surprise, disappointment.
          
                              DANNY
                    I disagree.
                        (glances at Carla)
                    I think race is central to everything
                    we're talking about.
                        (murmurs of agreement)
                    Spiritual life comes from race. From
                    the blood. Without that, we're no
                    better than the Jews....
          
          The magic word. The whole room comes alive. Zampf grimaces.
          
                              CARLA
                    What's wrong with the Jews?
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Carla...
          
                              DANNY
                    Have you read Toynbee? Spengler?
          
                              CARLA
                    Nobody reads that stuff anymore.
          
                              DANNY
                    Too difficult?
          
                              CARLA
                    Too Christian. You know Jameson? Paul
                    Virilio?
          
                              DANNY
                    The point is, the modern world is a
                    Jewish disease.
          
                              CARLA
                    Disease? What disease?
          
                              DANNY
                    Abstraction. They're obsessed with
                    abstraction.
          
          That stops the conversation. But Carla is intrigued; here is
          someone whose mind moves in strange and interesting realms.
          
                              VOICE (GUY DANIELSEN)
                    What would you propose?
          
          The questioner is a young man (GUY DANIELSEN), better spoken
          than the others. Danny feels all eyes on him.
          
                              DANNY
                    Killing Jews.
          
          A tremor of fear and excitement ripples through the room.
          Zampf glances at Mrs. Moebius; she is watching Danny intently.
          
                              CURTIS
                    That would be a catastrophic mistake.
          
                              DANNY
                    People hate Jews. Do you agree?
          
                              CURTIS
                    They used to. Today it's not an issue.
          
                              DANNY
                    No, but deep down, beneath the
                    "tolerance" they learn on television,
                    nothing's changed. The very word
                    makes their skin crawl.
                        (around the room people nod)
                    It isn't even hate, really. It's more
                    the way we feel when a rat runs
                    across the floor. We want to step on
                    it. Crush it. We don't even know why.
                    It's a physical reaction. Everyone
                    feels it.
          
                              GUY DANIELSEN
                    Which ones would you kill?
          
                              DANNY
                    Prominent Jews. Who are either
                    symbols in themselves or who
                    represent aspects of the Jewish
                    character people despise.
          
                              GUY DANIELSEN
                    Such as?
          
                              OLD COOT
                    Barbra Streisand.
          
          Mutterings: "Who's she?" "Yeah, her..." But Danny says:
          
                              DANNY
                    Too obvious.
          
                              VOICES
                    Kissinger...Dershowitz...Roseanne...
          
                              DANNY
                    Yes. And Larry King...
          
                              OLD COOT
                    Is he Jewish?
          
                              DANNY
                    ...Leona Helmsley, Michael Eisner, Bob
                    Dylan, Phillip Roth, Ruth Bader
                    Ginsberg, Steven Spielberg, Winona
                    Ryder, Beverly Sills, Alvin Toffler,
                    Katherine Graham. All of them. But
                    not yet. We don't want celebrity
                    obscuring the issue.
          
                              CARLA
                    Which is what?
          
                              DANNY
                    At first, no one will know why the
                    victims are being killed.
          
                              CURTIS
                    You wouldn't announce it?
          
                              DANNY
                    I'd say nothing. After two or three,
                    people will try to find a pattern. A
                    reason.
          
                              CURTIS
                    But when it comes out, the public
                    will be outraged. It will look like
                    Germany all over again.
          
                              DANNY
                    Isn't that what we want? Germany all
                    over again? Only done right this time...
          
          The crowd feels a deep atavistic thrill. Zampf glances at
          Mrs. Moebius....
          
                              DANNY
                    Without speeches or political parties.
                    A movement without leaders so that no
                    one can stop it...
          
          The room is stunned to silence. Mrs. Moebius signals Curtis.
          
                              CURTIS
                    Okay, let's break this up for now....
                        (to Danny)
                    Could you wait a minute...?
          
          INT. SAME -- FIVE MINUTES LATER
          
          Danny -- flushed with triumph -- stands looking down at the
          city.
          
          ACROSS THE ROOM -- MRS. MOEBIUS & CURTIS ZAMPF
          
                              CURTIS
                        (low)
                    ...I thought we agreed, no anti-
                    Semitism...it's exactly what we're
                    trying to put behind us.... Trash the
                    blacks, fine; but...
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Did you see how they reacted to him?
          
                              CURTIS
                    Yes, of course. But that only plays
                    in this room, with people who aren't
                    embarrassed to call themselves Nazis.
                    If you want a modern fascism, you
                    don't mention Jews.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    It's a romantic movement, Curtis. It
                    always has been.
          
                              CURTIS
                    Lina, the Thousand-Year Reich barely
                    lasted a decade.... Do you really
                    want to go down that road again? In
                    America of all places, where
                    obedience and discipline are not
                    exactly the national virtues...
          
          She looks over at Danny, now chatting with Carla....
          
                              LINA
                    He's very bright.
          
                              CURTIS
                    He speaks well. But what do we do
                    with him?
          
                              LINA
                    Let's find out who he is.
          
                              CURTIS
                    You mean who he really is.
          
          ON DANNY & CARLA
          
                              CARLA
                    You're not in school? What do you do?
          
                              DANNY
                    I work at the Big Boy warehouse. In
                    Queens. I drive a fork-lift.
          
                              CARLA
                    Where'd you read all that stuff?
          
                              DANNY
                    I just read it....
          
                              LINA
                    Young man...
          
          He turns. She's beckoning to him. He gives Carla a look,
          then crosses to her, sitting in a chair she indicates.
          Curtis offers him a drink; he declines. Carla takes one.
          
                              LINA
                    Lina Moebius. And you are...?
          
                              DANNY
                    Daniel Balint.
          
                              LINA
                    Balint?
          
                              DANNY
                    It's German.
          
                              LINA (IN GERMAN)
                    What part of Germany are you people from?
          
                              DANNY (IN GERMAN)
                    From the Rhineland originally.
          
                              LINA (IN ENGLISH)
                    Are you with the FBI, Mr. Balint?...
                    Or any other law enforcement agency?
          
                              DANNY
                    I was going to ask you the same thing.
          
          Smiles, laughter. Everyone seems to relax.
          
                              LINA
                    So what are you really after,
                    Daniel?... Do you just want to kill
                    Jews, or do you have something larger
                    in mind?
          
          Carla watches, silent. Danny is aware of both mother and
          daughter.
          
                              DANNY
                    Without blood -- a willingness to
                    spill it -- there's no real power, no
                    authority.
          
                              LINA
                        (pleased by this)
                    Curtis is afraid you'll marginalize us.
          
                              DANNY
                    We're already marginal. We are saying
                    what no one else has the guts to say.
                    Isn't that precisely our appeal?
          
                              LINA
                    So what Jew would you kill first?
          
                              DANNY
                    Ilio Manzetti...former ambassador to
                    France. Managing partner at Damon,
                    Schwarzchild.
          
                              CURTIS
                        (to Lina, explaining)
                    An investment banking house.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    He's Jewish? Manzetti?
          
                              DANNY
                    Totally. The family emigrated from
                    Bulgaria when he was eleven.
          
                              CURTIS
                    How would you kill him?
          
                              DANNY
                    I'd have to research it, study his
                    routines, his security.... But
                    ideally on a New York street at
                    midday, using a small-caliber
                    automatic without a silencer.
          
                              CARLA
                    Why no silencer?
          
                              DANNY
                    You want it to be an event.
          
          Lina stands, takes a sherry. Everyone else rises with her.
          
                              LINA
                    Danny, why don't you come visit us in
                    the country. We have young men with
                    lots of energy and no ideas. Maybe
                    you could give them something to
                    think about.... Bring your friends,
                    if you like....
          
          As Curtis leads him toward the door, Danny looks around for
          Carla, hears WOMEN'S VOICES arguing in German. Frustrated,
          he goes down the stairs....
          
          EXT. STREET -- NIGHT
          
          Danny and the other skins walking down the middle of the
          street, drinking beer, oblivious to traffic.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Bring your friends.... We're not his
                    friends.
          
                              DANNY
                    Then I won't bring you....
          
          The others laugh. Someone HONKS behind them. Billings turns:
          
                              BILLINGS
                    FUCK YOU.
          
                              BLACK VOICE (O.S.)
                    Hey, bonehead...get your moon ass off
                    the street.
          
          Billings turns and throws his beer at the voice. A CRASH,
          BREAKING GLASS, a screech of BRAKES, CAR DOORS open and shut...
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Why don't you go back to Rwanda and
                    give each other AIDS.
          
          That does it. The skins run out of frame. SOUNDS of a fight.
          Danny watches, indifferent, then finally joins in.
          
          INT. PRECINCT LOCKUP -- NIGHT
          
          The skins in a cell. O.L., head bloody, moaning and vomiting.
          
                              O.L.
                    I can't see....
          
          Carleton comforts him. Billings paces, looks at Danny,
          sitting against the wall, relaxed for the first time.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    What, do you like it here?
          
                              DANNY
                    Read Mein Kampf? Hitler had all his
                    best ideas in prison.
          
                              OFF-SCREEN VOICE
                    Daniel Balint?
          
          Danny looks up: a JAILER unlocks the cell. Carla appears
          behind him. Danny stops without stepping through the open door.
          
                              DANNY
                    I'm not leaving without them.
          
          The other skins are surprised, moved. Carla and Danny stare
          at each other. Finally she turns to the jailer....
          
                              CARLA
                    Can I use a credit card?
          
          EXT. STREET CORNER, SUBWAY ENTRANCE -- NIGHT
          
          A Mercedes pulls up, Carla driving. The skins climb out,
          Carleton guiding O.L., who cannot see.
          
                              CARLA
                    He should go to a hospital.
          
                              O.L.
                    I'm okay.
          
          Billings turns back, sees Danny still in the car.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    You coming?
          
                              DANNY
                        (glances at Carla, stays
                         in the car)
                    We'll go to the country sometime, okay?
          
          Billings nods grudgingly. The car drives off. Carleton grins.
          
                              CARLETON
                    Fucking Danny, man...
          
                              BILLINGS
                    He's an asshole.
          
          INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- TWILIGHT
          
          Carla leads Danny through the darkened apartment.
          
          INT. CARLA'S ROOM -- TWILIGHT
          
          An old bookcase full of leather-bound German volumes...Danny
          opens one marked Hofmannsthal. He tries to read a marked
          passage.
          
                              DANNY
                    "...und die Worte zerfielen mir im
                    Munde wie modrige Pilze..."
          
                              CARLA
                    "And the words fell apart in my mouth
                    like moldering mushrooms..."
          
                              DANNY
                    How come so many of the books are in
                    Spanish?
          
                              CARLA
                    They're my father's. He's from
                    Argentina. My mother's family went
                    there during the war. That's where
                    they met.
          
                              DANNY
                    Are they still together?
          
                              CARLA
                    He's in a mental institution.... He's
                    been there for ten years, off and on.
                    Mostly on.
          
                              DANNY
                    Is he a Nazi?
          
                              CARLA
                    I guess. His parents are. He doesn't
                    care about that.
          
                              DANNY
                    What's he care about?
          
                              CARLA
                    Killing himself.
          
          They look at each other. There's that gulf between them that
          they have to cross, but they're not sure how.
          
                              DANNY
                    You think people ever commit suicide
                    out of happiness?
          
                              CARLA
                    That's stupid. Why would they?
          
          He shrugs. She takes his hand, rubs the bruised knuckles.
          
                              CARLA
                    You're not like the others, are
                    you?... Your friends.
          
                              DANNY
                    Yes, I am. Basically I am.
          
          She leans close, whispers....
          
                              CARLA
                    Hurt me.
          
          He's surprised, but not very. He grabs her wrist, twists it.
          
                              CARLA
                    Ow! That's too hard.
          
          He pulls her out of frame. She starts to say something, but
          it's cut off by another CRY OF PAIN. We keep looking out the
          window....
          
          INT. SAME -- LATER
          
          The light has shifted across the city, and we hear only a
          muffled sobbing.
          
          The CAMERA TURNS to look at...Carla and Danny naked on the
          bed. He lies back, reading the German book. She's curled on
          her side, weeping abjectly. Still sobbing, she rolls over,
          buries her face in his chest. We see that his neck is
          scratched up.
          
                              CARLA
                    Do it again....
          
          She begins to fondle him. He ignores it until he finishes
          the poem, then turns to her.
          
          INT. SAME -- LATER
          
          The light has shifted again. Danny sleeps alone, his face
          strangely innocent. Carla drops onto the bed, shakes him.
          
                              CARLA
                    Get up...you gotta go.
          
          He opens his eyes. She's dressed, her hair wet from the
          shower, a faint puffiness around her mouth. He pulls her
          down to him.
          
                              CARLA
                    No, you have to leave. I've got to
                    write a paper.
                        (slaps his stomach hard)
                    Out!
          
          He looks up. Her face is cold, indifferent. He gets to his feet.
          
          INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- DAY
          
          Danny on his way to the door, hears something, turns...CURTIS
          ZAMPF is coming out of a bedroom in his underwear. From
          within...
          
                              LINA MOEBIUS (O.S.)
                    Bring the paper, too.
          
          Curtis now sees Danny. A look between them. Danny goes out.
          
          EXT. QUEENS, STAIRS TO ELEVATED TRAIN -- DAY
          
          Once a Jewish neighborhood, now occupied chiefly by blacks,
          Latins and more recent immigrants.
          
          As Danny (wearing headphones) comes down the steps... TWO
          BLACK KIDS (big, menacing, boombox) are coming up, blocking
          his way. Danny walks right between them, forcing them apart.
          
          They turn, glare after him. He turns, glares back. They
          scoff and keep going up. He walks on.
          
          EXT. OZONE PARK HOUSE -- DAY
          
          He lets himself into a row house. We barely notice the
          mezzuzah on the door post.
          
          INT. OZONE PARK HOUSE -- DAY
          
          A nearly vanished world of lower-middle-class Jewish life,
          though the "Jewishness" (menorah, kiddush cup...) is
          restricted to one dusty corner behind a secular chaos of
          books, newspapers, half-empty cups, half-filled glasses...
          
          Danny's FATHER, 55, sits on a faded chair, an oxygen mask on
          a cart beside him. Danny's sister, LINDA, 30, is cutting his
          hair with a scissors. When Danny enters, they both look up
          at him in surprise, alarm, possibly even love. For a moment
          no one knows what to do.
          
          The father begins to wheeze, puts the mask over his face and
          breathes deeply. Linda tells him to lean back; resumes
          cutting. On the wall we see Danny's BAR MITZVAH PHOTO.
          
          Meanwhile, Danny has found a stack of mail, all addressed to
          him. His father and sister are visible behind him in a
          mirror. Without speaking, he goes down the hall, and we hear
          him DESCEND STAIRS to:
          
          INT. HOUSE, BASEMENT -- DAY
          
          Danny has taken off his coat (revealing a black T-shirt with
          a red swastika), and is going through a number of cardboard
          boxes marked "D," pulling out comic books, baseball gloves,
          martial arts gear, drawings of voluptuous women, morbid
          gothic figures, gun magazines, books about Hitler,
          Nazis...and finally a .22 AUTOMATIC stuffed in a blue sock.
          
          INT. HOUSE, BASEMENT
          
          He removes the clip, checks the slide, while nodding to the
          MUSIC coming through his earphones. He looks up, sees LINDA
          at the foot of the stairs, pulls off the headset.
          
                              LINDA
                    I knocked, you didn't answer.
          
          It's too late to conceal the gun; he places it beside him.
          She does her best to ignore the swastika shirt....
          
                              LINDA
                    What are you doing here?
          
                              DANNY
                    I just came to get some stuff. I'll
                    be out in five minutes.
                        (off her)
                    He doesn't want me around.
          
          She looks down as if that were not true, or the way in which
          it is too complicated to go into.
          
                              LINDA
                    He's going to die.
                        (as Danny looks away)
                    He won't take his medicine. He eats
                    dairy. He probably still smokes when
                    I'm not around.
                        (off Danny's helpless gesture)
                    I asked him to come live with us.
                    Alex offered to share his room,
                    unsolicited.... But he didn't want to
                    be any trouble.
          
                              DANNY
                    Then he couldn't be bitter about
                    living alone.
          
                              LINDA
                    Why deprive him of his greatest pleasure?
          
          They exchange what are almost smiles. But then the subject
          she's been trying to avoid -- the only subject -- suddenly
          erupts...
          
                              LINDA
                    Ah, Jesus Christ, Danny, how can you
                    wear that thing?... You know what it
                    means? To your people...
          
                              DANNY
                    They're not my people....
          
                              LINDA
                    Tell it to Hitler.
          
                              DANNY
                    Oh, he decides? Hitler's the chief
                    rabbi now?...
          
                              LINDA
                    Is this because of those kids who
                    used to beat you up?
          
                              DANNY
                    What kids?...
          
                              LINDA
                    The Polacks? From Sacred Heart?
          
                              DANNY
                    Nobody ever beat me up.
                        (as she sighs, turns to go)
                    Look, Linda, there're fifty reasons.
                    Even if you knew them all, there'd be
                    another fifty you didn't know.
          
                              LINDA
                    Do you know them?
                        (off him)
                    I made him some noodles for dinner.
                    You can heat them up and --
          
                              DANNY
                    I've got to get back to the --
          
                              LINDA
                    You can heat them up and eat with him.
          
          INT. LIVING ROOM, QUEENS HOUSE -- NIGHT
          
          Danny (now wearing a plain white T-shirt) bends over the
          coffee table eating a noodle casserole and reading the Post.
          His father eats off a TV table. He finishes, cursorily wipes
          his mouth, picks up a remote and turns on the television.
          
                              DANNY
                    It's Friday....
          
                              FATHER
                        (a hoarse rasp)
                    Do I give a shit?
          
          Danny holds up both hands: he's not arguing, simply informing.
          
                              FATHER
                    The Torah says not to light a fire on
                    the Sabbath, because it's work,
                    correct?
                        (Danny sighs)
                    But if alternating current's running
                    through the wires every second of
                    every day, and I throw a switch, send
                    it here instead of there, how is that
                    lighting a fire?
          
                              DANNY
                    "Do chickens give milk?"
          
                              FATHER
                    Exactly.
          
          He channel-surfs until he comes to a stand-up COMIC doing a
          routine. They both watch.
          
          TV: the COMIC is funny in a brutal, compulsive way. Lots of
          pop references, implicit postmodern nihilism. The routine
          reflects what Danny (and the Shiites, the Unabomber, Timothy
          McVeigh, T.S. Eliot, et al.) have against the modern world.
          
                              FATHER
                    Who's this?
          
                              DANNY
                    Dennis Leary.
          
                              FATHER
                    Leary?
          
                              DANNY
                    No.
          
          The father grunts with grim satisfaction, he suspected as much.
          
                              DANNY
                        (offering consolation)
                    Howard Stern.
          
                              FATHER
                    Obviously.
          
          Danny sighs: why bother. But adds...
          
                              DANNY
                    Adam Sandler.
          
                              FATHER
                    Funny?
          
                              DANNY
                    Not like Mr. Dorfmann.
          
                              FATHER
                    He was funny.
          
          As they watch, apropos of nothing:
          
                              FATHER
                    After your mother died, that's when
                    you stopped going to shul. Doing your
                    homework. Everything.
          
                              DANNY
                    And that's when the Mets started to
                    stink.
          
                              FATHER
                    'Cause they got rid of Johnson. He
                    knew how to deal with the assholes.
                    Dallas Green, please...
          
                              DANNY
                    Valentine...
          
          The father snorts. On TV the comic gets off a line, and they
          both laugh. Their laughs are quite similar; they glance at
          each other.
          
                              FATHER
                    There's some maple walnut in the freezer.
          
                              DANNY
                    Linda says you're not supposed to
                    have dairy.
          
                              FATHER
                    Just a little... What's the difference?
          
          Danny goes into the kitchen. The father extracts a pack of
          Salems from between the cushions, lights one, takes a
          desperate drag... The phone RINGS. He curses, stubs it out,
          grabs the phone.
          
                              FATHER
                    Yeah?... Hold on.... It's for you.
          
          Danny gives his father a dish of ice cream, takes the phone.
          
                              DANNY
                    Hello...?
          
                              VOICE
                    Daniel Balint? My name's Guy
                    Danielsen. I'm a reporter with the
                    New York Times.
          
                              DANNY
                        (impressed, suspicious)
                    New York Times...?
          
          His father looks up. Danny takes the phone into the kitchen.
          
                              VOICE
                    I'm doing a piece on right-wing
                    groups, post Oklahoma City. I hear
                    you're an important figure in those
                    circles. You have a lot of interesting
                    ideas....
          
          INT. KITCHEN -- NIGHT
          
                              DANNY
                    Who told you that?
          
                              VOICE
                    Isn't it true?
          
                              DANNY
                    No, it's...yeah, it's true, but...
                    how'd you get this number?... No, not
                    here... Maybe Sunday? There's a place
                    off Queens Blvd. Near the courthouse...
          
          EXT. COFFEE SHOP, QUEENS -- DAY
          
          A HIGH-ANGLE view of the coffee shop. After a moment, Danny
          enters frame, starts toward it....
          
          INT. COFFEE SHOP, QUEENS -- DAY
          
          Danny enters, looks around. To his surprise he sees GUY
          DANIELSEN from the Nazi meeting rising, extending his hand.
          
                              GUY DANIELSEN
                    Danny...Guy Danielsen...
          
                              DANNY
                        (sardonic, now he gets it)
                    You...
          
          Guy shrugs, smiles apologetically.
          
          ANOTHER ANGLE -- DANNY & GUY WITH COFFEE
          
                              GUY
                    Milk...?
          
          As Danny declines, Guy gets out a small cassette recorder,
          is about to turn it on, when he notices Danny's reaction....
          
                              GUY
                    Is it okay if I record this?
          
                              DANNY
                    No... Yeah, fine, go ahead... So
                    what's this about? Is this about me?
          
                              GUY
                    I'm trying to figure out where the
                    radical right is going to next....I
                    thought you were the most interesting
                    person at that meeting.
          
                              DANNY
                    What about Curtis Zampf?
          
                              GUY
                    Curtis is a politician -- and a bit
                    of a hustler. He's not a thinker.
          
                              DANNY
                    I agree.
          
                              GUY
                    The other night you said the modern
                    world is a Jewish disease. Could you
                    elaborate on that?
          
                              DANNY
                    In the movement -- the racialist
                    movement -- we believe there's a
                    hierarchy of the races. Not just in
                    IQ, but in the civilization, the art,
                    the forms of government, the
                    civilizations that each race
                    produces... Why are you writing this
                    down if you're recording it?
          
                              GUY
                    It helps me concentrate.... So does
                    that mean you're a white supremacist?
          
                              DANNY
                    What should I be, a white inferior-
                    ist? A multicultural Zulu egalitarian?
                    Let me ask, where are your people from?
          
                              GUY
                    My mother's family is French, my
                    father's was German, originally.
          
                              DANNY
                    German. Mine, too. So who do you
                    think's given more to the world, the
                    Germans -- Beethoven, Goethe,
                    Nietzsche -- or the entire continent
                    of Africa? Ibos, Bantus, Mandingos...
          
                              GUY
                    Danny, what about the Jews?
          
          Danny shifts in his seat, growing more interested....
          
                              DANNY
                    The Jews are different.... Blacks are
                    disgusting and inferior, but it's
                    like criticizing a retarded child.
                    The Jews are...a poison in the human
                    well....
          
                              GUY
                    A poison...?
          
                              DANNY
                    Let me give you an example.... Sexuality.
          
                              GUY
                    Sexuality??? What do you mean?
          
                              DANNY
                    You ever fuck a Jewish girl?
          
                              GUY
                    What??!?
          
                              DANNY
                    Did you ever fuck one, Guy?
          
                              GUY
                        (laughing, embarrassed)
                    What's that go to do with...I've gone
                    out with a, with Jewish women. Why?
          
                              DANNY
                    And? WHat did you notice?
          
                              GUY
                    Notice? Like what...?
          
                              DANNY
                    Jewish girls like to give head, right?
          
                              GUY
                    I don't know. Is that right?
          
                              DANNY
                    And Jewish men like to get it.
          
                              GUY
                    Everybody likes to, don't they?
          
                              DANNY
                    Yes. It's very pleasurable. But the
                    Jews are obsessed with it. You know why?
          
                              GUY
                    Why?
          
                              DANNY
                    Because the Jew is essentially female.
          
                              GUY
                    Female...
          
                              DANNY
                    Real men -- white, Christian men --
                    we fuck a woman. We make her come
                    with our cocks. But the Jew doesn't
                    like to penetrate and thrust -- he
                    can't assert himself that directly --
                    so he resorts to perversions. Oral
                    sex is technically a perversion, you
                    know that, don't you?
                        (as Guy nods)
                    After a woman has been with a Jewish
                    man, she never wants a normal partner
                    again. A normal man.
          
                              GUY
                    Does that mean the Jew is the better
                    lover?
          
                              DANNY
                    You're not listening. He isn't better.
                    He gives pleasure, but that's
                    actually a weakness.
          
                              GUY
                    Danny, what makes you think you know
                    all this?
          
                              DANNY
                    Let's just say I've done due diligence.
          
                              GUY
                    So, fine, it's not that the Jew, the
                    Jews own the media and the banks.
                    It's that they're sexually corrupt.
          
                              DANNY
                    The Jews clearly control the media
                    and the banks. Investment banks, not
                    the commercial ones. But the point is
                    they carry out in those realms the
                    same principles they display in
                    sexuality. They undermine traditional
                    life; they deracinate society.
          
          Danny leans over to make sure Guy's getting it right.
          
                              DANNY
                    Deracinate... Tear out the roots. A
                    people -- a real people -- derives
                    its genius from the land: the sun,
                    the sea, the soil. This is how they
                    know themselves. But the Jew doesn't
                    have soil.
          
                              GUY
                    He has Israel.
          
                              DANNY
                    Those aren't Jews.
          
                              GUY
                    Of course they're Jews.
          
                              DANNY
                    Notice the Israelis: a fundamentally
                    secular society. They no longer need
                    Judaism because they have soil. The
                    real Jew is a wanderer, a nomad. He
                    has no roots, no attachments. So he
                    "universalizes" everything. He can't
                    hammer a nail, plow a field. He can
                    only buy and sell, invest capital,
                    manipulate markets. He takes the life
                    of a people rooted in soil and turns
                    it into a cosmopolitan culture based
                    on books, ideas, numbers. This is his
                    strength....
                        (pumped; this is what
                         he loves)
                    Take the great Jewish minds: Marx,
                    Freud, Einstein. What have they given
                    us: communism, infantile sexuality
                    and the atom bomb. In a mere three
                    centuries since these guys emerged
                    from the ghettos of Europe, they've
                    taken us from a world built on order
                    and reason and hurled us into a chaos
                    of class warfare, irrational urges
                    and relativity, a world where the
                    very existence of matter and meaning
                    is in doubt. Why? Because it is the
                    deepest impulse of the Jewish soul to
                    unravel the very fabric of life until
                    nothing is left but thread, nothing
                    but nothingness. Nothingness without
                    end...
          
                              GUY
                    Are all Jews the same?
          
                              DANNY
                    Differences exist, of course, but
                    they're irrelevant. For the Jew, his
                    Jewishness dominates everything. Even
                    the ones who renounce it, who hate it,
                    who want to cut it out of their
                    hearts a knife...can't escape.
                    They're still just Jews.
          
          Guy finishes writing that and looks up.
          
                              GUY
                    Danny, this is great. You're
                    incredibly articulate. One more
                    thing... How can you believe this when
                    you're a Jew yourself?
          
          A beat. Danny smiles at the mistake....
          
                              DANNY
                    What? Excuse me?...
                        (Guy says nothing)
                    You're kidding, right?
          
                              GUY
                    Do you know Rabbi Stanley Nadelman?
                    He used to be at Congregation Beth
                    Elohim in Ozone Park...?
          
                              DANNY
                    Who? How would I know him?
          
                              GUY
                    He says you were bar mitzvahed there,
                    in March 1988.
          
                              DANNY
                    You believe that? And you call
                    yourself a reporter?
          
                              GUY
                    So you're saying it's not true.
          
                              DANNY
                    Look at me.  DO I look Jewish?  Look...
          
          He indicates his hair, turns sideways to show his profile?
          
                              GUY
                    Were you ever bar mitzvahed anywhere
                    else?
          
                              DANNY
                    Do you know who you're fucking with here?
          
                              GUY
                    That's what I'm trying to find out,
                    Danny. Who am I fucking with here?
          
                              DANNY
                        (sputtering, unsure
                         what to say)
                    Listen to me....
          
                              GUY
                    Why would Nadelman lie?
          
                              DANNY
                    To discredit me. Because I know who
                    they are. Look, I thought I explained
                    it to you. Those people can say or do
                    anything. And they will. It's all
                    narrative to them, it's... Are you
                    going to print what this guy said?
          
                              GUY
                    Give me a reason not to.
          
                              DANNY
                    It's slander. It's reckless disregard.
                    I'll sue you and your fucking Jew paper.
          
                              GUY
                    Does that mean you deny what he says
                    is true? Yes or no.
          
          GUN: pulled from Danny's pants, slammed down on the table...
          Guy sits back abruptly. Danny picks it up, cocks it....
          
                              DANNY
                    Look at me. Look at me, Guy.... Oh,
                    now you can't look at me? Look at me,
                    you schmuck. Look at me....
                        (pokes the gun in Guy's face)
                    You print that shit in the New York
                    Times...I'll kill myself.
          
          Everyone in the place is staring. Danny walks out, stuffing
          the gun in his pants, shoving a man aside to get to the door.
          
          EXT. COUNTRY -- DAY
          
          Traveling through low, tree-covered mountains listening to
          the overture to Tannhäuser.
          
          INT. VAN -- DAY
          
          Carleton driving; O.L. (one eye bandaged) riding shotgun. In
          back: Billings and Danny (flipping through a Times.)
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Do we have to listen to this shit?
          
                              DANNY
                    Yes.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Why'd we have to leave so fast?
          
                              O.L.
                    Nobody made you go.
          
                              CARLETON
                    Danny's running from the law.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    O.L., how come your mother gives you
                    a car when you're too fucking blind
                    to drive?
          
                              O.L.
                        (cackling)
                    She says 'cause now I can't crack it up.
          
                              CARLETON
                    Hey, O.L., assholes at four o'clock.
          
          O.L. leans out the window, giving dual "birds" to an empty
          street.
          
                              O.L.
                    FUCK YOU, ASSHOLES. SUCK MY DICK!
          
          The others laugh.
          
          EXT. DEFUNCT MOTEL -- TWILIGHT
          
          The van stopped in front. All of them out of the car. No
          one's around except the noisy CRICKETS. The city kids are
          uneasy.
          
                              CARLETON
                    I thought there were people here....
          
                              DANNY
                    I'll go look....
          
          He walks toward the back. Billings decides to go with him.
          
                              O.L.
                    I better stay with the van....
          
                              CARLETON
                    Yeah, you better stay here and guard it.
          
          O.L. gives him the finger. Carleton laughs -- but he stays
          back, too.
          
          EXT. REAR OF MOTEL -- TWILIGHT
          
          Danny and Billings see PEOPLE in back. Now NINE YOUNG MEN
          and a bulldog come to greet them: survivalists, speed-freaks,
          skinheads...and one blank loner (DRAKE) with a blue swastika
          tattooed to his lips like a tiny kiss. A case of STEROID
          EXCESS fixes his gaze on Danny.
          
                              DANNY
                    We're from New York. Curtis Zampf
                    invited us.
          
                              WHIT
                    Who?... Curtis who?
          
          Are they in the wrong place? Then someone laughs, they all
          relax, exchange greetings, obscure handshakes. Everyone's
          just getting comfortable when, for no apparent reason...
          
          STEROID EXCESS
          
          slugs Danny in the face.
          
          He stumbles backward. The others crowd around, keep him from
          falling, also from getting away. Billings starts to help,
          but people grab him: this is Danny's problem.
          
          Steroid comes at him.... Danny steps inside the charge and
          goes to work on the bigger man's body. We barely see what
          happens, but we hear it and feel the crowd's shock. Danny is
          stronger than we realized and much more vicious. In seconds,
          Steroid sinks to his knees, face bloody. Danny holds up him,
          leans close:
          
                              DANNY
                    Enough?
          
          Steroid mumbles in the affirmative. Danny nods -- then hits
          him four more shots to the face. Even this crowd winces.
          Steroid drops with a wet thud.
          
          As Danny straightens up, wiping the blood off his hands,
          people instinctively step back.
          
                              DANNY
                    Which was his room?
          
                              KYLE
                        (ferrety, glasses)
                    Number ten.
          
          On the end: has an extra window. Danny walks into the room.
          Steroid's stuff starts flying out the door.
          
          EXT. MOTEL PORCH -- NIGHT
          
          Danny on a pay phone.
          
                              DANNY
                    Yeah, I'm trying to reach Carla, is
                    she?... Did she get my other
                    message?... No, I'll call back....
          
          EXT. MOTEL PORCH -- NIGHT
          
          Danny hangs up the phone, glances into a room where we dimly
          glimpse Nazis taking drugs, drinking beer, screaming...
          
                              VARIOUS VOICES
                    Fucking niggers... Fucking niggers?
                    Fucking gooks!...
          
          Then incomprehensible shrieking rage, a fight, breaking glass...
          
          Danny sighs, bored. He spots two nerdy Nazis, KYLE and WHIT,
          playing some battle re-creation board game and rehashing
          WWII....
          
                              WHIT
                    ...Look, if Hitler had knocked out
                    the RAF in '39, which he could easily,
                    easily have done, he'd have taken
                    England, and the U.S. wouldn't have
                    had --
          
                              KYLE
                    ...A staging ground for the invasion,
                    yeah. But he blew it going after
                    civilian targets. Just like he blew
                    the Russian front, diverting supplies
                    to Auschwitz....
          
          Danny looks up the hill toward a farmhouse perched above
          them. One light burns inside.
          
                              DANNY
                    Where's Mrs. Moebius?
          
                              KYLE
                    Her place is down the road. But she
                    just comes out for weekends sometimes.
          
          Danny squats to look at the board game.
          
                              DANNY
                    What is this, Stalingrad?
          
                              WHIT
                    Gettysburg. But we're refighting it
                    with World War I technology. It's a
                    fucking bloodbath.
          
          He grins maniacally. Danny smiles. Kyle is emboldened by
          Danny's unexpected friendliness, lowers his voice....
          
                              KYLE
                    That was unbelievable what you did to
                    Lucas. The guy's an animal.
          
                              DANNY
                    You could do it.
          
                              KYLE
                    Get out of here....
          
                              DANNY
                    You look right through him. He's
                    there, but there's something on the
                    other side of him that you want. It's
                    all you want. And whatever's in the
                    way doesn't matter.... Then it's easy.
          
          As Kyle and Whit contemplate his wisdom...
          
                              DANNY
                    Either of you know anything about
                    explosives?
          
          They both look up, very interested.
          
          TWO FAMILIES IN TABLEAU -- WOODEN CUTOUTS -- DAY
          
          Jews: MAN (black hat, beard), WOMAN (sheitl, shawl), BOY
          (kippah, twerpy), GIRL (fat, ugly), even a DOG, a Star of
          David on its side.
          
          Blacks: MAN (watermelon, pitchfork), WOMAN (fat, fried
          chicken), BOY (syringe, 9mm), GIRL (twins, welfare check),
          DOG (black).
          
                              VOICE (O.S.)
                    Take a breath, let out a little,
                    relax, then squeeze.
                        (a RIFLE SHOT;
                         nothing's hit)
                    Again...
          
          Another SHOT. A bullet hits the Jewish boy in the rear end.
          Sunlight streams through the hole. We are:
          
          EXT. REAR OF MOTEL -- DAY
          
          Danny peers down the barrel of an M-16. Kyle squats beside him.
          
                              KYLE
                    Which one were you aiming at?
          
                              DANNY
                    The mother.
          
          Kyle nods, patient, is drawing Danny's attention back to the
          target when...
          
          DRAKE
          
          Sets up beside them, begins squeezing off rounds so fast, it
          sounds like an automatic weapon.
          
          TARGETS: the bullets chew up and knock over all four Jews.
          And selectively: shooting the man's face, the woman's
          breasts, the boy and girl in the groin. The dog he merely
          flattens.
          
          Drake looks at Danny without expression, drops the clip,
          shoves in a fresh one and riddles the black family in
          similar fashion.
          
          EXT. MOTEL PORCH -- NIGHT
          
          Danny, pay phone to his ear, flipping through a New York
          Times. He throws it aside as a voice comes on the line....
          
                              DANNY
                    Carla?... It's me, Danny...Danny
                    Balint...? We met at that...[meeting
                    at your house.]
          
                              CARLA'S VOICE
                    Yeah, I remember.... Kill any Jews yet?
          
                              DANNY
                    I didn't realize you cared.
          
                              CARLA'S VOICE
                    I don't. I was just curious how full
                    of shit you were.
          
                              DANNY
                    Did you know that there was a New
                    York Times reporter there that night?
          
                              CARLA'S VOICE
                    Really, which one? I bet it was the
                    guy with the Prada shoes.
          
                              DANNY
                    I didn't notice his shoes.... Did
                    your mother know he was there?
          
                              CARLA'S VOICE
                    I doubt it. How did you find out?
          
                              DANNY
                    He called me up. He wanted to talk to
                    me about my ideas.
          
                              CARLA
                    I bet. He didn't realize that nobody
                    who talks such a good game ever plays
                    one.
          
                              DANNY
                    You weren't complaining about my play
                    last time.
          
                              CARLA'S VOICE
                    That's a much easier game.
          
                              DANNY
                    Why don't you come visit, we'll have
                    a rematch.
          
                              CARLA
                    Too many good players down here. I'm
                    with one right now.
          
                              DANNY
                    Oh, really?
          
                              CARLA
                    Bigger and better.
          
                              DANNY
                    Then how come you're talking to me?
          
                              CARLA'S VOICE
                    I'm not.
          
          Click. She's gone. He hangs up, walks straight into...
          
          INT. MOTEL ROOM -- NIGHT
          
          Nazis sprawled about, drinking beer, impassively watching TV.
          The bulldog pants on the floor. Carleton calls to it:
          
                              CARLETON
                    Gas Chamber...
          
          It trots over, receives a scrap of food. Everything desultory:
          
                              DANNY
                        (to the whole room)
                    When are we going to do something?
          
          People glance up wearily: give us a break....
          
          EXT. TOWN -- DAY
          
          Danny, Billings, O.L., and Drake walk through the town,
          looking for trouble. A couple of local TEENAGERS watch them,
          impressed by the swastikas, tattoos, swagger.
          
          INT. DELICATESSEN -- DAY
          
          Two WAITERS (Jewish college students, athletic, confident)
          watch the Nazis come in. One indicates to the other that
          he'll handle this. He brings menus, water; he's carefully
          polite.
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                    You know what you want?
          
                              BILLINGS
                    We sure do.
          
          The Waiter ignores the innuendo, readies his order pad.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Ham and cheese on white.
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                        (forbearance)
                    We don't have ham. We don't have cheese.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    What the hell do you have?
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                    That's what the menus are for.
          
          He smiles. Billings glares.
          
                              O.L.
                    Roast beef and Swiss.
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                    I said: no cheese.
          
                              O.L.
                    What's wrong with cheese?
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                    This is a kosher restaurant. We don't
                    serve meat with dairy.
          
                              DANNY
                    What about chicken?
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                    That's meat.
          
                              DANNY
                    The Bible only says don't seethe a
                    kid in its mother's milk. But
                    chickens don't give milk.
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                    Look, you want cheese, go someplace else.
          
                              DANNY
                    But it's stupid, right? You admit
                    it's stupid.
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                    No, I don't admit it's stupid.
          
                              DANNY
                    You can have chicken with eggs but
                    not with milk. Why is that?
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                    I'm not here to talk about religious
                    law, if you don't like --
          
                              DANNY
                    But you already talked about it: you
                    said it's not stupid. Why isn't it
                    stupid?
          
                              FIRST WAITER
                        (calling the other Waiter)
                    Steve...
          
                              DANNY
                    Steve's going to explain it.
          
          Steve approaches, a sawed-off broom handle over his shoulders.
          
                              STEVE
                    We have a problem here?
          
                              BILLINGS
                    We sure fucking do. We don't
                    understand why you can't eat chicken
                    with milk. It doesn't make sense.
          
                              STEVE
                        (an intellectual)
                    Religion isn't about making sense.
                    It's about --
          
                              DANNY
                    It's about the incomprehensible,
                    Steve, not the idiotic.
          
                              STEVE
                    Fuck you.
          
                              DANNY
                    That explains it! Now we understand!
          
          The Nazis laugh. Steve swings the broom handle at Danny...who
          ducks it, grabs it, slams it back at him.... GAVEL RAPS...
          
          INT. COURTROOM -- DAY
          
          A JUDGE (white-haired, red-faced, blue-eyed, well-meaning)
          peers down at the four NAZIS, still bruised from the fight.
          
                              JUDGE
                    ...As the altercation appears to have
                    been instigated equally on both sides,
                    prison terms strike the court as
                    excessive.
          
          The Nazis are relieved. Spectators disappointed.
          
                              JUDGE
                    However, the defendants' political
                    views suggest that they might profit
                    from contact with members of our
                    community whose experiences differ
                    from their own....
          
          INT. A SOCIAL ROOM -- DAY
          
          NUMBERS TATTOOED ON AN ARM...a thumb steadily smooths the
          skin as:
          
                              RUMANIAN WOMAN (O.S.)
                        (Rumanian accent, uninflected)
                    ...When I refused to have sex with
                    him, the warden had my sister, Esther,
                    executed in front of the entire block....
          
          The Nazis, accompanied by a "HATE COUNSELOR" (male) sit in
          plastic chairs opposite five elderly JEWS. The speaker is in
          her late 60s, still something of a beauty.
          
                              RUMANIAN WOMAN
                    ...Everyone considered it my fault.
                    After that, of course, I did anything
                    he wanted.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Why didn't he just rape you?
          
          SNICKERING among the Nazis, a whispered crack:
          
                              O.L.
                    Who'd want to fuck her anyway?
          
                              HATE COUNSELOR
                    I hear one more remark like that, we
                    go back to the court for resentencing.
          
                              RUMANIAN WOMAN
                    He was a pig, like you, so perhaps he
                    had no taste.
          
          The Nazis laugh. The Jews try to calm the woman, though she
          has spoken without any evident emotion. Billings gets up
          restless.
          
                              HATE COUNSELOR
                    Sit down, please.
                        (as Billings sits)
                    Thank you, Mrs. Cohen. Mr Liebowitz,
                    you indicated you had a story you
                    wanted to tell....
          
          INT. SAME -- LATER
          
          Nazis are dozing, staring out the window. O.L. threads a
          piece of dental floss through the zipper pull on his
          trousers. Danny is visibly disgusted by the whole business.
          Over this we hear:
          
                              POLISH MAN (O.S.)
                    ...The man was afraid to let us hide
                    on his farm any longer, but he agreed
                    to take us to a more remote place. On
                    the way he was stopped at a checkpoint,
                    and when the soldiers found us in the
                    hay, one of them grabbed my son out
                    of my arms. He began to cry, so I
                    reached for him, not to take him back,
                    simply...
          
          THE MAN: mid-70s, tall, stooped, a crushed spirit.
          
                              POLISH MAN
                    ...simply to assure him I was there.
                    But the sergeant became enraged....
                    He stuck his bayonet in my son's
                    chest, and lifted him up, impaled on
                    it. My son was three years old....
          
          Billings is muttering, "What a load of crap..." The Hate
          Counselor looks over sharply. The other Nazis are stunned by
          the story. Danny can barely contain himself, though we are
          not sure why.
          
                              POLISH MAN
                    ...He held him up so that the blood
                    spurting out of him feel on my
                    face.... The soldiers were laughing.
          
          FLASHCUT: EXT. A COUNTRY ROAD -- DAY
          
          A horse hitched to a hay wagon; FARMER driving. THREE NAZI
          SOLDIERS have discovered a Jewish family hiding in the hay.
          A sergeant is holding up something unseen on the end of his
          rifle.
          
          The Polish man who has been telling the story looks up at
          whatever it is. Blood falls on him. The Nazis are laughing.
          
                              POLISH MAN (O.S.)
                    When the blood stopped, the sergeant
                    pushed my son off the bayonet and
                    said, "There, you can have him now...."
          
          BACK TO SCENE: INT. A SOCIAL ROOM -- DAY
          
          The room is silent. The Nazis faces blank, shaken. Until...
          
                              DANNY
                    And what did you do?
          
                              HATE COUNSELOR
                    What are you trying to say?
          
                              DANNY
                    What did you do while the sergeant
                    was killing your son?
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Forget it, Danny, it's all bullshit.
          
                              HATE COUNSELOR
                    Wait a second...
          
                              DANNY
                        (to Billings)
                    Shut up.
                        (to man, mid-70s)
                    What did you do?
          
                              RUMANIAN WOMAN
                    What could he have done?
          
                              DANNY
                    What could he have done?? You fucking
                    kikes...
          
                              HATE COUNSELOR
                    You can't say that....
          
                              DANNY
                    The Nazi's killing his kid. He
                    could've jumped the guy. He could've
                    gouged his eyes out, grabbed the
                    bayonet and gutted him.... What would
                    you have done if they were killing
                    your son?
          
          The counselor is briefly confused....
          
                              RUMANIAN WOMAN & OTHERS
                    ...They'd have shot him on the
                    spot.... He would have been dead in
                    two seconds.... Who are you judge?
          
                              HATE COUNSELOR
                        (to Danny)
                    Please sit down.
          
                              DANNY
                    SO THEY SHOT HIM! SO HE WAS DEAD. SO
                    WHAT. HE'S WORSE THAN DEAD NOW. HE'S
                    A PIECE OF SHIT...
          
                              HATE COUNSELOR
                    Okay, that's it. You're going back to --
          
                              DANNY
                        (over him, to Polish man)
                    What do you think you should have done?
          
                              POLISH MAN
                    And you, you think you know what you
                    would have done? You have no idea.
                    You can't even imagine what that was
                    like. And you never will....
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Don't listen to them, Danny. It's all
                    a bunch of crap.
          
                              ANCIENT JEW
                    What is crap?
          
                              BILLINGS
                    The so-called Holocaust. It never
                    happened. It's the hoax of the
                    twentieth century.
          
                              DANNY
                        (disgusted with this idiocy)
                    Oh, please...
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Danny, it's true. There were no six
                    million. At most, two hundred
                    thousand Jews died in the camps. And
                    the majority of them were from
                    disease and --
          
          The Jews are shouting about historical records, the
          disappearance of families, whole towns.... But Danny is louder:
          
                              DANNY
                    Where did you read this? Robert
                    Faurisson?
          
                              BILLINGS
                        (surprised he knew)
                    Yeah. He's a respected scholar. Even
                    No-am Chomsky says he --
          
                              DANNY
                    Billings, if Hitler didn't kill six
                    million, why is he your hero?...
                    Concentration camps all over Europe,
                    and he only gets rid of a measly two
                    hundred thousand.... He's a putz.
          
          Some surprise that a Nazi is arguing against a denier.
          
                              ANCIENT JEW
                    Hitler was not a putz. Hitler was
                    real. God created him to punish the
                    Jews for abandoning God.
          
          The other survivors are embarrassed by this, but the Ancient
          Jew ignores them.
          
                              ANCIENT JEW
                    It is you who are putzes. Little
                    pishas with your dreams of hatred and
                    killing...
          
          Danny scoffs, gets up to leave.
          
                              HATE COUNSELOR
                    Where do you think you're going?
          
                              DANNY
                    ...We have nothing to learn from
                    these people. They should learn from us.
          
          As Danny walks out, the Ancient Jew catches his eye.
          
                              ANCIENT
                    And what should we learn from you,
                    Daniel?
          
          Her use of Danny's name feels knowing, slyly invasive. All
          SOUND VANISHES for a beat, and Danny barely manages to say:
          
                              DANNY
                    Kill your enemy.
          
          EXT. MOTEL -- DAY
          
          Kyle opens the trunk of his car, shows Danny inside: two
          bags of shotgun powder and several lengths of metal piping
          with screw-on caps.
          
                              DANNY
                    What is it?
          
                              KYLE
                    Green dot -- shotgun powder. For pipe
                    bombs.
                        (off Danny's reaction, smiles)
                    A guy in a lumberyard gave it to me.
                    A donation to the cause.
          
                              CARLETON (O.S.)
                    Hey, Danny.... Guess who's here....
                        (as Danny quickly slams
                         the trunk)
                    Your girlfriend... She's up at the house.
          
          EXT. THE FARMHOUSE -- DAY
          
          In the driveway: Carla's Mercedes, a Triumph motorcycle.
          Danny peers in through the windows, goes to the door.
          
          INT. FARMHOUSE, LIVING ROOM -- DAY
          
          Danny sees Carla sitting on a green sofa wearing a white
          sundress and leafing through a magazine. Curtis is mixing
          drinks. Lina is practicing with her stylus on a new
          electronic organizer.
          
                              LINA
                    My L's keep coming out as C's....
          
                              CURTIS
                        (spots Danny)
                    The prisoner returns....
          
          Danny greets them all. Carla barely looks up.
          
                              LINA
                    Danny, get a drink and come talk to me.
          
          INT. LIVING ROOM -- A FEW MINUTES LATER
          
          Danny talking with Lina and Curtis but watching Carla.
          
                              CURTIS
                    ...Insulting people who were in the
                    camps. ...What's the point?
          
                              DANNY
                    They're liars and cowards.
          
                              CURTIS
                    I'm sure they are. But what do we
                    accomplish by pointing it out?
          
                              DANNY
                    It's the truth....
          
          Curtis rolls his eyes. Lina signals him to lay off.
          
                              LINA MOEBIUS
                    Danny, what do you think of our troops?
          
                              DANNY
                        (trying to be diplomatic)
                    They have guts. And they know what
                    they hate...which is good. But they
                    have no idea why; they don't think,
                    they don't read.... They're on beer
                    and crank half the time....
          
          A phone RINGS in another room.
          
                              LINA
                    The young people in this country...
                    They're like pigs; all they want is
                    happiness.... But one needs pigs
                    sometimes.
                        (as it RINGS again; to Carla)
                    Liebchen...
          
          Carla puts down her magazine, goes out to the kitchen.
          Danny's eyes follow her, and Curtis's follow his.
          
                              LINA
                    Do you feel you're making progress here?
          
                              DANNY
                    You mean Ilio Manzetti?
          
                              LINA
                    Forget Manzetti.... Take on something
                    simple. Something you can actually
                    accomplish.
                        (to Curtis)
                    Maybe he'd be more valuable in the city.
          
                              CURTIS
                    An urban type.
          
          Danny is stung. Carla calls from the kitchen.
          
                              CARLA (O.S.)
                    Danny...telephone.
          
          He starts: who could be calling him here? As he goes into
          the kitchen to take the phone, Curtis says quietly...
          
                              CURTIS
                    He's mad, Lina, you know that.
          
          She hears him but doesn't respond.
          
          INT. KITCHEN -- DAY
          
          Danny picks up the phone; there's a New York Times beside it.
          Carla busies herself about the kitchen.
          
                              DANNY
                    Hello?
          
                              WOMAN'S VOICE
                    You know what today is?
          
                              DANNY
                    Linda... How did you get this number?
          
                              LINDA'S VOICE
                    It's Mom's yartzeit.
          
          Danny starts to hang up, sees Carla watching, turns away
          keeping his voice low.
          
                              DANNY
                    How did you get the fucking number?
          
                              LINDA'S VOICE
                    I want you to say kaddish for her.
                    It's the only thing she asked from us....
          
                              DANNY
                    I don't do that.
          
                              LINDA'S VOICE
                    You do it on the inside....
          
                              DANNY
                    Don't tell me what I --
          
                              LINDA'S VOICE
                    ...I want you to do it on the outside,
                    too.
          
                              DANNY
                    No!
          
                              LINDA'S VOICE
                    Yes!
          
          He hangs up. He grabs the Times, looks through it quickly.
          
                              CARLA
                    Who's Linda?
          
                              DANNY
                        (dropping the Times)
                    Why won't you talk to me?
          
                              CARLA
                    I'm talking to you right now. Who's
                    Linda?
          
          He tries to kiss her. She pushes him away.
          
                              DANNY
                    When can I see you?
          
                              CARLA
                    You can't.
          
                              LINA (O.S.)
                        (in German)
                    Carla, it's time to leave.
          
                              CARLA
                    I have to go visit my father.
          
                              DANNY
                    Your father??
          
                              CARLA
                    He's at a home out here.
          
          She starts to walk past. He grabs her arm.
          
                              DANNY
                    I'm coming to your room tonight.
          
                              CARLA
                    No.
          
          She tries to pull free; he won't let her go.
          
                              LINA (O.S.)
                    Carla!
          
                              CARLA
                    Just after midnight. Five past... But
                    don't come through the house, they'll
                    hear you. I'm in the back bedroom,
                    second floor. Climb onto the kitchen
                    roof, I'll leave the window open.
          
          He tries to kiss her, but she ducks away and goes out.
          
          EXT. STREET/INT. O.L.'S VAN -- EVENING
          
          Danny is parked opposite a fortresslike building of soiled
          brick. For a long time he cannot bring himself to get out.
          Finally he opens the door....
          
          INT. AHAVAT TORAH, FOYER -- EVENING
          
          A LARGE WOMAN, about 40, her body barely contained by a
          brilliant magenta dress, greets him with a smile the size of
          a wedding cake. She holds out a prayer book stuffed with flyers.
          
                              LARGE WOMAN
                    Shabbat shalom.
          
          She speaks quietly, not wanting to disturb the service, yet
          even so her voice is huge, and her flashing eyes clearly
          expect some kind of enthusiastic response. Within we hear
          the ALENU being chanted.
          
          Danny ignores her and the proffered siddur. A basket of
          yarmulkes seems to infuriate him, but he snatches one anyway
          and, conveying a helpless disgust, puts it on his head. From
          within he hears...
          
                              CONGREGATION (O.S.)
                        (in rough unison)
                    Ba-yom, ha-hoo, ba-yom, ha hoo...(etc.)
          
          He stands with his hand on the door, but not opening it.
          
                              RABBI'S AMPLIFIED VOICE (O.S.)
                    On that day, the Eternal shall be One.
                    And His Name shall be One....
          
          The organist plays a brief decrescendo....
          
                              RABBI'S AMPLIFIED VOICE
                    The mourner's kaddish can be found on
                    page 187....
          
                              LARGE WOMAN
                    Is anything wrong?
          
                              DANNY
                    Shut the fuck up.
          
          She's startled but not intimidated, is about to respond,
          when Danny simply turns and walks out of the building.
          
          EXT. AHAVAT TORAH -- EVENING
          
          He stops beneath an open window through which he hears...
          
                              RABBI'S AMPLIFIED VOICE
                    ...Grant us peace, thy most precious
                    gift, O Thou Eternal source of peace.
                    We recall with loving memory those
                    whom Thou hast summoned unto thee.
                    And we mention by name...Sophie
                    Budnitz...Bernard Schwabb...Milton
                    Lifter...Aaron Lustig...Minnie Baum...
          
          Danny closes his eyes, but at the end adds, under her breath:
          
                              DANNY
                    ...Harriet Kantor Balint...
          
          A half dozen VOICES, including Danny's, recite in unison...
          
                              DANNY & OTHERS
                    Yis-ga-dal v'yis-ka-dash sh'may ra-bo...
          
          The body of the congregation joins in on certain phrases,
          producing a subtle and solemn music. Danny chants the entire
          prayer, and the moment it ends, and the rabbi begins the
          benediction....
          
                              RABBI'S VOICE (AMPLIFIED)
                    May the Lord bless you and keep you....
          
          EXT. AHAVAT TORAH/STREET -- EVENING
          
          ...he starts toward his car. But the Rabbi's VOICE seems to
          follow him, unnaturally loud and clear:
          
                              RABBI (O.S.)
                    May He cause the light of His
                    countenance to shine upon you and be
                    gracious unto you....
          
                              DANNY
                        (to himself)
                    Eat shit....
          
                              RABBI (O.S.)
                    ...May you be blessed in your going
                    forth as you were in your coming....
          
                              DANNY
                        (shouting to the empty street)
                    EAT SHIT, ASSHOLES....
          
                              RABBI (O.S.)
                    And let us say...
          
                              RABBI & CONGREGATION
                        (with organ; singsong)
                    Ah -- ah -- ah....men....
          
          As Danny reaches the van, he sees the LARGE WOMAN silhouetted
          in the open doorway....
          
                              LARGE WOMAN
                    YOU EAT SHIT.
          
          Danny realizes he's still wearing the kippah. He throws it
          at her, but it only goes a couple of feet. He catches it,
          throws harder. This time it floats back toward him, and he
          has to jump out the way to keep it from hitting him. He gets
          in the car and drives off.
          
          A WRISTWATCH: 12:05. We are:
          
          EXT. FARMHOUSE -- NIGHT
          
          Danny hoists himself onto the kitchen roof. Above him is an
          open window, candlelight flickering. He starts into the room,
          stops....
          
          INT. BEDROOM -- NIGHT
          
          Carla sits on the bed, straddling Curtis, who lies beneath
          her. She is looking right at Danny. Curtis, unaware of him,
          keeps thrusting into her from below.
          
          Danny starts to leave, but on second thought stays. Carla
          stares expressionless, yet more attentive to him than to
          Curtis. Indeed, their eyes never leave each other, so that
          when she becomes aroused, we understand that it is Danny she
          is responding to, Danny she is really making love to.
          
          Gradually her face loses its aloofness and seems to reach
          out to him, to reveal feelings that she can no longer deny.
          She holds her gaze until, at the final instant, she shudders
          out a series of stifled cries.
          
          When she looks again, the window is empty.
          
          INT. DANNY'S MOTEL ROOM -- DAY
          
          Danny reading. A KNOCK at the door. He looks up, Curtis
          comes in. Danny stiffens at the sight of him, but Curtis is
          friendly.
          
                              CURTIS
                    What are you reading?
          
          Danny tilts the book to show him: History of Political
          Philosophy.
          
                              CURTIS
                    Leo Strauss...
                        (nods approvingly)
                    I've got to go to Boston. I came to
                    say goodbye.
          
                              DANNY
                    What about Mrs. Moebius and...?
          
                              CURTIS
                    They left an hour ago.
                        (off Danny's disappointment)
                    You mind some personal advice? Forget
                    Carla. That's not the side your
                    bread's buttered on.
                        (off Danny's silence)
                    How soon can you get back to the city?
          
                              DANNY
                    A week or so. There's something I
                    want to do here first.
          
                              CURTIS
                    What's that?
                        (off Danny's silence)
                    Okay. Surprise us...
          
          INT. DARKNESS -- NIGHT
          
          The sound of SPLITTING WOOD. Then VOICES in a cavernous space...
          
                              CHAOS OF VOICES
                    Ow, shit... You're stepping on my
                    fucking -- ...Get off me...Goddammit...
                        (sounds of PUNCHES, a SCUFFLE)
                    Stop it!... Where's the light?
          
          One appears, illuminating nothing, dissipating into the
          still vaster darkness. A SERIES OF LIGHTS bang on in
          ecclesiastical bursts, illuminating: a vaulted ceiling...
          stained glass panels... We are:
          
          INT. SYNAGOGUE SANCTUARY -- NIGHT
          
          A dour, ornate place built in the early decades of the
          century. The sight of it silences everyone for a moment. Then...
          
                              CARLETON
                    Jew World...!!
          
          Drake, Billings, Carleton, O.L. and Steroid run wild...
          kicking over benches...spray-painting swastikas...hurling
          prayer books...urinating from the balcony...
          
          ...Danny looks around like someone revisiting his childhood
          home: slides his hand along a pew back...leafs through a
          chumash...gazes up at the eternal lamp behind its red
          glass...the gilded doors of the ark... A hint of Kol Nidre
          MUSIC haunts him....
          
                              DANNY
                        (to himself, barely a
                         whisper)
                    Shut up. Fuck you....
          
                              KYLE (O.S.)
                    What...?
          
          Danny turns; Kyle is right behind him.
          
                              DANNY
                    Nothing. Where is it?
                        (as Kyle hoists a
                         sports bag)
                    Okay, let's take one of these panels
                    off so we can get under the bema...the
                    stage.
          
          As they unscrew a panel, Carleton runs past. A football
          flashes overhead. We hear GLASS BREAK...LAUGHTER.
          
          INT. UNDER THE STAGE -- NIGHT
          
          DANNY WATCHES KYLE attach a bomb (four sticks of dynamite
          wired to a digital timer) to a 2x4 with a bungee cord. He
          hooks the ends, cautiously lets go. The cord springs free.
          The bomb falls.
          
          Kyle gasps. Danny catches it.
          
          Frozen, they look at each other. Kyle exhales, takes the
          bomb and, with Danny holding it, carefully restrings the
          bungee. A MECHANICAL NOISE overhead:
          
                              STEROID (O.S.)
                    Wow, look at this shit....
          
                              DANNY
                    What are they doing?
          
          Kyle has no idea and doesn't care. Danny scrambles out.
          
          INT. SANCTUARY -- NIGHT
          
          Straightening up, Danny is stunned by a vision:
          
          THE OPEN ARK -- THE TORAHS
          
          ...their silver crowns and breastplates, velvet robes. And
          Steroid Excess, lifting one out. Danny reacts with an
          instinctive horror.
          
                              DANNY
                    What are you doing? Put that down!
                    ...Put it back in there.
          
          Steroid -- cowed by Danny -- starts to obey, but before he
          can...
          
                              BILLINGS
                    What do you care?
          
                              DANNY
                    I don't, but...
          
                              BILLINGS
                        (vaults onto the stage)
                    Let's look at the fucking thing.
          
          Each CURSE makes Danny wince, but he just hovers about
          nervously as Billings and Steroid try to unwrap the Torah
          while others gather, some comically wrapping themselves in
          tallises.
          
                              DANNY
                    Put it there, on the...
          
          He indicates the bema, stepping back as if to deny any
          involvement, yet at the same time trying to monitor
          everything they do.
          
                              DANNY
                        (indicating crowns, the
                         yod...)
                    Just be careful with the...
          
                              O.L.
                        (puts a crown on his head)
                    "If I were king of the forest...not
                    Prince, not Duke, not Earl..."
          
          Danny cannot endure this desecration, but everyone else
          laughs, so he keeps his mouth shut.
          
                              KYLE
                    Open it up.
          
                              DANNY
                        (impulsively taking over)
                    Here...
          
          He shoves his way in and, gripping the handles, unrolls the
          Torah. Low MURMURS at the sight of the broad columns, the
          mysterious calligraphy, the CRACKLING parchment. Danny
          himself is struck by the sudden immediacy of the sacred text.
          OVER this...
          
                              VOICES
                    Oooo... Weird... You read it from
                    right to left.... The letters look
                    like squashed bugs.... What kind of
                    paper is that?
          
                              DANNY
                    It's not paper, it's parchment. It's
                    made from sheepskin. And all the
                    letters are drawn by hand.
          
                              KYLE
                    Neat calligraphy.
          
          Danny nods, then, as if against his will....
          
                              DANNY
                    It's called the flame alphabet. It's
                    supposed to be the word of God
                    written in fire.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Fire...
          
                              DANNY
                    The mystics tried to read the white
                    spaces around the letters. They
                    thought there was a whole alternative
                    language hidden there, with secret,
                    alternative meanings.
          
                              KYLE
                    Cool.
          
          Danny sees Drake watching him, smirks to express his disgust.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    How come you know all this shit?
          
                              DANNY
                    How come you don't know it?
                        (pressing the advantage)
                    How can you say you hate the Jews
                    when you don't know anything about --
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Fuck you. I hate the Jews at least as
                    much as you do.
          
                              DANNY
                    No, you don't.... If you hated them,
                    you'd study them, so you'd know why
                    you hate them. You know what tefillin
                    is? Tsitsis? Shotness? You know the
                    kaddish from the kiddush?
                        (obviously not)
                    Eichmann? He went to Israel. He
                    studied the Torah, the Talmud, the
                    Mishnah, the whole bit. He hated Jews.
          
                              CARLETON
                    Who's Eichmann?
          
                              DANNY
                    Who's Eichmann?!!?
          
          Danny's incredulous, though it's not clear how many of the
          others know why Eichmann was.
          
                              KYLE
                    He was head of the Gestapo's Jewish
                    sector. He deported people to the camps.
          
                              CARLETON
                        (reaching toward the parchment)
                    Can we touch it?
          
                              DANNY
                    Yeah, but not on the letters.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Why the fuck not?
          
                              DANNY
                        (warning finger)
                    Just don't.
          
          Billings bristles at Danny's authority; Carleton says to him...
          
                              CARLETON
                    Didn't you see Raiders of the Lost Ark?
          
                              BILLINGS
                    What??
          
                              CARLETON
                    That was an ark, man. That was a
                    Torah. They fucked around with it,
                    and the Torah melted their faces.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    That's a movie, you moron.
          
                              CARLETON
                    Fine, go ahead. Touch the letters.
          
          The others are gathered around, delicately touching the
          sheepskin.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Let me see.
          
          He pushes through, looks at the Torah. He runs his fingers
          over the crinkled parchment, the smooth black letters.
          
                              DANNY
                    I said not on the --
          
          Suddenly Billings grabs the parchment in both hands and
          tries to tear it. It's tougher than it looks.
          
                              DANNY
                    Stop it! What are you doing?
          
          He tries to stop him, but -- accidentally or not -- Drake
          gets in the way, and before Danny can do anything else,
          Billings crumples it and finally tears a long gash into the
          scroll.
          
          This produces a strange effect on the others. Some (Kyle,
          Steroid, Drake) join in. They knock the aitz off the bema,
          it rolls out, exposing ten feet of Torah. They stamp on it,
          spit on it.... Others (Carleton, O.L.), though less troubled
          than Danny, are surprised (and embarrassed) by their own
          revulsion at these acts.
          
          Danny watches helplessly, like the survivor who did nothing
          as his son was murdered.
          
          Finally the Torah lies torn and soiled on the stage. A
          strange silence.
          
                              KYLE
                    Let's get out of here.
          
          ...Danny kneels by the Torah. With a tallis, he attempts to
          clean the parchment. Carleton and O.L. help him roll it onto
          the aitz. [Echo "Christ taken down from cross" with Torah as
          Christ.] They replace the cover, the yod, the crowns....
          
          Finally Danny lifts it up, holds it to him as if it were his
          dead child. He closes his eyes, murmurs to himself....
          
                              DANNY
                    Shema yisrael adonai elohenu adonai
                    echod.
          
                              CARLETON
                    What'd you say?
          
                              DANNY
                    Nothing. Let's go....
          
          He starts to walk out, carrying the Torah.
          
                              CARLETON
                    Why are you taking that?
          
                              DANNY
                    I'm stealing it.
          
          EXT. AHAVAT TORAH -- DAY
          
          A VIDEO IMAGE:
          
                              NEWSCASTER VOICE (V.O.)
                    ...Tragedy was barely averted today
                    at Temple Ahavat Torah when a bomb
                    planted under the bema failed to
                    detonate....
          
                              KYLE (O.S.)
                    Shit!
          
                              NEWSCASTER VOICE (V.O.)
                    ...Authorities say that if it had,
                    injuries and loss of life could have
                    been in the dozens....
          
          INT. DANNY'S MOTEL ROOM -- DAY
          
          Danny, Kyle and others watching the TV.
          
                              NEWSCASTER VOICE
                    Channel 8's Cindy Pomerantz spoke to
                    Rabbi Malcolm Weiss.
          
          ON TV: Cindy (sleek, sexy) and the rabbi (handsome, vain).
          
                              CINDY (ON TV)
                    Rabbi, how is it that disaster and
                    tragedy were averted here today at
                    Ahavat Torah?
          
                              RABBI (ON TV)
                    Apparently the power cell in the
                    timer gave out precisely thirteen
                    minutes before the device was set to
                    go off. So we can only conclude that
                    once again God has intervened to save
                    the Jewish people....
          
                              DANNY
                        (giving the finger to
                         the TV)
                    Oh, fuck you...
          
                              RABBI (ON TV)
                    As you know, Cindy, thirteen is a
                    mystical number in the Jewish faith.
                    We believe that God has thirteen
                    attributes...
          
          Danny is beside himself.
          
                              RABBI (ON TV)
                    ...Of which the highest is ein sof,
                    which means "without end," or,
                    sometimes, "nothingness without end...."
          
                              CINDY (ON TV)
                    Nothingness without end.... That's
                    very interesting.
          
                              RABBI (ON TV)
                    The purest form of spirit...
          
          ON DANNY. Sound fades. He's haunted: "Nothingness without
          end" was what he'd told Guy Danielsen the Jews were obsessed
          with. He seems to hear the cello playing "Kol Nidre" again.
          Then...
          
                              DANNY
                    Okay, everybody out. Get out.
          
          He switches off the TV. Shoves them out the door, slams it.
          
          INT. DANNY'S MOTEL ROOM -- LATER
          
          Alone he sits at the desk, finds himself gazing at the Torah,
          standing in a corner of his closet, draped in the tallis.
          
          He slams the closet door, it bounces open. Slams it again,
          making sure it latches.
          
          He sits down, looks at the closed door until, in bitter
          resignation he gets up and opens it again.
          
          He unrolls the Torah on the bed...Scotch tapes the tear
          closed...attempts to clean the stain with a moistened cloth.
          
          INT. DANNY'S MOTEL ROOM -- DAY
          
          Danny is in the bathroom in front of the mirror, holding his
          shirt up with his chin as he wraps the tallis around his
          torso. When he lowers the shirt, the fringes hang out like
          the tsitsis that Orthodox men wear.
          
          He feels a weird loathing for this, but he smooths and
          arranges the tsitsis to look just like a Hasid's. He clicks
          his heels together and gives a Nazi salute.
          
                              DANNY
                    Alenu l'shab'ach la'adon hacol...
          
          Another Nazi salute. A KNOCK at the door. He hides the
          fringes under the shirt, throws a blanket over the Torah.
          
                              DANNY
                    What?
          
                              STEROID (O.S.)
                    Phone, Danny.
          
          EXT. MOTEL -- PAY PHONE -- DAY
          
                              GUY'S VOICE (PHONE)
                    Danny Balint...Guy Danielsen, New
                    York Times.
          
                              DANNY
                        (tucks in the tallis
                         fringes)
                    What do you want? What happened to
                    your article?
          
                              GUY'S VOICE (PHONE)
                    I couldn't get my editor to run it,
                    but I bet he will now that you've put
                    a bomb in a synagogue. That was you,
                    wasn't it, Danny?
          
          Danny hangs up. Stands there. A VOICE makes him jump....
          
                              VOICE (DRAKE)
                    Hey, Danny, want to kill a Jew?
          
          Danny turns: it's Drake. These are the first words he's spoken.
          
          EXT. SUBURBAN STREET/INT. CAR -- DAY
          
          Danny and Drake pass a low-slung modern synagogue. A sign
          announces: AMBASSADOR ILIO MANZETTI Friday, August 31. Danny
          reacts, startled...Drake smiles.
          
                              DRAKE
                    Park up there, we'll walk back.
          
          EXT. CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM -- TWILIGHT
          
          The building is lit. Within we hear an AMPLIFIED VOICE,
          presumably Manzetti giving a speech. We can't make out the
          words. Danny and Drake are hidden among the rhododendrons
          flanking the parking lot. Danny is watching a door in the
          side of the building and eating a sandwich as Drake loads a
          scoped rifle.
          
                              DRAKE
                    Lie on your stomach and come up on
                    your elbows.
          
                              DANNY
                    Why me?
          
                              DRAKE
                    You want to kill a Jew. I already did.
          
          Danny assumes the prone position, Drake sets the rifle in
          his hands.
          
                              DANNY
                    Who'd you kill?
          
                              DRAKE
                    Four. But no one this important.
          
          We hear APPLAUSE within as the speech ends.
          
                              DRAKE
                    Okay, it's over. He'll take a couple
                    questions, then come out.... Sight
                    down the rifle toward the door.
          
          THROUGH RIFLE SCOPE: Danny pans from the side door -- where
          TWO MEN are smoking -- to a waiting limousine.
          
                              DANNY
                    How did you know they were Jews?
          
                              DRAKE
                    I can tell....
          
                              DANNY
                    How?
          
                              DRAKE
                    I was a Jew in a previous life.
          
          Before Danny can respond, Drake gestures toward the synagogue.
          
                              DRAKE
                    Here they come.
          
          Danny puts his eye back to the scope.
          
          SCOPE POV: stirring at the door. The men put out their
          cigarettes. Three figures emerge: a MAN and a WOMAN on
          either side of an older, distinguished-looking man (MANZETTI).
          They walk this way.
          
                              DRAKE (O.S.)
                    Shoot him in the head. Always shoot a
                    Jew in the head.
          
                              DANNY
                    I'm a bad shot. I don't think I can --
          
                              DRAKE (O.S.)
                    Just get him in the cross-hairs. With
                    those shells, anywhere you hit him,
                    it'll bounce around, rip his insides
                    all up.
          
          SCOPE POV: the TRIO walking this way, cross-hairs on Manzetti.
          
                              DRAKE (O.S.)
                    Right there! Just squeeze he trigger.
                    Slow... Do it!
          
          Danny FIRES, misses. Everybody hits the ground.
          
                              DRAKE
                    You missed on purpose.
          
                              DANNY
                    I didn't. I told you, I can't --
          
                              DRAKE
                    What's that?
          
          Danny looks over his shoulder. His shirt has ridden up his
          back, revealing the tallis wrapped around his waist.
          
                              DRAKE
                    I knew it.
          
          Drake pulls a .45 from the duffel.... Without thinking,
          Danny rolls over, fires the rifle. Drake is blown backward,
          dropping the .45.
          
          Danny leaps up.... Drake's on his hands and knees, his
          trousers quickly darkening with blood. Danny's upset.
          
                              DANNY
                    Oh, Jesus...Drake, are you okay...?
          
          FOOTSTEPS, coming this way. Danny runs. We hear voices, "Get
          down.... Stay down.... He's got a gun...." Drake picks
          himself up, stumbles away, bent over....
          
          EXT. QUEENS -- DUSK
          
          Danny parks the van in an abandoned lot near the river.
          Quickly wiping down the wheel with his shirt, he tosses out
          his duffel bag and the scoped rifle. He climbs out, wipes
          down the door, throws the rifle into the water, grabs the
          duffel and hurries away.
          
                              DANNY (V.O.)
                    Kyle, it's me Danny. How you doing?...
                    I had to come into the city to see
                    Mrs. MOEBIUS... No, I gave Drake the
                    van, didn't he bring it back?
          
          INT. DANNY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT
          
          Danny's on the phone, whipping through several newspapers.
          
                              DANNY
                    ...Since when?... Really? And he
                    didn't call?... No, I don't know...
          
          He finds a tiny item: "Gunfire Reported at Synagogue." He
          scans it: no mention of Drake or himself.
          
                              DANNY
                    Sure, come on down.... Can you bring
                    my stuff?... Thanks...and if Drake
                    shows up, let me know right away....
                    Good...
          
          He hangs up. From behind some books, he extracts the small
          caliber handgun he found in his father's house earlier.
          
          INT. MRS. MOEBIUS'S APARTMENT -- TWILIGHT
          
          Danny alone, waiting, nervous. He hears FOOTSTEPS approach,
          he touches the gun in the back of his trousers. Lina and
          Curtis enter.
          
                              LINA
                    How have things been going?
          
                              DANNY
                        (how much do they know?)
                    Fine.
          
                              LINA
                        (indicates a chair)
                    We want to talk to you about
                    something....
                        (as they sit, Danny nervous)
                    We're about to launch an aboveground,
                    intellectually serious fascist movement.
          
          Danny is relieved and intrigued. Lina nods at Curtis to go on.
          
                              CURTIS
                    We want to build bridges to certain
                    positions in the political mainstream:
                    works like The Bell Curve,
                    Sociobiology, anti-Zionism, anti-
                    immigration, the com-munitarian
                    issue.... We'll hold conferences:
                    invite liberals, blacks, Jews.
                    Chomsky, Cockburn, Stanley Crouch,
                    Shahack....
          
                              DANNY
                    I've been waiting all my life for
                    something like this.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    We want you to help run it. Give
                    speeches, lead seminars... Handle the
                    fund-raising.
          
                              DANNY
                        (slapped in the face)
                    Fund-raising??
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    We think you'd be good at it.
          
          OFF-SCREEN we hear the front door. FEET come up the stairs....
          
                              DANNY
                    What about...Manzetti, the synagogues....
          
                              CURTIS
                    That doesn't seem to be happening,
                    does it?
          
                              DANNY
                    I've been stuck out in the country
                    with those guys who just want to
                    paint swastikas and heil Hitler. How
                    am I supposed to -- (get anything
                    done there?)
          
          He stops short as Carla walks into the room for shopping.
          She glances at them, puts down her bags, goes into the
          kitchen....
          
                              CURTIS
                    Danny, the night we met, you said the
                    name Ilio Manzetti. We were impressed.
                    We were excited. But here it is
                    September, and Mr. Manzetti is still
                    walking around breathing the air.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    We need intellectuals, we have enough
                    thugs already.
          
          Danny's watching Carla go down the hall toward the back, can
          barely bring his attention back to the conversation at hand.
          
                              DANNY
                    I'm not an intellectual.... I mean, I
                    read, but... Fund-raising isn't what I...
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Look, if you want to kill Jews on
                    your free time, fine. We need you to
                    raise money. Will you do that for us?
          
          He nods but cannot look at her.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Thank you.
          
          He's dismissed. He rises.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Do you have a suit?
                        (off Danny; to Curtis)
                    Let's get him one.... And a cell
                    phone too.
                        (as Danny turns to go;
                         a joke for her own amusement)
                    And if you insist on blowing up a
                    synagogue, make it that big one on
                    Fifth Avenue, would you?
          
                              DANNY
                    Beth Shalom? It's Reform.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    So what?
          
                              DANNY
                    They're not that Jewish.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    I don't care what they are. I know
                    those people, and I don't like them.
                    The rest are just a bunch of kikes,
                    aren't they?
          
          She smiles. He manages a smile back and hurries away, face
          burning with shame.
          
          EXT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT, STREET -- NIGHT
          
          Danny comes out of the building, squats between two parked
          cars and vomits, retching spastically until, gasping for
          breath...
          
                              VOICE
                    Here...
          
          He turns. Carla walks over to him, wipes his mouth with a
          crumpled tissue. When she moves to kiss him, he holds back,
          shy about the smell, but she kisses him anyway, on the mouth.
          
          INT. DANNY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT
          
          Carla, naked, browsing the books, sees something in the
          closet. It's the Torah Danny took from the synagogue. She
          unrolls it on the bed, her gaze moving over the mysterious,
          glossy script. Danny, coming out of the bathroom, sees what
          she is doing, and stops short.
          
                              CARLA
                    Where'd you get this?
          
                              DANNY
                    I stole it. From a synagogue.
          
          She looks at the broad printed columns....
          
                              CARLA
                    How come there's no punctuation?
          
                              DANNY
                    That was a later invention, it's not
                    in the scrolls.... Anyway, the Jews
                    know where the sentences end. They
                    know the whole thing by heart. Every
                    word. Every letter.
          
                              CARLA
                    Do you know it like that? By heart.
          
                              DANNY
                    No.
          
                              CARLA
                    But you can read it, the Hebrew....
                    Right?
          
                              DANNY
                    What do you care?
          
                              CARLA
                    'Cause I want to know.... What is
                    this word? This one here...
          
          Danny looks at the word, then back at her. He's torn between
          competing desires, but finally...
          
                              DANNY
                    Va-yomer... And he said.
                        (she moves her finger
                         to the left)
                    It goes the other way.
          
                              CARLA
                        (she knew that)
                    Oh, yeah...
                        (moves finger right)
          
                              DANNY
                    Va-yomer adonai el Avram: lech lecha
                    mayartzcha oo-mimohlad-tcha oo-m'bayt
                    avaycha el ha-ertez asher arecha...
          
                              CARLA
                    What's it mean?
          
                              DANNY
                    And God said to Avram, take yourself
                    away from your land and from the
                    place you were born and from your
                    father's house into the land -- a
                    different land -- and I will show you....
          
          Danny remains silent a moment, affected by the passage....
          
                              CARLA
                    I want to learn to read it.
          
                              DANNY
                    Why?
          
                              CARLA
                    Know your enemy.... 'Cause it's a
                    basic text of Western culture. I want
                    to read it in the original. Okay?
          
                              DANNY
                    Hebrew's very difficult. It would
                    take years.
          
                              CARLA
                    I'm good at languages.
          
          He looks at the smooth expanse of her back, the articulations
          of her spine. He finds her very beautiful.
          
                              DANNY
                    Put something on. You're not supposed
                    to be naked in front of it.
          
                              CARLA
                    Why not?
          
                              DANNY
                    They think it's the word of God, and
                    it's holy, and the flesh isn't....
          
                              CARLA
                    That's stupid.
          
                              DANNY
                    Yeah, it's stupid.
                        (indicating her T-shirt)
                    Put it on, or I won't teach you.
          
          She grudgingly pulls on the shirt as he gets a pencil and paper.
          
                              DANNY
                    See, the Jews love to separate things:
                    the holy from the profane, milk from
                    meat, wool from linen, the Sabbath
                    from the week, the Jew from the
                    gentile.... As if one little scrap of
                    this was going to completely
                    contaminate that.
          
                              CARLA
                    What assholes.
          
                              DANNY
                    You can't curse in front of it either.
          
          He shrugs as if indifferent to these rules, yet compelled to
          point them out.
          
                              CARLA
                    Who gets contaminated, the Jews or
                    the gentiles?
          
                              DANNY
                    Good question. Both.
                        (draws a letter)
                    Aleph...
          
                              CARLA
                    It looks a little like a swastika.
          
                              DANNY
                    It's silent. It holds a place, takes
                    a vowel. The vowels are little dots
                    that go under the letters.
          
                              CARLA
                    Where are they?
          
                              DANNY
                    They don't put them in the Torah.
                    I'll get you a chumash, they'll have
                    them there...Bet...Gimel...Dalid...Hay...
                        (as she repeats the names)
                    How come you're here instead of with
                    Curtis? Besides the Hebrew lessons...
          
                              CARLA
                    The sex is better.
          
                              DANNY
                    Even though his dick is so big?
          
                              CARLA
                    With you there's a tragic dimension.
          
                              DANNY
                    Vuv...Zayin...Chet...Tet...
          
          He writes each letter as he says it, and she repeats after him.
          
          EXT. WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE -- DAY
          
          Danny and Kyle.
          
                              KYLE
                    This will be a different kind of device.
          
                              DANNY
                    That damn thing. You know how it made
                    me look...?
          
                              KYLE
                    I'm sorry, Danny. It won't happen
                    again. I'm going to use a brand-new
                    power cell. Plus we'll have a back-up
                    timer.
          
                              DANNY
                    I've gotta kill some Jews, Kyle. I'm
                    serious. I'm always talking about it.
                    This time it's gotta happen.
          
                              KYLE
                    It will.
          
          Kyle's confident, and the prospect of this really happening
          gives Danny pause. He feels a brief chill, escapes it with...
          
                              DANNY
                    What about Drake, did he ever show up?
          
                              KYLE
                    No, it's weird, man. Nobody knows
                    where he went.
          
          Danny nods, gestures for Kyle to split. Kyle looks around,
          walks away. Danny waits a moment, then heads in the opposite
          direction.
          
          EXT. WILLIAMSBURG -- DAY
          
          Danny walking behind a Hasidic family (MAN, WOMAN, 3-year-
          old BOY, STROLLER)...watching them. At a corner, the father
          takes the boy's hand, and as they cross the street, the boy
          glances back at Danny.
          
          EXT. COUNTRY ROAD -- DAY, 1943
          
          TWO NAZI SOLDIERS have just discovered a JEWISH FAMILY
          hiding in the back of a hay wagon. The POLISH MAN is holding
          the little boy.
          
          As a soldier tries to take the BOY out of his arms, the
          child panics, clings to his father, screaming, "Papa...
          Papa..." It is the scene the survivor described in the
          meeting with the Nazis. But now the father is DANNY'S
          FATHER....
          
                              FATHER (IN POLISH)
                    ...Hush, come on, don't cry.
                    Everything will be all right....
          
          A Nazi sergeant comes over, irritated. The sergeant is Danny.
          
                              DANNY/NAZI SERGEANT
                        (in German)
                    What's the matter here?
          
                              FATHER
                        (to the Sergeant, in German)
                    Excuse me, I'm sorry, just a moment...
          
          The sergeant rips the child out of his arms. The kid becomes
          hysterical. The father manages to take the boy's hand.
          
                              FATHER
                        (in Polish)
                    Please, sweetheart, you have to go.
                    I'll see you soon.
          
          In an access of disgust, the sergeant sticks his bayonet
          into the boy -- or rather, into something offscreen. We hear
          a terrible sound, the child grunts. The family gasps in horror.
          
          Danny/sergeant lifts the (unseen) child into the air. Its
          SHADOW darkens the father's face. Drops of blood run down
          his cheeks....
          
          Danny/sergeant stares into the father's face, enraged at the
          man's passivity.
          
                              DANNY/NAZI SERGEANT
                    Fucking kike.
          
          EXT. STREET -- DAY
          
          DANNY'S FACE -- sweating, haunted, as if he's just woken
          from the previous.
          
          He's still walking down the street, but now, as if to flee
          his thoughts, he steps through a door into...
          
          INT. BOOKSTORE -- DAY
          
          A Jewish bookstore. He grabs the first book that comes to
          hand, reads for a moment, throws it down in disgust. Picks
          it up again, is still reading when...
          
                              VOICE
                    Hey, Danny...Danny...
          
          He looks up at a young man about his own age; wearing a
          yarmulke, but otherwise normal, hair clean, beard neatly
          trimmed.
          
                              YOUNG MAN
                    It's Stuart. Stuart Schoenbaum.
          
                              DANNY
                    Shlomo?
          
                              STUART
                    Yeah...
          
          Danny puts down the book, trying to conceal that he's been
          reading it. He offers a hand. Stuart manages to restrain the
          impulse to embrace him, but takes the hand warmly.
          
                              STUART
                    Jeez, it's been since, what, Kenny's
                    wedding.
          
                              DANNY
                    Yeah, uh... So how are you? What's
                    going on?
          
                              STUART
                    I'm in the rabbinic program at JTS...
          
                              DANNY
                    JTS...?
          
                              STUART
                    What about you? What are you doing?
                    Something strange, I bet.
          
                              DANNY
                    I'm in a kind of...underground...thing.
          
                              STUART
                        (impressed, excited)
                    Are you an artist?
          
                              DANNY
                    No, no... Not that kind of...
                    underground. More a private...
                    business. Private.
          
          Meaning he can't talk about it. Stuart nods. Danny notices a
          young woman: dark, curly hair, sharp eyes.
          
                              STUART
                    You remember Miriam....
          
                              DANNY
                    Yeah, hey, how're you doing...
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Hey...
          
          An irony to her. They certainly remember each other.
          
                              STUART
                    She's at Yale Law -- interning with
                    the district attorney...
                        (Miriam makes a face)
                    We're getting married next spring. In
                    Israel.
          
                              DANNY
                    Wow, that's uh...great...
          
          He glances at Miriam; but she has picked up the book he'd
          been reading, is leafing through it. It makes him uneasy.
          
                              STUART
                    It's great seeing you....
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Maybe Danny'd like to come to the
                    minyan for the holidays....
          
          Danny gives her a dirty look, but Stuart's thrilled:
          
                              STUART
                    Oh, good idea. We're davening with
                    this group from the seminary.
                    Interesting people, very open-minded,
                    you might like them. And guess who
                    comes...Avi! You guys could go at it
                    again like the good old days.
          
          As Stuart scribbles an address...
          
                              STUART
                    Danny and Avi used to argue about
                    everything. Torah, Talmud, politics,
                    girls. It always ended in a fistfight.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    I remember.
          
                              DANNY
                    I always won.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    The arguments, anyway.
          
                              STUART
                        (hands Danny the address)
                    It's a K.I. on 101st. In the little
                    chapel. Try to make it. It'd be fun.
          
          Danny smiles. He has no intention of going. Once they leave,
          he picks up the book and resumes reading.
          
          INT. AN EXECUTIVE SUITE -- DAY
          
          ROGER BRAND, a high-powered CEO, sits behind a big desk,
          speed-reading something through half-glasses. He finishes,
          removes the glasses. A New York Times is on the desk.
          
                              BRAND
                    You write that?
                        (as Danny nods)
                    Come work for me. You've got a lot to
                    learn; I can teach it to you.
          
                              DANNY
                    I have a job.
          
                              BRAND
                    This? This is a joke.
                        (tossing down the pages)
                    I'll give your group a thousand bucks.
          
                              DANNY
                    You gave fifty thousand to that
                    college magazine.
          
                              BRAND
                    Fifty's an exaggeration. Anyway, that
                    was a different moment. Things were
                    possible that aren't now.
          
                              DANNY
                    Actually, I think this moment has
                    possibilities that --
          
                              BRAND
                    Yeah, I read your piece. It's very
                    smart. And very wrong.
          
          Brand's phone beeps, he touches a button, continues.
          
                              BRAND
                    Forget the Jewish stuff. It doesn't
                    play anymore.
                        (over Danny's)
                    There's only the market, now, and it
                    doesn't care who you are.
          
                              DANNY
                    People still need values, beliefs....
          
                              BRAND
                    No, they don't. Not the smart ones.
                        (because he likes him)
                    Look, I'll give you five grand if you
                    can document your tax-exempt
                    status.... But when you fall off this
                    horse, come see me. I can show you
                    how to make a lot of money.
          
                              DANNY
                    I don't care about money.
          
                              BRAND
                    You will.
          
                              DANNY
                    You're a Jew. Maybe you don't realize
                    it, but you are.
          
                              BRAND
                        (smiles, uninsulted)
                    Maybe I am. Maybe we're all Jews now.
                    What's the difference?
          
          On Danny, troubled by this.
          
          INT. A SMALL LECTURE HALL -- EVENING
          
          A half-dozen white lumpen sit at desks. Danny writes "ANTI-
          SEMITISM" in large letters on a blackboard. He turns....
          
                              DANNY
                    How many of you think of yourselves
                    as anti-Semites?
                        (All the hands go up.)
                    Good. Actually, the term is a bit
                    imprecise since technically Jews are
                    only one of the Semitic peoples....
                    In fact, Arabs are Semites, as are
                    the Eritreans, the Ethiopians, and so
                    on.... But for our purposes an anti-
                    Semite is someone who hates or is
                    against Jews.... Now, why do we hate
                    them?
          
          He looks around. The room is silent.
          
                              DANNY
                    Let me put it another way. Do we hate
                    them because they push their way in
                    where they don't belong? Or because
                    they're clannish and keep to themselves?
          
          Murmurs of "Yeah. Both." But some are confused by this.
          
          INT. SAME -- ANOTHER DAY
          
          Slightly bigger crowd, a few middle-class-looking people.
          
                              DANNY
                    ...Because they're tight with money,
                    or because they flash it around?
                    Because they're Bolsheviks or because
                    they're capitalists? Because they
                    have the highest IQs, or because they
                    have the most active sex lives?
          
          The audience, confused...
          
                              DANNY
                    Do you want to know the real reason
                    we hate them?...
          
          INT. SAME -- DAY
          
          ...More people: white collar workers of both sexes, nurses,
          artists. Lapel buttons, bumper stickers, backpacks: "FIGHT
          NEW WORLD DISORDER" "STOP THE WTO" "EARTH FIRST!"
          
                              DANNY
                    ...Because we hate them.
                        (as people exchange
                         puzzled looks)
                    Because they exist. Because it is an
                    axiom of civilization that just as
                    man longs for woman, loves his
                    children and fears death, he hates
                    the Jews.
                        (smiles)
                    There is no reason. If there were,
                    some smart-ass kike would give us an
                    argument, try to prove we were wrong.
                    And of course that would only make us
                    hate them more. In fact we have all
                    the reasons we need in three simple
                    letters: J-E-W. Jew. Say it a million
                    times. It is the only word that never
                    loses its meaning: Jew Jew Jew Jew
                    Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew....
          
          EXT. NEW JERSEY MEADOWLANDS -- DAWN
          
          Danny and Kyle sitting in the tall grass across the
          marshlands toward the Manhattan skyline shimmering in the
          distance.
          
                              KYLE
                        (sings, looking at watch)
                    "My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land
                    of liberty, Of thee I..."
          
          He points sharply and an explosion occurs thirty yards away.
          They run over, pick up the mangled timer. They're pleased.
          
          EXT. JCC (ANSCHE CHESED) -- DAY
          
          A couple of stragglers hurry through the door as we hear...
          
                              VOICES
                    B'Rosh Hashanah yika-teyvun, uv'yom
                    tsom kippur yey-chateymun...
          
          INT. SMALL CHAPEL -- DAY
          
          Rosh Hashanah services. A woman is davening....
          
                              WOMAN
                    And it came to pass after these
                    things that God tested Abraham...
          
          DANNY...sitting with Stuart and Miriam...
          
                              WOMAN (O.S.)
                    ...And said to him, "Abraham." And he
                    said, "Here am I..." And God said,
                    "Take your son, your only son, whom
                    you love..."
          
                              DANNY
                        (to himself)
                    It's not his only son....
          
                              ANOTHER VOICE
                    The only one he loves.
          
          Danny looks at AVI (athletic, smooth-shaven) who grins
          sardonically and fakes a punch as...
          
                              DANNY
                    They only kill them when they love them?
          
                              AVI
                        (sliding into a seat
                         next to them)
                    What are you doing here, I thought
                    you were a Nazi.
          
                              STUART
                    Come on, Avi...
          
                              AVI
                    You know what this guy told me once:
                    Islam and Judaism both start with
                    Abraham murdering his son: first
                    sending Ishmael into the desert, then
                    sacrificing Isaac....
          
                              VOICES
                    Shhhh... Can you please be quiet?
          
                              DANNY
                    And Christianity's the same, with
                    minor variations.
          
                              AVI
                    Ridiculous.
                        (to the people around them)
                    Folks, don't listen to this guy. He's
                    a well-known anti-Semite.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Avi, please...
          
                              AVI
                        (snatching off Danny's hat)
                    ...Look, he's a skinhead.
          
                              VOICES
                    It's just a style, Avi.... There are
                    antiracist skins.
          
                              AVI
                        (laughing)
                    Believe me, Danny's the racist kind.
                    Are you a fascist, Danny? Yes or no.
          
                              DANNY
                    What's a fascist?
          
                              AVI
                    I rest my case. He's a Jewish Nazi.
                    He always was.
          
                              DANNY
                    Whereas Avi's a Zionist Nazi.
          
                              AVI
                    The Zionists aren't Nazis.
          
                              DANNY
                    They're racist, they're militaristic,
                    they act like bullyboys in the
                    territories....
          
                              AVI
                    They don't have extermination camps.
          
                              DANNY
                    They had Sabra and Shattila.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Do you hate them because they're
                    wimps or because they're bullyboys?
          
          Danny's startled by the question, but before he can react...
          
                              AVI
                        (over her, to Danny)
                    That was the Lebanese, that wasn't --
          
                              VOICES (O.S.)
                    The Israeli Army knew about the camps.
                    Sharon encouraged the falangists to
                    go in there and murder all the --
          
                              AVI
                    You don't know that. There's no --
          
                              DANNY
                    Read the early Zionists on European
                    Jewry; they sound like Goebbels.
          
                              AVI
                    They sound like you.
          
                              DANNY
                    The Nazis did everything the führer
                    told them. You do everything the
                    Torah tells you. Or the rebbe.
                    Identical slave mentality.
          
          Avi lunges at him. They begin pounding each other. Chaos.
          
          EXT. STREET -- NIGHT
          
          Miriam and Danny walk down West End Avenue together. He's
          oddly relaxed with her?
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Why did you come tonight? To see me?
          
                              DANNY
                        (after a beat)
                    To hear them read Torah.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    I thought you hated Torah.
          
                              DANNY
                    That doesn't mean I don't like
                    hearing it.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Point out all the lies and fucked-up
                    thinking.
          
          She smiles and even he smiles a little. They walk together,
          oddly companionable.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    You know the joke: a Jew's shipwrecked
                    on a desert island. When they rescue
                    him, they see he's built two
                    synagogues. They say, for vhat do you
                    need two synagogues? He says, vun to
                    pray in, and vun I'd never set foot
                    in so long as I live, so help me God.
                        (he nods, he's heard it)
                    You pray in the one you'd never set
                    foot in...and vice versa.
          
                              DANNY
                    I can't help what I think.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    This is me.
          
          She stops in front of a nice doorman building. He's impressed.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Tell me about Lina Moebius.
          
                              DANNY
                        (startled)
                    How did you...?
          
                              MIRIAM
                    I work in the DA's office. You go to
                    those meetings, half the people there
                    are informants.
          
                              DANNY
                    You mean the Times guy?
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Which Times guy?
          
                              DANNY
                    With the shoes... There was more than
                    one?
          
          In an excess of paranoia, he walks away. She calls after him....
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Danny...Danny...
                        (he doesn't look back)
                    Shit...
          
          INT. DANNY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT
          
          Sweltering heat. A fan ruffles Carla's hair as she lies on
          the futon going back and forth between Hebrew/English Torah
          and a Hebrew grammar. Danny is on the floor lifting weights.
          
                              CARLA
                        (slowly, laboriously)
                    Payn tash-chiton v'ashiytem...
          
                              DANNY
                        (correcting her)
                    V'asitem...
          
                              CARLA
                    V'asitem lechem pessel to-monat. And
                    make no graven image of the Lord, or
                    the form of any figure, or of man or
                    woman, or beast or fowl or fish or
                    anything that looks like anything.
                    Because He's not like anything. Not
                    only can't you see Him or hear Him,
                    you can't even think about Him. I
                    mean, what's the difference between
                    that and Him not existing?
          
                              DANNY
                        (still exercising)
                    No difference.
          
                              CARLA
                    Christianity's silly, but at least
                    there's something to believe in. Or
                    not believe. Judaism there's nothing.
          
                              DANNY
                        (to himself)
                    Nothing but nothingness...Judaism's
                    not about belief.
          
                              CARLA
                    What's it about?
          
                              DANNY
                    About doing things. You light candles,
                    say prayers, keep the Sabbath, visit
                    the sick....
          
                              CARLA
                    And belief follows?
          
                              DANNY
                    No. Nothing follows. You don't do it
                    because it's smart or stupid or it
                    saves your soul. You're not saved.
                    Nobody's saved. You do it because the
                    Torah tells you do. You submit to the
                    Torah.
          
                              CARLA
                    Fuck that.
          
                              DANNY
                    Don't curse in front of it.
          
                              CARLA
                        (flips the book closed)
                    Why should I submit?
          
                              DANNY
                    You shouldn't.
          
                              CARLA
                    You think I should just because
                    there's no reason?
          
          He looks at her without answering.
          
                              DANNY
                    No, I think you shouldn't.
          
                              CARLA
                    Judaism doesn't even need God. You
                    have the Torah, the law. That's your
                    fucking God....
                        (anticipating his objections)
                    The book's closed.
          
          In an access of something, she bites his arm, hard. He
          winces, pushes her away. She kisses the place she bit. He
          starts to play with her hair....
          
                              DANNY
                    You're learning the Hebrew really fast.
          
                              CARLA
                    I told you, I'm good at this.
          
                              DANNY
                    Plus you have nothing else to do all day.
          
                              CARLA
                    Oh, am I learning it faster than you
                    did? Maybe I'm smarter.
          
          He laughs, likes her arrogance. But she misunderstands:
          
                              CARLA
                    Is that funny? You think Jews are the
                    only smart ones?
          
          As they make out, grow aroused...
          
                              DANNY
                    What...? You think I'm Jewish?
          
                              CARLA
                    It's all you talk about. Jewish,
                    Jewish, Jewish. Nobody talks about it
                    that much except the Jews.
          
          Danny's taken aback by the simple logic.
          
                              DANNY
                    Nazis talk about it all the time.
          
                              CARLA
                    Do they?
          
          And, of course, she has grown up among Nazis.
          
                              DANNY
                    The real Nazis. Hitler, Goebbels,
                    they talked about Jews incessantly....
                    You ever read their diaries?...
          
                              CARLA
                    Is that why you became a Nazi? So you
                    could talk about Jews incessantly?
          
                              DANNY
                    Believe me, Adolf Hitler couldn't
                    possibly have hated the Jews as much
                    as I do. Not in a billion years. You
                    know why?
          
                              CARLA
                    'Cause he wasn't a rabbi.
          
                              DANNY
                    You want a punch in the mouth?
          
                              CARLA
                    Okay...
                        (he doesn't hit her)
                    Why don't we light candles on Friday?
                    Let's light candles.... And say the
                    kaddish.
          
                              DANNY
                    Kaddish is the prayer for the dead.
          
                              CARLA
                    I mean kiddush. Let's say kiddush.
                    And shave my head, fuck through a
                    sheet, all that stuff...
                        (as he walks away)
                    Come on, just for fun. To see what
                    it's like...
          
          INT. SMALL LECTURE HALL -- NIGHT
          
          Packed with a well-dressed crowd, very different from the
          crowds we've seen here before.
          
          DOWN IN FRONT: Mrs. Moebius and Danny talk in low tones.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Half the right-wing money in New York
                    is here tonight. They came to see you.
                    If you impress them, if you do what I
                    know you can, this movement will be
                    up and running by tomorrow. And on
                    the front page of the New York Times
                    in six months.
          
          She straightens his tie, directs him toward the lectern. He
          hesitates....
          
                              DANNY
                    We tested the new bomb.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    What?
          
                              DANNY
                    We redesigned the timing mechanism.
                    It can't possibly malfunction.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Danny, please. Just give your
                    speech.... And nothing about Jews, okay?
          
          She walks away.
          
          INT. SMALL LECTURE HALL -- STAGE -- NIGHT
          
          Danny steps to the lectern. The CROWD QUIETS. He stands
          silent for a long moment, then closes his eyes and chants
          with feeling:
          
                              DANNY
                    Shema yisroel adonai elohenu adonai
                    echod.
          
          General confusion. Mrs. Moebius and Curtis exchange wary
          glances.
          
                              DANNY
                    Who knows what that is?
          
                              VOICE
                    A Jewish prayer.
          
                              DANNY
                    Can anybody imagine why I would say a
                    Jewish prayer?
          
                              ANOTHER VOICE
                    Because you're a Jew.
          
          Nervous laughter. Danny laughs with them.
          
                              DANNY
                    That could be one reason. What's
                    another?
                        (no response)
                    Let me put it this way...who here
                    would like to destroy the Jews?
                        (murmurs of approval)
                    Who wants to grind their bones into
                    the dust?
          
          A scattering of applause, growing more sustained...
          
                              DANNY
                    And who wants to see them rise again,
                    wealthier, more successful, powerful,
                    cultured and intelligent than ever?
          
          Silence. No one wants that.
          
                              DANNY
                    Then you know what you have to do?...
                    You have to love them.
          
          Puzzled mutterings: "What?... What's he talking about?..."
          
                              DANNY
                    Did he say love them? Love the Jews?
                    It sounds strange, I know, but with
                    these people nothing is simple. The
                    Jew says that all he wants is to be
                    left alone to study his Torah, do a
                    little business and fornicate with
                    his over-sexed wife.... But it isn't
                    true. He wants to be hated. He longs
                    for our scorn. He clings to it as if
                    it were the very core and mystery of
                    his being. If Hitler had not existed,
                    the Jews would have invented him. For
                    without such hatred, the so-called
                    Chosen People would vanish from the
                    earth....
          
          People react with confusion, uncertainty, suspicion.
          
                              DANNY
                    ...And this reveals a terrible truth,
                    the crux of our problem as Nazis: the
                    worse the Jews are treated, the
                    stronger they become. Egyptian
                    slavery made them a nation; the
                    pogroms hardened them, Auschwitz gave
                    birth to the State of Israel.
                    Suffering, it seems, is the very
                    crucible of their genius. If the Jews
                    are, as one of their own has said, a
                    people who will not take yes for an
                    answer, then let us say yes to them.
                    If they thrive on opposition, let us
                    cease to oppose them. The way to
                    annihilate them, utterly and
                    completely, is to open our arms, take
                    them into our homes and embrace them.
                    Only then will they vanish into
                    assimilation, dilution...and love.
                        (a warning finger)
                    But we cannot pretend. The Jew is
                    nothing if not clever. He will see
                    through condescension and hypocrisy.
                    To destroy him, we will have to love
                    him sincerely.
          
          ON THE AUDIENCE, befuddled. A HAND goes up. Danny nods to it.
          The man steps forward, and we see that it's Guy Danielsen of
          the Times. Danny is shaken....
          
                              GUY
                    But if the Jews are strengthened by
                    hate, wouldn't this "destruction" you
                    speak of -- by love or by any other
                    means -- in fact make them more
                    powerful than they are already?
          
                              DANNY
                        (after a beat)
                    Yes. Infinitely more. They would
                    become as God.
          
          Murmurs of confusion, outrage... "God??!!!" Danny notices
          the TALLIS crawling out from under his shirt, stuffs it back in.
          
                              DANNY
                    It is the Jews' destiny to the
                    annihilated so that they can be
                    deified....
                        (the murmurs swell)
                    Jesus understood this perfectly. And
                    look what was accomplished there with
                    the death of just one enlightened Jew.
                    Imagine what would happen if we
                    killed them all!!
                        (over the rising outrage)
                    So, let us say together... Shema
                    yisroel...
          
          One or two voices respond, but must people shout him down.
          Mrs. Moebius is outraged. People are throwing things,
          shouting. The meeting degenerates into chaos.
          
          INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- DAY
          
          Danny talks to Mrs. Moebius. Offscreen we hear a TV.
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Are you out of your mind?!
          
                              DANNY
                    I was just trying to make a point. If --
          
                              CARLA (O.S.)
                    Oh, my God...
                        (calling)
                    Lina...
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    I'm relieving you of all duties. I
                    don't want you working for us anymore....
          
                              DANNY
                    You can't. Do you know how many
                    people I've brought into...the
                    movement...?
          
                              CARLA (O.S.)
                    Lina, come here!
          
          INT. KITCHEN -- DAY
          
          Carla watching a small TV on the kitchen counter. Danny
          arrives, followed by Lina and Curtis as we hear...
          
                              REPORTER (O.S.)
                    According to police, he had just left
                    the restaurant and was walking the
                    block and a half back to his office,
                    when the gunman stepped out of this
                    doorway, fired seven times at point-
                    blank range...then fled on foot.
          
                              DANNY
                        (a terrible premonition)
                    Who was it?
          
          Mrs. Moebius impatiently signals him to silence.
          
                              REPORTER (O.S.)
                    ...Paramedics arrived within ninety
                    seconds, but Mr. Manzetti was
                    declared dead at the scene.
          
          At the mention of Manzetti's name, Danny goes white.
          
                              ANCHOR'S VOICE
                    Ilio Manzetti was one of the
                    respected and influential men in New
                    York. As an investment banker,
                    diplomat, adviser to presidents and
                    mayors, he helped shape public policy
                    and private finance for more than
                    three decades. He'll be missed, Phil.
                    This is Michael Port with New York 1.
          
          Danny's knees are weak, his hands cold, his stomach rises....
          He becomes aware of the others, staring at him in amazement.
          
                              DANNY
                        (stunned)
                    Do you think I...
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Danny, please, we don't want to know.
          
          She and Curtis walk out of the room. Stunned, shaken, Danny
          leaves in a different direction. The TV plays to an empty
          room...
          
                              ANCHOR'S VOICE
                    The assailant is described as a white
                    male in his late 20s....
          
          EXT. MOEBIUS BUILDING/STREET -- DAY
          
          Danny wanders out the door in a daze. His cell phone RINGING.
          He has to search his pockets, then fumbles to turn it on....
          
                              KYLE'S VOICE (PHONE)
                    You finally killed a Jew, man. How's
                    it feel?
          
                              DANNY
                    Kyle...I can't talk right now....
          
          He hears a CAMERA SHUTTER and MOTOR DRIVE. He turns....
          
          EXT. ACROSS THE STREET -- DAY
          
          GUY DANIELSEN & A PHOTOGRAPHER.
          
          They're coming toward him.
          
                              GUY
                    Did you kill Ilio Manzetti?
          
                              DANNY
                    No.
          
          Suddenly Danny runs after the photographer, they struggle....
          
                              PHOTOGRAPHER
                    Not the camera, don't hurt the camera...
          
          Danny opens the camera, rips out the film, exposing it.
          
                              GUY
                    Did you kill him?
          
          Danny glares at him without answering, walks away. Guy
          hurries after him....
          
                              GUY
                    Two days ago you addressed a Nazi
                    rally. Last week you went to a Torah
                    study group.
          
                              DANNY
                    What were you, following me?
          
                              GUY
                    How do you reconcile the two?
          
                              DANNY
                    I don't. Look, stay out of what you
                    don't understand.
          
                              GUY
                    Explain it so I can.
          
                              DANNY
                    You work for the New York Times. Your
                    whole job in life is not to understand
                    things like me.
          
                              GUY
                    I don't think you know what you are.
          
                              DANNY
                        (walking on, fast)
                    Yeah, and what are you? A Times man?
                    A Presbyterian? Impotent? A prick?
          
                              GUY
                    Who killed Manzetti?
          
                              DANNY
                    If I tell you, will you pull the
                    story? Not write about me?
          
                              GUY
                    It's too late.... If I didn't,
                    somebody else would.
                        (as Danny just snorts)
                    Yom Kippur starts at sundown. Will
                    you go to synagogue?
          
                              DANNY
                        (turns on him, threatening)
                    Get the fuck away from me.
          
          Guy backs off. Danny crosses the street.
          
                              VOICE
                    Hey, Danny, just one more!
          
          He glances back. It's the PHOTOGRAPHER who has reloaded and
          now SNAPS a shot AS DANNY TURNS AWAY and keeps going....
          
          EXT. LOWER MANHATTAN -- DAY
          
          Danny and Miriam walking together among the trees.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    You're telling me you killed him? You?
                    Killed him? Bullshit. What kind of
                    gun did you use?
          
                              DANNY
                        (guessing)
                    A forty-five.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    It was a nine millimeter.
          
                              DANNY
                    You're lying.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    So are you... But they'll believe
                    you....
                        (as they walk)
                    Lina Moebius is saying the whole
                    thing was your idea. That you
                    proposed it in a meeting at her house.
                        (when he doesn't deny it)
                    Ah, Jesus, Danny... What were you
                    thinking? Are you glad Manzetti's
                    dead? Do you really want to kill Jews?
                    You want to kill me?
          
                              DANNY
                    I was just talking. I -- look, I
                    can't help what I think.
          
          He doesn't know how to answer, walks away from her to the
          railing overlooking the water. He stares into the current
          flowing past. Finally Miriam joins him....
          
                              MIRIAM
                    All right, what if all along you were
                    actually infiltrating the Nazis -- to
                    expose them....
          
                              DANNY
                    But I wasn't.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    And only talked about killing
                    Manzetti to convince them you were an
                    anti-Semite. If you'd had any idea
                    somebody would take it seriously, you
                    never would have said it.
          
                              DANNY
                    I can't say that.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Think about your father. Your sister.
          
                              DANNY
                    The truth doesn't mean anything to
                    you, does it?
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Danny, I'm trying to -- save you.
          
                              DANNY
                        (over her)
                    Fucking kike.
          
          Miriam is stung. She can't believe he said that. Still, she
          gets a small tape recorder out of her purse, hands it to him.
          
                              MIRIAM
                    Try to get Lina Moebius on tape,
                    telling you to do something.
                    Something violent... That's right, I
                    don't care about truth. I care about
                    you.
                        (looks at her watch)
                    Kol Nidre's at six-thirty. I've got
                    to meet Stuart. We'll be at the
                    minyan tonight and tomorrow. If you
                    need me, come there....
          
          Danny watches her walk away, then turns to the railing.
          Ideally a FERRY is pulling away from its slip and heading
          out across the harbor. He watches it, then looks down at the
          current moving past. He reaches a decision, throws the tape
          recorder into the water, turns and walks away....
          
          INT. DANNY'S APARTMENT -- LATE AFTERNOON
          
          Danny stops just inside the door. The place is spotless. The
          desk has been pulled out from the wall, covered with a snowy
          cloth and set for a Sabbath meal: brass candelabrum, challah
          under a satin cover...and two place settings.
          
          Carla is pouring wine into the kiddush cup. She's wearing a
          modest dress, her hair is pinned up with a piece of lace.
          
                              DANNY
                    What's going on?
          
          She turns, startled; she hadn't heard him come in.
          
                              CARLA
                    It's erev Yom Kippur.... We'll have
                    dinner, then go to shul. Atone for
                    our sins.
          
          He grabs a couple of olives off the table, eats them as he
          goes through his closet, stuffing a couple things in a bag....
          
                              CARLA
                    Come on, we can be like Eichmann. He
                    studied Torah. He hated Jews.
          
                              DANNY
                        (in the closet, looking)
                    Is it like Eichmann? Are we goofing?
          
                              CARLA
                    I don't know. I just want to try it.
          
                              DANNY
                    Shit...
                        (looking in other places)
                    Did you talk to your mother today?
          
                              CARLA
                    No. What are you looking for?
          
                              DANNY
                    Nothing.
                        (indicates table as he
                         keeps looking)
                    Why are you doing this?
                        (back to the closet)
                    I thought God didn't exist.
          
                              CARLA
                    He commands it whether He exists or
                    not...
                        (off his silence; with
                         difficulty)
                    Look, we can fight him and be crushed.
                    Or we can submit.
          
                              DANNY
                        (from the closet)
                    And be crushed.
          
                              CARLA
                    Yeah, okay. But what if...what if...
                    submitting...being crushed, being
                    nothing, not mattering, what if
                    that's the best feeling we can have?
          
          He finds it (a kittel), stuffs it in the bag.
          
                              CARLA
                    Look, just light the candles with me.
                    Then we'll eat. You have to eat.
          
                              DANNY
                    You eat first, then you light.
                        (exasperated, he has to
                         explain)
                    Once you light, it's Yom Kippur,
                    which means you're fasting, so you
                    can't...eat.
          
          He trails off, looks at her. She's everything he ever wanted,
          and he's already lost her.
          
                              DANNY
                    A woman of valor, who can find her?
                    Her price is above rubies....
          
          He walks out, leaving the door open. Carla starts to call
          after him, but then doesn't. She turns back, lights the
          candles and awkwardly reads the prayers....
          
          EXT. STREET/PAY PHONE -- SUNDOWN APPROACHING
          
          Danny on a phone. Behind him, Jews hurry home for the
          holiday. He hears a BEEP...
          
                              DANNY
                    Miriam, it's me, Danny.... Come on,
                    the holiday hasn't started, pick up
                    the --
                        (as someone does)
                    ...Is Stuart davening Ne'ilah
                    tomorrow at the minyan... 'Cause he
                    always does... Tell him I'm doing it
                    instead....
          
          She argues (we hear her VOICE not her words)...Danny cuts
          her off.
          
                              DANNY
                    Miriam, I'm davening.... He gives me
                    any trouble, I'll beat the shit out
                    of him right there in the room. I'm
                    serious....
          
          She's still talking when he hangs up and walks away.
          
          INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- NIGHT
          
          Lina and Curtis with Billings and Drake, who looks bad...
          
                              LINA
                    Why didn't you tell us?
          
                              DRAKE
                        (never considered it)
                    I was hurt. I just...
          
                              BILLINGS
                    He went to his friends' place and I
                    laid up there 'til he was better.
                    Then he called me.
          
                              CURTIS
                    You should've gone to the police.
          
                              LINA
                    I don't think Drake wants to talk to
                    the police. Do you?
          
                              DRAKE
                    I'll take care of him myself.
          
          The phone RINGS. Curtis answers, listens, covers the mouthpiece.
          
                              CURTIS
                    Daniel Balint.
          
          She takes it with a dramatic gesture.
          
                              LINA
                        (takes the phone)
                    Hello...?
          
          INTERCUT WITH:
          
          EXT. PAY PHONE, 65TH STREET -- NIGHT
          
                              DANNY
                    Lina... It's happening. Tonight.
          
                              LINA
                    What is happening?
          
                              DANNY
                    Beth Shalom. Like you wanted.
          
                              LINA
                    Beth Shalom? What are you talking
                    about? Who is this...?
          
                              DANNY
                    Lina, you said if I was going to
                    plant a bomb, I should --
          
          A CLICK as she hangs up. He's pleased. He steps away from
          the phone. He's carrying a grease-stained bag and is across
          from...
          
          TEMPLE EMANU-EL...KOL NIDRE being sung by a soprano within;
          and ORGAN accompanying her.
          
          EXT. 5TH AVENUE AND 65TH STREET -- NIGHT
          
          In the synagogue across the street we hear KOL NIDRE being
          sung by a soprano; an ORGAN accompanying her. Danny looks up
          at the temple.
          
          FLASHCUT: EXT. FOREST ROAD -- DAY, 1943
          
          Looking up as the Nazi sergeant holds the boy on the bayonet
          over the father's head. But now Danny is the father, and the
          father is the sergeant.
          
          He lunges at the Nazi, knocking him down, tearing at this
          throat. The sergeant screams....
          
                              NAZI SOLDIER
                        (in German, to his fellows)
                    Kill him!
          
          Danny bites through the Nazi's jugular as bullets rip into him.
          
          INT. FIFTH AVENUE AT 65TH/INT. KYLE'S CAR -- NIGHT
          
          Kyle's car is parked on the Central Park side of
          Fifth....Danny gets in the passenger side. Kyle is behind
          the wheel, wiring an explosive device. Danny hands him the
          grease-stained bag.
          
                              DANNY
                    How're we doing?
          
          Kyle holds up a solitary pipe bomb.
          
                              KYLE
                    That's all we've got left.
          
                              DANNY
                    It'll be enough if we use it right.
                        (checks his watch)
                    Okay, the service'll go about another
                    hour. Say an hour for the janitors,
                    then one more just to be safe...
                    We'll go in at midnight.
          
          Kyle has extracted a cheeseburger and shake from the bag. As
          he starts in on them, he realizes Danny isn't eating.
          
                              KYLE
                    Didn't you get anything?
          
                              DANNY
                    I'm not hungry.... Come on, let's
                    drive around.... We don't want to be
                    spotted here.
          
          Eating, Kyle starts the car, pulls away....
          
          INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- SAME TIME
          
                              LINA
                        (white with fury)
                    He is trying to set us up.
          
          Curtis picks up a cell phone and dials.
          
                              LINA
                        (to Drake and Billings)
                    I want him dead by tomorrow night.
                    That lies within your capacities,
                    correct?
          
          Billings nods. Drake unconsciously licks the center of his
          lower lip. As they leave, we see that he limps horribly.
          When they're gone...
          
                              CURTIS
                        (into phone)
                    Yes, I believe that a bomb is going
                    to be planted tonight at Temple
                    Emanu-el on 65th Street.... By the
                    same man who killed Ilio Manzetti...
                    His name is Daniel Balint....
          
          EXT. FIFTH AVENUE/INT. KYLE'S CAR -- DRIVING -- NIGHT
          
          POV inside van. Fifth is quiet. Temple Emanu-el again,
          straight ahead. But now we see SECURITY GUARDS near the door.
          
                              KYLE (V.O.)
                    Oh, what is this shit?
          
                              DANNY (V.O.)
                    Keep driving. Don't slow down.
          
                              KYLE (V.O.)
                    Christ...
          
          POV speeds up, whips past the synagogue.
          
                              DANNY (V.O.)
                    Not too fast.
          
                              KYLE (V.O.)
                    You said they didn't have night guards.
          
                              DANNY (V.O.)
                    They don't. I checked twenty times....
                    Somebody must have talked.
          
                              KYLE (V.O.)
                    Who even knew?
          
                              DANNY (V.O.)
                    Mrs. Moebius.
          
                              KYLE (V.O.)
                    Why? Why would she?
          
                              DANNY (V.O.)
                    The Manzetti thing must have scared
                    her. She thinks she'll get implicated.
          
                              KYLE (V.O.)
                    So what do we do with the device?
          
          The Plaza straight ahead...
          
                              DANNY (V.O.)
                    Take a right on 59th...
                        (as the car turns)
                    We'll put it someplace else.
          
                              KYLE (V.O.)
                    Where?
          
          ON DANNY'S FACE
          
                              DANNY
                    I have an idea....
          
          INT. A DARKENED BLDG (JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER) -- NIGHT
          
          A pencil-beam flashlight moves through the darkness. We
          follow it. The light enters a space where SOUND ECHOES....
          
                              DANNY (V.O.)
                    Over here.
          
          INT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER ROOM -- NIGHT
          
          A PENCIL BEAM shows Kyle on his back attaching the bomb to
          some kind of wooden floor cupboard. He's worried about the
          paltry amount of explosives.
          
                              KYLE
                    It's all reinforced in here. It's not
                    going to blow out the way we want it....
          
          Danny is too preoccupied flipping through a machzor to answer.
          
                              KYLE
                    If I went back to the lumberyard, the
                    guy'd give me all the dynamite I
                    wanted. Untraceable, you wouldn't --
                    need to...
          
                              DANNY
                    No, it has to be tomorrow. You won't
                    get this many of them in here for
                    another year. It'll be fine.
          
                              KYLE
                    It's not going to be fine. It's --
          
                              DANNY
                    Just do it.
          
          Kyle sighs, goes about doing it, he HEARS SOMETHING and freezes.
          
                              KYLE
                    What's that?
          
          Danny clicks off the light. A SILHOUETTE on the windows...
          
                              DANNY
                    It's just somebody on the street.
          
          Light on. Relieved, Kyle turns his attention back to the bomb.
          
                              KYLE
                    When do you want it to go off?
          
                              DANNY
                    Seven-thirty tomorrow evening.
          
                              KYLE
                    So that's what? Nineteen thirty
                    minutes...what time is it now...
          
          Kyle checks his wristwatch, sets the timer to eighteen hours
          eighteen minutes. It begins counting down.
          
          EXT. SYNAGOGUE -- NIGHT
          
          Kyle and Danny come around the corner, get in Kyle's car
          parked near the side door.
          
          EXT. EIGHTH AVENUE NEWSSTAND -- NIGHT
          
          A stack of papers, the early edition of the Times. As Danny
          grabs one, he notices a stack of tabloids....
          
          FRONT PAGE: The Manzetti crime scene with screaming headline:
          "MANZETTI SLAYER JEWISH NAZI." Next to this another tab:
          "JEW KILLS JEW?"
          
          Danny grabs a Times, flips it over... We see only his face:
          registering this, unsurprised. He opens the paper....
          
          INSERT: TWO PHOTOGRAPHS
          
          The sweet-faced bar mitzvah boy we saw at his father's
          house... And a BLURRY PHOTO of Danny walking away from Guy
          Danielsen and the photographer outside Mrs. Moebius's house.
          Danny's face is not clearly seen.
          
          TILT UP TO DANNY
          
          Calm. He tucks the paper under his arm beside the machzor
          and crosses Eighth Avenue toward a cheap hotel....
          
          CHEAP HOTEL -- NIGHT
          
          Carrying the papers, Danny goes through the door.
          
          INT. HOTEL ROOM -- EARLY MORNING
          
          Danny at the window, staring out. The TV plays behind him.
          
          On TV -- A REPORTER INTERVIEWING MRS. MOEBIUS
          
                              REPORTER
                    ...You're saying that when he first
                    appeared at your house, you had no
                    idea he was Jewish....
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    None whatsoever. But I have to admit,
                    I'm not terribly surprised.
          
                              REPORTER
                    What do you mean?
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    I think anti-semitism today is
                    largely a Jewish phenomenon. Wouldn't
                    you agree?
          
          Danny can't help smiling at her audacity.
          
                              REPORTER
                    In the Third Reich, weren't a number
                    of high-ranking Nazis of Jewish origin?
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                    Yes, and they were said to be the
                    most virulent proponents of the Final
                    Solution. Really, who but a Jew would
                    want to kill Ilio Manzetti simply
                    because he was Jewish? Who thinks
                    about such things?
          
                              REPORTER
                    The papers are going to report
                    tomorrow that your colleague, Curtis
                    Zampf, has been a federal informant
                    for the past two years. Do you
                    believe that?
          
                              MRS. MOEBIUS
                        (enigmatic smile)
                    Curtis is always more complicated
                    than he seems. Even now.
          
                              REPORTER
                        (to the camera)
                    And so, on this, the most solemn day
                    of the Jewish year, a former yeshiva
                    student is being sought in connection
                    with a monstrous hate crime that --
          
          The set is CLICKED OFF with the remote. In the darkened
          screen, we see Danny take his bag off the bed and go out the
          door.
          
          EXT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER -- LATE AFTERNOON
          
          As Danny approaches, a STOCKY YOUNG MAN on a folding chair
          outside the front door checks him out.
          
                              DANNY
                    Gamar tov.
          
          The Stocky Young Man beckons him on. As he passes, Danny
          spots a gun and shoulder holster inside the man's zippered
          jacket.
          
          INT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER -- DAY
          
          Several Yom Kippur services are going on in different rooms.
          And we hear different groups of VOICES. And one reading...
          
                              VOICE
                    ...They cast lots, and the lot fell
                    on Jonah...
          
          Danny puts on his kittel -- a white prayer coat.
          
          INT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, 2ND FLOOR/INT. SMALL
          AUDITORIUM -- DAY
          
          About forty WORSHIPPERS, most in their 20s and 30s. Danny
          slips into the back, spots Carla up front with Miriam and
          Stuart. He's shocked, appalled....
          
          CARLA -- trying to follow along the prayer book, suddenly
          Danny is leaning over her shoulder from the row behind.
          
                              DANNY
                        (desperate whisper)
                    What are you doing here?
          
          People sitting nearby HUSH him; he ignores them.
          
                              CARLA
                    Miriam called, looking for you. She
                    said you might come, so I...
          
                              DANNY
                    You gotta get out of here.
          
                              CARLA
                    You don't own this place.
          
                              STUART
                    Listen, Danny, you can't just barge
                    in and --
          
                              DANNY
                    Shut up...
          
                              MIRIAM
                    You shut up. Who do you think you are?
          
                              DANNY
                        (to Carla, low, urgent)
                    There's a bomb here. It's going to go
                    off at seven-thirty.
          
                              CARLA
                    Oh, please...
          
          The SHUSHING becomes louder.... She turns away.
          
                              VOICES
                    It's Yom Kippur.... People are
                    davening.... Can you take it
                    outside.... You have some nerve....
          
          Danny looks around at the scolding, angry, pious faces....
          He hates them. He sits back and closes his eyes.
          
          EXT. FOREST ROAD -- DAY, 1943
          
          The Jewish father (played by Danny's father) is ripping open
          the Sergeant's jugular as the soldiers shoot him. One of the
          soldiers (who is now Danny) says:
          
                              DANNY/NAZI SOLDIER
                    Kill them. Kill them all.
          
          The soldiers begin firing.... But now, three Israeli
          commandos appear, Danny, Avi and the security guard we saw
          outside. They fire Uzis at the Nazis, who fire back.
          
          Danny the Nazi soldier and Danny the Israeli commando fire
          at each other at point-blank range. The SOUND fades and we
          hear SCRAPING CHAIRS, MURMURS, VOICES....
          
          INT. SMALL AUDITORIUM -- SUNDOWN
          
          Danny wakes with a start. People are about to resume after a
          break, but there's some confusion. People are talking to
          Stuart, who keeps glancing toward Danny....Danny finds his
          machzor and gets up...as he approaches the bema, Stuart
          comes to meet him.
          
                              STUART
                    Danny, listen, people expect me to
                    daven; they don't want someone they
                    don't know -- leading their prayers.
          
                              DANNY
                    Get out of my way.
          
          Stuart backs down. Danny steps onto the bema, opens the machzor.
          
                              MURMURING VOICES
                    What's going on?... Who is this?...I
                    thought Stuart was davening....
          
                              DANNY
                        (to the room)
                    Page 766.
          
          He glances at a clock at the back of the room: 6:14.
          
                              DANNY
                    Yis-gadal, v'yis-kadash sh'mey raba...
          
          People join in, but one man, in back, is outraged.
          
                              ENRAGED MAN
                    Jesus Christ, you know who that is?...
                    You see the paper?
          
                              MALE VOICE (O.S.)
                        (gently teasing)
                    You're reading the paper on Yom
                    Kippur, Barry?
          
          Chuckles.
          
                              ENRAGED WIFE
                    I saw the paper. That's not him, that
                    guy was darker.... This is somebody else.
          
                              VOICE (O.S.)
                    That guy wouldn't go to shul, Barry...
          
                              ENRAGED MAN
                    You want to bet? I'll bet you
                    anything...
                        (he's SHUSHED, "Could
                         you, please...")
                    Let's go, we're leaving....
          
                              ENRAGED WIFE
                    Oh, for God's sake, you leave.
          
                              ENRAGED MAN
                    I'm going to get a cop.
          
          He stalks to the door but doesn't leave, turns back as if
          compelled to watch this outrage...as....
          
                              DANNY
                    Da-amiran b'alma, v'imru amen...
          
          He begins the silent amidah, taking three steps backward,
          then three forward, bowing as he prays so that he sees the
          watch on the lectern.... It says: 6:16....
          
                                                      DISSOLVE TO:
          
          INT. A ROOM -- SUNDOWN
          
          Kyle on hands and knees, gasping for breath, his face bloody.
          DRAKE sits in a chair, injecting methamphetamine into the
          vein of his forearm. Billings comes through the door with a
          newspaper.
          
                              BILLINGS
                    I got one....
          
          He squats beside Kyle, shows him the Times story about Danny.
          
                              KYLE
                    Are you kidding me??
          
                              BILLINGS
                    Now do you know where he is?
          
          Kyle thinks, glances at a watch: 6:47.
          
                              KYLE
                    Yeah, I bet I do.
          
          INT. SMALL AUDITORIUM -- TWILIGHT
          
          The windows have darkened. The congregation is on its feet
          chanting the AVINU MALKENU, the climactic prayer of the day.
          
          Danny, leading the prayers, looks up at Carla, Stuart,
          Miriam...near the front, chanting with him. He looks at the
          clock: 7:21.
          
          Suddenly it seems impossible to go through with this. He
          stops praying, but no one notices....
          
          EXT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER -- TWILIGHT
          
          As Kyle, Drake and Billings approach, the place seems to
          glow with an inner radiance. Drake and Billings hold weapons
          at their sides.
          
          The stocky security guard sees them coming and gets up,
          reaching for his gun. Billings and Drake stop. Kyle wishes
          he weren't here.
          
          Everything suspends for a moment as, within the building,
          three distinct GROUPS OF VOICES can be heard, each chanting
          the AVINU MALKENU at a slightly different point in the prayer.
          
          Drake raises his gun and fires.
          
          INT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER -- SMALL AUDITORIUM -- TWILIGHT
          
          People are chanting AVINU MALKENU so fervently that the
          GUNFIRE outside seems only a faint POPPING. No one
          particularly notices. Danny, freaking, doesn't hear the
          gunshots. He tries to address the people in the front rows....
          
                              DANNY
                    Wait a minute...
          
          But the praying is too loud, too strong. No one stops or
          listens. He steps down off the bema....
          
                              DANNY
                    Stop praying. You've got to get out
                    of here.... All of you...
          
          A few people in front are puzzled by his strange behavior,
          but the rest keep chanting. Stuart comes up to Danny....
          
                              STUART
                    You wanted to daven. Now daven....
          
          Danny glances over people's heads at the clock: 7:25. He
          doesn't notice...
          
          THE DOOR
          
          BANGS open. DRAKE stands there, .357, bleeding profusely
          from the head, the swastika on his lips. At first, only a
          few people notice, they stop praying.
          
                              PEOPLE
                        (panic, confusion)
                    Who's that?... What is he...oh, my God...
          
          Avi is the first one out of his chair, walks right at Drake.
          
                              AVI
                        (calm, forceful)
                    Put down the weapon. Put it down....
          
          Drake shoots him. Avi goes down, writhing in pain. Screams,
          panic. People come at Drake, but he grabs an 11-year-old
          girl, puts the gun to her head.
          
                              DANNY
                    Drake! Up here...
          
          Everyone turns, including Drake -- who's blinded by the
          blood in his eyes, but recognizes the voice.
          
                              ENRAGED MAN
                    See, he knows him. The Nazi bastard...
          
          Drake moves unsteadily toward the front, pulling the girl
          with him. A WOMAN (a doctor) goes to tend Avi, who is still
          conscious. People begin to slip out the back, taking
          children. Others stay, looking to jump Drake, but he keeps
          the .357 on the little girl.
          
                              DANNY
                        (to Carla, Miriam, Stuart)
                    Get everybody out of here. Fast.
          
          He steps back onto the bema, separating himself from the
          others and drawing Drake's attention. The clock reads 7:28.
          Outside we begin to hear SIRENS....
          
                              DANNY
                    Drake...
          
          Drake refocuses, pulls the girl on.... From the hall, we
          hear OTHER GROUPS in the building, chanting....
          
                              VOICES
                    Avinu malkenu, choney-nu v'aneyenu...
                    Avinu malkenu, choney-nu v'aneyenu,
                    ki eyn banu ma-asim...
                    (Our father, out king, graciously
                    answer us though we are undeserving...)
                    -- nu va-aneynu...
          
          At the front, Drake wobbles. People start forward. He cocks
          the gun against the little girl's head. She's weeping silently.
          
                              DANNY
                    Drake, I'm right here....
          
          Drake looks. Danny reaches out a hand. Drake points the .357
          at him and FIRES, missing. A HAND grabs the little girl,
          pulls her to safety.
          
          The room is nearly empty now, save Miriam, Carla, Stuart, a
          few others. The AVINU MALKENU can still be heard from the
          hall....
          
                              ENRAGED MAN
                        (from the door)
                    Let them kill each other. They're
                    animals.
          
                              ENRAGED WIFE
                    Barry, for God's sake...
          
          Drake wobbles from loss of blood. Nearly drops the .357.
          
          Danny glances at the clock: 7:30. What is it, another dud??
          
          Drake FIRES again, hits Danny in the shoulder....
          
                              CARLA
                    Danny!
          
          She runs forward. The shoulder hurts; he calls to the others....
          
                              DANNY
                    GET HER OUT OF HERE!
          
          Miriam, others, grab Carla, pull Carla toward the door.
          
          Drake comes toward Danny, trying to lift the .357 for the kill.
          
                              VOICES
                    Cha'nainu v'anainu, ki ain baw-nu
                    ma'ah-seem...
          
          Danny grabs Drake's gun hand, forces it up in the air. The
          gun goes off. Plaster rains down on them.
          
          Drake dies. Danny catches him under the arms.
          
          He looks at the watch: 7:32. He relaxes.
          
                              VOICES
                        (fervent)
                    ...Asey imanu tz'dakah va'chesed...
                    Asey imanu tz'dakah va'chesd, v'ho-
                    shi --
          
          The instant before the prayer ends...it's cut off by a
          sudden silence. Then a FLASH of light...
          
          The SCREEN GOES WHITE...
          
                              CARLA'S VOICE
                    Danny, no...
          
          INT. STAIRCASE, YESHIVA -- DAY
          
          Where we saw Danny leave the school as a 12-year-old. Now
          LOOKING DOWN, we see Danny as an adult, coming up them two
          at a time.
          
          FOLLOWING DANNY as he races up. His old teacher, RAV
          ZINGESSER, appears on a landing above....
          
                              RAV ZINGESSER
                    Danny, good to see you...I wanted to
                    take up that discussion we were
                    having...
                        (as Danny hurries past)
                    ...about Abraham and Isaac.
          
                              DANNY
                    I can't right now....
          
          But as he nears the NEXT LANDING, there is Zingesser waiting
          for him again...
          
                              ZINGESSER
                    You remember what you said, that
                    Isaac actually died on Mt. Moriah?
                    I've been thinking maybe you're
                    right... Died yet was reborn in olam
                    ha-bah....
          
          Danny goes past once more....
          
          But now, LOOKING DOWN at Zingesser as he appears above Danny
          yet again. As Danny nears the landing...
          
                              ZINGESSER
                    Danny, stop...
                        (as Danny goes by,
                        calling after him)
                    ...Where are you going?... Don't you
                    know, there's nobody up there?
          
          As Danny passes the camera we PAN to watch him still racing
          upward. beyond us into the darkness....
          
          
          
                                     THE END
          
          
 

Believer, The



Writers :   Henry Bean  Mark Jacobson
Genres :   Drama


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