45. LOGE PEAK
Black-and-white photo: five rough-looking men in front of a crudely built shack.
ADAM (V.O.)
I’ve seen some ghosts before I knew they were ghosts—like these guys, in an Aspen mining camp in the 1880s.
Black-and-white photo: a group portrait of two dozen miners, two children, a couple of dogs.
ADAM (V.O.)
I’ve seen this bunch in my sleep, or in my dreams—an afternoon shift at the Smuggler Mine, 1880s.
Black-and-white photo: two men working underground, one with a sledge.
ADAM (V.O.)
These Aspen miners setting black-powder charges were blown to bits in the 1880s, but their ghosts are unscathed.
Black-and-white photo: heavily armed white men pose by the bullet-riddled body of a dead Ute; one of the white men’s dead companions is propped up in a more dignified position than the splayed-out body of the Ute.
ADAM (V.O.)
These Aspen volunteers helped put down the Ute uprising of 1887. The Utes got the worst of it, all around.
Black-and-white photo: a posed headshot of a well-dressed, bearded gentleman.
ADAM (V.O.)
Jerome B. Wheeler, mine owner, Aspen patron—financier of the first Hotel Jerome, 1889. Wheeler went bankrupt in 1901. He lost the Jerome for back taxes in 1909; he died in 1918.
Black-and-white photo: two mounted animal heads on the wall of the Jerome ballroom; the unseeing glass eyes of the bear and elk look down on three hunters with rifles. The men are posed by a bulky thing, covered by a stained tarp.
ADAM (V.O.)
Hunters with a new head for the hotel ballroom, 1890s.
Black-and-white photo: the Hollywood couple Lana Turner and Lex (“Tarzan”) Barker, dining at the Jerome.
ADAM (V.O.)
Lana Turner and Lex Barker, guests at the Jerome in the 1950s. I didn’t see Lana, but I would see Lex.
Black-and-white photo: the pressed-tin ceiling of the Antler Bar in the Hotel Jerome, 1990s. The mounted animal heads are a mule deer, a buffalo, an elk, a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.
ADAM (V.O.)
I wonder if there are rules for ghosts.
Black-and-white photo: the mule deer heads and antlers beside the mirror above the fireplace in the lobby of the Hotel Jerome, 1990s.
ADAM (V.O.)
And if there are ghosts who don’t follow the rules.
Color photo: the movie poster for the new Paul Goode and Clara Swift film, The Other Man. Paul Goode is looking over Clara Swift’s bare shoulder while she clings to him on a dance floor.
ADAM (V.O.)
Hollywood stars Paul Goode and Clara Swift—frequent guests at the Jerome.
EXT. ASPEN SIDEWALK, ISIS THEATRE, E. HOPKINS. NIGHT.
We see the imposing red-brick building, the ISIS sign, the poster for The Other Man—now playing in Aspen.
ADAM (V.O.)
My first night in Aspen, I was alone. The movie theater was near the hotel.
INT. ISIS THEATRE, E. HOPKINS. CONTINUOUS.
ONSCREEN: as they enter their hotel room, we should recognize PAUL GOODE and CLARA SWIFT, who were pictured dancing on the movie poster for The Other Man. They’re returning from a formal party—he’s wearing a tuxedo, she a fancy dress.
ADAM (V.O.)
In the film, they’re married, but there’s been trouble—like in their real life. Speaking of trouble, I didn’t realize who was sitting across the aisle from me—not until the movie was near the end.
Paul doesn’t look at Clara as he takes off his tux jacket and unties his tie. She lets her pashmina shawl fall off her bare shoulders; the décolletage of her dress is revealing.
CLARA SWIFT
You could touch me, you know.
He is indifferent to the suggestion.
PAUL GOODE
I know.
CUT TO: THREE WOMEN JOCKS in their late thirties are seated together in the movie theater; the one with the wheelchair has the aisle seat, with one hand on her wheelchair in the aisle. The light from the film flickers on their faces as we hear the voices of the actors onscreen.
CLARA (O.C.)
(her voice breaking)
You don’t even look at me!
PAUL (O.C.)
I know what you look like.
MONIKA, the woman with the wheelchair, has an Austrian accent; she doesn’t bother to whisper.
MONIKA
He’s going to kill her with sarcasm. That’s his thing—deadly sarcasm.
NAN, the woman jock next to Monika, whispers to her.
NAN
(whispering)
Someone will ask you to stop, Monika.
MONIKA
No one fucks with me, Nan—no one kicks out a cripple.
BETH, the third woman jock, is captivated by the film.
PULL BACK: on Adam, watching the women jocks from his seat across the aisle.
ADAM (V.O.)
The wheelchair and the Austrian accent gave her away. Monika Behr was only in her early twenties when she crashed on the women’s downhill course at Cortina. A spinal injury, paralysis of both lower limbs—she became a paraplegic.
ONSCREEN: Clara Swift is half-undressed; she sits at a makeup table looking in the mirror, wearing just her bra and panties. Clara is removing her jewelry.
CLARA
It’s as if my body disgusts you.
MONIKA (O.C.)
This is pure exposition. Paul Goode can’t write or act. Have you seen The Kiss in Düsseldorf? Gay Nazis kissing, a gay storm trooper killing other storm troopers—it’s better than this shit!
DOUG, THE USHER, a teenage boy, stands in the aisle beside Monika’s chair.
DOUG
(whispers)
Please stop talking, Monika…
MONIKA
Sit in my wheelchair, Doug—I’ll suck you off.
Doug goes away, talking to himself.
DOUG
No, thank you…
ONSCREEN: Paul’s white shirt is unbuttoned, but he holds his cuffs out to his wife. Clara takes off his cuff links for him.
CLARA
You act as if I’m still seeing him. I haven’t seen him in months!
PAUL
I can still see him. As you say, I’m the one with the imagination.
With a sob, Clara throws herself on the bed. Paul reluctantly sits beside her. He stops himself from touching her.
MONIKA (O.C.)
A lethal dose of sarcasm!
Clara lies on the bed, weeping. Paul is looking at the doors. He rubs his wife’s back, still not looking at her. She rolls over, opening her arms to him. Even as he sinks down on her, he is warily looking around the hotel room—not at her.
CLARA
Please look at me, at least look!
Paul does, albeit briefly and not warmly, as they embrace on the bed; then he looks over her shoulder and sees one of the mirrored doors to the wardrobe closet swing open. The mirror reflects the foot of the bed, where (impossibly) THE OTHER MAN sits, removing his shoes. He looks over his shoulder and smiles at Paul, who lies frozen. The other man is no stranger to Paul.
ANOTHER ANGLE: the other man is unbuttoning his shirt when the bathroom door swings open, into the bedroom. Clara emerges from the bathroom, naked. She goes to the other man, kissing him.
EARLIER ANGLE: Paul lies rigidly in Clara’s arms. They are alone in the room (and on the bed) as Paul continues to stare in the direction of the other man, who has vanished.
CLARA
(pushing Paul away)
What is wrong with you?
CUT BACK TO: Adam and the women jocks in the Aspen audience. Nan and Beth are entranced by the movie; Adam and Monika look less enthralled.
ADAM
(to Monika)
This is more noir than noir.
Monika is sizing up the smaller, older Adam (forty-nine).
MONIKA
I’ll show you more noir than noir.
Adam is sizing up the bigger, younger Monika.
ONSCREEN: Clara has drawn herself into a fetal position under the covers while Paul sits at the foot of the bed, smoking.
Paul sees the other man zipping up his pants, putting his shirt back on, carrying his shoes to the hotel-room door. As he leaves, the other man holds his index finger to his lips, cautioning Paul not to wake up Clara.
MUSIC OVER the end credits to The Other Man.
In the Aspen audience: house lights come up. The women jocks are clearly skiers. The way they’re looking over Adam is simultaneously suspicious and predatory.
Monika makes sure that Adam notices her arm strength, as she lifts herself from the aisle seat into her wheelchair.
As Adam and the three big skiers go up the aisle together, the OTHER MOVIEGOERS are familiar with these women jocks. Nan pushes Monika’s wheelchair; both Nan and Beth tower over Adam.
EXT. ASPEN SIDEWALK, ISIS THEATRE, E. HOPKINS. NIGHT.
The exiting moviegoers pass the poster for The Other Man. From her wheelchair, Monika watches Adam, who’s looking at Paul Goode and Clara Swift.
MONIKA
It ruins it for me—that they’re married in real life.
NAN
So what if he’s married? He still screws around. Paul Goode has been screwin’ that Frenchie.
MONIKA
Juliette Leblanc—not just any Frenchie, Nan.
BETH
Married guys screw around the most.
MONIKA
(to Adam)
How about you? I saw your wedding ring.
NAN
He’s an old guy, Monika.
BETH
Old guys screw around the most!
Adam is walking with them, but he doesn’t know where to go.
ADAM
I’m lost. I’m trying to get back to the Jerome.
NAN
Stick with us—that’s where we’re goin’.
ADAM
You’re staying at the Jerome?
BETH
We live here. We don’t stay at the Jerome—we just drink there.
Adam is puzzled. Nan and Beth are Americans, but Monika Behr is Austrian.
ADAM
(to Monika)
You live in Aspen? I know you’re Austrian. I saw you ski.
MONIKA
(bitterly)
You saw me fall—if you know who I am, you saw me fall.
NAN
Give him a break, Monika—he’s an old guy.
MONIKA
What is it with you and old guys, Nan? He’s not that old.
Beth purposely bumps her hip into Adam.
BETH
He’s old and small and married.
The three downhillers laugh. Adam is wary of these three women jocks.
MONIKA
Back to Paul Goode. I’m serious. Actors have to be believable. Once you’re married, you’re not believable.
BETH
If you look like Paul Goode, you don’t have to act.
ADAM
His wife is the actor in the family.
MONIKA
She’s one of those women who is terminally unhappy.
ADAM
You can tell she’s unhappy?
MONIKA
I basically just hate her.
NAN
Where is your wife? Is she too old to fly, or somethin’?
ADAM
She’s expecting—she’s too pregnant to fly.
BETH
If she’s pregnant, she’s a lot younger than you are.
ADAM
Yes, my wife is younger than I am—we’re kind of newlyweds.
Beth bumps Adam with her hip again.
BETH
Newlyweds screw around, too, huh?
NAN
Or are you just into the skiin’ in Aspen—are you one of those old guys who thinks he’s a hotshot skier?
Because she’s not walking, Monika hasn’t taken her eyes off Adam. The way she examines him would make anyone uncomfortable.
MONIKA
(her most serious)
This guy is not a hotshot skier. I know hotshot skiers.
ADAM
(his most candid)
I’m no better than an intermediate skier. My mom is an expert skier. My mother has been a ski instructor her whole life—she’s still teaching kids to ski.
NAN
Your mom must suck as a ski instructor, if you’re just an intermediate.
ADAM
It’s not her fault. As a kid, I hated skiing—I tried not to learn, or I learned badly on purpose.
Nan and Beth laugh. Monika, watching Adam, knows he’s being truthful.
MONIKA
Exactly what do you do?
ADAM
I’m a writer—I write novels and screenplays.
NAN
(to Beth)
I don’t read novels. Do you?
BETH
Nah.
MONIKA
Nobody reads novels.
ADAM
Well, I’ve published some novels, but no one has made my screenplays into movies—not yet.
(to Monika)
I was a researcher for the film of The Kiss in Düsseldorf. I spent most of my time finding archive excerpts we could use from Hitler’s speech to the Industry Club of Düsseldorf—it’s a long speech, and my German isn’t very good.
Monika says something in German to him. No subtitles. It’s clear that Adam doesn’t understand her.
MONIKA
Your German is intermediate.
ADAM
(no subtitles)
Es tut mir leid …
MONIKA
He says he’s sorry.
BETH
He’s old and small and married, and he’s an intermediate—at everything!
Adam is aware that many of the PASSERSBY on the sidewalk recognize Monika Behr; she is a celebrity in Aspen.
NAN
Where are you from, intermediate man?
ADAM
Vermont. There’s a small ski area close by—a family mountain, compared to what’s around here.
NAN
Small-time skiin’ in Vermont… mostly blue runs.
BETH
You should’ve stayed in Vermont, blue-run man.
MONIKA
You left a pregnant wife at home. You grew up hating skiing. But you came all the way to Aspen, to ski on blue runs. You’re like Paul Goode—you’re not believable.
Monika notices that Adam is sensitive to being told he’s like Paul Goode.
MONIKA
You even look like Paul Goode.
NAN
(to Adam)
What are you doin’ alone in Aspen, if you’re not into skiin’?
EXT. HOTEL JEROME, E. MAIN. NIGHT.
Looking across East Main Street at the three-story brick building.
ADAM (O.C.)
My mother stayed at the Jerome—the way she talks about the hotel made me want to stay here.
NAN (O.C.)
You’re really into your mother!
CLOSER ON: two adjacent entrances—the main entrance to the Jerome, and the entrance to the hotel’s J-Bar.
ADAM (O.C.)
My mom and I see ghosts. She seems to know that some ghosts I see come from the Jerome.
ANOTHER ANGLE: on the sidewalk, peering in the window of the J-Bar, is the DEAD UTE we saw in the black-and-white photo of the Ute uprising in 1887. TWO SKIERS come out of the bar; the Ute is invisible to them.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
The bar is busy, lots of SKIERS. The skiers don’t see the TWO MINERS we saw setting black-powder charges in the black-and-white photo of an Aspen mine in the 1880s. The ghost miners stand unnoticed at the bar; the miner with the sledge glowers at LEX BARKER AS TARZAN, shivering in a loincloth.
NAN (O.C.)
You should stop listenin’ to your mother! If you grow up in this town, you get sick of hearin’ about the ghosts at the Jerome.
At a table in the J-Bar, giving the WOMEN SKIERS a once-over, are the heavily armed ASPEN VOLUNTEERS from the 1887 Ute uprising—their dead, propped-up companion isn’t with them. The invisible Indian-fighters sit unnoticed among the skiers. Tarzan knows he’s not welcome to join them.
BETH (O.C.)
(a bored recitation)
The drowned ten-year-old, the sobbing silver miner, the hotel maid who died of pneumonia—she still shows up, to turn down the beds…
Camera follows a WAITER from the J-Bar, bringing drinks to the Jerome lobby. Tarzan tags along.
INT. LOBBY, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
We see the stuffed animal heads and the big mirror over the fireplace, as the waiter from the J-Bar serves drinks to some OLDER, WELL-HEELED GUESTS, who prefer the elegant decorum of the lobby to the rowdier atmosphere of the bar.
MONIKA (O.C.)
(irked with Beth and Nan)
I’ve told you two—you don’t listen. Those ghosts, the ones you hear about, are just tourist attractions. There are other ghosts.
The DEAD COMPANION of the 1887 Aspen volunteers looks out of place in the lobby. He is seated, in a propped-up fashion, in an overstuffed chair by the fireplace. No one sees him; he appears to be still bleeding from his wounds, looking barely more alive than he was in the black-and-white photo. He has difficulty drinking the last of his beer; he regards the half-naked Lex Barker as a no-good Ute.
ADAM (O.C.)
Those aren’t the ghosts I’ve seen. I came to the Jerome without my wife, because I didn’t want to frighten her—she doesn’t know about the ghosts.
Camera follows the waiter from the lobby, back to the J-Bar.
BETH (O.C.)
It’s better not to talk about ghosts around Monika.
NAN (O.C.)
Monika didn’t see the ghosts when she was first stayin’ here—when she was still skiin’.
BETH (O.C.)
Yeah… it was only after the crash at Cortina, when Monika came back to Aspen. She stayed at the Jerome until she got a place of her own—that was when she saw the ghosts.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Coincident with the waiter’s return to the bar, Nan and Beth wheel Monika into the J-Bar—the two of them jabbering, with Monika seething in her wheelchair. Adam just follows along.
NAN
Yeah but, Beth, Monika had decided she was movin’ to Aspen—she’d already started the process of becomin’ an American resident—before the crash at Cortina.
BETH
I know, Nan—I’m just explaining to intermediate man…
ADAM
Adam, like the Garden of Eden guy.
MONIKA
(explodes, to Beth and Nan)
You two don’t listen! How many times do I have to tell you? Stop explaining me! You two don’t explain me—I’m the one who explains me!
(to Adam)
If you were seeing ghosts from here before you came here, you should have stayed at home… Garden of Eden guy.
(to Beth and Nan)
I keep telling you two—not every ghost is seen by everyone.
(to Adam)
That’s the only safe generalization about ghosts I know.
ANOTHER ANGLE: on Monika, watching Adam, as he surveys the patrons in the J-Bar. She sees that he sees the two miners, unnoticed by the skiers at the bar. Monika nods to the table where the Aspen volunteers sit unseen; she sees that Adam sees them, too.
BETH
(cautiously)
Sometimes you’re the one who doesn’t listen, Monika.
NAN
(also being careful)
Yeah, Monika—you don’t always listen to us, you know. I keep tellin’ you—if you don’t believe in ghosts, you don’t see them.
MONIKA
(ignores her pals)
It isn’t that simple, Adam. Maybe the ghosts are just biding their time; after all, they have lots of time. Maybe the ghosts are in control of when or if they want you to see them.
Adam is startled: suddenly the Ute we saw looking in the window is standing next to him. There is an abiding hatred that passes between the stoic Ute and the Indian-fighters who killed him; the uprising isn’t over for them.
MONIKA
(she knows the history)
There was only a small Ute uprising in 1887—it was quickly put down. There would be no keeping the white men from the Ute hunting grounds.
Beth and Nan have managed to secure a table; they’re signaling to Monika, who understands why Adam is so fixated on the ghosts.
MONIKA
Is this your first day in town?
(as Adam nods)
Your first night at the Jerome!
This gets the attention of some nearby skiers; the Ute gives Adam a closer look, as Adam wheels Monika to their table.
MONIKA
(to Beth and Nan)
First night—he’ll get clean sheets!
Nan and Beth know this routine; they know where this is going.
ADAM
(clueless)
Well, I’ve just checked in. I hope I’ll get clean sheets.
MONIKA
When I die, I want to lie in the sheets at the Hotel Jerome—I won’t care if the sheets are clean. The sheets at the Jerome are the best in the world; even the dirty sheets at this hotel are the best sheets there are.
Adam is having a hard time moving on from the ghosts. The change of subject, to the bedsheets at the Jerome, is an agreeable one to the three women downhillers—they’re behaving like the best of friends again. The waiter knows what the women jocks drink; he brings them their beer. Adam indicates that he’ll have what they’re having.
INT. BAGGAGE CAROUSEL, ASPEN AIRPORT. NIGHT.
Paul Goode and his wife, Clara Swift, have arrived in Aspen. They appear to be arguing, in as contained a manner as possible—given that they are traveling with TOBY, their fourteen-year-old son. There is no sound, except Adam’s voice-over. Toby, wearing headphones, is listening to his own music; he stands apart from his unhappy parents. TWO BODYGUARDS gather bags from the carousel; then they collect the skis. OTTO is the scary-looking one; BILLY is handsome but distracted. They’re aware of the unstable dynamic in the family they’re safeguarding.
ADAM (V.O.)
I wasn’t expecting to encounter Paul Goode in Aspen, although he was a hometown boy. Given his much-publicized affair with Juliette Leblanc, his French co-star in Argonne, I didn’t think Paul Goode would take his family skiing; I thought the Hollywood couple would keep out of sight. I was a little uneasy at the prospect of seeing the son of Clara Swift and Paul Goode—the boy had just turned fourteen, close to the age Paul Goode was when he met my mother and became my father. Paul was fourteen, almost fifteen; my mom was eighteen, almost nineteen.
EXT. PICKUP AREA, ASPEN AIRPORT. NIGHT.
Paul Goode and Clara Swift keep their voices down, at some distance from Toby, who’s cruising the sidewalk in his headphones, and from Otto and Billy—they’re at curbside, overseeing the loading of the van.
CLARA
It’s not how public an affair it was that bothers me, Paul—the publicity isn’t your fault. It’s that you had an affair at all.
PAUL
I know. I’m sorry…
They seem the reverse of their roles in The Other Man.
CLARA
I want to forgive you—I’m trying.
PAUL
I know you’re trying…
CLARA
I want Toby to forgive you, too.
PAUL
It’s awful that Toby knows.
CLARA
(softly)
Everyone knows…
PAUL
(softer)
I know…
Camera follows Toby in his headphones, cruising closer to Otto and Billy—they’re talking quietly to each other while the DRIVER loads the Hotel Jerome van.
BILLY
I mean the Frenchwoman from the war movie. Do you know other Frenchwomen?
OTTO
That Frenchwoman! Does Toby know?
BILLY
Otto, only you don’t know.
OTTO
Jeez, Billy… the poor kid.
Toby is near to them now, nodding his head—as if to his music. The bodyguards assume Toby can’t hear them.
BILLY
Toby’s a good kid—he’ll be fine.
OTTO
Toby’s a great kid. And those two will be okay—they love each other. Fuck that Frenchwoman!
TOBY
(he’s heard everything)
Yeah, fuck her…
BILLY
We thought you were listenin’ to your music, Toby.
TOBY
(nods, toward his parents)
I’m just not listening to them.
Toby is very much a kid. It’s uncomfortable to imagine Toby—or his father, when he was close to Toby’s age—making anyone pregnant.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
The women downhillers have been hitting the beer. The talk at their table has devolved into two conversations: Adam and Monika are talking about her gym in Aspen; Nan and Beth are bored and looking for guys.
MONIKA
I wanted to open a gym in Aspen before I moved here. I was always going to call my gym The Last Run. I was thinking of my life after racing—not my fall.
ADAM
Do the para-alpine skiers train in your gym? They must love you.
MONIKA
I love the para-athletes. They don’t have to love me back—it’s enough they know I can make them stronger. I’m just a gym rat now.
BETH
I don’t see one guy who makes me feel like it—no one I’m considering.
NAN
No one worth considerin’?
ADAM
I’m more of a gym rat than I am a skier. I was a wrestler in high school—nothing came of it, but I still like going to a gym.
BETH
No aerobic machines in The Last Run.
NAN
You want to run or ride a bike, do it outdoors. The Last Run is a gym for weight trainin’.
MONIKA
(ignores them; to Adam)
There’s a kind of circuit training that’s aerobic. I know how to get you out of breath.
Adam sees a tall, elegantly dressed ghost at the bar—a STATELY, BEARDED GENTLEMAN.
ADAM
Jerome B. Wheeler was a Civil War hero in the New York Cavalry and the former president of Macy’s.
Monika isn’t impressed by this important ghost.
MONIKA
Jerome is such a big deal.
(as Adam nods)
He thinks he still owns the place.
Playing bartender, Jerome acts like he does own the place; he fills a pitcher of draft beer from the bar.
BETH
The place is packed, but there’s no one!
NAN
It’s dead tonight, packed but dead.
The two miners at the bar react with disbelief to Nan’s remark, but Jerome B. Wheeler just smiles to the miners as he refills their beer glasses. The miner with the sledge gives Wheeler a salute with his hammer.
EXT. ENTRANCE, HOTEL JEROME, E. MAIN. NIGHT.
The van we saw at the airport pulls up. The JEROME DOORMEN in their long coats and cowboy hats rush to assist.
BETH (O.C.)
We could see who’s in the lobby.
NAN (O.C.)
The la-di-da guests like the lobby.
Otto and Billy escort Paul Goode and Clara Swift into the hotel; Toby sullenly follows them.
ADAM (O.C.)
Okay, let’s see who’s in the lobby.
INT. LOBBY, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Not as la-di-da-looking as the other guests, the Aspen volunteer is still propped up in a chair by the fireplace, as Jerome B. Wheeler refills his empty beer glass.
WIDER: to include Adam and the women downhillers in the lobby.
MONIKA
(to Adam)
I don’t know how that guy can still be bleeding. I don’t mean Jerome.
NAN
(to Adam)
Monika’s goin’ to ask you if she can sleep over, just to feel your sheets.
MONIKA
You’re explaining me again, Nan.
BETH
I’ve never stayed here, but I’ve slept here with some guys. I never noticed the sheets.
It’s an old joke, but the downhillers laugh.
ANOTHER ANGLE: as Paul Goode and his family pass through, the two bodyguards look warily around, but the Jerome lobby is a relatively fan-free place. The other guests keep their distance. It’s Paul Goode they stare at. No one notices his wife. Clara Swift is lovely, but she keeps herself plain. Adam looks quickly at his father; as quickly, he looks away.
BETH
If I checked into a hotel with Paul Goode, I could come before I got to the room.
NAN
I could be comin’ now.
Monika notices how Adam looks at Clara Swift.
MONIKA
See something you like, Adam?
ADAM
She’s a great actor.
MONIKA
That’s not how you looked at her.
It takes TWO PORTERS with two luggage carts to tote the stuff for this entourage. Adam awkwardly blocks Clara Swift’s path.
ADAM
Excuse me, Ms. Swift—I just want to say how much I admire your work.
The bodyguards surround Adam, letting Clara pass. She’s not offended by Adam; she’s embarrassed by Billy and Otto’s protectiveness.
CLARA
(to her bodyguards)
He’s okay—he’s being nice.
She is so shy, so self-conscious—she can barely speak. Toby, coming last, captures Adam’s attention.
ADAM (V.O.)
The kid looked like a ghost I’d seen before.
Black-and-white photo: the same actor who plays Toby at fourteen; he is standing with a snow shovel at the entrance to the Jerome. The boy is wearing jeans and cowboy boots.
ADAM (V.O.)
The sweater was too wide for his shoulders and the pom-pom on the ski hat was too girlish. A hotel guest, a woman, must have given her old hat and sweater to this boy. I once believed he was the ghost of the fourteen-year-old who became my father.
As Toby reluctantly follows his family through the lobby, Monika sees how Adam is transfixed by the boy.
ADAM (V.O.)
But Paul Goode was alive. How could my father be a ghost if he was still alive?
MONIKA
That’s their kid, you know—he’s not a ghost.
ADAM
I know…
MONIKA
The way you were looking at him, you looked like you’d seen another ghost.
Standing confused and ungreeted in the lobby are the THREE HUNTERS toting rifles; they’re dragging a thing covered by a stained tarp. The severed head of a big animal, to be stuffed and mounted in the ballroom or on another wall. The epitome of a gracious hotelkeeper, Jerome B. Wheeler greets the hunters, leading them and the unseen head out of the lobby.
MONIKA
The hunters don’t get it—taxidermy is a dying art. There’s no room for an animal head here.
(as Adam nods)
About the sheets… no pressure.
ADAM
I’m being faithful to my wife.
MONIKA
I’m serious about the sheets at the Jerome—just the sheets.
BETH
(eavesdropping)
She’s not into you, intermediate man—Monika’s into the sheets.
NAN
(pulls Beth away)
Stop explainin’…
MONIKA
If you change your mind, Adam, I know how to get you out of breath.
ADAM
I’m new at having to be faithful—I’m not tired of it.
MONIKA
I’m mainly into the sheets, and you’re new to this altitude—you would be out of breath when I was just getting started.
(with a nod of her head)
The elevator is that way.
Adam takes the handles of Monika’s wheelchair and wheels her out of the lobby. Beth and Nan stare after them.
BETH
She did it again—there’s a sort of cute guy, and he goes off with the paraplegic. We were losers as skiers, too, Nan.
NAN
Beth, Monika can’t walk. I’m just sick of hearin’ about the sheets.
BETH
We’re depressed and angry most of the time, Nan. So what if we can walk? Monika gets laid more than we do.
NAN
(depressed and angry)
And she gets off on the sheets.
INT. ELEVATOR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Adam and Monika are riding the elevator. A forlorn ghost rides with them, A COWBOY carrying his saddle; the cowboy regards the wheelchair with disdain—not his idea of a good ride. Adam has to lean over Monika to hear what she says.
MONIKA
Aspen never was an easy town for cowboys. Miners, hunters, a few trappers—they’re the ones who made it here. Mules are more capable than horses in the mountains.
INT. HALL, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
The elevator lets Adam and Monika out on the third floor. The cowboy stays on the elevator.
ADAM
Doesn’t the cowboy know there are only three floors?
MONIKA
That cowboy just rides the elevator.
They pass a BLONDE HOTEL MAID, not a ghost, then the barefoot Tarzan. Monika makes apelike grunts and gestures, mocking Lex.
ADAM
Maybe you’ve seen a ghost maid—she looks Mexican to me. My mother saw her here when the maid was still alive—my mom thought she was Italian.
MONIKA
I know her—she’s Mexican. She’s Paul Goode’s mother.
Black-and-white photo: a Mexican hotel maid with a shy, childlike smile.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Adam and Monika talk, but Adam’s voice-over is all we hear.
ADAM (V.O.)
Monika told me that Paul Goode was adored in Aspen and beloved by the Jerome. Either Lex Barker or Lana Turner told him to change his name from Paulino Juárez. Lex came up with with the Goode, with an e on the end.
Monika is feeling the sheets. Adam offers her a hotel bathrobe; she wheels herself into the bathroom, leaving Adam to undress for bed. He considers how he looks in his undershorts before putting on a hotel bathrobe.
ADAM (V.O.)
I’d once thought that the Jerome’s acceptance of their unmarried maid’s pregnancy was an unlikely story—surely someone at the hotel must have made the unwed mother feel unwelcome.
Monika wheels into the bedroom in the bathrobe; she turns on the radio, to a plaintive country song. When Adam goes into the bathroom, Monika takes off the robe and vaults onto the bed. She’s naked except for her panties, and she’s soundlessly mouthing the words to the song.
ADAM (V.O.)
But Monika convinced me I was wrong. In her Austrian way, she asserted that New Englanders were a bunch of Puritans—people out west weren’t as sexually uptight, she said.
Monika experiments with how she wants to present herself to Adam. She lies on her back, breasts up, the top sheet and blanket covering her legs. She tries lying on her stomach, showing her bare back and only enough of her panties to indicate she’s not entirely naked.
ADAM (V.O.)
Monika hated Paul Goode’s acting and his writing, but she said he wasn’t lying about his happy childhood.
Adam enters the bedroom from the bathroom. Seeing Monika’s bare back, and enough of her panties to know she’s almost naked, he takes off his bathrobe and turns off the country music.
MONIKA
(on her stomach)
Don’t look for a scar. If there’d been shattered bone and fragments, there could have been a surgery, but the damage was what they call clean. No surgery, no scar.
She rolls over on her back—breasts up.
ADAM
I see.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Country music masks how near-empty and quiet it is. Even the Aspen volunteers are gone. At a table, the Ute and Jerome B. Wheeler are talking, but we can’t hear them—only Adam and Monika’s conversation.
MONIKA (O.C.)
Are you ready to feel the sheets?
ADAM (O.C.)
I guess so…
ANOTHER ANGLE: at one end of the bar, Otto and Billy are talking too quietly for us to overhear them. One of the ghost miners has passed out on the middle of the bar; the one with the sledge is still standing, but he can barely keep his eyes open.
MONIKA (O.C.)
Are you just going to look at me all night, or do you always sleep with a light on?
ADAM (O.C.)
Oh… sorry.
MONIKA (O.C.)
(we hear a click)
That’s better.
At the opposite end of the bar from the bodyguards, Beth and Nan are sloshed; we can hear their conversation.
BETH
Not the scary-looking one—I said the other bodyguard is kind of cute.
NAN
You should never go anywhere alone, Beth—you could get in trouble.
BETH
Nan, we don’t get in enough trouble.
The miner with the sledge falls asleep on his feet, dropping his sledge with a RESOUNDING THUMP. Only the Ute and Jerome B. Wheeler hear it. The courteous Wheeler gives the miner a benign smile. The fallen sledge wakes up the miner who dropped it—if not his partner, passed out on the bar. The bodyguards are leaving. Billy gives the women downhillers a glance; Otto gives them a ghastly smile.
NAN
No bodyguards, Beth—they could be into rough stuff. And those two guys look like they do everythin’ together.
BETH
I don’t like rough stuff. I don’t do two guys, not together. Do you?
Nan gives Beth an incredulous look. Beth stares at her beer.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
On Clara Swift’s troubled face—she’s asleep, dreaming.
INT. FIELD HOSPITAL, NORTHEASTERN FRANCE. DAY.
Black-and-white World War I movie: the French actress JULIETTE LEBLANC is a nurse. As STRETCHER-BEARERS bring in the WOUNDED SOLDIERS, Juliette is asking a MEDIC about their wounds.
JULIETTE
(French, English subtitles)
The ones from the mortar?
MEDIC
Oui.
JULIETTE
(French, English subtitles)
What are his wounds?
MEDIC
(French, English subtitles)
Neck, upper chest.
Juliette continues down the line of NEW ARRIVALS.
JULIETTE
(French, English subtitles)
And this one?
MEDIC
(French, English subtitles)
His hands, his face.
She stops at the next soldier—Paul Goode lies on the stretcher, his expression glazed with pain, bloody from his waist to his upper thighs. She looks at him as if she’s been waiting to meet him her whole life.
MEDIC
(French, English subtitles)
This is the American.
Juliette leans over Paul.
JULIETTE
(in English)
Hello, my dear.
PAUL
(French, English subtitles)
I am American.
JULIETTE
(English)
I know. Where are you wounded?
Paul can’t or won’t say. Her eyes drift to the bloody area.
JULIETTE
(English)
May I look? Okay?
Juliette doesn’t like what she sees; she quickly looks away, then into his eyes. Paul has never taken his eyes off her.
FREEZE TO A STILL. This shot is the black-and-white movie poster for Argonne, starring Paul Goode and Juliette Leblanc.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Clara is still asleep; she hates this dream.
INT. HALL, FRENCH HOTEL—CLEARLY NOT WORLD WAR I. DAY.
Color: a ROOM-SERVICE WAITER wheels a breakfast cart down the hall, stopping by a door. From a basket that could hold bread, the waiter turns on a video camera, which he covers with a white napkin. Then he knocks on the door of the room.
WAITER
(French, no subtitles)
Good morning! Breakfast!
INT. BEDROOM, FRENCH HOTEL. DAY.
Paul Goode lets the waiter in. We see the lens of the video camera under the napkin as the waiter takes various items from the cart and sets a table for two. Paul is wearing a towel around his waist; he looks like he’s just had a shower. The waiter asks him something in French.
PAUL
(French, no subtitles)
I am American.
From the bed, Juliette answers the waiter in French—no subtitles. The waiter turns the breakfast cart so that the video camera is on her. She is sitting up in bed with the covers pulled around her; she must not be wearing any clothes. Paul pours a cup of coffee and brings it to her. The waiter is through setting the table; he’s angling the breakfast cart to catch them both on camera. As Juliette sips the coffee, she lets one bare arm reach out; her hand touches Paul’s leg. Paul and Juliette see that the waiter is still there in the room. They give him an inquiring look.
ON FRENCH TV NEWS: IN FRENCH, ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
An unseen woman journalist babbles away, voice-over to the footage of Paul and Juliette captured on videotape.
JOURNALIST (V.O.)
(French, English subtitles)
It seems that the American actor Paul Goode and the French actress Juliette Leblanc were more than co-stars in the Argonne Forest war movie, Argonne, when they were shooting the film in the northeast of France.
We see Paul admitting the waiter to the room—then the jerky PAN to Juliette, still in bed.
JOURNALIST (V.O.)
(French, English subtitles)
While they were registered in separate rooms, they appear to have enjoyed breakfast together. This poses no problem for Juliette—she is unmarried and has no boyfriend at the moment—but Paul Goode is very much married to the American actress Clara Swift.
File footage of Paul and Clara together in happier times; there’s also a shot of Clara with TOBY AS A BABY.
JOURNALIST (V.O.)
(French, English subtitles)
Cynics say this was publicity for Argonne—the story came to light just before the film’s release.
Paul and Juliette look inquiringly at the hidden video camera as the breakfast cart retreats from them, the door to the hotel room closing on our view.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Clara is still dreaming; her dream just gets worse.
JOURNALIST (V.O.)
(French, English subtitles)
Good movie marketing, maybe, but the publicity couldn’t have been good for Paul Goode and his family.
INT. BEDROOM, FRENCH HOTEL. DAY.
Clara’s dream: she’s imagining what happened after the waiter with the concealed camera left the room. Juliette pulls Paul onto the bed with her. They repeat their lines from Argonne, but the lines are delivered playfully in this context.
JULIETTE
(in English)
Hello, my dear.
PAUL
(French, no subtitles)
I am American.
JULIETTE
(English)
I know. Where are you wounded?
She is undoing Paul’s towel; he lets her.
JULIETTE
(English)
May I look? Okay?
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
On Clara Swift’s face, she’s awake—she’s just lying there. Tears run down her cheeks; she bites her pillow to keep herself quiet. When she rolls over, she sees Paul sleeping beside her. From her soft whisper, Clara sounds like she’s rehearsing what she would like to say to Paul.
CLARA
I love you, Paul—I know you love me. And I believe you’ve been faithful to me, except for Juliette.
(her tone changes)
Your dirty Frenchwoman!
She makes a fist; she sticks the big knuckle of her index finger into her mouth, stopping herself from raising her voice. Clara turns away from Paul; she stops biting her hand, and closes her eyes. Her face is a face praying for sleep.
MONIKA (O.C.)
Are you happy you were faithful to your wife? Was it worth it?
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
On Adam’s sleeping face as his eyes open. Monika isn’t in bed—she’s in her wheelchair, wearing the bathrobe.
ADAM
Yes, I’m happy—it was worth it.
MONIKA
Would your wife be happy how we felt the sheets?
ADAM
(laughing)
No, she wouldn’t be happy—my wife would leave me, if she knew.
MONIKA
(smiling)
Then why was it worth it, to be faithful to her—if she would leave you for feeling the sheets?
Monika wheels herself into the bathroom, closing the door. Adam has no time to ponder what Monika said. Standing beside the bed—smiling down at him with her shy, childlike smile—is the ghost of PAULINA JUÁREZ, the Mexican maid.
ADAM (V.O.)
One winter night in Aspen, when she was only forty-eight, Paulina slipped on the ice and cracked her head; she froze to death, lying unconscious in the cold.
PAULINA
(Spanish, no subtitles)
¿Cómo está tu madre?
Even this is beyond Adam’s schoolboy Spanish. Paulina’s ghost is a young woman in her early thirties; she smiles at Adam with a grandmother’s uncritical love.
PAULINA
How is your mother?
ADAM
She’s fine, thank you. Are you my grandmother?
PAULINA
(her hand on her heart)
Sí… tu abuela.
ADAM
I’m pleased to meet you.
PAULINA
(slowly, teaching him)
Mucho gusto en conocerle.
ADAM
(he tries to repeat)
Mucho gusto…
That’s all he can manage; they both laugh. Paulina vanishes as Monika, fully dressed, wheels herself out of the bathroom. She needs no help putting on her winter wear.
MONIKA
Talking to yourself is a sure sign you don’t get off enough.
ADAM
I’d like to work out at your gym, maybe later today. I thought I’d go skiing tomorrow.
MONIKA
I can tell you where to ski, blue-run man. I’ll see you later.
ADAM
I haven’t seen any recent ghosts—only the ones from the past.
She’s impatient to leave—or just impatient with him, in general.
MONIKA
The more recent ghosts seem like everyone else—they look alive. Until they don’t.
ADAM
Have you seen a ghost who is alive, a living person who’s a ghost?
MONIKA
(as she leaves)
You really don’t get off enough.
INT. BATHROOM, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Après-shower, wearing only a towel, Paul Goode is putting sunscreen on his face. He’s going skiing, a very fit sixty-five.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Après-shower, in her bra and panties, Clara Swift is brushing her hair—a young and beautiful forty-five. An interior monologue emerges. Clara holds her hairbrush like a microphone. She is a new character—coy, ironic, insincere. She’s interviewing herself.
CLARA
Well, with a child at home, there aren’t many convenient opportunities to act in a film with my husband. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to do The Other Man with Paul.
(pause)
What’s that? Oh!
(laughing)
No, I have no experience as an unfaithful wife—only as a faithful one. But playing a character unlike myself is fun.
In self-disgust, Clara goes back to brushing her hair, glaring at herself in the makeup mirror. Clara’s interior monologue is now directed to her husband. She’s sincere.
CLARA
Aren’t you lucky, Paul—that I’m on record for never giving interviews? What could I say about us, in an interview—what is there to say? I should just fuck someone, Paul—the first guy I see! Maybe then I can forgive you. I want to forgive you, Paul. I love you, but God damn you!
Clara is the consummate actor, switching gears but completely composed when Paul comes into their bedroom from the bathroom. Clara holds up clothes to try on—a skirt, a sweater. Paul is putting his long johns on, and a turtleneck.
PAUL
Toby is old enough to have his own room—at his age, he wouldn’t have been happy with the sofa bed in the living room.
CLARA
Toby wanted his own room to get away from us.
PAUL
I know… Toby will be here soon—Billy is already in the living room. Toby and I can meet you for lunch.
CLARA
No. You two have fun.
PAUL
I’ll leave Otto with you—he’s a disaster on skis, anyway.
CLARA
No, take both guys with you—especially Otto!
Although Clara appears composed, she seems brittle. She isn’t happy with the way she looks in the mirror, but there’s nothing wrong with her skirt and sweater. Paul gives her a worried look. He has his ski pants on, and a sweater over his turtleneck, when he opens the door to the living room of their suite, leaving Clara alone in their bedroom.
INT. LIVING ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Billy is assessing how he looks in his ski clothes, in the mirror, when Paul enters.
PAUL
Tell Otto to get his stuff on.
BILLY
His ski stuff?
PAUL
I’m afraid so.
INT. HALL, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Otto is sitting guard outside Paul and Clara’s suite; he’s too big for the chair. Billy surprises Otto when he opens the suite door. The chair falls apart when Otto stands; the bodyguards don’t pay it any mind.
BILLY
Get your stuff on.
OTTO
My ski stuff?
BILLY
I’m afraid so.
As Otto heads off in one direction, Billy sees Toby coming from the other end of the hall. Toby, dressed to ski, gives a passing glance at the destroyed chair.
TOBY
Is Otto coming with us?
BILLY
I’m afraid so.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Clara is fussing over her appearance in the mirror. She tucks in her sweater, she untucks it; Clara takes off her wedding ring, putting it in her purse. She leaves the room, rubbing her ring finger.
EXT. ENTRANCE, HOTEL JEROME, E. MAIN. MORNING.
The guests’ skis and poles are ready in a rack on the sidewalk. Paul and Toby are talking, while Billy and a COWBOY DOORMAN take their skis and poles to the ski van.
TOBY
Mom didn’t feel like skiing?
PAUL
She’ll ski with you tomorrow.
TOBY
With us, you mean…
PAUL
I have an interview tomorrow.
TOBY
Another one…
PAUL
It goes with the job.
The sidewalk is slick from melting snow. Otto can’t get the hang of walking in ski boots; he slips and falls on the sidewalk. Paul looks away. Toby winces in empathy. Billy knows it’ll be a long day.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
SUPER: BREAKFAST AT THE JEROME, 1991
Country music PLAYS OVER—a melancholic song about sexual betrayal, a woman’s lament. TWO CLEANING WOMEN are at work. We see an assortment of black-and-white and sepia photographs around the bar, miners and hunters and the earliest skiers; there are framed newspaper clippings from The Aspen Times.
EXT. POOL AND HOT TUBS, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Steam rises from the hot tubs; a MAINTENANCE MAN vacuums the heated outdoor pool. The melancholic song CONTINUES OVER.
INT. ELEVATOR, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Adam (in a sweatsuit, dressed for the gym) rides the elevator with the forlorn cowboy, forever carrying his saddle. The song is FADING OVER.
ADAM (V.O.)
There are things about writing fiction that are true of real life. There’s always a what-if…
INT. HALL, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Clara has decided to tuck in the sweater. She looks nice—more like a wife and mother than a movie star. Coming toward her is a PORTER pushing a luggage cart that contains a heavy armchair. Unseen by Clara (or the porter) is a ONE-LEGGED MINER, using a crutch, hopping on his only leg. As they pass each other, the ghost miner turns his head—to get a look at Clara, from behind—tripping on his crutch, sprawling in the hall. The lament FADES OUT.
ADAM (V.O.)
If I hadn’t decided to go to Monika’s gym, I’d have gone skiing.
INT. BREAKFAST ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Adam arrives; a WAITRESS immediately sees him.
ADAM (V.O.)
I would have skipped breakfast at the Jerome, if I’d gone skiing.
WAITRESS
One for breakfast?
ADAM
Yes, please.
She shows him to a small table, pours his water.
WAITRESS
Coffee?
ADAM
Yes, please.
INT. ELEVATOR, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Clara, unaware of the cowboy with his saddle, thinks she’s alone. She looks at her puckered lips in a compact mirror; she’s agitated, trying to calm herself, when she closes the compact, returning it to her purse. The cowboy can’t take his eyes off her.
INT. BREAKFAST ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Adam, reading the menu, drinking some water, doesn’t see Clara arrive in the dining room, but she recognizes him—that nice man who admires her work. Perhaps it calms her that he’s not a total stranger, and he’s close to her own age.
Adam looks up from the menu; he sees Clara standing next to him.
CLARA
Are you alone?
ADAM
Yes, I’m alone…
Star-struck and embarrassed, he awkwardly stands. It’s a table for two; clumsily, Adam offers Clara the empty chair.
ADAM
Would you have breakfast with me?
CLARA
I don’t want to eat with you—I want to have sex with you, right now.
Adam looks at her as if she’s a character in a movie, not real.
CLARA
(near to breaking)
Please don’t make me beg you.
EXT. LOGE PEAK CHAIR, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
Paul and Toby are talking; Billy and Otto are behind them in the chairlift line for the two-seater chair.
PAUL
Toby, I won’t disappoint you again.
TOBY
You won’t disappoint Mom, you mean.
PAUL
I mean both of you—never again.
(turns to Billy)
If we get separated, don’t worry!
(to Toby)
You’ll have to remind your mom tomorrow—there’s no safety bar on this chair. She hates the wind.
TOBY
I know… It’s windy up there.
On Billy and Otto.
OTTO
We always get… separated.
BILLY
We’ll try not to, this time.
Paul and Toby get on the chairlift. They don’t see the mess Otto causes behind them—he drops a ski pole, two empty chairs go by, an IMPATIENT COUPLE takes the next chair. Billy and Otto get on the chairlift; as they ascend, Otto is reaching wildly above himself. Otto screams as he falls, dragging Billy off the chair. No center post to grab hold of.
OTTO
There’s no pull-down bar!
On Paul and Toby riding the ascending chairlift, as the lift suddenly stops midair. Father and son instinctively extend an arm, to prevent each other from sliding forward in the chair.
PAUL
You’ll have to watch out for your mom if the lift stops near the top.
TOBY
I’ll stick to the blue runs. You don’t have to tell me. I know how Mom is.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
Her hands shake as Clara self-consciously undresses. Adam is embarrassed by the two bathrobes on his unmade bed; he puts the robes on a chair. Clara’s voice is extremely fragile.
CLARA
There were women with you last night. You’re not with one of them?
ADAM
I’m not here with anyone—I don’t really know those women.
CLARA
You don’t really know me, either.
ADAM
Perhaps we should talk.
CLARA
No talking. No dialogue in this movie.
She’s naked. She turns on the radio—more country music, too loud this time. Clara begins by undressing Adam, fiercely.
EXT. LOGE PEAK CHAIR, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
On Otto and Billy riding the chairlift, near the top.
BILLY
There’s no safety bar on this chair.
OTTO
(petrified)
And no center post! I hate unloading worse than I hate getting on.
BILLY
(crossing himself)
I remember you unloadin’.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
The radio is still too loud. It’s an awful country song, a male singer’s stuporous drone. On the bed, Adam is fucking Clara; we see her face over his shoulder. Her mouth is open in a soundless scream—her pained eyes are open, too. She is hating this, wishing it was over. This is the worst thing she’s ever done, onscreen or off.
ADAM (V.O.)
Of course I should have stopped her, but no dialogue was allowed.
EXT. BLACK-DIAMOND RUN, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
Paul and Toby are good skiers. They stop together; Paul looks back, up the piste.
PAUL
We’ve lost them—they’ll stick to the blue runs.
TOBY
We always lose them—Otto should stick to the green runs.
PAUL
There are no green runs up here—that’s what I like about it.
TOBY
(his first smile)
Me, too.
EXT. BLUE RUN, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
Billy is a halfway-decent intermediate skier. He carves a couple of almost parallel turns, stopping to wait for Otto, whose stem turns deteriorate into blundering snowplows. Otto manages to stop by hugging a tree off the side of the slope. TWO SKI PATROLLERS blow by them. Their patrol jackets mark them—as clearly as their hips and their long hair identify them as women.
OTTO
(hugging tree)
This is a blue run?
BILLY
I keep tellin’ you—this is a blue run, as easy as it gets up here.
Billy skis off. Otto, watching him go, releases the tree.
EXT. UNDER THE CHAIRLIFT, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
The passing chairs are high above Beth and Nan, who we recognize as the ski patrollers who blew by Billy and Otto. The two women have stopped near a lift tower, on a run that passes under the Loge Peak chair.
NAN
They were the bodyguards!
BETH
The cute one is an intermediate man.
NAN
The scary one skis like I imagine him havin’ sex.
BETH
Don’t make me throw up, Nan.
Nearby, closer to the lift tower, ANOTHER PATROLLER waves to them. We see the patroller’s toboggan—SOME SKIERS, just standing around, are blocking our view of an injured skier.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
A new country song is on the radio, which is still too loud—a female singer’s woeful tale. The sex is over. Clara is too distraught to be able to dress herself; when Adam tries to help her, she recoils. She is repulsed by him and ashamed of herself. All he can do is offer her one of the Hotel Jerome bathrobes. Clara puts on the robe, covering herself as she slips her bare feet into her shoes and gathers up her clothes. Adam turns the radio off, but the silence between them is worse without the music. Clara leaves, carrying her clothes and purse.
ADAM (V.O.)
Clara Swift hated what we did.
INT. HALL, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
The armchair we saw on a luggage cart is by the door to Paul and Clara’s suite, replacing the chair Otto broke. Paulina, the ghost maid, isn’t smiling; Paul’s mother looks sadly upon her daughter-in-law as Clara comes into view. In the Hotel Jerome bathrobe, Clara could be mistaken for someone coming from the pool. She struggles to find the key to her suite in her purse. Her panties fall from her bundle of clothes as she manages to let herself in. Paulina picks up Clara’s panties, hiding them in the apron of her maid’s uniform.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
Clara’s open purse is on the bedside table, where the radio plays a country song—an elegy. On the bed are Clara’s skirt and sweater, and her bra. On the floor—by the open door to the bathroom, where we hear the tub filling—are Clara’s shoes and the bathrobe she was wearing.
INT. BATHROOM, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
The bubble bath in the tub conceals most of Clara; disgusted with herself, she feels dirty. The elegy PLAYS OVER.
INT. THE LAST RUN GYM. AFTERNOON.
The sound of flat cast-iron plates sliding on or off barbells and dumbbells; the metallic bashing of weight machines; the grunting of weight lifters.
CLOSE ON: a MUSCULAR YOUNG MAN bench-pressing a heavy barbell; a woman’s two hands grip the bar, helping him finish his last rep.
PULL BACK: there’s a ramp leading to an elevated platform above the bench, where Monika in her wheelchair is assisting the young weight lifter. He has no legs.
On another bench, a REALLY RIPPED WOMAN in a tank top with a bikini bottom is doing bicep curls. She knows what she’s doing; she needs no help.
On a slanted bench, a VERY FIT WOMAN is doing leg curls. Wheeling by, Monika pauses to put her hand on the woman’s butt.
MONIKA
Don’t lift your butt, Jill.
On a leg-press machine, Adam is punishing himself. When Monika wheels herself into frame, she puts her hand on Adam’s forehead—pressing his head against the headrest.
MONIKA
Stop jerking your head. I would lay off the leg presses if you’re going to ski tomorrow.
ADAM
(as she wheels off)
I was just going to take a few runs on Aspen Mountain—I can walk to it.
We stay on Monika; the walk word has negative connotations.
MONIKA
The problem with Ajax is that everybody in town can walk to it.
She stops at the lat machine, where a GUY WITH A PROSTHETIC LEG is doing pull downs.
MONIKA
Keep your back straight, Freddy.
Adam enters frame.
ADAM
I hear Buttermilk is nice.
MONIKA
For beginners; if you like children. Personally, I hate children.
ADAM
(as Freddy laughs)
You mean as skiers.
MONIKA
I mean in general.
All the gym rats laugh—they’re regulars; they know Monika.
MONIKA
You should ski at Aspen Highlands—you want the Loge Peak lift up there. You’ll find some blue runs.
More laughs from the gym rats, as Monika wheels away. No music in the gym—only the grunting of the lifters and the clank of metal. No TVs; the walls are covered with photos of Monika and her fellow competitors. There are photos of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger as a bodybuilder, and one of an older Arnold in a Tyrolean hat—a fellow Austrian, and a fan of downhill racers, at the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel.
ADAM (V.O.)
One error of judgment can lead to another. And there was no dispelling Clara Swift’s hatred of herself for having sex with me—unless I had sex with someone else.
Adam is using the chest-fly machine when Monika wheels up to him.
MONIKA
Keep your feet firmly on the floor.
ADAM
About the sheets at the Jerome…
MONIKA
(as she wheels off)
I’ll check my schedule.
EXT. POOL AND HOT TUBS, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHTFALL.
Snow falls on the tired skiers in the hot tubs—Billy among them—but only Otto and Toby are in the heated pool. Toby clings to Otto’s back; Otto’s thrashing breaststroke is slopping water out of the pool. Toby hangs on, as happy as we’ve ever seen him—a boy riding a small whale, an adored child playing with his devoted bodyguard. Billy is explaining to a YOUNG COUPLE in the hot tubs, while they watch the tsunami in the pool.
BILLY
They’ve been doin’ this since Toby was a little boy.
An OLDER WOMAN in a huff overhears him; she is standing poolside, in a Hotel Jerome bathrobe, as the water washes over the deck.
OLDER WOMAN
(leaving)
He’s not a little boy now!
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. AFTER DARK.
The blonde maid we saw earlier turns on the radio to a country song; she is confronted with more than a turndown service in Adam’s room. She sees he’s had no maid service all day; on his unmade bed are the sweatsuit he wore to breakfast and the shorts and T-shirt he worked out in at the gym. The maid begins by picking up the bathrobe on the chair.
ANOTHER ANGLE: Paulina watches the maid do her job.
INT. THE LAST RUN GYM. EVENING.
The country song CONTINUES OVER. Après-skiing, the gym is busier—LOTS OF LIFTERS and a NEW TRAINER, a muscle-bound man.
INT. WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOM, GYM. NIGHT.
Beth and Nan are undressing and talking; we hear only the song.
INT. WOMEN’S SAUNA, GYM. NIGHT.
Monika—topless, a towel covering her lap—is talking to the ripped woman we saw doing bicep curls (also topless, with a towel). No sound but the country song. Fist bumps all around, when Beth and Nan enter the sauna—four strong women.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
A new country song PLAYS OVER, but it sounds like the same radio station. Clara, casually dressed, keeps looking at her wedding ring, to be sure it’s back on. She keeps looking at her husband, Paul, in an anxious way. A world of unsaid things is readable on her face; she seems as prone to shattering as glass.
Paul is also casually dressed. He’s aware of Clara’s attention to him; he’s very attentive to her. Paul tucks an errant label under the back of Clara’s sweater; he smoothes her hair.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
The blonde maid finishes her turndown service of Adam’s room. As maids do, she leaves the radio on when she exits. Paulina appears, turning down the volume on the country song. Paulina takes Clara’s dropped panties from the apron of her maid’s uniform; it’s not a happy decision, but she doesn’t hesitate to put the panties under one of Adam’s pillows. Paulina seems sad, as she plumps up the two pillows and straightens the top sheet.
INT. LITTLE ANNIE’S, E. HYMAN. NIGHT.
Paul and Clara are being overly considerate of each other. Checkered tablecloths, a wagon-wheel chandelier, not fancy.
PAUL
We had a good time skiing—no one recognized me.
CLARA
I want you two to have a good time.
PAUL
I understand why Toby didn’t want to go out with us—the way people look at us…
OTHER ANGLES: the curiosity on VARIOUS FACES in the local hangout.
PAUL (O.C.)
We can all have dinner together at the Jerome tomorrow night.
CLARA (O.C.)
They don’t stare at us the same way.
INT. THE BAR, LITTLE ANNIE’S. NIGHT.
At the bar, Billy fails to impress the BARTENDER. Billy can see Paul and Clara at their table.
BILLY
I drink nothin’ but water when I’m workin’. A good bodyguard is not omnipresent. You keep your distance, but you’re observin’; you can’t miss somethin’.
Unimpressed, the bartender goes about his business. Billy sees that Clara has left Paul alone at their table; Billy has lost her.
INT. WOMEN’S ROOM, LITTLE ANNIE’S. NIGHT.
Clara is vomiting in a toilet.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Toby is eating a hamburger while he changes channels with the TV remote. The light from the screen flickers on his face, as we hear what sounds like a basketball game, a car chase, a comedy show, a shoot-out. Toby suddenly stops changing channels.
On the TV: a series of stills from the black-and-white movie Argonne, all of Paul Goode and Juliette Leblanc. The voice-over is an American journalist for a Hollywood gossip show.
PAIGE (V.O.)
I caught up with Juliette Leblanc at her L.A. hotel. Everyone is still talking about her and Paul Goode, and I don’t mean what happened on set in Argonne.
On a patio, under an umbrella, PAIGE and Juliette are talking.
JULIETTE
American women hate me because they live in a repressive society and I live in France!
PAIGE
American women hate you, honey, because you had an affair with Paul Goode and they didn’t!
JULIETTE
(a characteristic shrug)
That’s what I mean.
PAIGE
Your affair has been so public—on TV, in all the newspapers.
JULIETTE
I didn’t do it in public!
PAIGE
But it’s such a scandal!
JULIETTE
(once again, the shrug)
Scandals don’t affect me.
PAIGE
Boy, are you ever not American!
(Juliette shrugs)
Did you shrug as a child?
Juliette just shrugs.
Back on Toby, changing the channel; he finds a hockey game.
INT. HALL, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
As quiet and gentle as a lullaby, a country song seems to have put Otto to sleep in the armchair—a tired whale guards the door.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
The softly playing song is ill-suited to Adam and Monika’s lovemaking. They are seriously out of sync. She’s trying to have a good time; he’s intent on punishing himself. She’s acutely aware of his self-hatred—as Adam was of Clara’s. Adam’s guilt is a turnoff to Monika. She throws him off her—knocking the clock radio off the night table, stopping the music.
MONIKA
What is wrong with you? You’re supposed to enjoy this, you asshole!
She throws a pillow at him, the one covering Clara’s panties. Monika holds them up—much too small to be hers.
MONIKA
What the fuck?!
ADAM
(heartfelt)
Yes, I’m an asshole.
Monika throws the panties at him.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Beth and Nan have a table, where they’re checking out the guys. Some YOUNG MEN, who look barely old enough to drink, are too young for them. A Damaged Don song PLAYS OVER—an oldie, “It Never Gets Better with Gwen.”
NAN
I want someone who’s stayin’ here—it’s too depressin’ to see where some guys are livin’.
BETH
Don’t bring a guy back to our place!
DAMAGED DON (V.O.)
You don’t want to wake up with Maureen. She smells like a farm and her sheets ain’t too clean!
NAN
Is this Damaged Don? I hate him.
BETH
Somebody shot him.
NAN
He sings like somebody’s shootin’ him.
BETH
Jeez…
EXT. ASPEN SIDEWALK, S. MILL. AFTER DINNER, NIGHT.
The way Paul and Clara hold on to each other as they walk, they look like a couple falling in love for the first time. Billy follows them at a respectful distance. The cowboy boots in a storefront window distract him, but he tears himself away. Damaged Don CONTINUES OVER.
DAMAGED DON (V.O.)
Don’t dream about diddlin’ Babette. She’s a case of the clap you won’t ever forget!
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Beth and Nan see Monika wheel herself into the J-Bar.
NAN
The sheets aren’t workin’ tonight.
An ANXIOUS WAITER brings Monika a beer.
DAMAGED DON (V.O.)
Your worst nightmare is knowin’ Louise. She’ll drink all your money and give your dog fleas!
MONIKA
(to the waiter)
I hate Damaged Don—everyone does.
WAITER
(running off)
I’ll see what I can do.
NAN
Damaged Don is dead.
MONIKA
(furious)
I know! I’m glad! I still hate him!
“It Never Gets Better with Gwen” abruptly stops.
BETH
Jeez…
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Adam, in a Hotel Jerome bathrobe, restores his room from the wreck Monika made of it. The clock radio still doesn’t work, even after he plugs it back in. Adam doesn’t know what to do with Clara’s panties; he gently places them on one of the pillows. On the opposite side of the bed from Adam, Paulina appears; she is determined to take the panties, putting them under her apron.
They look sadly upon each other. Paulina’s faint smile registers her disapproval and her affection. Adam is overwhelmed with shame.
ADAM
I’m so sorry…
Paulina knows; she just nods.
INT. HALL, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Paul and Clara are listening at the door to Toby’s room, while Billy edges away from them.
CLARA
I can’t hear the TV—maybe he’s asleep.
PAUL
Toby likes to watch old movies with the sound off. I just want to see him and say good night.
CLARA
Me, too. I just don’t want to wake him up. I don’t know what to do!
She breaks down, clinging to him. Paul hugs her back. Billy is embarrassed for them.
BILLY
I’m just goin’ down the hall, to check on Otto.
PAUL
You don’t have to wait for us, Billy—we know the way.
CLARA
(as Billy leaves)
Good night, Billy!
BILLY (O.C.)
Good night!
Paul and Clara decide not to disturb their son; holding tightly to each other, they follow after Billy.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Toby is awake, watching TV with the sound off; the light from the screen is on his face, streaked with tears.
ONSCREEN: The Kindergarten Man (1973) is even worse without sound. From the open doorway of the classroom, we are looking at the FRIGHTENED TEACHER, Clara Swift. The WOMAN WITH THE GUN is in profile to us; her lips move when she speaks to Clara, with her gun pointed at Clara’s temple, but we hear Toby say her dialogue.
TOBY (O.C.)
If I pull the trigger, the kids’ faces are gonna be spattered with your blood—from the exit wound.
On the soundlessly SINGING CHILDREN in the kindergarten classroom, when the HYSTERICAL HENRIETTA shouts something to make them stop.
TOBY (O.C.)
Stop! Stop singing!
From the doorway, something changes in the teacher’s eyes. The woman with the gun turns to face us—to see what Clara sees. We don’t hear the gunshot, but the gun-toting woman falls facedown; blood pools around her face on the floor.
It takes two single-leg lunges for the absurd KINDERGARTEN MAN, Paul Goode, to enter the classroom, holding the gun with the silencer. Paul is speaking to the dead woman, but the TV sound is off. Toby must have memorized the dialogue to the first film his parents made together.
TOBY (O.C.)
It’s been five minutes—I’m back.
With a handkerchief, Paul removes a spatter of blood from Clara’s cheek, but the little kindergarten man doesn’t know what to do with his gun; the long barrel of the silencer makes it awkward to stick under the waistband of his shorts.
TOBY (O.C.)
(as Clara’s lips move)
Give that thing to me.
Clara takes the gun from him—putting the weapon on her desk, next to the blood-spattered globe of the world.
On the classroom of jubilant kindergartners; Henrietta starts chanting, and Paul has more dialogue, but we hear nothing, and the TV goes black.
On Toby in the semidarkness of his room. He’s still crying. He doesn’t want to see any more. It’s too painful to watch his parents fall in love.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Paul, in his undershorts, goes into the bathroom, closing the door. Clara is already in bed, in her nightgown; she is changing channels with the TV remote when she sees the end of the movie Toby was watching. We hear her inhale, but Clara has muted the sound on the TV.
ONSCREEN: the little kindergarten man is trying to make himself heard over the chorus of children’s voices. Paul is level with, and almost touching, Clara’s breasts. She tilts her head down to him, to be able to hear him. As his lips move, we hear Clara’s soft voice; she speaks his lines, from the bed.
CLARA (O.C.)
I’m wondering if you would go out with me, if I’m not too small for you—I hear that all the time, that I’m just not big enough.
In the movie, Clara bends over him—her lips almost touching Paul’s ear. When her lips start to move, we CUT BACK to Clara in bed; she speaks her lines in a whisper.
CLARA
You’re not too small for me—you’re just small enough.
Clara is crying; she turns the TV off. When Paul comes out of the bathroom and gets into bed, Clara has dried her tears on her pillow. They lie in bed, hugging each other.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Monika, Nan, and Beth are knocking back the beer. The object of their interest is a CUTE BOY at the bar.
BETH
That kid isn’t old enough to drink.
NAN
So he’s got a fake ID—I’m just wonderin’ if he’s of legal age to do it. I don’t want to go to jail or somethin’.
MONIKA
There’s no fake ID for doing it.
NAN
I just know he’s stayin’ here—he came from the hotel; he has no outdoor clothes with him.
BETH
That kid’s still sleeping on the sofa bed in his parents’ suite.
Near the cute boy at the bar are the bodyguards.
NAN
(to Monika)
There’s no keepin’ Beth away from the bodyguards.
BETH
(to Monika)
Not the scary one—the other one is kind of cute.
MONIKA
(shocking them)
The scary one is more interesting.
Nan stands up from their table; she looks ready to make her move.
NAN
I’m done talkin’ about it—that boy is up past his bedtime.
On the bodyguards, talking, as Nan sits down beside the cute boy at the bar.
BILLY
The one in the wheelchair is European—a downhill skier, Monika Behr.
OTTO
Like a bear, the animal?
BILLY
Sounds the same. Spelled different. She’s famous for fallin’.
OTTO
So she’s, like, paralyzed, from the waist down? I don’t suppose she can, you know, do it.
BILLY
That’s not what I hear.
On Nan and the cute boy, talking.
NAN
Because I could get in trouble, if you’re not old enough. Just tell me: Are you old enough to be with me, or not?
CUTE BOY
(candid but clueless)
I don’t know. I’ve never been with anyone.
NAN
Really. And where are your parents?
CUTE BOY
In their room—they go to bed early.
NAN
You have your own room?
(as he nods)
Really.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Conscience-stricken, Adam lies awake in bed.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
Conscience-stricken, Clara lies awake. Paul sleeps beside her.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. LATER THAT NIGHT.
With only A FEW PATRONS, the country music—a song with driving dance rhythms—seems louder than before.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. LATER THAT NIGHT.
The song with the dance rhythms CONTINUES OVER, as Nan has her hands full with the cute boy—an eager newcomer to sexual experience.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. LATER THAT NIGHT.
The driving song CONTINUES OVER, as Beth and Billy are going at it with abandon.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. LATER THAT NIGHT.
That country song is reaching a crescendo, as Otto looks like he’s breaststroking the length of the pool again; this time, it’s Monika who hangs on to the breaching whale. The only potential for damage or unhappiness here might be the bed.
EXT. POOL AND HOT TUBS, HOTEL JEROME. EARLY MORNING.
Tarzan looks wary in the hot tubs, as the maintenance man vacuums the pool. The ski trails on Aspen Mountain are visible in the background. The new snow is dazzling in the sun.
EXT. LOGE PEAK CHAIR, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. EARLY MORNING.
It’s too early for the lifts to be running; the groomers are on the mountain and the PATROLLERS are busy with morning setup.
VARIOUS ANGLES: on trails served by the Loge Peak lift. A patroller is running a sled downhill. Nan is driving a snowmobile up the mountain—towing Beth, on skis, behind her. The two of them are laughing about something.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. EARLY MORNING.
A DISMAYED MAID and the two porters we saw toting Otto’s armchair on the luggage cart are dealing with the wreckage of Otto’s bed. They’ve separated the mattress and box spring from the broken, collapsed frame.
INT. LIVING ROOM, HOTEL JEROME. MORNING.
Clara and Billy are dressed to ski; Paul is in a bathrobe. It’s still emotional but brittle between Paul and Clara.
CLARA
(to Paul)
Your interview is… later?
PAUL
Much later. Hollywood reporters aren’t early birds.
BILLY
(to Clara)
Toby’s comin’—I knocked on his door.
(to Paul)
Otto’s in the gym, but he knows when your interview is.
PAUL
The gym here, in the Jerome?
BILLY
That downhill skier—her gym.
PAUL
The Last Run—it’s the real deal.
BILLY
(gives nothing away)
So I hear…
Clara answers the knock on the door, letting Toby in.
CLARA
Here’s Toby!
More standing around, more awkwardness.
PAUL
(to Clara)
Have a wonderful day!
CLARA
(to Paul)
Have a good interview!
Toby and Billy are embarrassed to be there.
EXT. LOGE PEAK CHAIR, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. MORNING.
Adam is in the lift line for the two-seater chair.
Not a long line; Adam gets on a chair alone. When it gets busy on the two-seater chair, he’ll probably pair up with another single.
ADAM (V.O.)
The only reason I was at Highlands, and skiing the Loge Peak lift, was that Monika told me where to ski.
Minutes later: on Adam, riding the chairlift, near the top. It’s windy up there; aware the two-seater has no safety bar, he holds on to a side post.
The chairlift goes up and over a high, narrow ridge—exposed rock and snow, but not a very long fall from the chair, if you were to fall exactly here. Then the lift dips down, passing over a ravine—a deep gulch or gully, where the chair is as high as thirty feet above the bottom of a rocky gorge. In the wind, the depth of the ravine is an unexpected drama—just before the lift station at the top.
ADAM (V.O.)
I’d only recently gone back to skiing. I was trying to correct the bad habits of my childhood and adolescence, when I’d been determined not to learn to ski.
Minutes later: on Adam, a halfway-decent skier, on one of the blue runs under the Loge Peak lift. Adam can keep his skis parallel if the fall line isn’t too steep; when he gets in trouble, he reverts to stem turns.
ADAM (V.O.)
But the ideal time to learn how to ski is when you’re a kid. I’d blown the best chance I had to learn how to ski—namely, the first time.
The lift line for the Loge Peak chair isn’t a long one. Billy gets on a chair alone—the chair after the two-seater Clara and Toby take.
ADAM (V.O.)
Monika Behr and Paul Goode must have liked the old Loge Peak lift for some reason.
Minutes later: on Toby and Clara on the chair, near the top.
It’s extremely windy; Clara clings to a side post.
ADAM (V.O.)
But it was just bad luck that Clara Swift and I were riding the same chairlift on that day.
The exposed ridge comes closer; Toby knows the steep precipice that comes after the high ridge.
CLARA
I hate this chair…
TOBY
Don’t look down.
(she shuts her eyes)
Don’t close your eyes—it can make you dizzy. Just look at me.
CLARA
(stares at him)
You should ride with Billy. He’s strong enough to hold you if you start to fall.
They’re over the deep ravine.
TOBY
We’re almost at the top—just get ready to unload.
CLARA
There’s nothing to do to get ready—there’s no safety bar to raise! Next time, you ride with Billy!
Clara turns in the chair—to look for Billy, behind them.
TOBY
(too late)
Don’t look back!
CLARA
(sees the gulch)
Oh, God. You ride with Billy!
TOBY
You’re the one who’s afraid—you should ride with Billy!
CLARA
No, you… Oh, God.
INT. PRIVATE LOUNGE, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
The lounge is set up for a TV interview. The MAKEUP GIRL attends to Paige, the movie journalist, while Paul is getting hooked up to his microphone.
PAIGE
I bring greetings from your friend Juliette. Your ex-friend Juliette?
PAUL
Friend will do.
PAIGE
“Friend will do.” I love that!
PAUL
Let’s not go there.
PAIGE
I like that, too, but seriously, Paul, in The Other Man—a movie I love—you play a man who can’t get over his wife’s infidelity.
PULL BACK: Otto, arms folded, stands guard at the closed door. Paul knows where Paige is going—he doesn’t respond. They’re not on camera—the interview hasn’t started—but Paige pushes ahead.
PAIGE
And your actual wife, Clara Swift, plays your unfaithful wife. That’s kind of ironic, isn’t it? That couldn’t have been easy, Paul.
The door opens—a TIMID WAITER with a tray of bottled water and glasses. Otto takes the tray, waving the waiter away.
PAIGE
You kind of reversed your roles in The Other Man. Not easy, given the Juliette Leblanc business.
The CAMERAMAN is ready; Paige and Paul are in place for the interview to start.
PAUL
I’m not here to talk about The Other Man. I’m here to talk about the new film. And, as you know, I won’t talk about Juliette Leblanc or my marriage—at all.
PAIGE
(nonplussed)
Right…
(gushing, to camera)
Hi! I’m here in Aspen with Paul Goode—he’s a hometown boy. Paul’s new film, Leaving Hong Kong, releases next week—a movie I absolutely love! We’re going to show you a clip. It’s a kind of uncomfortable scene, actually. Don’t let the kids watch!
(to Paul)
Wasn’t it uncomfortable for you?
PAUL
Which scene is it?
PAIGE
(to camera)
Maybe we should just show it?
(to Paul)
That backseat scene!
Paul shrugs. We know the shrug, as does Paige.
PAIGE
Nice shrug, Paul…
(to camera)
Show it! Run the clip!
From Leaving Hong Kong, in a moving car—city streets, night. An AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAWYER is in the front seat beside the CHINESE DRIVER. The lawyer is talking to Paul Goode and the BEAUTIFUL CHINESE WOMAN next to him in the backseat.
LAWYER
They’re going to ask you for distinguishing features.
WOMAN
The bedroom wallpaper is roses, red and white on a cream background. The bedroom curtains are lavender.
PAUL
He doesn’t mean the bedroom decor.
LAWYER
(points to Paul)
I mean him, your alleged husband. Does he have a scar or a birthmark? It should be in a private place.
WOMAN
(sincerely, to Paul)
Do you?
Paul feigns indifference.
LAWYER
Show her. They’ll ask her.
Paul and the Chinese woman are displeased, but Paul pulls down his pants, fumbling around in the backseat. We see only the woman’s reaction.
WOMAN
Oh…
PAUL
I was attacked by a dog.
LAWYER
You said it was a bicycle accident, when you were a kid.
PAUL
(pulls up his pants)
I was a kid. I was attacked by a dog when I was riding my bike.
LAWYER
(to the woman)
What about you?
WOMAN
What?
PAUL
Is there a… mark in an area of your body only a husband would know?
WOMAN
Oh…
She unbuttons her blouse. When she pulls down her bra to show Paul one of her breasts, we see Paul’s face, then the lawyer’s, then the driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror. As the lawyer speaks sharply to the driver in Chinese, the woman buttons up her blouse; she looks trustingly into Paul’s eyes.
PAUL
Nice tattoo.
WOMAN
I was a kid…
LAWYER
(to them both)
And the sexual positions. They always ask the woman what position her husband likes. They’ll ask the man what his wife likes, too.
PAUL
I like the usual, on top.
WOMAN
I like on top, too—not the usual.
LAWYER
That’s good—say it just like that! It sounds real. You know, like a long-standing domestic dispute, like real married couples have.
Paul and the woman look at each other with new interest.
LAWYER
No, no—don’t look at each other that way! You’re supposed to be fucking married, for Christ’s sake—not falling in love!
It’s too late. In the backseat, we see that Paul Goode and the Chinese woman have fallen in love.
EXT. LOGE PEAK CHAIR, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
The lift line is a little busy: couples ride together; singles pair up. Clara, a distraught mom, gets her way. Toby is paired with Billy; just ahead of them, Clara is a single, about to merge with a newly forming line of singles. Clara and Adam don’t recognize each other until they get on the same chair.
Toby and Billy get on the next chair.
BILLY
Your mom’s ridin’ with that guy who’s stayin’ at the hotel.
TOBY
What guy?
BILLY
Some guy who spoke to her in the lobby—he’s just a fan.
On the panicked Clara, with Adam in the ascending chair.
CLARA
(barely audible)
No talking…
Adam just looks at her, ashamed.
CLARA
(even quieter)
No looking at me…
As Adam looks away, up the mountain, Clara awkwardly tries to look behind her while she hangs on to the side post.
On Toby and Billy, in their chair.
TOBY
(calls to his mom)
Don’t look back!
On Adam extending his arm in front of Clara, to keep her safely sitting back in the chair.
CLARA
(a harsh whisper)
No touching…
Back on Billy and Toby.
BILLY
I thought your mom should ride with me, but you know…
TOBY
We both said she should ride with you! I know…
Toby has taken his gloves off to put sunscreen on his face. Toby tucks the gloves under one thigh on the chair.
BILLY
I’ll hold your gloves.
TOBY
I got them.
BILLY
Toby, give me the gloves.
On Clara and Adam, not looking at each other.
On Toby and Billy—a fumbled exchange of the gloves. Billy grabs one. Toby has caught the dropped glove between his ski boots. Toby tries to lift his boots and skis while he leans forward in the chair, reaching for the glove. One of Toby’s hands is holding on to the side post, but he can’t reach the glove with his free hand—not without letting go of the side post.
BILLY
(raises his voice)
Toby, let the fuckin’ glove go!
There’s a bump as the chairlift goes up and over the high ridge—Toby falls and Billy jumps after him.
BILLY
(calling)
I’m comin’, Toby!
On Adam and Clara, as Clara turns completely around in the chair to look behind her. She sees Toby and Billy floundering in the crusted, ungroomed snow on the narrow ridge. Exposed rocks are all around them; it’s not instantly clear that they missed the rocks, where they landed.
CLARA
(shrieking)
Toby!
Adam reaches to grab her as she jumps, but she pushes him away; she’s still looking back, at the receding ridge, but Adam knows where they are. The lift has dipped down; they’re over the gulch when Clara pushes him away and jumps.
CLARA
No touching…
From Adam’s POV: Clara caroms off a tree, then a rock or two, as she slides down the gully. The chair has stopped; it sways in the wind. Clara’s motionless body is marked by the bright colors of her ski clothing; the colors stand out against the snow and rocks at the bottom of the ravine.
On the ridge: Billy and Toby have made their way to the steep side of the gulch, but Billy won’t let Toby go down into the gorge. The tall trees are close together and sharply slanted; there are bare rocks, jagged and wind-swept, in the thawed and refrozen snow.
BILLY
The ski patrol can get her out of there, Toby. If we got down there, what could we do?
Toby dissolves in tears; Billy holds the boy in his arms.
CLOSE-UP: on Clara’s lifeless face. Strands of her hair, from under her ski hat, blow over her open eyes, staring at the sky. Gentle hands enter frame, tucking Clara’s hair under her hat; careful fingers close her eyelids.
WIDER: kneeling next to Clara is the ghost of a UTE WARRIOR. He stands, looking up at the invasive and absurd chairs high above him.
ADAM (V.O.)
I shouldn’t generalize, but whoever or whatever ghosts are, they seem to know who you are and what you’ve done.
On Adam in the windblown chair, looking down at Clara and the ghost. The chairlift starts to move again.
ADAM (V.O.)
The Ute I saw might have been looking at the chairlift, with understandable disapproval, but I thought he was looking at me.
In the gorge: on Clara’s body and the Ute standing protectively beside her, his eyes following the chairs nearing the top. His buffalo robe, or maybe it’s a bearskin, is the natural color of the rocks or the bark of the trees against the snow.
ADAM (V.O.)
This was once Indian territory. Aspen was originally named Ute City. But the Ute’s hunting grounds were long gone; the Ute knew how it felt to be betrayed. Clara Swift had also been betrayed.
INT. PRIVATE LOUNGE, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
The Paige interview goes on.
PAIGE
That’s a marvelous scene, but it had to be uncomfortable for you, Paul. Wasn’t it?
PAUL
It’s just a movie, Paige.
PAIGE
(to camera)
“It’s just a movie.”
(to Paul)
I love that!
PULL BACK: Otto gapes at Paige in disbelief.
EXT. LOGE PEAK CHAIR, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
The Loge Peak lift station, at the top. Nan and Beth, with a third SKI PATROLLER, an old silverback, are waiting for Adam to arrive and unload from his chair.
ADAM (V.O.)
Nan and Beth told me the ski patrol procedure for getting someone out of the gorge. Two strong guys take a toboggan down the gully to a snowmobile path at the bottom, where they traverse out.
There’s unintelligible jargon on the patrollers’ radios the whole time they’re talking with Adam, after he gets off the chair. We don’t hear their dialogue, only the incomprehensible babble on the radios and Adam’s voice-over, as they talk.
ADAM (V.O.)
The old guy with the beard was Buck. He was waiting for a toboggan and two young guys to help him bring her out of the gulch.
LONG SHOT: looking down the steep walls of the ravine to the bottom of the rocky gorge, where a bright speck of color marks Clara’s body.
ADAM (V.O.)
Buck said the ravine was basically an avalanche chute; there was no easy exit point. Not even locals liked to ski there—lots of rocks, tight trees, a bad fall line, and a long catwalk to get out.
Back up top: TWO PATROLLERS—young men on a snowmobile, towing a rescue sled—have hooked up with Buck. They go off together—Buck on skis, the young guys on the snowmobile—leaving Adam with Nan and Beth.
ADAM (V.O.)
The only words I’d understood on the patrollers’ radios were “Code Red”—I’d heard Molly rattle off the details. Trauma, head or neck, open femur, internals, cardiac. Given where Clara Swift had fallen, I got the feeling that everyone thought she was dead.
Nan and Beth are being nice to Adam, patting him on the back, showing their concern. They start skiing down the mountain, all together; the women downhillers are being careful not to go too fast.
ADAM (V.O.)
If Monika had told her friends about me, they didn’t hold it against me; they were kind to me, preparing me for the necessary business at the base.
On Billy and Toby with TWO PATROLLERS, a man and a woman, all carrying their skis and poles, trudging out of the ungroomed snow on the ridge. They make their laborious way under the chairlift to the piste, where they get into their skis.
ADAM (V.O.)
There would be questions about the accident at the base, Beth and Nan told me, but everyone understood what had happened. The son fell, the bodyguard jumped after him. The hysterical mom, looking back, saw only where they fell—not where she was, when she jumped.
On Adam, following Nan down a blue run to the base; Beth follows behind them.
ADAM (V.O.)
Everyone understood that I was just a fan, a nobody to Clara Swift. I didn’t really know her; we weren’t skiing together. We were just two singles who, coincidentally, paired up on the chair.
On Billy and Toby, following the woman patroller to the base; the other patroller, the man, follows them.
ADAM (V.O.)
The question everyone would ask was: Why wasn’t the bodyguard on the chair with the mom? The ski patrollers had seen the son ski; the boy was an expert skier, like his dad. The mom was the intermediate in the family; she should have been on the chair with the bodyguard, everyone would say. No one would blame me.
INT. PRIVATE LOUNGE, HOTEL JEROME. DAY.
The interminable Paige interview; we are looking at Otto but hearing the interview off camera. Paul is in the middle of a monologue. Otto is blocking the door, which suddenly opens behind him. TWO COPS are there; one of them whispers to Otto.
PAUL (O.C.)
Acting is a dangerous profession. Imagine not just inhabiting another person’s body but believing that this character’s emotions and motives are yours.
ANOTHER ANGLE: Paul has seen the cops; he watches Otto approach, knowing something is wrong. Otto looks like he’s ready to burst into tears. Paul tries to keep talking.
PAUL
The degree to which you succeed at becoming this other person is called talent, but your success is more a matter of risk. When I say, “Acting is a dangerous profession,” I’m not talking about embarrassment or the fear of failure.
Paige, losing eye contact with Paul, looks where Paul is looking. She sees Otto’s bereaved face.
EXT. BASE, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
An ambulance and police cars are there. The two young patrollers carry Clara’s covered body to the ambulance. Buck is talking to the AMBULANCE TEAM while TWO POLICEMEN keep the CURIOUS ONLOOKERS away. We hear only Adam’s voice-over.
ADAM (V.O.)
No one would listen to me.
Another squad car pulls up. Paul Goode and Otto have a hurried POLICE ESCORT into the patrol room. Buck goes with them, leaving the young guys to deal with the rescue gear. When the Hotel Jerome van pulls up, letting out the overeager Paige and her cameraman, SEVERAL COPS surround them; the media jackals are forced to get back in the van.
INT. PATROL ROOM, BASE, ASPEN HIGHLANDS. DAY.
A meeting room, a narrow table with chairs on both sides. Paul sits between Adam and Toby, with his arm around the shoulders of his sobbing son. Next to one another, Adam’s resemblance to Paul is no less striking than Toby’s resemblance to his father. Next to Toby, Billy and Otto sit beside each other; Billy is as inconsolable as Toby. Everyone talks, except Otto, but we only hear Adam’s voice-over.
ADAM (V.O.)
Billy blamed himself—he should have been on the chair with Clara, the bodyguard said. The son blamed himself, too; Toby said either he or Billy should have been riding with his mom.
On the other side of the table: TWO POLICE OFFICERS sit near Buck; next to the old silverback, Nan and Beth sit beside each other. Everyone has something to say, except Buck, but we only hear Adam’s voice-over.
ADAM (V.O.)
I told them how I tried to grab her, but Clara pushed me away—she was so upset, I said. I told them it was my fault: I should have grabbed her; I could have tried harder. But they said there was nothing I could have done. Paul Goode said it was all his fault; everyone knew why his wife was so upset. No one would contradict him.
CLOSE-UP: a kind of sign language is going on with the ski patrollers. Nan and Beth give Buck an inquiring glance; the old silverback taps the side of his head with one index finger, the side of his neck with the other.
ADAM (V.O.)
Old Buck was a man of few words, and not a medical examiner, but he was clear about the cause of death—trauma, head and neck, from the look of it.
CLOSE-UP: on Adam, wringing his hands on the table; Paul notices the hand-wringing.
ADAM (V.O.)
Paul Goode never looked at me—only at my hands. I used to wring my hands, but I had stopped for more than twenty years. It might have been getting married that brought my hand-wringing back. Now I was doing it again. There is no explaining certain things, not only the ghosts.
INT. ELEVATOR, HOTEL JEROME. LATER THAT DAY.
Adam in his ski clothes rides the elevator with the cowboy carrying his saddle. The cowboy looks like he knows everything.
ADAM (V.O.)
If Clara Swift was going to be a ghost, I hoped that she wouldn’t be one at the Jerome. Enough had befallen her in Aspen. My last night and the next morning, when I checked out, I saw only the ghosts I knew—the ones who seemed to know me, and all about me.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. EVENING.
Paul Goode is packing Clara’s clothes while Paulina hovers near him; her heart is breaking. A country lament is on the radio. When Paul starts packing Clara’s bras and panties, he is overcome. When he covers his face with his hands, Paulina takes Clara’s panties from under her apron—properly placing them in Clara’s open suitcase. When Paul composes himself and resumes packing, the dutiful maid has vanished.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. EVENING.
The same lament plays on Toby’s radio while he’s packing. Paulina now hovers near Toby. She is invisible to him, as she was to Paul.
INT. J-BAR, HOTEL JEROME. NIGHT.
A quieter country song is background music. Adam is alone at the bar.
PULL BACK: on Monika, Beth, and Nan—eating and drinking, but not talking, at their table. They are aware of Adam, by himself, at the bar. Monika wheels herself over to Adam, poking him in the back from her wheelchair.
MONIKA
They should replace that old chairlift—one day, they will. I’m sorry.
ADAM
I’m sorry, too.
Monika nods, wheeling away.
EXT. ASPEN SIDEWALK, S. GALENA. LATER THAT NIGHT.
The rock music is coming from a bar, as Otto and Billy walk by. The PUKING GUY comes out of the bar on all fours, his DRUNKEN GIRLFRIEND following him. She walks around him on the sidewalk, kicking him. Billy indicates to Otto that this place might be promising. They go inside.
ADAM (V.O.)
Autobiography just isn’t good or bad enough to work as fiction.
INT. BEDROOM, HOTEL JEROME. DAWN.
Adam is asleep. Paulina, his grandmother’s ghost, sits in the chair beside his bed, watching over him. She is crying.
ADAM (V.O.)
Unrevised, real life is just a mess.
EXT. ENTRANCE, HOTEL JEROME, E. MAIN. EARLY MORNING.
The LOCAL PRESS and a few CRAZED FANS are no match for Otto and Billy, who shield Paul and Toby as they exit the hotel and get into the Jerome van. Billy sits up front, with the DRIVER—Otto is in the back. A fan, a TALL HIPPIE GIRL wearing a ski sweater over a turtleneck, stands at the window on the side of the van where Paul is sitting. Lifting her sweater and the turtleneck, she presses her bare breasts against the glass; it must be cold.
ADAM (V.O.)
What happened to me in Aspen wouldn’t work as a movie.
On the COWBOY DOORMEN at the Jerome, restraining the hippie girl as the van drives away.
ADAM (V.O.)
What happened at the Jerome was just a mess.
INT. LOBBY, HOTEL JEROME. EARLY MORNING.
Adam follows a PORTER pushing a luggage cart through the lobby. Under the mounted head and antlers of a mule deer, Jerome B. Wheeler and Paulina are having coffee together on a couch. Even knowing he’s been badly behaved, Paulina gives Adam a reassuring smile. When Adam stops to smile back at Paulina, Jerome B. Wheeler gives Adam a somewhat formal but dignified nod.
ADAM (V.O.)
I don’t blame Aspen, or the Jerome, for what happened to me—I blame only myself.
INT. FRONT DESK, HOTEL JEROME. EARLY MORNING.
The porter with the luggage cart takes Adam’s ski bag, boot bag, and duffel bag outside. Adam is checking out with the DESK CLERK.
ADAM (V.O.)
We’ve all been in uncertain situations—when we want to know what happens next.
EXT. ENTRANCE, HOTEL JEROME, E. MAIN. EARLY MORNING.
The local press and the crazed fans who showed up to see Paul Goode have since departed, except for the tall hippie girl. She seems disgruntled and is behaving strangely—scuffing her boots on the sidewalk, kicking a snowbank by the entrance to the hotel.
ADAM (V.O.)
It’s only natural to want to know how it ends. Everyone wants to know the outcome.
It takes only one cowboy doorman to put Adam’s stuff in the van. Both the doorman and the porter have gone back inside the hotel when Adam comes out on the sidewalk. HIS DRIVER holds the van door open for him, but Adam hesitates; he looks at the Jerome, as if capturing a last memory.
ADAM (V.O.)
Everyone hates this kind of ending—the uncertain ending.
The hippie girl has kicked a chunk of frozen snow free from the snowbank. She is kicking it in circles on the sidewalk. Adam looks at her only because she is behaving so strangely.
ADAM (V.O.)
It’s not like writing a novel. It’s easy to know the future when I’m making up the story.
The hippie girl sees Adam looking at her. She seems disinclined to show him her breasts; the crazy girl gives him the finger instead.
FREEZE TO A STILL.
ADAM (V.O.)
At the time, I couldn’t imagine what would ever bring me back to Aspen and the Hotel Jerome.
FADE TO BLACK.
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