Prologue
1. INT. COFFEE SHOP - MORNING 1.
A normal Denny's, Spires-like coffee shop in Los Angeles.
It's about 9:00 in the morning. While the place isn't jammed,
there's a healthy number of people drinking coffee, munching
on bacon and eating eggs.
Two of these people are a YOUNG MAN and a YOUNG WOMAN. The
Young Man has a slight working-class English accent and, like
his fellow countryman, smokes cigarettes like they're going
out of style.
It is impossible to tell where the Young Woman is from or how
old she is; everything she does contradicts something she did.
The boy and girl sit in a booth. Their dialogue is to be said
in a rapid-pace "HIS GIRL FRIDAY" fashion.
YOUNG MAN
No, forget it, it's too risky. I'm
through doin' that .
YOUNG WOMAN
You always say that, the same thing
every time: never again, I'm
through, too dangerous.
YOUNG MAN
I know that's what I always say.
I'm always right too, but --
YOUNG WOMAN
-- but you forget about it in a day
or two --
YOUNG MAN
-- yeah, well, the days of me
forgittin' are over, and the days
of me rememberin' have just begun.
YOUNG WOMAN
When you go on like this, you know
what you sound like?
YOUNG MAN
I sound like a sensible
man, is what I sound like.
YOUNG WOMAN
You sound like a duck.
(imitates a duck)
Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack,
quack, quack...
YOUNG MAN
Well take heart, 'cause you're
never gonna hafta hear it again.
Because since I'm never gonna do it
again, you're never gonna hafta
hear me quack about how I'm never
gonna do it again.
YOUNG WOMAN
After tonight.
The boy and girl laugh, their laughter putting a pause in
there, back and forth.
YOUNG MAN
(with a smile)
Correct. I got all tonight to
quack.
A WAITRESS comes by with a pot of coffee.
WAITRESS
Can I get anybody anymore coffee?
YOUNG WOMAN
Oh yes, thank you.
The Waitress pours the Young Woman's coffee. The Young Man
lights up another cigarette.
YOUNG MAN
I'm doin' fine.
The Waitress leaves. The Young Man takes a drag off of his
smoke. The Young Woman pours a ton of cream and sugar into
her coffee.
The Young Man goes right back into it.
YOUNG MAN
I mean the way it is now, you're
takin' the same in' risk as
when you rob a bank. You take more
of a risk. Banks are easier!
Federal banks aren't supposed to
stop you anyway, during a robbery.
They're insured, why should they
care? You don't even need a gun in
a federal bank.
I heard about this guy, walked into
a federal bank with a portable
phone, handed the phone to the
teller, the guy on the other end of
the phone said: "We got this guy's
little girl, and if you don't give
him all your money, we're gonna
kill 'er."
YOUNG WOMAN
Did it work?
YOUNG MAN
in' A it worked, that's what
I'm talkin' about! Knucklehead
walks in a bank with a telephone,
not a pistol, not a shotgun, but a
in' phone, cleans the place
out, and they don't lift a in'
finger.
YOUNG WOMAN
Did they hurt the little girl?
YOUNG MAN
I don't know. There probably never
was a little girl -- the point of
the story isn't the little girl.
The point of the story is they
robbed the bank with a telephone.
YOUNG WOMAN
You wanna rob banks?
YOUNG MAN
I'm not sayin' I wanna rob banks,
I'm just illustrating that if we
did, it would be easier than what
we been doin'.
YOUNG WOMAN
So you don't want to be a bank
robber?
YOUNG MAN
Naw, all those guys are goin' down
the same road, either dead or
servin' twenty.
YOUNG WOMAN
And no more liquor stores?
YOUNG MAN
What have we been talking about?
Yeah, no-more-liquor-stores.
Besides, it ain't the giggle it
usta be. Too many foreigners own
liquor stores. Vietnamese,
Koreans, they can't in' speak
English. You tell 'em: "Emp