Feature screenplay · Reading sample
I Remembered Something Else
9-page opening sample. Full screenplay available privately on request.
Sample text is displayed for reading only. No public PDF download is provided.
1
1
FADE IN:
INT. FAMILY MEDIATION CENTRE - ROOM THREE - LATE AFTERNOON
A room designed to prevent escalation. Round table. Soft
chairs. No objects heavy enough to throw.
NOAH VALE, 48, sits between a DIVORCED COUPLE. Quiet suit.
Quiet hands. The kind of face people lower their voices
for.
A digital recorder blinks red.
MOTHER
He threatened me in front of Mina.
FATHER
I did not.
NOAH
What were the exact words?
MOTHER
"You will regret this."
FATHER
I meant the lawyer. The fees.
Noah writes without looking down.
NOAH
Then the record can say: "He warned
me there would be legal
consequences."
MOTHER
That is not what it felt like.
NOAH
We are not recording what it felt
like.
He turns a page. A child's handwritten statement has been
clipped to the file.
NOAH (CONT'D)
Mina wrote, "Dad scares me when he
gets angry."
The father looks wounded. The mother looks relieved.
NOAH (CONT'D)
I suggest: "Mina becomes anxious
when voices are raised."2
2
MOTHER
That is not what she said.
NOAH
It is the version that can survive
a room like this.
A beat.
The father signs. Then the mother.
Through the narrow window in the door, LEO VALE, 17,
watches his father gather the pages into a perfect stack.
EXT. SCHOOL YARD - EARLIER THAT DAY
Sunlight. Noise. Leo sits on a low wall with DANI, 17,
sharing one pair of earphones and a bag of something bad
for them.
DANI
Say it in his voice.
LEO
No.
DANI
Come on. Do the thing.
Leo sighs. Straightens. Becomes his father: the stillness,
the folded hands, the patience.
LEO
(as Noah)
I hear that you are upset. Let us
find language we can both live with.
Dani howls.
DANI
That is horrible. That is actually
horrible.
LEO
(dropping it)
He does it at breakfast. He does it
at funerals.
DANI
Does he do it to you?
Leo takes the earphone out. Winds the cable around one
finger.3
3
LEO
He does it about me. There is a
version of me he tells people. It
is very nice. He is very proud of
it.
DANI
Is it true?
LEO
It is close enough that I cannot
argue with it.
The bell goes. Dani gets up, takes the crisps, offers a
hand.
Leo does not take it -- he stands on his own -- but he
takes the crisps back. Dani laughs, shoves him, and they go
in.
INT. FAMILY MEDIATION CENTRE - CORRIDOR - LATE AFTERNOON
Noah exits with the file. Leo waits beside the elevator,
backpack on one shoulder, a BLUE DOCUMENT ENVELOPE under
his arm.
NOAH
You were meant to be at home.
LEO
I was meant to be a lot of things.
Noah notices the envelope.
NOAH
She sent you that?
LEO
Granddad's cabinet.
NOAH
That is private.
LEO
It was evidence.
NOAH
It was a closed complaint from
thirty-one years ago.
LEO
A man died.
The elevator DINGS. The doors open.
Noah does not enter.4
4
NOAH
You are upset. We can talk when you
are less committed to
misunderstanding me.
LEO
See? I say something. You tell me
what I meant.
NOAH
I am trying to keep you from doing
something irreversible.
LEO
You were seventeen when you did it.
NOAH
You do not know what happened.
LEO
You said you saw him.
Noah's eyes move to the envelope.
LEO (CONT'D)
You were across town. The school
register proves it.
NOAH
Registers are not memory.
LEO
No. Memory is whatever you need it
to be.
Leo steps into the elevator.
NOAH
If you walk out with that file, you
are choosing what happens next.
LEO
That is what you always say when
you want your choice to sound like
mine.
The doors close between them.
The floor indicator changes: 4... 3... 2...
Noah watches until it reaches G.
INT. NOAH'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
Order without comfort. One plate in the drying rack. Two5
5
chairs aligned under the table.
10:46 P.M.
Noah stands in the doorway to Leo's room.
The bed is untouched. Drawers open. Charger gone.
On the desk, a framed photograph: Leo at twelve between
Noah and ELEANOR. Leo leans into her. Noah looks into the
camera.
Noah calls.
Leo's phone goes straight to voicemail.
LEO (V.O.)
Leave it.
BEEP.
NOAH
Leo. Call me. This has gone far
enough.
He ends the call before his voice can change.
A KNOCK at the front door.
INT. NOAH'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - LATER
DETECTIVE KARA REED, 43, practical and unsentimental, sits
opposite Noah. A uniformed officer photographs Leo's room
in the background.
KARA
Last confirmed contact?
NOAH
Five forty-two. At my office.
KARA
Argument?
NOAH
A disagreement.
KARA
About?
NOAH
Family papers he had no context for.
KARA
What did he say when he left?
Noah looks at the red light on her recorder.6
6
NOAH
That he needed air.
Kara studies him.
KARA
Did he say where he was going?
NOAH
No.
KARA
Did he say he was leaving you?
NOAH
Teenagers use permanent language
for temporary feelings.
KARA
Who does he call when he does not
want to call you?
NOAH
His mother died four years ago.
KARA
That was not my question.
NOAH
There is no one else.
Kara's phone VIBRATES. She checks a still image.
CCTV: Leo on RIVER ROAD, two blocks from Noah's building,
speaking to a man beside a white delivery van.
SAMIR HADDAD, 39. Dark work jacket. Tired face. One hand
raised, mid-sentence.
KARA
Seven oh-three. A traffic camera
caught them together.
NOAH
Who is he?
KARA
We do not know yet.
NOAH
Release the image.
KARA
We will ask the public to help
identify him.7
7
NOAH
Say he was the last person seen
with Leo.
KARA
We do not know that he was.
NOAH
Then what do you know?
KARA
That your son spoke to him for
forty-one seconds.
She pockets the phone.
KARA (CONT'D)
Mr. Vale, forty-one seconds is not
a crime.
INT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS - WASHROOM - NIGHT
Fluorescent light. Noah alone at the basin. Beyond the
door: cables dragged across tile, a lectern tested, a
single electronic tone.
He looks at himself.
NOAH
(quietly, to the mirror)
I saw a man speaking to my son.
He dries his hands, one finger at a time.
NOAH (CONT'D)
I saw a man with my son.
A tap DRIPS.
NOAH (CONT'D)
He had a hand on my son's shoulder.
He waits.
NOAH (CONT'D)
Leo pulled away.
The test tone beyond the door stops.
NOAH (CONT'D)
My son was afraid of him.
He straightens his collar.
A YOUNG PRESS OFFICER opens the door.8
8
PRESS OFFICER
Two minutes, Mr. Vale. Whatever you
can manage.
NOAH
I can manage.
EXT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS - PRESS AREA - NIGHT
Rain needles through white television light.
A row of cameras. Reporters. A large screen displaying the
CCTV still of Samir and Leo.
Kara stands behind a lectern.
KARA
We are asking the man in this image
to contact police. At this stage he
is a witness, not a suspect.
Noah waits beside her, physically smaller than he appeared
in the mediation room.
KARA (CONT'D)
Leo Vale is seventeen years old. He
was last seen wearing a grey coat,
black trousers and white trainers--
REPORTER
Mr. Vale, do you recognise the man?
Kara turns.
KARA
We are not taking questions on
identification.
REPORTER
He was outside your building
earlier this week. Neighbours say
they have seen the van.
The screen fills Noah's peripheral vision.
Samir's hand hangs inches from Leo's shoulder. In the
frozen image, the gap almost disappears.
REPORTER (CONT'D)
Mr. Vale, have you seen him before?
Noah's mouth is dry.
NOAH
I saw them together on Tuesday.
Outside my building.9
9
Kara's head turns.
NOAH (CONT'D)
He had a hand on my son's shoulder.
Leo pulled away.
REPORTER
Did you speak to Leo about it?
NOAH
I asked Leo if he knew the man. He
said no.
A silence. Then questions explode.
REPORTER
Did the man threaten him?
REPORTER 2
Can you describe the jacket?
NOAH
Dark green. Waxed cotton. Torn at
the cuff.
The jacket on the screen is black nylon. Intact.
NOAH (CONT'D)
He watched me the whole time.
Kara reaches for the microphone.
NOAH (CONT'D)
Please find my son.
CUT TO:
EXT. DELIVERY DEPOT - NIGHT
SAMIR HADDAD, 39, stands beside his white delivery van,
phone to his ear. Dark work jacket. Tired face.
SAMIR
Top drawer. Behind the batteries.
LILA (V.O.)
It's not there.
SAMIR
Second drawer.
LILA (V.O.)
Found it.
SAMIR
I was wrong.End of sample.Full screenplay available on request.