Cherished Downfall Super Amazing Scipt
posted March 20, 2007, 11:13 pm | Log In To Post Comments | 
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Tags: Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pinkerton, Stadium Arcadium, The Blue Album, Make Believe, The Green Album, Movie Script, heist movie, quentin tarantino, pop culture, pulp fiction
Twrek and I came up with this idea a while back and I just recently wrote up the script. We were debating what to put in the middle so I just arguaded with myself about pop culture. Hope you enjoy it, any criticism is welcome...
Cherished Downfall
An Original Screenplay
By Matt Perez
Story By Dom Kain
FADE IN:
-EXT. BANK ALLEYWAY - DAY
We fade into a CU on the wheels of a car. We can hear the voices of DANIEL and JACK in the background.
DANIEL (O.O.S.)
(Shouting)
What just happened?! Tell me what just happened!
JACK (O.O.S.)
Shut up! Just keep running!
DANIEL
Where’s the van? Where’s the friggin’ van! We’re
dead, we’re dead.
JACK
That car right there, let’s go.
Jack and Daniel’s feet appear next to the tire and they enter the car.
-INT. CAR - SAME
FRANK is behind the wheel.
BOTH
Drive!
Frank looks in shock at the two criminals and doesn’t move.
DANIEL
(Shouting)
If you don’t move you’re gonna die!
Frank looks even more panicked but he starts driving this time.
JACK
Head towards the warehouse on Smith Street. If you don’t do exactly what I tell you, I will kill you.
(to Daniel)
To answer your question you asked out there, we got screwed over. I guess you didn’t notice.
DANIEL
It seems you’re just as confused as me. It doesn’t matter, we got the money.
JACK
Yeah, “we”.
Daniel and Jack stare at each other and then we…
CUT TO:
-INT. DANIEL’S BASEMENT - NIGHT
Jack and Daniel are sitting at a table with KEV.
KEV
There’s a door at the side of the bank. Once you get the cash, and you call me on your phone, I’ll drive up and we’ll get out of their before they know what hit ‘em.
DANIEL
This is good for you but how do we not get caught?
KEV
Give nicknames to communicate.
JACK
How ‘bout Jack and Daniels. I call Jack.
KEV
That’s fine. But keep in mind, you don’t want to draw too much attention to yourselves. See this the problem with crooks today, they wear pantyhose and socks on their heads to draw attention too themselves.
Jack and Daniel laugh at what Kev says.
JACK
I’m sure someone who got their hands on an arm can get their hands on a ski-mask. It may be difficult to get the hundred percent cotton put I’m sure they’ve got the time.
KEV
I do not kid my friends. I seen a guy up in Springfield who got blasted ‘cause he couldn’t see through the underwear on his head and besides that, the guy behind the counter saw this from outside and had ample time to grab his shotgun from under him.
They all laugh once again.
DANIEL
You personally knew this man? Is that what you’re telling me? Was he a total nut or something?
KEV
Well he was no crazier than you, you‘re both robbing a place. But anyway, just dress like your ready to do discuss stuff about money and quietly rob the person. We’re gonna jack ‘em on Thursday so there’ll be a new employee up at the front. The security isn’t too tight, just a guard and a camera. If you don’t get noticed, then you’ll be fine. It should all go smoothly. An alarm going off should be the most extreme thing that happens.
DANIEL
What if shooting an arrogant worker is the most extreme thing that happens.
KEV
Then I hope you’ve got nine lives kid.
Jack and Daniel look at each other and then we…
CUT TO:
-INT. CAR - DAY
The car is rather silent and everyone seems tense. Frank cautiously looks around and breaks the silence.
FRANK
So can I put the radio on?
Jack reaches over and turns the radio on. Post-Green Album Weezer comes on the radio and Jack changes the station.
DANIEL
Wait, what are you doing, that’s Weezer.
JACK
It’s post-Pinkerton Weezer. So that means it sucks.
DANIEL
Oh, you’re one of these people
JACK
What do you mean, “one of these people”.
DANIEL
You can’t get over the fact that Weezer doesn’t make music like they used to. But it’s still good. You’re biased and it’s sickening.
JACK
It’s sickening, my opinion sickens you? Is that what you’re telling me?
DANIEL
(Sarcastically)
So in your honorable opinion, why isn’t their new material up to snuff.
JACK
Just think of this. River’s Cuomo is the most depressed person after Pinkerton. But instead of picking up random Asian girls like he used to, he hides in a room painted black with no windows and no lights and writes a million songs. Now you’d expect a second Pinkerton, except Stephen Thomas Erlewine can see the beauty in it this time. But no… we get the Green Album. To go from the Blue Album, a catchy, poppy masterpiece, to Pinkerton, a catchy, hard-rocking masterpiece wasn‘t too far off. From that they went to The Green Album, a self-absorbed, “I wanna be on MTV” piece of trash. Blue to Pinkerton wasn’t the most drastic change. Say It Ain’t So and Only In Dreams tell of their immanent future. But the Green Album was a blatant change to gain more money, no matter what the band says. There’s something wrong in this mixture.
DANIEL
So you don’t want the band to change. You just want them to stay the same their whole career. This is why your opinion sickens me. If The Clash never changed, you’d complain they were just following the trend of the Ramones, but since they made a perfectly executed dance song, you call them sell outs. Make up your mind!
FRANK
Well I think…
BOTH
(Shouting)
Shut up!
JACK
You can’t honestly say you like anything off of Maladroit!
DANIEL
Dope Nose, American Gigolo, Take Control…
JACK
Crap, Crap, Crap…
DANIEL
What about Make Believe? They went back to their old style on that and made a great album.
JACK
An album with River’s rapping about being famous cannot be good. And Beverly Hills is a perfect example of why Cuomo has lost it. Remember The Good Life. Great song off Pinkerton about wanting to get back to, surprise surprise, the good life. Same thing he’s talking about in Beverly Hills, except this time it’s the musical equivalent to shoving bamboo shoots up ones fingernails.
DANIEL
Your opinion is the equivalent of shoving bamboo shoots up ones fingernails… and Stephen Thomas Erlewine? Have you no taste?
JACK
Well obviously, he gave Stadium Arcadium a three and half stars. He simply wants the attention. Him giving Pinkerton lower than a four is like Roger Ebert saying Pulp Fiction was a terrible film… it’s like Pulp Fiction losing Best Film of the year at the Oscars.
DANIEL
You believe Stadium Arcadium was a great album, You’re more whacked than I thought you were. Arcadium is a rehash of everything the Red Hot Chili Peppers ever accomplished. They basically took three songs off each album and made them mindlessly pointless. And besides, after Mother’s Milk, the Peppers went downhill. Under the Bridge? Please. And then there’s everything on By The Way. This was where the rehashing began but they rehashed the rehash and created Stadium Arcadium, the King of Rehash.
JACK
Tell me one song that sounds like Death of a Martian.
DANIEL
You’re joking right? Take your broom and sweep up the freckles of yesterday away. Kiedis is the most random lyricist ever, a problem with the Peppers from the beginning. I remember hearing him sing a whole verse about sitting on a sack of beans, what is that. Flea can’t even play his instrument anymore, Arcadium is a sad sad realization of how a great funk band died… and Pulp Fiction was going against Shawshank Redemption and Forrest Gump, what did you expect?
JACK
I was expecting the best movie of the decade to win, how ‘bout you? Let me tell you why Pulp Fiction got ripped off. First off, Quentin Tarantino had the only original film there. Forrest Gump was a book and so was Shawshank. I even think the stuff in Shawshank happened, except they exaggerated it way too much. Second, Pulp Fiction was revolutionary. Shawshank was just another prison movie. They took Folsom Prison Blues, made the main guy innocent, and extended it for two hours. And Forrest Gump, was about a handicap guy. I have nothing against handicap people but there’s a simple formula to winning Oscars with these type of people. You make a movie about a handicap person, you will win an Oscar. And last, Pulp Fiction is just amazing… and Arcadium is the best thing to come out of the Peppers since Mother’s Milk. It’s like watching Clerks 2 after watching Jersey Girl.
DANIEL
Exactly, a rehash of a winning formula. Smith only saw one way out, making a sequel to the film that made him. And Clerks 2 has to much emotion, Randall cries and they’ve got 1979 playing in the background. Please, I came to see a day in a life of a store clerk who has nothing better to do than play hockey, talk about Empire Strikes Back and pushing over caskets with old girlfriends inside.
JACK
You’ve contradicted yourself about twelve times already in this conversation, you realized this right? But anyway, Weezer is trash. Their old stuff will always be classic but the band should’ve died with River’s creativity. Their new stuff, ahem, Haunts me everyday.
DANIEL
Fine, change the station.
Jack flips through the radio stations until he gets to Sell Out by Reel Big Fish on the radio.
JACK
Alright, haven’t heard the Fish on the radio for a while.
DANIEL
You’re kidding, right? You consider these sell outs a good band.
JACK
You sickly demented fool. Reel Big Fish are the definitive third-wave ska band. Not Catch 22, nor The Slackers, nor The Planet Smashers, nor anyone!
DANIEL
You really must be kidding now. All the bands you mentioned are better musically and lyrically. Tomas Kalnoky could take Aaron Barret with his hands tied behind his back.
JACK
Obviously, Kalnoky can’t play guitar for the life of him. He also can’t make write original material anymore. Streetlight Manifesto has been together for three, four years? He hasn’t made any new material since their first album.
DANIEL
He felt that Keasbey Nights sounded terrible and wanted to make it a better album instead of just reissuing it. It’s more than Reel Big Fish ever did. They took their pointless songs, put them on a live album, and had the money come straight to them, since Jive gets all their cash now.
JACK
Oh please, the so called “new and improved” Keasbey Nights is a bad rendition of an already overrated album. What was so great about this piece of trash in the first place? It is indeed not the greatest third-wave ska album released. It’s a bunch of band geeks singing how no one noticed them as teenagers. Big deal. At least Reel Big Fish are fun and involve talent.
DANIEL
Talented? I could find a better singer off the streets than anything I could find in RBF. Scott’s pretentious and Aaron’s an a-hole. That’s innovative!
JACK
Oh, and Kalnoky’s voice is better. Each album is voice gets worse and worse. And the saving grace of his credibility would’ve came with his songwriting but his nothing compared to, hm, I don’t know, Kurt Cobain.
DANIEL
I’m sorry, did I just hear you say that Cobain was a good songwriter? Please, cause if you did, I might have to shoot you now.
JACK
Are you saying Cobain isn’t good?
DANIEL
If you mean I’m saying he’s the most overrated artist of the 90‘s decade, right above Pearl Jam, then yes, he isn’t good. And I’ll tell you why. Every song he’s ever created consists of the same chord progressions, lyrics, and structure. It’s all a calm- before-the-storm structured and the chord progression are those lame, semi-demonic songs you make when you first pick up the guitar. And this is considered good?
JACK
Doesn’t matter, Reel Big Fish has made the best ska since The Skatalites and Kalnoky can’t write a song that interests anyone… well, maybe someone as dimwitted as you but people like you are hard to come by.
DANIEL
What did your parents do to you?
FRANK
(Laughing)
Hey that’s from Seinfeld.
Daniel pulls his gun out and points it at Frank.
DANIEL
If you say one more thing, I’m gonna blow you away.
FRANK
Christ, who did you kill?
Daniel pistol whips Frank in the head and Jack goes over to stop him.
JACK
(Shouting)
What are you thinking!?
DANIEL
I told him not to talk!
JACK
Calm down. You can’t handle a random pedestrian talking for ten minutes?
DANIEL
Seems you couldn’t handle shooting someone.
They are all silent.
CUT TO:
-EXT. TOWN STREETS - DAY
Jack and Daniel are walking down the street near the downtown of a town.
JACK
So why are you robbing a bank?
DANIEL
I wanna retire before I’m thirty. The world’s a big place, if you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you might miss it. That’s why school and work is a joke.
JACK
I see you’re a fan of Ferris Bueller.
DANIEL
I also enjoy the rush. Seeing the terror on peoples faces when I pull out the gun just makes my day. So why are you doing it?
JACK
Money.
DANIEL
Well everyone does it for money, what are you going to use the money for.
JACK
Buy things.
DANIEL
(Confused)
… okay.
JACK
So are you ready for tomorrow?
DANIEL
Yeah whatever. Just another day I suppose.
(Laughs)
JACK
So you’ve done this before.
DANIEL
I’ve robbed liquor stores and restaurants before, just not a bank. But since I’ve done those two, I’m sure the bank will be a cinch. With small time shops, you know the guy has an arm behind the counter. You have to convince him you can pull the trigger. With restaurants, you just gotta watch everyone’s actions. That and you need a partner for that. You’ve seen Pulp Fiction, right?
JACK
Dan, I’m a criminal.
DANIEL
Alright, then you’ve seen the restaurant game go wrong. All you need to do is look around for Samuel L. Jackson types of people and you’ll be fine. Course there’s always someone that thinks they’ll be the hero. That’s when you need to teach them a lesson.
JACK
Have you killed someone before.
The two stop in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts.
DANIEL
Yeah.
JACK
Is it hard?
DANIEL
All you do is aim and fire. Except some people like to think they can fire a gun like Dirty Harry. Simple physics show txhat the force of the bullet pushing off the gun creates a large recoil. So just make sure you use both hands.
JACK
Well I meant was it hard to take someone’s life?
DANIEL
People get in my way of my business. I don’t tell them what to do at their jobs.
Daniel looks over at the Dunkin’ Donuts and through the window we see someone drinking coffee.
DANIEL (CONT.)
I wonder what kind of coffee they’re drinking. You know cause they’ve got the mocha frap chinos and those iced coffees. Ha, people will drop coffee on their laps now and sue ‘cause it’s too cold.
Jack has a face of shock on because of how Daniel went from thinking of murder to coffee.
DANIEL
We should back to the hideout, make sure everything’s ready.
CUT TO:
-EXT. DANIEL’S HOUSE - NIGHT
Kev walks out of the house and walks over to his car in the driveway. He enters the car. A shadowy figure appears from the back seat and grabs a hold of Kev’s neck.
CUT TO:
-INT. CAR - DAY
The three get to their destination, an abandon warehouse on the outskirts of town. The car stops but Daniel points his gun at Jack.
JACK
What are you doing?
DANIEL
I should’ve known all along. It was so obvious but I didn’t see it. You’re a dead man.
JACK
Have you gone totally insane!?
DANIEL
(Shouting)
You killed Kev didn’t you? You wanted this operation to fail? You’re a filthy cop aren’t, say it, you’re a cop!
JACK
Just calm down, act like a professional!
DANIEL
No criminal would say that! You’re no criminal, you’re a pig! If you can’t watch someone die then you can’t be a criminal.
JACK
Cop’s kill people too!
DANIEL
Remember that walk we had before the day we robbed the place. You said “this might be our last time as free men”. You were gonna arrest me. You plan this whole thing out from the start. That’s why you asked me if I shot anybody, to get proof that I killed someone! Well that proofs never leaving your petty mind.
JACK
(Shouting)
Act like a professional!
DANIEL
I am acting professional, I’m watching my own back! You were gonna stab me in the back right when you got the chance. Say it, it’s the truth!
Jack reaches for his gun but he is shot by Daniel. Jack drops his gun out of the shot. Jack is immobilized and quickly dying. He points towards Daniel. Frank has Jack’s gun to Daniel’s head. Frank shoots and kills Daniel. Frank proceeds to throw both Jack and Daniel out of the car. Frank grabs the bag of money and looks into it. He then drives away. Jack is left staring at the disappearing car as he breathes his last few breaths.
END CREDITS
Comments:
Yeah, I was thinking that. I was like, I don't want a totally mainstream band... but I don't know if people would be interested in a totally unknown band. But I'm sure I could fit in some relatively unknown bands in their. Maybe an argument over whether Tomas Kalnoky should quit remaking songs and make some new music or take his sweet old time writing new material like he's doing right now. And we're also going to improvise a little, cause we talk about this stuff all the time. So a bunch of ska bands and Modest Mouse are bound to get thrown in their. Thanks for the suggestions.
posted on March 21, 2007, 3:30 pm
I don't want Alan to get the money. That's just wrong. The silent type need to die. Maybe that's why I like this script, you don't expect it.
I think the band banter is awesome. Not enough of that. I think it needs to be more about bands that people haven't heard of though. Maybe, Explosions In The Sky or Fugazi. Something a little different.
posted on March 21, 2007, 12:15 pm
