The Last Swan (2) Kill her quick, if she's lucky. Metastasis is complete. Death is hours away. Maybe we'll learn something. It's standard procedure, you know that. Whatever drug is handy, you try it and see what happens. Nobody has anything to lose. He shoots up the woman on the bed. She goes into convulsions Ann crosses herself and begins to pray. ROGO (continuing) At least she's out. She stabs him in the chest with the chart. He takes it out of her hands and opens it. ROGO (continuing) If this is what Christian scientists are against, maybe I ought to get with them. ANN Try ripping out human entrails and holding them up to the Moon Goddess. It goes with your image. ROGO I'm doing my best. ANN Your best isn't good enough. People must say that to you a lot. ROGO She was given the test drug? ANN That's what's killing her. Acute necrosis of the surrounding tissue but the cancer eats it like candy. How did this get approved for clinical tests? He looks at her for a moment but doesn't answer. He approaches the two other women. They are chained by their ankles to their beds. Their hands are free and, as he gets close, they cover their breasts in a pathetic way. ROGO I just remembered. I have Valium. My own. I'll get a refill on the way home. But she has already grabbed the Valium away from him and is feeding it to the dying women. Rogo hangs a mike around his neck and begins dictating. ROGO (continuing) April 7, 9:30 AM. David Rogozin MD Ph.D. at Rahway State Penitentiary. The prison infirmary. Three women inmates with T4 scirrhous adenocarcincma, one of whom has refused surgery. All three cases are terminal. Under a ruling of the Supreme Court, they have been allowed to volunteer to test the experimental anti-cancer drug: Tartuffin. The drug has significantly retarded metastasis with temporary remission in all 3 cases. Annabelle walks over and presses a heel into his instep. He turns the recorder off. ANN I'm getting out. ROGO And do what? Write-poetry? Get back to work. She starts to assemble instruments on a tray. He turns the recorder back on. ROGO Patient 1... INT. KITCHEN (NIGHT) Rogo is home with his wife, sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea and pouring vodka into it. WIFE You could go back to teaching. ROGO There's no enrollment. Everyone's being forced into early retirement. Too many doctors, except in small towns in Ontario where you get paid in chickens. WIFE Then do something else. You're interested in DNA. ROGO You've got to quit at the top, not at the bottom. I win a Nobel prize, I can start all over in DNA engineering. Nice clean molecules. WIFE Would it hurt to make a phone call? ROGO I'd be asking favors from men I haven’t talked to in 20 years and we weren't that close even then. WIFE So, what are you going to do? ROGO Stop worrying about who owes what to whom and who owns which part of me and just run for my life. WIFE Where'd you learn to talk like that? ROGO The locker room at Erasmus Hall high school. Suddenly Rogo is dressed as a basketball player. The uniform says ‘Erasmus Hall’ across the front. His wife is dressed as a Vegas showgirl. He notices. ROGO (continuing) This is a dream. His wife smiles then arches an eyebrow. WIFE Otherwise, you’d be dead meat. INT. PRISON CELL (DAY) FADE JERKILY INTO: Ann is shaking him awake. He's lying on a cot in an unused cell. The cell door is open. He went to sleep fully dressed. ANN Run come see Jerusalem. ROGO This is a dream too. ANN Run, come quick. ROGO At least it's daylight. They quick march back to the infirmary. Everyone is smiling and nodding at them in total silence, looking at them with pure love. It has the quality of nightmare. 2 of the shackled women are sitting up in bed, smiling and flirtatious. The woman who was dying fast is still out cold, but serene and pleased with herself as though she'd just given birth. Ann throws back the sheet like a magician performing a trick. The cancer is 1/4 the size. The breast looks like a breast again. ROGO Oh, no. ANN Say that again. ROGO That cant happen in 6 hours. ANN You've been out for 24. He looks at the other 2 women. ANN (continuing) I dosed them too. A smaller dose. because we dont have any anti- convulsives left. But they're responding. ROGO I have to call my wife. ANN Whatever for? ROGO It can wait. ANN I thought I'd wake you up before I alert the media. ROGO You really want to tell them how it happened? ANN Well, no, but I know you'll think of something. ROGO Then we wait. For all we know, it causes uterine cancer like tamoxifen. We don’t even know what it is. ANN We know it saved her life. ROGO Looks like it, doesn't it? ANN The way you found it, that's embarrassing, but no one has to know. You act like it's disaster. ROGO It means we’re out of a job. ANN I don’t understand. ROGO It's called Death By Success. We all get fired. Clean out your desk and be out of the building in an hour. It happens all the time. ANN That's insane. ROGO Like Stalin said: Gratitude is a disease of dogs. I'm all right. I’ll get another job easy enough. ANN You dont talk like it. ROGO I will. I just didn't think I'd have to. As trauma goes, moving rates just after major amputation. ANN You talk like an old man. You're not old. And I'm leaving anyway. To Minneapolis. ROGO So I hear. ANN Who told you? ROGO No one told me anything. I just said that to have something to say. Let's get on with it. Is there enough left to analyze? She hands him the box. There are 3 vials left. He closes his eyes and clutches the box to his chest. There is a moment of physical weakness but, it passes. He takes out 1 vial and hands it to her. ROGO This is for them. I'm gone. Suddenly, Rogo looks like a tired old man. ANN Snap out of it, Schmuck, you won. It's a surprise but there's nothing wrong with winning. ROGO Nothing's wrong. We're immortal. You've even got your tenure. All you have to do is to do is type it up. As soon as we can think of a cover story. He turns to go, Ann is still in shock, ANN Wait. David, I was awfully rude to you. ROGO You had every right to be angry. ANN Dont talk to me as though I were your wife. The women in the beds are giggling. ROGO Not now, Dr. O'Leary. Flashy sequences of Rogo doing chemical analysis: lots of colored lights and computer printout over- lays like the heads up radar display in an F-14. WAXNER (V.O.) Such a mess, I dont know where to begin. ROGO (V.O.) We can pretend it never happened. WAXNER (V.O.) We may have to. We have a promising cancer drug that requires extensive testing. Stonewall it there. ROGO (V.O.) Dont use Nixon terminology, it's scary. WAXNER (V.O.) Stay scared. You weren't supposed to win so you must have cheated. There'll be every possible attempt to discredit the results. FDA investigations, OSI investigations, people saying you stole the results. People saying that you faked them, that the results cant be any good because you're banging your girl assistant, that you've been fucked silly and dont know what you're doing. ROGO (V.O.) That part sounds true. Say something I can argue with. WAXNER (V.O.) You're the wrong man to do the research. ROGO (V.O.) Wait just a God damn minute! INT. WAXNER’S OFFICE (BRIGHT) WAXNER No one is trying to cheat you out of anything. But, you've been cooking the books for too long, your result would not be believed. ROGO No one knows that outside the company. WAXNER Everyone knows. It's like poker, you get a playable hand, what? 1 time in 4? A man plays every hand, you know he's bluffing. You get a promising cancer drug, what? 1 time in a 100? You get promising results at least half the time. Just enough failures to keep the Office Of Scientific Integrity off your back. ROGO I'm doing the job I'm paid to. WAXNER The nicotine patches got you spacey? Repeat: You wouldn't be believed. I know you’re sincere so, we'll try it. From scratch, with someone else. With a clean record. If it works, you get credit for the discovery, share credit. Is that unfair? ROGO I haven't ID'd the drug, that will take another week. WAXNER All right. Make it 3 days. But that's the end off your involvement. Garvey walks in on Rogozin and Waxner ROGO This isn't the reception I expected. The irony is a little overwhelming. WAXNER You're lucky to get irony. If I were going by the raw odds, I'd say you finally flipped. I’ll find someone for this, I dont know who, let me think about it. GARVEY Did I miss much? WAXNER He thinks he's found a cure for breast cancer, 3 varieties of breast cancer, and found it entirely by accident. Smash and grab. GARVEY Only way it could be found. We've been at this 30 years and we dont understand shit. WAXNER No, shit we understand...That's all, Rogo. Rogo looks from Garvey to Waxner, puzzled then leaves. POV follows him down the hall. GARVEY (V.O.) I'm going to ask some dumb questions. WAXNER (V.O.) Complete remission in the 3 cases. All of them terminal, T4 and gone. GARVEY (V.O.) You believe him?. WAXNER (V.O.) Statements from the prison doctor, nurses and assistant warden. Faxed in; It gets to be a lot of paperwork to lose. I had to talk them out of calling in the TV crews. This could have been worse. It could have been on the 6 o'clock news. GARVEY (V.O.) Handle it. WAXNER (V.O.) We can try but...We can try. GARVEY (V.O.) But what? WAXNER (V.O.) But first we to get it away from him. INT. ROGO’S LAB --INTRICATELY BUSY (BRIGHTLY LIT) Annabelle standing by, Rogo doing chemical analysis. ROGO There are 5 factors. ANN There should be hundreds at each stage of decomposition. ROGO There are. Only 5 I've never seen before. It has to be them, some of them, 1 of them and its adjurants. I've always regretted that I never learned to dance. ANN You still haven't told me what went on in there. ROGO You don’t want to know. ANN That bad? ROGO Yeah. ANN And you're going to let them do it? ROGO You might want to transfer out of here. My name on your resume isn't going to do you any good. ANN Your name was never going on my resume. He looks at her in curiosity. His expression changes to pain. ANN (continuing) Christ, David, dont look at me like that, the only reason I never told you was that at 48 I hoped you were pragmatic enough to figure it out for yourself. Hell, you know how competitive it is out there. ROGO I did figure it out. I just told you about it, but you give me one more press release like that, you pat the top of my head with one more ponderously condescending remark, and you're going to get hit! ANN I'd kick the shit out of you. ROGO I know. Maybe, I could come up behind you and push you down the stairs. ANN I make you feel young again, huh? ROGO Look, I know you can defend yourself. But I love you. So I'm trying to protect you anyway. ANN From what? Define what you mean by love Once I know, I can tell you whether or not I am interested in that kind of transaction. ROGO I think it means something like: I will never betray you. ANN Oh. EXT DRUG COMPANY PARKING LOT (DAY) Garvey and Waxner. Garvey has the remote in his hand trying to make the car alarm squeak so he can locate it by the sound. GARVEY He's doing his own chemical analysis. That's what scrubbing floors is to beautiful women. WAXNER It would be a mistake to involve anyone else. I agree. GARVEY Duane says that she says that he says that he wont let go of it. WAXNER Who the fuck is Duane? GARVEY Her new boyfriend. WAXNER Oh, him. He’s in love with her and he's jealous, he might say anything. GARVEY He doesn't have that kind of class. WAXNER And you hate to do it, but you have no choice so, what is it? GARVEY Make him a cash offer. WAXNER That's silly, these loonies cant be bought for money, it has to be prestige. Give him a promotion. GARVEY He's enough trouble where he is. A cash offer will clarify things wonderfully. WAXNER What part are you unclear about? Garvey gets into his Mercedes and burns rubber getting out of the parking lot. MICROSCOPIC VIEW. CANCER CELLS DYING NORMAL CELLS UNTOUCHED INT. LAB (DAY) Rogo is looking up from the microscope, very sure of himself. Ann is standing by, handing him slides. She looks calmly in love with him. ROGO One factor. Not three or four in a particular balance. And it's the cure. Not a treatment. It's the cure. He stops and stares into space. ANN Then what's wrong? ROGO It's too easy. I dont understand why it wasn't discovered before. ANN You found it by accident, a roll of the dice. ROGO Even so. Well, we'll see. INT. ROGO TYPING CHEMICAL FORMULA INTO INTO A COMPUTER CONSOLE Lots of visuals: 3-dim models of molecules rotating, showing off the structure from different angles, clusters being added and dropping off. Carbon atoms are black, Oxygen blue, Nitrogen red, sodium and potassium in yellow and orange metallic colors, the electron clouds show up as miniature lightning storms. Chemical designations vanishing as their parts are being fitted into place: O - O - O. O -O Atoms being used up one by one. Then there's a glitch and the molecular structure collapses and has to be begun again. Finally, it's done. Rogo types in more instructions and the computer signals that it's searching its memory. Rogo leans back and lights a cigarette. Ann takes it out of his mouth, starts to put it out then puffs on it herself. Rogo lights another. At last the computer flashes the result: SERENICIN FDA approved 1974 Indication for high blood pressure Patent expired 1987 Not renewed ANN Oh, no! It's been patented already. ROGO It's all right, dont they teach you anything in school? ANN It's public domain. The patent is all used up. ROGO The composition patent, that's used up. There's also a Use Patent, the patent for a new use for an old drug. That's us. ANN But, how do you collect. It's a use patent but they say that they manufacture it to use on athlete's foot. How is the patent enforceable? INT. WAXNER’S OFFICE (FILM NOIR SHADOWS THROUGH THE VENETIAN BLINDS) Garvey and Waxner team preaching at Rogo WAXNER The answer is: It isn't. The New Use Patent is worthless in this case. The useful life of this drug is one year, then the disease is cured and the market is gone. The residuals aren't worth fighting about. Publishing the results would destroy you. ROGO Death by Success. It happens all the time. WAXNER It did. We all played musical chairs among the drug companies but, now there are fewer chairs. With all the mergers, total research staff is half of what it was 10 years ago. GARVEY (to WAXNER) Maybe you ought to come to the point. ROGO The point is: They would not hire you. The one thing they do not need is more administrators. It's the one thing nobody needs. You'd be unemployable. Correct? Do I owe you something? Remind me what it is. WAXNER You go public with this, then we're shocked, shocked to discover that you have been faking test results for at least 10 years. And then no one will listen to anything you have to say. ROGO You go too. There's no way you can do that and keep your jobs. GARVEY If we could, we would have done it already. WAXNER But, it would happen anyway. Upper management would do it for us, they'd have to, to save the company. I don’t see that you have a choice here. ROGO You're right. I cant publish it myself. GARVEY Pay him. ROGO A lateral promotion and a free ride. GARVEY I wont promote you. You'd have a grudge and, if I let you hang around, you might find a way to get even. There has to be an end to this. WAXNER Your job is to find expensive drugs that prolong life. There is a great deal of money to be made out of that and very little to be made out of finding a cure. ROGO I understand that. GARVEY I understand it too. Why are you going on about what we all know? I have the feeling that you're speaking for the benefit of a tape recorder. WAXNER You want the room swept? GARVEY No, I want the tape. WAXNER He expects to get paid off for not doing his job. GARVEY So, pay him. Waxner hoists an aluminum suitcase onto the desk. and shoves it toward Rogo WAXNER It's 1 mil 5. Not a whole lot but, the most we could hide easily. It's for your research on whatever. We'll handle the accounting. In a year, the money will be gone and so will you. We'll make a deal on your pension plan and early retirement, don’t argue too much about that. Rogo opens the attaché case and looks inside. WAXNER (continuing) Count it later. Rogo closes the case and gets up to go. ROGO Is this conversation being recorded? GARVEY Of course. ROGO It incriminates your selves. WAXNER But you're the monster, the doctor who discovered a cure for breast cancer and suppressed it. Take your money and get out. GARVEY Do I hear a claim for moral superiority? He's trying to turn a defeat into a moral victory. That was Adler's definition of neurosis. It's over and you won. ROGO What would Donald Duck do in a situation like this? I'm trying to find a role model and he's the only one I can think of who got into these dead-end double binds. WAXNER He'd be saved by a miracle at the last moment. The others drink themselves to death. Fast, too. A matter of months. GARVEY Ignore him. He hates to lose. It's his one good quality. Rogo takes the suitcase and leaves. WAXNER Donald Duck? That's a pretty massive regression. GARVEY That's the word. INT. ANN'S APARTMENT -- LATE AFTERNOON (WARM MELLOW LIGHT) There are some empty boxes from Victoria's Secret. Obviously the snag has just bought the lingerie for her. It's his taste, not hers. Ann is wearing lingerie that's much too frilly for her. Say, a lacy teddy, and crotchless white satin bloomers with little bows at the knee. She's sitting in an arm chair reading a gothic novel with a garish cover: Something like ANGELIQUE IN BARBARY. The Snag is naked, kneeling in front of her and painting her toenails with loving care. He's sweating slightly. She puts the book aside for a moment and smiles at him. SNAG Like what you see? ANN Power is a beautiful feeling. SNAG Except, in my fantasy, you're reading a fashion magazine. ANN You dont read them, you look at the pictures. 400 pages and it's over in 10 minutes. SNAG But that's my fantasy. ANN We're not married yet. SNAG Meaning what? ANN It is not yet a job. SNAG How is the job? ANN All right. I turned David around again. SNAG That’s a death sentence. It’s a business. The only criterion is commercial viability. ANN Whenever someone uses 5 syllable words, I know they're quoting. Who said it? SNAG No one. No one said it. It didn't need to be said. She looks at the clock and braces one foot on his chest.
Copyright © 1999 Angel Obregon |