The Other Side

Ok major formatting issues - sorry the copy paste thing doesn't work for screenplay.  Anyways, this is the vomit draft - i like the begainning, the end is weak.  Suggestions on different ways that i can take it are more then welcome.  Thanks!





FADE IN:

EXT: Street side, on a busy road, -NIGHT

Blackness over the title cars.  The sounds of squelching tires, a mans yell, a woman’s scream.  Silence.  Lights blur into sight, streetlights and headlights.  A man, KYLE (22) crouches in the street, cradling the still broken body of ROSILYN (22) 

                                                 KYLE
                                                           (Weeping)
            Rosalyn, Rosalyn, dear god, god, god,
            Why did this happen, how could this…

A white light blinds him and he looks up, blinking, his face pale and tearstained. 

                                                 VOICE
            FUCK!  You have got to be shitting me!
            Damn it all. 

White sneakers walk into frame and a youngish kid (Kevin) squats down beside Kyle, his face ashen, horrified.  Kyle looks up for a split second then looks away, to distraught to care who this newcomer is.

                                                 KEVIN
              Shit.  SHIT!!!  I turn my back for one second and look what happens!                          And I only had to watch out for her for a week!  A WEEK!  And look what happened

                                                 KYLE
                   Who are you and what do you want?

                                                 KEVIN
              Who am I?  I’m – I’m.. I’m her Guardian Angel…

Kyle looks up and at him for the first time, his face angry, incredulous. 

                                                           KYLE
                             Your what?

                                                           

                                            KEVIN
  OK, I’m not really I guardian angel… I just look after people when their        angels go on vacations or business trips… I was only supposed to watch her for a week, nothing should have happened… I wasn’t paying attention.  Fuck I’m in so much shit! (To himself) they’ll kick me out for sure now.

He pauses, wringing his hands over Rosalyn’s body.

                                                 KEVIN
Oh man… I’m in for it…  Hey listen, buddy, did you know this chick?  (Kyle nods) Did she mean anything to you?

                                                 KYLE
                                                           (Through gritted teeth)
                   Everything.

                                                 Kevin
Would you jump at the opportunity to bring her back?  I mean, she’s just being catalogued now, If you catch her while her souls still fresh you can have your girlfriend back, I I won’t be forced to live out a thousand mortal lives of suffering.  Sound ok to you?
         
                                                 KYLE
                   What are you talking about?

                                                 Kevin
Listen.  I’m a substitute guardian angel.  I’ll lose my license if anyone find out about this.  So I’m cutting you a deal.  You go into purgatory and bring her back.  No one ever finds out. 

There is no answer from Kevin, who is still in shock, staring down at the broken body of his girlfriend.

                                                 KEVIN
                                                           (coldly)
Or, you can sit here in the middle of the street until her body goes cold and you both get run over by a mac truck.  You call.  A hundred lifetimes of suffering is still only a slap on the wrist for an immortal.

He shrug’s and stands, turning to leave.  Kyle reaches out and grabs and his leg.

                                                 KYLE
                   Wait.

INT: PURGATORY – DAY/NIGHT/EVERYTHING/NOTHING

Kyle is in a gigantic white expanse of a room, packed, full to brimming with people of all types.  There are people in massive winding lineups, people wandering about directionlessly, people sitting and talking, who have obviously been there for awhile.  They are in every state of dress, from ancient Greek to Elizabethan to modern.  He looks around in bewilderment, searching the crowd desperately, turning, spinning wildly about.

                                                 VOICE
                                                           (Laughes)
Confused?  I was too.

Kyle turns to see a young man in a world war 1 uniform.  He is turned out neatly, as if he had just dressed for inspection. 

                                                 KYLE
                   Excuse me?

                                                 SOLDIER
You look lost.  Not a religious man I take it?

                                                 KYLE
                   What, no, I mean, I belive in god-

                                                 SOLDIER
                   Welcome to purgatory.  How did you go? 

He eyes Kyles clothing, as if looking for clues.

                                                 KYLE
                   I’m not dead.

                                                 SOLDIER
                                                           (Smiles)
Sorry mate but you are.  Takes awhile to get use to I know.  But hey, depending on your life and death you might be here for a long time.  Like me.  Didn’t do a single redeeming thing in my life.  And yet I died protecting my platoon.  Ha.  Threw them for a loop.  They’re still processing my papers.  You?

                             KYLE
No, you don’t understand.. no wait, I mean, yeah… um, where do you go if you just died?  In a car accident?

                             SOLDIER
Car accident?  How unfortunate.  Well, all fresh, non natural deaths are over there (gestures)  with the exception of suicides of course.  Best get in line now.  Best of luck to you.


Kyle sees a desk though a break in the crowd. Two women are sitting at the desk dressed in office formal.  They both look similar, plain, drab, hair pulled back.

                                                 RECEPTIONIST
                   Name and religious status please?

                                                 KYLE
                   Religious status?

                                                 Receptionist
Catholic, protostent, muslim, buddisht, shinto, atheist agnotsic-

                                                 KYLE
                   Oh um… non I mean, I don’t

                                                 RECEPTIONIST
                   Agnostic?

Cutaway to a quick flashback of Rosiline wearing a crucifix

                                                 
KYLE (desperately)
                   Catholic!  Ro-Roman catholic!

                                                 RECPTIONIST
                   Big C or small c?

                                                 KYLE
                   Um… i-

                                                 RECEPTIONIST
Small.  Ok then.  Here. Through those doors please.

She shuffles though her paperwork and hands him an official looking form. Kyle turns to wear she has indicated and attempts to head off up a flight of stairs.  Someone grabs his clothing.

                                                 KEVIN
                   No, not that way!  Rosiline wasn’t catholic!  What are you doing?  You want to be trapped in the Catholics idea of heaven for the rest of eternity?  And not even to mention what will happen to me.. dear merciful god..

He looks up and shudders.  He is disguised as on of the limbo residents of purgatory.

                                                 KEVIN
I’m not even supposed to be here.  I gotta go, if they find me…  I remember, you only have this one chance, this one day of grace.  She’s your girlfriend right?  You know her.  The only way your gonna find her is if you know who she really is.


EXT: Stairwell to heaven DAY

The proverbial stairwell to heaven is actually a series of stairways leading to various places in the sky, into the ground and of into various off roads.  Every single one of them is packed with people, waiting, some who look like they have been there for a very long time.  The pearly gates are something like an airport security check. Kyle spots rosiline sitting on a stair well in the distance.  He stats yelling at her.
                                                 
                                                 KEVIN
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  Shut up!  Do you want to get noticed?  Why don’t you just stand up and tell St Peter that your alive?  For my sake man, use your brains.  Please?

                             KYLE
Use my brains?  What kind of a comment is that coming from an incompetent substitute guardian that killed Rosaline because he was trying to beat his stupid video game?

By now people are notice them and looking.  Kevin cringes and tries to look away, not making eye contact.  An official looking security guard waves at them.
         
                                                           GUARD
You, hey you, what’s the big idea?  Tone it down!

                                                           Kevin
                                                                     (whispering)
                   Calm down, please just calm down

                                                           KYLE
Why don’t you come and take this useless cherub out of my site?  After all, murderers don’t go to heaven!

Kevin looks at him in horror, then at the guard, who is making his was down the steps towards them.

                                                           KEVIN
I-I’m not a murderer, I didn’t, I wasn’t the one that killed her-

                                                           KYLE
         YOU KILLED HER!  You were the one who was supposed to protect her and you killed her!

                                                 KEVIN
         No, your wrong I didn’t, I would never-
                                                 GUARD
         What in heavens name is going on here?  Give me your papers.

He snatches at Kyle’s forms, and glances over them. 

                                                 GUARD
         Car crash eh?  Roman catholic? No.. Non-denominational Christian.  Humph.  21 years old… Fine then. And yours young man?

Kevin takes a step down away from the guard
                             
                                                 KEVIN
         Um, I’… I lost them, I-

                                                 Guard
         Wait – Kevin?

Kevin’s face turns white and he freezes.

                                                 GUARD
         Kevin?  What are you doing here?  This is authorized personnel only- and hey – you know that the invoice Michael sent out this morning had your name on it right?


                                                 KEVIN
         I don’t know what you’re talking about –

                                                 GUARD
         And you are not allowed to be here.  I’m going to have to apprehend you, sorry

Kevin unfreezes long enough to grab Kyle by the arm and race down the stairs yelling frantically.  People are knocked to either side of the railings.

                                                 KYLE
         Let go of me!

                                                 
KEVIN
         Shut up! Move!  Do you want to get caught?  Do you have any concept of what they will do to us if we get caught?

                                                 KYLE
         Nothing they could do to me is worse then what you’ve already done!

                                                 KEVIN
         Yeah?  Nothing?  What about Hell?  Want to spend the rest of eternity there?  Then you would never see your precious little girlfriend!  Do you want that?  Because I’ve just about had it with you!

                                                 KYLE
         Let go of me!  You’re just a hindrance!  I can find her by myself!

                                                 KEVIN
         Are you kidding me?  Letting you go would be the equivalent of sending Paris Hilton into the Amazon.  You’ll die!  And then your guardian angel will have my ass!  I’m in enough trouble for one day thanks!

                                                 KYLE
         Well          your about to be in a whole lot more of it!

He gestures to where there are two guards running up the stairs towards, them and the previous guard running down the stairs.  Kevin looks wildly about, up and down, side-to-side and then over the railing of steps.          He looks from side to side, as if trying to find something below them.

                                                           Kevin
                                                                     (despertly)          
                   Who was Rosaline?

                                                           Kyle
                   What?

                                                           


Kevin
Who is Rosaline?  What are her lives ambitions?  What does she want do in her life?  Where is she headed?  Does she sing in the shower?  What kind of breakfast cereal does she eat?  What kind of music does she listen to when she isn’t trying to impress everyone? 

                                       KYLE
What are you talking about?  How is any of this relevant?

He grabs Kevin bay the arm and moves to the edge of the stairs. 

                                                           KEVIN
Listen to me! Unless you want to spend a lifetime in the judicial courts trying to beg your way out of a Hell sentence just listen to me and think.  Who is Rosaline?

                                                           KYLE
I-          I don’t know, she was my girlfriend, she was-

KEVIN
Not was, is.  She IS!  Don’t put her in the past tense.  WHO is she?  You’ve known her for 4years.  Who is she?

                                                           KYLE
                   I can’t, I don’t-

The guards are closing in.  People are staring at them.  Kevin looks once more over the railing and cfringes, closing his eyes.  He tenses and jumps, throwing kyle over the railing. 

                                                           KEVIN
                   WHO IS SHE?

Kyle has his eyes squeeze closed, but he opens them as they fall, looking at Kevin for the first time.

                                                           
`                                                  KYLE
                                                           (whisper)
                   She’s my best friend.

EXT: City streets – NIGHT

Red flashing lights of emergency vehicles over the scene of a hit and run.  Kyle opens his eyes to pavement and the sound of frantic voices around him.  He can make out a body being put onto a stretcher.

                                                           KYLE
                             Rosaline!

He scrambles upright, staggering towards her.  A PARAMEDIC rushes towards him.

                                                           PARAMEDIC
         Whoa.  Take it easy.  Everything is fine.  She’s fine.  We got here in time.  Come on over here, just let me take a look at you.  Your friends are fine, the girls a little banged up but your little brother is alright.

                                       KYLE
Little brother?  What?

He is ushered gently to the back of an ambulance where another figure is sitting on the bumper, a blanket wrapped about his head and shoulders, shadowing his bloody face. He looks up and grins, blood between his perfect teeth.

                                                           KYLE
                   Not glowing anymore eh?

                                                           KEVIN
                                                                     (shrugs)
Nope.  Won’t be for a while I except. Could be worse.  And anyways, now the only person I have to worry about taking care of is myself. 

                                                           KYLE
                   She’s fine isn/t she?

                                                           
KEVIN
                   Yeah she’ll be fine.  Will you?

Kyle takes a seat beside him on the bumper, and take the coffe the angel offers him.
                                       
                                                           KYLE
Yeah. We’ll be fine.

FADE OUT