2004 Screenplay

 

 

Answers in the Back of the Book

 

INT. DARK ROUND TUNNEL - IRRELEVANT TIME OF DAY

The silhouette of our hero, WILL, walks in our direction. He
arrives at a DOUBLE DOORWAY which opens on its own. Upon
entering, the room is overly bright, and Will squints.

A HAND holding a LIGHT METER enters the frame from the side
and takes a light reading near Will's FACE. Slowly the
extreme brightness of the room subsides. Will SITS.

On his desk is a SHEET OF PAPER.

Written on the paper: # 1 WHY ARE YOU HERE?

Will looks confused.

TITLE: ANSWERS IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK

 

INT. ROOM - TIME OF DAY STILL IRRELEVANT

Will STARES into the distance, daydreaming as though in a
classroom. He looks down at the paper, treating it like a
difficult exam. After a long silent moment, he stands and
look around the room, as though it were prohibited to do so.

At the other end of the room is a DOOR, a WINDOW and a
MIRROR, but Will does not approach them yet. To the left of
his desk is a BOOKSHELF, and to the right, a PLANT.

CUT TO:

Will is at the desk again, holding the EXAM up closer.

WILL
Yeah, why am I here?
(looks around)
Am I supposed to answer? I don't...
I don't have a pencil.

After looking around some more, he realizes that the plant to
his right is not in fact a plant. It is a SMALL TREE, and
next to it is a SAW. Behind the tree is a bucket of BLACK
COAL.

MONTAGE: Will realizes he must use the tools provided to him,
and proceeds to manufacture a pencil out of the wood from the
tree trunk and the carbon extracted from the coal.

 

INT. ROOM - LATER

Will taps his newly carved pencil on the desk, thinking about
the question in front of him.

He picks one of the books out of the bookshelf.

WILL
(reading)
Scientists have measured the rate
of the expansion of the universe
since the Big Bang. In order for
the Carbon atom to have formed fast
enough to create some of the
earliest star systems, it would
have had to spontaneously assemble
itself within one millisecond of
the Big Bang. The improbability of
this is unimaginable.

He writes down an answer, hesitatingly. Written on the paper:
TO UNDERSTAND.

 

INT. ROOM - LATER

In front of the mirror, Will looks at himself for a few
seconds. Underneath the mirror he notices a label. On the
label is written: SELF. Will looks at his self again. He
yawns. But then he realizes he is not yawning, only his
reflection is yawning.

SELF
How's it going.

WILL
Woah, hey.

SELF
Hi.
(yawn)
I'm kind of tired, are you?

WILL
Oh. No, I uh... what's up?

SELF
I'm ok. I'm getting better at not
discussing personal issues with
people who are going to further my
illusions. What have you been up
to?

WILL
I'm... I don't really know. To tell
you the truth. I've just been...
Do you know? Maybe? I can't really
remember.

SELF
You've been navigating through a
complex arrangement of space, time
and matter. Exercising your
miniscule capacity to choose.
Experiencing the overwhelming
influence of Evolution. Searching
for that majestic sensation you
once felt when you watched the sun
rise.

Will sort of nods and starts pacing around.

Written on the paper: # 2 MARK TRUE OR FALSE...

WILL
(reading)
There are many versions of the
Truth, and you must choose one. But
some versions of the Truth are
False.

SELF
That's it?

WILL
That's it. I don't know.

Will looks over at the label underneath the window.

On the label: "THE WORLD IS NOT TO BE FEARED, IT IS TO BE
UNDERSTOOD." -MARIE CURIE

Will flips on a switch. Voices fill the room.

VOICE 1
I was in my school cafeteria once,
and you know when a room with a few
people suddenly becomes quiet
because no one has anything to say?

Will looks around, as tape seems to unravel from spools
concealed on the ceiling, playing through strangely shaped
mechanisms attached to the walls.

VOICE 1 (cont'd)
Well it happened then, except there
were about 200 kids there, everyone
quiet at once.

On a label on the wall: COMMUNICATION APPARATUS.

Will flips the switch underneath the label. The tape stops,
and other mechanisms emerge that dump a printer onto the
floor, telephone wires and LCD screens come sprawling behind.

A mechanical arm lifts from the mess of wires and taps Morse
code onto a small gadget that spits out sticky notes with
messages on them. One note sticks to Will's mouth.

A red laser beam quickly detects the note, scans across the
words and a computerized voice reads the message out loud.

VOICE 2
Hello.

WILL
(muffled by the note stuck
to his mouth)
M-hum?

VOICE 2
Hello.

The mechanical arm spits out more notes that are immediately
shot with red lasers and read aloud.

VOICE 2 (cont'd)
What's up? I'm on number four. How
about you?

WILL
Who is this? Oh, number four?

VOICE 2
Yes. Question number four. There
are harder ones later. But you can
stop whenever, I guess.

WILL
Wait, so is this a person I'm
talking to? Am I... where are you?

VOICE 2
LOL.

WILL
What?

VOICE 2
You sound confused. I gotta go.
Good luck, talk to you later.

The mechanical arm stops shooting notes, retracts into a mesh
where spin dials navigate through lists of names on small
transparent screens, compartments close and headphones dangle
from the sides of metal boxes popping out from the walls.
Will watches, bewildered.

SELF
If that machine is conscious, am I?

WILL
I should have asked her the answer.

SELF
Yeah.

Written in pencil on the paper: I DON'T KNOW.

# 3 HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO CHANGE THE WORLD?

 

SELF, LOOKING INTO THE DISTANCE - LATE AFTERNOON

SELF
I was on the subway once, and the
train reached my stop. And it
stopped, and I got up, getting
ready to get off. But then the
doors didn't open. And then the
train left the station, and I
missed my stop. I was the only one
in the train.

Will flips through another book.

SELF (cont'd)
(O.S.)
Now that is what I call oppression.

In the book: DRAWINGS OF AN ANCIENT GOTHIC STYLE.

WILL
(reading)
When you love fear so much, you
begin to fear love.

VOICE 3
The only nagging sensation I have
is that, you know, if I were to die
tomorrow, I haven't done enough.

Will shakes his head, like "what?"

OUTSIDE THE WINDOW: THE SUN SETS.

WILL
(reading quietly)
It seems that if a reorganization
of society were to take place,
things could change. I don't know
what that is yet, that almost
everyone has in common and almost
everyone would be willing to
participate in.

Will gets up, frustrated, and for the first time realizes
there is something attached to the ceiling. It is a gift
wrapped box.

On a label next to the box: THE ANSWERS TO ALL THINGS IN
EXISTENCE.

Will jumps up to try to grab it, but it is beyond his reach.
He becomes flustered and annoyed. He tries to reach it with a
piece of tree trunk that is left, but it is too small. He
stops to look underneath the box, right above his head.

On a small label underneath the box it says: NO CHOICE.

Underneath Will's feet, he notices another label.

On the label on the floor: CHOICE.

Will stops to think, trying to relax now.

VOICE 4
You may have turned nothing into
everything, but now...

Will walks back to the other side of the room, tapes
unspooling around him, mechanical arms disassembling and
pages of books flying into the middle of the room.

VOICE 4 (cont'd)
... now you must do more. You must
turn everything to nothing.

 

INT. ROOM

Darker now. Will thinks about an answer and writes it.

WILL
If we were not given the capacity
to fail, what more nobility would
we have than a piece of rock?
There is no value in straining
yourself to move the masses towards
changing their philosophy of life.
In that pursuit you will become
blind to their qualities and their
needs. Remain attentive to the
innate capacity of everyone. Your
philosophy will speak for itself
without having to be imposed.
Change yourself to serve others,
rather than changing others to
serve yourself. Progress is
inevitable, even amidst a long and
difficult chaos.

Will glances over to the DOOR, and stares at it for a long
moment, getting ready.

CUT TO:

 

INT. ROOM - A FEW SECONDS LATER

Will stands in front of the DOORWAY, thinking. He finally
turns the handle and swings the door open.

The door swings open, slowly, as Will EXITS. The door
continues to move until the back side of it accidentally
bumps into the wall. The MIRROR falls from the wall and
CRASHES into many pieces.

CUT TO BLACK.

 

back to writing