Perfect Soldier

By
Allan Brookdale

info@allanbrookdale.com
818-416-1776

PRELAP: The sound of shuffling feet and muffled voices.

woosh of an automatic door opening.

The

INTERCOM (O.S.)
Dr. Martin, to exam room 301, please.
WRITTEN OVER BLACK
"... One must hold oneself responsible for the evil impulses
of one's dreams. In what other way can one deal with them?"
- Sigmund Freud
"The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is
easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit
of man." - Albert Einstein
Voices distant, muffled, hollow.
HEAD NURSE (O.S.)
What do we have?
FADE IN:
INT. MAYFLOWER HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY
C/U on: A metal wheel spins as it quickly CLICK-CLICK-CLICK's
across scuffed white linoleum flooring.
MEDIC ONE (O.S.)
Adolescent male. Found him in the
lake, initially unresponsive. 'Tubed
him on the way in. Ox was way down.
INT. MAYFLOWER HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Two uniformed EMS personnel push a gurney while a middleaged nurse hurries along beside. We can see the boy's body
but not the face.
MEDIC TWO
Came around on the way in. BP is
100 over 65, pulse is 60. Pulse-ox
is only 88 but it's coming up.
MEDIC ONE
Contusions to face and body. Somebody
beat the shit out of this kid.
HEAD NURSE
Bring him to bay six. Any idea what
happened?

2.
MEDIC ONE
No idea, some kids found him floating
in the water below the Institute.
EXT. LOCHE RAVEN LAKE - DAY
It's a beautiful sunny day on the lake, boats zip across the
blue-green water, people laughing; it's happy summertime in
the USA.
In the water of one of the many coves, a young boy is playing.
EXT. LOCHE RAVEN LAKE - COVE - DAY
JAKE SILVER, age 12, stands alone waist deep. He's a skinny
kid, tan, innocent looking. He swings his arms and torso
back and forth his fingertips skim across the water.
A voice, smooth, baritone, but there's something there, a
tinge of something dark:
ADULT JAKE (V.O.)
I remember this day like it was only
moments ago.
Jake turns and turns and looks up.
JAKE' POV: A large granite building sits on the rocky bluff
above the waters of the small cove. On the front of the
building the initials LRI are prominently displayed in red
lettering. The grounds around the building are surrounded
by a high chain-link fence.
ADULT JAKE (V.O.) (CONT'D)
That place? I hated that place. It
was like...it was trying to kill me.
BACK TO SCENE
As Jake moves we can see that his back is marked with a series
of pink, jagged scars.
A small rock suddenly strikes him in the middle of the field
of scars. Jake turns, instantly on his guard.
A slightly older boy in cut-offs and a wife-beater is wading
into the water.
BOBBY JOE is much taller and beefier than Jake. The School
bully who has weight and the lack of a conscious on his side.
ADULT JAKE (V.O.)
Bobby Joe Hollis. That one was a
piece of work.

3.
BOBBY JOE
What're you doing Jakey?
Nothing.

JAKE

Jake takes a step back, looks around for help.

continues toward him.

Bobby Joe

INT. MAYFLOWER HOSPITAL - BAY 6 - DAY

The cordoned off bay in the ER is a hive of activity.
bed is surrounded by nurses.

The

The head nurse leans over the boy, listens to his heart with
a stethoscope while in the background medical equipment beeps
and hums to the rhythm of the hospital. Suddenly alarm bells
shriek.
HEAD NURSE
Goddamn it, get Doctor Morris in
here!
EXT. LOCHE RAVEN LAKE - COVE - DAY
Bobby Joe is an arm's length from Jake.
smaller boy.

He sneers at the

JAKE
What, what do you want Bobby Joe?
His voice breaks. Jake is clearly nervous. Bobby Joe bends
down to Jake's height, mocking.
BOBBY JOE
What you want Bobby Joe?
want Bobby Joe?

What you

He straightens up.
BOBBY JOE (CONT'D)
You know what I want.
Don't.

JAKE
Bobby Joe, no.

Jake takes another step back and looks up to the top of the
cliff toward the building as Bobby Joe steps forward.
JAKE (CONT'D)
Leave me alone.
Jake looks around, he's scared.

4.
ADULT JAKE (V.O.)
I should'a hit him right then.
JAKE
Ramsey's up there watchin' us.
BOBBY JOE
No. He's eating pizza and watchin'
Oprah. Nobody's gonna come runnin'
this time Jakey. This time's just
you an' me.
Bobby Joe suddenly grabs Jake and pushes him backwards.
Jake slips and goes under the water.
INT. MAYFLOWER HOSPITAL - BAY 6 - DAY
A doctor hovers over the boy, his hands race as he tries to
save his life. The table is surrounded by hospital staff.
DOCTOR
That one, give me that one!
it up!

Hurry

A nurse quickly hands him an instrument.

EXT. LOCHE RAVEN LAKE - COVE - DAY
Jake comes up out of the water gasping and coughing.
BOBBY JOE
They put me in the fucking jacket
last time 'cause of you Jakey. I
fucking hate that jacket.
Bobby Joe grabs Jake and slips behind him, his arms around
Jakes shoulders.
He tries to push Jake back under the water. Jake struggles
but Bobby Joe is the stronger of the two and under he goes
again.
UNDERWATER
Jake struggles as Bobby Joe holds him down. He slithers
free and tries to swim away. Bobby Joe grabs his foot and
pulls him back toward him. Jake immediately surfaces,
coughing.
ABOVE WATER
Jake's obviously no match for Bobby Joe.
JAKE
Stop...stop it.

5.
BOBBY JOE
Nah, I don't think so. Not this
time. This time there'll be no
stopping. This time we gonna go all
the way.
Bobby Joe grabs Jake's shorts and tries to pull them down.
In desperation Jake turns, grabs Bobby Joe and tries to dunk
him under but can't quite do it. The two boys struggle.
Jake's face twisted in fear, Bobby Joe is laughing.
BOBBY JOE (CONT'D)
You know Jakey I can't figure why
ya' here. Why are ya' here? You
seem so...normal.
UNDERWATER
A boys foot pushes against the silty mud, stirring clouds of
particles. Suddenly the foot steps over a drop-off and out
into nothing but water.
ABOVE WATER
Jake suddenly goes under.
INT. MAYFLOWER HOSPITAL - BAY 6 - DAY
Bells and whistles are going off everywhere.
the room are in full life-saving mode.
DOCTOR
Jesus he's A-fibbing!

The group in

Get the cart!

A nurse runs over and grabs the defibrillator cart yanks off
the paddles and hands them to the doctor.
DOCTOR (CONT'D)
Give me 150...C'mon boy... Clear!
EXT. LOCHE RAVEN LAKE - COVE - DAY
UNDERWATER
We hold on Jake's face. His eyes slowly close.
ADULT JAKE (V.O.)
Bobby Joe is about to learn a valuable
lesson here: It's the normal-looking
ones you have to watch out for.
Suddenly Jakes his eyes open very, very wide.
and he starts...to smile?

His face twists

6.
ABOVE WATER
Jake shoots up out of the water and attacks Bobby Joe. He
punches him in the face again, and again. Bobby Joe's nose
explodes and blood flies. The violence he's inflicting is
unnatural; he's completely out of control.
INT. MAYFLOWER HOSPITAL - BAY 6 - DAY
The doctor and the nurses are not moving. Slowly the head
nurse reaches up and turns off the insistent flat-line alarm
of the heart monitor. The doctor yanks off his latex gloves.
DOCTOR
I'll Call it: time of death, 4:37.
Do we know who he is? Parents?
He steps away from the table revealing the boy's face for
the first time; it's Bobby Joe.
CUT TO:
INT. 28TH SPECIAL OPERATIONS - JAKE'S ROOM - NIGHT
Jake Silver, now late 20's, gasps and sits up in his bunk.
He's covered in sweat and breathing hard. He takes a deep
breath.
Holy shit.

JAKE

In the distance the haunting sound of a Muslim call to prayer.

He slides out of bed and pulls the chain on a table lamp.
The room is small, very basic: a bunk, a wall locker, the
side table. A couple of pin-ups are tacked to the plywood
walls.
Jake walks to the door wearing nothing but running shorts.
His movements are athletic: equal parts grace and might.
His strength is underscored, not overtly apparent. He throws
on a shirt and as he does we can just make out the scars on
his back.
INT. 28TH SPECIAL OPERATIONS - KITCHEN - NIGHT
Jake gets a bottle of water out of a 1950's era refrigerator.
He passes an old wooden kitchen table where a tv is showing
CNN. Jake stands at a metal sink, drinks from the bottle,
looks out through the window at the night, deep in thought.
WEAVER (O.S.)
Jake the snake.

7.
Jake spins around. LIEUTENANT ROBERT WEAVER stands in the
doorway dressed in boxers. He's a bear of man: immensely
strong, and chiseled. In his early 20's, he's younger than
Jake but he's a commanding presence both in look and voice.
He scratches himself.
WEAVER (CONT'D)
Easy there Jake. Everything okay?
Jake half-smiles, embarrassed.
JAKE
Yeah LT. Weird dream.
Jake's voice is the nearly same as ADULT JAKE, but not quite.
WEAVER
Did it involve twin red-heads, whipped
cream, and a goat?
Did it what?

JAKE

WEAVER
Never mind, guess that's just me.
He walks over the fridge.
You ready?
Are we a go?

WEAVER (CONT'D)
JAKE

WEAVER
We're a go. Team briefing in 90
minutes. Wheels up at 0200.
JAKE
Roger that LT. I'll get the boys
moving.
WEAVER
Nah, give 'em five more minutes of
rack time. The vampires need their
sleep.
As they talk, CNN on the TV cuts to a young woman. She's
pretty, but rugged. She looks at home in the rough desert
from which she's reporting. The caption below reads: REBECCA
JOHANNSON, Camp Dragon, Afghanistan. Jake turns up the volume.

8.
ON THE TV
REBECCA
...the last two weeks a surge of
kidnappings and attempted kidnappings.
First American contractor, a truck
driver, John Anderson, from...
She looks down at the notebook in her hand
REBECCA (CONT'D)
Enterprise, Alabama is grabbed, There
was the attempted kidnapping of Afghan
Vice President Humzawee, stopped by
the civilian security firm Black
Eagle. And of course the incredibly
bold kidnapping of Senator Scott and
his family.
The image pulls back to show that she's standing on the steps
of a hospital. The subtitles are in English and Farsi.
REBECCA (CONT'D)
It's been more than 72 hours since
the Senator and his family were
grabbed right off these steps. The
Senator, a presidential hopeful, and
his family were here at the hospital
to visit wounded soldiers when the
attack and kidnapping took place.
BACK TO SCENE
Jake smiles while watching the woman.
WEAVER (O.S.)
You know I like her Jake.
Jake turns.

The LT points to the TV.

WEAVER (CONT'D)
Your girlfriend, I like her and all,
but let me tell you: She's doing us
no favors.
JAKE
Yeah, I know. She's just doing her
job. And besides LT, a couple of
dinners in the mess tent does not a
girlfriend make.
WEAVER
Yeah, I suppose that's true.

9.
Weaver opens the fridge, grabs a bottle of water, and heads
for the door.
WEAVER (CONT'D)
But bangin' in the back of a Black
Hawk a couple of nights ago probably
does.
He takes a long pull from the bottle.
WEAVER (CONT'D)
Don't you think?
He gives Jake a half salute as he leaves.
Jake shakes his head. He turns back to the tv.
no longer on so he changes the channel.

Rebecca is

SUPERIMPOSED ON TV
TITLE CARD: PERFECT SOLDIER
BEGIN CREDITS
We slowly zoom in on the tv as the channel switches yet again.
A talking head is mid-sentence.
ANCHORMAN 1
It appears that the presidents new
policy to negotiate with terrorists
has lead to a significant increase
in kidnappings in afghanistan.
The channels switches again, and again, slowly.
image of war.

Each an

BEGIN MONTAGE
ROADSIDE BOMBS
FIRE FIGHTS
REPORTERS IN THE FIELD
A NEWSWOMAN STANDING IN FRONT OF A BUILDING MARKED WITH
GUNSHOT.
NEWSWOMAN
Another soldier was kidnapped this
morning in a daring attack on...
SMOKE RISING FROM A BLOWN-OUT BUILDING

10.
PRELAP: The sound of a tin bell and a beautiful soprano voice
singing quietly in farsi fills the background as we listen
to:
TWO ANCHORMEN IN A STUDIO
ANCHORMAN 2
In other news there's controversy
surrounding the Military's new weapon
against PTSD, Q101 the miracle drug
that...
END MONTAGE
CUT TO:
EXT. MOUNTAIN VILLAGE SQUARE - DAWN
C/U on a tin bell attached to a collar. We pull back to
reveal that it's on a pigmy goat, one of a small flock being
attended to by a young shepherd who sings softly.
He's in a large open square in the center of a small afghan
village ringed by mountains.
The square is surrounded on three sides by row-houses, the
fourth side is a large mosque.
EXT. MOUNTAIN VILLAGE SQUARE - CONTINUOUS
We pan across the square to a dark silhouette of a man in a
first-floor window of a house nearly dead center in the
square. We zoom in and see:
His head and face are obscured by a checkered keffiyeh, the
traditional Arab headdress. The only thing visible are his
alert, ever-moving, blue eyes.
He's watching the boy.
END CREDITS
INT. MOUNTAIN VILLAGE HOUSE - DAWN
Through the window the man studies the boy and village square
for a moment then slowly squats down below the window. He
unwraps his Keffiyeh, It's our man Jake. He's dressed in
fatigues and body armor. He stuffs the keffiyeh in a pack
sitting at his feet.
He's surrounded by four other similarly dressed men.
are:

They

Staff Sergeant MIKE WARD a wiry New Yorker, short and hard
as nails.