THE RESIGNATION
Written for the
www.simplyscripts.com
ONE WEEK SCRIPT WRITING CHALLENGE
April 20, 2007
FADE IN
INT. CAR – DAY
A man is sitting in the passenger side seat of a car. A woman is driving. The man looks distraught. He keeps glancing at the woman. The man is very bulky. His head is shaved. The woman is smiling. After a few moments of silence...
MAN
I quit today.
The brakes on the car screech to a halt. The car swerves. The woman gives the man a ferocious look.
WOMAN
Are you fucking kidding me?
MAN
Can you just listen to-
WOMAN
No, I will not fucking listen to you!
The man cowardly sinks back into his chair.
WOMAN (CONT’D.)
Did you not just tell me 2 weeks ago you were in line for a promotion?
MAN
Yeah, I was.
WOMAN
Then what the hell is wrong with you?
MAN
You don’t know what’s like, Marlene. You don’t know what my job was like. Everyday, the same thing, everyday something I fucking hated. I needed to stop.
MARLENE
I don’t know what your job was like? I don’t know? All you basically did was push a button all day for Christ’s sake.
MAN
It wasn’t that simple.
MARLENE
Doesn’t sound like it could be any simpler than that...
Just then, there’s a knock on the window of the car from a guy wearing a bathrobe.
GUY OUTSIDE WINDOW
Hey, fuckheads!
The two look over to the man.
GUY OUTSIDE WINDOW (CONT’D.)
Can you get the hell off my lawn, please?
EXT. LAWN – DAY
The car has swerved onto somebody’s lawn and is just sitting there, stationary. The man standing on the lawn is very upset. The car pulls off the lawn and drives away.
INT. CAR – DAY
Marlene is extremely upset. The man is cowering in his seat.
MARLENE
You realize what this means for money don’t you? I’m going to have to suck twice as many dicks a week just to make ends meet. How do you feel about that? Huh?
MAN
Well... Maybe you can talk to your pimp...? Maybe he can sort of give you some cash in advance.
MARLENE
Are you even vaguely familiar with the concept of prostitution? Are you?
MAN
Well yeah...
MARLENE
Pimps don’t care. They don’t show any signs of emotion. All they care about is the money they get from girls like me! That’s all.
Pause.
MAN
What if you suck his dick?
The man laughs to himself.
MARLENE
Is that a joke? Is it supposed to be funny?
MAN
No. Not really. But yeah... Why don’t you ask him?
Marlene shakes her head.
MARLENE
So why the sudden change of heart? What happened? Why did you quit?
MAN
Well yesterday, I was sent on assignment...
INT. APARTMENT – DAY
The man is walking through somebody’s apartment. He is wearing white surgical gloves and white padding around his shoes.
MAN (V.O.)
It was some shitty apartment downtown. And I was sitting there, waiting for the guy to come home. Now, for some reason, I was really nervous about this one... It felt like my first job.
The man pulls out a gun with a silencer on it and sits in a chair, facing the door. He aims the gun at the door, shaking.
MAN (V.O., CONT’D.)
I don’t know what was wrong with me. My hands were shaking and my finger jumping up and down off trigger (or ‘the button’ as you called it). Then...
A cat jumps out from behind a couch. The man jumps and fires a shot at the cat, the cat yelps.
MAN (V.O., CONT’D.)
...the guy’s fucking cat jumped in from out of nowhere. Because I was so nervous for some reason I capped it.
MARLENE (V.O.)
You killed his fucking cat?
MAN (V.O., CONT’D.)
Yeah. I just sat here, stunned. I didn’t know what to do. I got up and ran out of the apartment.
The man gets up and runs out of the apartment, stunned. The door slams shut behind him.
INT. CAR – DAY
Marlene has a twisted look on his face.
MAN
Then I started thinking about it... That guy is going to come home thinking that his cat got whacked.
Marlene starts laughing hysterically.
MAN (CONT’D.)
It’s not completely funny. But after that, I just sort of realized it’s not good. What I do for living that is. It isn’t good.
MARLENE
You’ve been killing people for 6 months and you JUST realized that ‘it isn’t good’.
MAN
Oh, give me a break... You fuck 30 random guys a day... That isn’t bad?
MARLENE
Sex is natural.
MAN
Oh give me a break.
(Pause)
Yeah, so then I told Minelli that I was through. Resigned.
MARLENE
How’d he take it?
MAN
Not totally all that well, actually.
Small pause.
MARLENE
Maybe you should suck his dick...
FADE OUT
THE END
Written for
THE ONE WEEK SCRIPT WRITING CHALLENGE
APRIL ‘07
www.simplyscripts.com