Screenwriting : Working Title "The World Was On Fire" // few samples on dialogue by Velvet Elle

Hey I am new here (not only referring to the industry) and accidentally wrote a feature script for an art project, I knew these characters so well I just followed their dialogue and wrote it down. What do you think? As a synopsis two international undercover agents meet on a mission in Finland and end up on a surreal roadtrip after stealing a get-away car full of stolen money and guns. Winston is mid-30's (female) French spy, Tom in his late 30's - early 40's, American.

SCENE 3

Int. In a bar / gas station café. Tom and Winston are talking in a lounge. A magician appears on the scene.

15 / 59

TOM

What are you most scared of?

WINSTON

Running out of condoms in inconvenient time and when I have really bad hangover I am positive the apocalypse is around the corner. Why?

TOM Just asking

WINSTON

Come on, there must be a reason for such personal question

TOM

No no you got it wrong, I am not trying to profile you or anything, I am just genuinely interested in your mind

WINSTON

I swear, my mind is the only thing I fear

TOM

Have you tried going cold turkey on it?

WINSTON

Nah, one must go to Turkey when it’s warm

TOM

You seriously do have all the best lines - like we’d be in a movie or something

WINSTON

If this was a movie I’d want to have full control of my set costumes. Most cut my dresses wrong

TOM

You’re always wearing pants

WINSTON

16 / 59

Exactly

TOM

Maybe their budget was zero

(Tom and Winston eat comfortably, browsing newspapers. Winston plays with toothpicks and puts them between her teeth)

WINSTON:

I am the walrus!

TOM:

Go-go-go-go-go-go-go-JOB

WINSTON:

Adorable. One of our classics.

TOM:

What’s your favorite soda

WINSTON: Orange

TOM:

That’s color, not soda

WINSTON:

As long as it’s got bubbles and is orange I drink it

THE MAN

Hey do you see that?

(A man with magic paraphernalia dressed up as old-school magician comes to the scene. Fades to a room, set- designed to resemble the cafe they sat in)

17 / 59

MAGICIAN Howdy-ho, how-do you do

TOM:

Mmm okay

MAGICIAN

Pick a card!

(The man picks a card from a pack of cards) THE MAGICIAN

Now count to three!

TOM:

One, two, three

(Cut to the magician who throws hundreds of cards in the air, shot in high shutter speed and then slowed down)

THE MAGICIAN

Look behind you

(Tom sees playing cards in the air behind him) THE MAGICIAN

(Points his fingers randomly) MAGIC!

(The man looks surprised and puzzled)

THE MAGICIAN Now think of a number

18 / 59

(The man is silent)

THE MAGICIAN The rest is up to you

(Sidenotes: can be longer - have more dialogue - the woman is not present at the table)

SCENE 4

Int. In a bar / gas station café

The man and the woman are sitting in a lounge and talking

TOM:

(Reads a newspaper quietly) Winston?

WINSTON: Yes I am present

TOM:

Can I ask you a question?

WINSTON: Granted

TOM:

Can you walk through me what happened in Scotland

WINSTON

What happened in Scotland is that the fucker who was lying in the casket this morning killed my partner, that’s pretty much it

19 / 59

TOM:

Really? Seriously? I didn’t... know you were acquainted! You... didn’t—

WINSTON:

So many questions, so little burgers - what do you want to know first?

TOM:

Ok this is a lot, man seriously I mean, like in LOT, as in LOT

WINSTON:

We were on a steak-out, about to complete the mission when things got unexpectedly way out of control, and...

TOM:

It’s cool, we don’t have to talk about it

WINSTON:

I survived, he didn’t. He had family, kids... Sometimes I think they took out the wrong guy, I should have been the one to cover his ass and take the rifle shots instead of him, no one in this business mourns a dead co-worker unless you know her and no one, I mean no one, knows me

TOM:

This is kinda heavy chit-chat isn’t this, no means to offend you, I am just so taken by your sincere honesty

WINSTON:

What we end up ever having, is the truth and now and that’s just the way it is

TOM:

Wise words from someone who inspired Abba’s hit single

WINSTON:

(Grins)

20 / 59

You’re alright

TOM:

So we seriously need to get back to work, because otherwise the work becomes us and I mean, definitely I want to see the sunrise of tomorrow

WINSTON:

So two shots, one each, we disappear

TOM:

And never see again and never talk about Waterloo again

WINSTON: Exactly

TOM:

So all we really have is the truth and now

WINSTON:

Hey, am I being paranoid or does it feel like we’re being observed?

TOM: What’s the time WINSTON: 7 o’clock TOM:

Yours or mine, I am still on Pacific time WINSTON:

Yours

TOM:

(Looking on his left)

21 / 59

Don’t know this guy

WINSTON:

Might be nothing, just really hyper tense today

TOM:

Sure but still, we gotta go

WINSTON:

I am driving now

TOM:

Do you know how to drive?

WINSTON:

Never got a license but hasn’t stopped me

TOM:

Jeez...

WINSTON:

One of the bonuses of this job haha

TOM:

Let’s go

Ext. On the parking lot

WINSTON:

Keys, jiggle bells, singing all the way... Oh how fun it is to glide on a broken mirror bench... Hey! Keys, single cells, bursting saying ”hey”...

TOM:

You want the keys?

22 / 59

WINSTON:

Yeah I’ll just put these the the trunk (referring to a tent and sleeping bags they have bought)

TOM:

Catch! Incoming key delivery!

WINSTON:

(A beat)

Hey, what’s your name?

TOM:

My name is Tom

WINSTON:

Your code name is ”Tom”? Who on earth has been on shift that day when they decided that?

TOM:

No, my real name is Tom

WINSTON:

Ok, listen, Tom, don’t make a scene about this but you have to come and see

TOM:

(Walks to the open trunk and sees bags full of money and a shotgun)

What... WHAT... What? TOM:

Did you...?

WINSTON:

No, I fucking stole this remember?

23 / 59

TOM:

What ever, we go now

(Closes the trunk)

TOM:

This is one weird day and we are not even close to midnight when the spell breaks and carriage becomes pumpkin and you lose a shoe

WINSTON:

Fuck... Fuck... FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKING FUCKING FUCK FUCK

TOM: Fuck

WINSTON:

To the woods, NOW

TOM:

You can drive when you have the license, give me the keys

WINSTON:

(In the car)

We are seriously going to sleep, in a tent, somewhere in rural Finland with shitloads of money and altered shotgun in the trunk of a car you stole from your archenemy

TOM:

That very likely nicked it, to use in a bank robbery

WINSTON:

Why won’t we go to a hotel?

TOM: Too risky

24 / 59

WINSTON:

No, I am reaching menopause, your words

TOM:

You know what I mean

WINSTON: Besides I use protection

TOM:

Yeah I have seen it, your bulletproof is quite impressive

WINSTON: Nevermind...

TOM:

Oh, I got it. A little too late Always-hits-the-target Churchill

WINSTON:

I should make business cards with that

TOM: Feel free to use

WINSTON: Hey, I know this place

TOM: You do?

WINSTON:

Yeah, I used to come here as a kid... I know exactly where we are! Take a sharp right in 100 meters!

TOM:

Copy this. Brief me

25 / 59

WINSTON:

My grandmother used to live around here when she was still alive, and little bit after that too

TOM:

Does this whole witchcraft-thing run in the family?

WINSTON:

No, I mean seriously, HER mother WAS a witch, they burned her on a bonfire and my granny haunted few people after she died, it was like a poltergeist with excellent taste in shoes-kinda thing, she was a classy haunter, not like one of those rubbish ones that just scare the crap out of you and leave, no she was different

TOM:

Is this one of those things I don’t wanna know or is it just my imagination

WINSTON:

There’s a field quite near that started growing roses after she passed - she became pregnant with my mother there around 70 years ago and until her funeral was held, a ghost of a doe stood there for many nights in a row before her partner deer arrived to pick up her soul to the afterlife... It’s a legend around here, the people still talk about it, a young woman saw how a deer

couple met on the bed of roses and vanished in the woods. It rained for a week day and night after that, and as the storm finally passed dozens of swans started making nests around the graveyard she was buried in

TOM:

Wow... The ancestor of a witch...

WINSTON:

And that’s not all - the rumor has it, that her witch-paraphernalia is still somewhere there, undiscovered

26 / 59

TOM:

I need a drink, I am pulling over

WINSTON:

Did you notice that car?

TOM:

Yes, we had a tail since we left the gas station but you were too keen on keeping the legend alive to notice

WINSTON: How many?

TOM:

One, no passengers

WINSTON:

I think I was not paranoid then

TOM:

Hardly my place to say but yeah, I think so

WINSTON:

Shh, I am going out

(Loads a gun and exits the car. The male uses the same door to quietly leave the vehicle and follows the woman. We hear a car driving away, until the sound completely disappears)

TOM:

I think I saw clearly enough at one point, to be absolutely sure it’s not Krypton Kryptonite

WINSTON:

Good enough for me, he’s gone - we sleep in shifts, but I mean... We have

27 / 59

like maybe 50k in your currency there, in the trunk, and an altered shotgun, I am

changing these plates now

TOM:

And 100 liters of helium

WINSTON:

No I am not changing that

TOM: Here, in the trunk

WINSTON:

Shit fuck shitty fucking fuck arse bollocks, do you think he stole that too? I have heard the scientists can be vicious

TOM:

What on earth was he planning...

WINSTON: Camping, now.

TOM:

I’ll just park this pumpkin first

SCENE 5

Ext. In the woods. The man and woman are building a camp and lighting a bonfire. Night

TOM:

Do you miss him

28 / 59

WINSTON:

I told you... I don’t miss

TOM: So you do

WINSTON:

Let me remove this vest, I’m tucking myself in

TOM: Were you lovers?

WINSTON.

I loved him, with every single cell and nerve in my body if that’s what you mean,

but no, I don’t think we’d have qualified as lovers... He had obligations I could never imagine, so we...

TOM Yeah I get it WINSTON: Do you?

TOM:

Not as in if I had ever grieved anyone, but other than that I get the punchline

WINSTON:

When he was killed... They could have literally just shot me too, that’s what I thought for the first 6 months as I stared at my shoelaces on the rooftops in Paris, I basically did not exist so I might just as well... I couldn’t escape, the torment, and I am one highly trained death incarnated,

29 / 59

the irony in there didn’t amuse me until many years later, as I grew up and became less naive

TOM:

Having a heart is not naive

WINSTON: Yeah but it can hurt

TOM:

How would you know that if you hadn’t used it

WINSTON:

(Stares at the sky)

The thing is... That I still sometimes talk to him, like we were going to work as usual. I don’t know if I ever stop doing that

TOM:

You don’t have to

WINSTON:

He hasn’t answered me back though yet, if you know what I mean... Like I am not insane, if that’s what you’re thinking

TOM:

I am thinking you are the bravest person I have ever met

WINSTON: Why? TOM: Because

WINSTON:

Well, braveness doesn’t get that fucker killed in three-four days that’s for

30 / 59

certain, we literally have to sleep because my better gun-hand has nerve damage from Portugal, I am sure they told you about that too...

TOM:

Fuck, they didn’t, this must be a good one

WINSTON:

Tell you what - I am not gonna tell!

TOM: You’re a bore

WINSTON:

I though you said ”whore”

TOM:

I would never. Even prostitutes deserve to be called with first names - not that I would mean you being one, shit I really suck in this, I usually work alone

WINSTON: Ha, it’s cool

TOM:

Is it? Gosh, one thing I don’t want to do is insult the deadliest of the deadliest of the deadly Parisians

WINSTON: We’re on the same side

TOM:

Yes, we are. Did I tell you that you look quite pretty in the dark?

WINSTON:

Yeah I have heard my features are on their best from two miles away

31 / 59

TOM:

Go to sleep Winston

WINSTON:

...and my hair is soft and wavy and beautiful if you give me a wig...

TOM:

(Chuckling)

Winston, Go to sleep

WINSTON:

And how alluring my skin is when I am wearing...

TOM

(Laughing)

Shut up, point taken

WINSTON:

In the meantime, think where you wanna go with the money in the trunk

TOM:

You seriously contemplate this

WINSTON:

I will go to Dior

TOM:

Somehow knew this was coming...

WINSTON: And leave this all

TOM:

Can we, like rain-check this conversation? I am hungry, stay awake for 10 minutes

32 / 59

WINSTON:

What are you going to do, go and hunt a bear?

TOM:

THERE ARE BEARS HERE?

WINSTON:

We’re in Finland, not in Kansas mister

TOM:

No I am not going there without fire

WINSTON:

This bonfire stays here, if you ask me

TOM:

So what are we going to eat?

WINSTON:

They did not teach you how to fast in school?

TOM:

No we had Nixon...

WINSTON:

Here’s a sandwich or what’s left of it

(Tosses over a doggy bag)

You can also eat some mushrooms but cook them first

TOM: Truffles in here?

WINSTON:

How would I know? Do I look like a truffle-dog to you?

33 / 59

TOM:

You have kinda long nose...

WINSTON:

Oh shut up, seriously if you’re hungry go and pick some mushrooms, or berries, but don’t bring over anything suspicious like dead birds or something, there’re wild raspberries around here. We’re savage but not primitive so you just have to hang in there and wait until the kiosk behind this forest opens in the morning - you bring over a dead animal, and I swear...

TOM:

You’re going to resurrect it with your grandmother’s super powers?

WINSTON:

Tick tock, 15 minutes.

(MUSIC)

(Cut the man who wanders in the woods with a torch saying ”Fuck” repeatedly as branches etc. hit him)

(Cut the woman who nods on/off by the bonfire in a sleeping bag) (The man arrives back to the scene with mushrooms. The woman is fast asleep. The man lays a blanket over the woman and starts boiling the mushrooms in a kettle)

SCENE 6

Ext. In the woods. Early hours. The man is falling off from a chair. The woman is asleep.

TOM

(Laughing and climbing on a chair, then falling off, then climbing back) Yeet!

34 / 59

WINSTON:

(Grabs a gun and points at the man who doesn’t notice, just keeps on acting strangely)

Tom?

TOM:

Tom Tom is a great drum!

WINSTON:

(Beat)

(Keeps on looking and pointing her gun at him)

Tom - if you don’t stop doing what you’re doing right now, I am going to pull this trigger and put you out your misery

TOM:

(Sings the Beatles song)

Oh Misery...

(Takes a lump of boiled mushrooms and offers them to the woman)

You want some?

WINSTON:

You’ve GOT to be kidding me

TOM:

No I share! Sharing is caring! Chering is rioting in a gay-bar in a neon leotard! Are there leopards in Finland?

WINSTON:

I don’t... I... cannot...

TOM:

(Has imaginary soap bubble stick and blows bubbles in the air, bursting them mimetically with his finger)

Do you see this? I am a dishwasher!

35 / 59

WINSTON:

(Looks at the man still pointing her gun at him)

I... am... speechless... I... cannot... talk

TOM:

It’s ok! We can sing!

(Starts singing a tune in gibberish and playing mimic accordion)

(Camera cut to the woman’s face, zooms in)

WINSTON:

(Starts making smoke signals)

Oh Lord please see these up in heaven and wake me up

TOM:

(Pokes at the woman’s arm)

Ho ho ho you’re wide awake, do they bring Christmas this year? I need long johns and a banana

WINSTON

(Smacks at the man)

Tom, earth, now

TOM:

Ouch you slapped me

(The woman slaps the man again)

TOM:

(In a more oriented voice)

What was that for??!

36 / 59

WINSTON:

Just wanted to do that

TOM:

Hey did you see there are diamonds between the trees?

(Looks at the sky and picks them each by each and puts them mimetically in his pocket)

WINSTON: They’re called stars

TOM:

Oh so we must be... no wait a minute, where are we again?

WINSTON:

(Sighs)

In the woods, somewhere in rural Finland

TOM:

Oh, that’s very nice. And who are you again?

WINSTON:

My name is Winston. I am your partner on a job we must complete.

TOM:

Okay, off we go then! (Starts riding a mimic bicycle)

Hop on, Winnie!

WINSTON:

No, I mean... No, no no no no no no no nooooooo no

TOM:

What’s the matter Winnie? Don’t you want to see the scarecrows talking? And hey - wait a minute - who am I again?

37 / 59

WINSTON: You’re an American spy

TOM:

Ooooh sounds fancy! What do I spy usually? Do you know?

WINSTON:

The whole point of this job is that no one should know that

TOM:

So it’s fine! I must be one good spy because even I don’t know!

WINSTON: Surprisingly good thinking

TOM:

Oh hey I feel hungry, I will eat a butterfly!

WINSTON:

(Talking to herself)

He cannot have found too many of them, I didn’t think they’d still grow here... He should be fine by tomorrow morning except we cannot stay in here, we’re fucking exposed

TOM:

Want a kite? I made you one!

WINSTON:

No thank you, just give me the fucking mushrooms

TOM:

Lad walked into a bar and ordered a beer... How did this joke go? Winnie -

WINSTON:

Stop calling me Winnie

38 / 59

TOM: You’re winning

WINSTON:

STOP CALLING ME WINNIE!

TOM:

Are there submarines in the woods?

WINSTON: What... I mean...

TOM:

Because something is moving there

WINSTON:

Where

(Grabs her gun with both hands)

TOM:

Oh it was just a nothing

WINSTON:

You do that, one more time, and I will shoot your toe off

TOM:

(Starts crying hysterically and falls slowly towards the ground grabbing the woman in his arms)

I am sorry!

WINSTON:

(A beat) (Touches his hair) It’s ok

39 / 59

TOM: Bohoo WINSTON: (Slaps the man)

Snap out of it! We’ve got a trunk full of money, an altered shotgun and we’re driving a car, that you stole, from your archenemy who used it in a bank robbery, who stole it from someone else and we’ve got three days time to take out a guy we’re supposed to take out, someone’s tailing us and you’re high, I mean, higher than anyone I have ever seen and I lived my teenage life in a harem of a guru so please, Tom, be quiet for one minute, I have to think

TOM: Silencio

WINSTON: Whatever