LQJT86C
Where's my money, Chad?
(FADEIN: Side-angle view of a 27-inch flat-screen television perched on a hotel room desk dresser. “Zero Signal” by Fear Factory blares from its single speaker, and the screen features two men – CASTOR STRIFE and IMPULSE – battling atop a scaffold above solid plates of glass. In the corner of the screen is an NFW logo, next to an 800 number and website plug)
‘JUST’ MARK (V/O): “...and witness Castor Strife and Impulse GO TO WAR for a FOURTH TIME, as this BLOOD FEUD FOR THE AGES gets a new chapter in the most brutal, death-defying match in NFW history!”
(The camera moves slowly left until it stops on the side profile of CASTOR STRIFE, hunched over at the end of a made Marriott bed, eyes staring large and blankly at the screen which flashes visibly over his face. Now he watches himself on this television promo attempt a ‘Cult Classic’ on Impulse, who reverses it with a hurricanrana that sends Strife crashing through the glass below the scaffold)
‘JUST’ MARK (V/O): “The FALL FROM GRACE, the CRASH that SHOCKED THE WORLD – the World Heavyweight Title changed hands that night in PERTH at an UN-FOR-GETT-A-BLE Reloaded FOURTEEN!”
(Screen changes to a commercial for Lowe’s)
CASTOR: “After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years...you end up worth more dead than alive.”
(Camera rotates to face Castor directly)
CASTOR: “Arthur Miller wrote that. It’s probably true about most things but is especially true about showbusiness, where you cut throats and outcompete and split heads and outcompete until all the competition is dead. And you become LARGE – several orders of magnitude larger than surface level travelers. The only person left to compete with is yourself, and he’s the one you hit the hardest.”
O’CONNOR (V/O): “Harmen received a standing ovation from our crowd over the break, but he’s fallen to his knees for the last thirty seconds.”
(Castor picks up the remote and shuts the television off. He gets up from the bed, and walks over to an open window, next to where he stretches then leans against the wall, looking out suspiciously across the hotel parking lot)
CASTOR: “How can I push? Reinvent, evolve. Me. I. When you talk about ‘you’ and around ‘me’, you should say it as ‘we’. Because I am King of a world that can’t afford to co-exist. This is the solitary life of an undisputed master, the AUTEUR. Get behind my vision, or go to sleep.”
“The last vision I had before Perth was the greatest risk ever taken. I stood high above the Cutting Room Floor, where I was ill-suited against a lighter opponent, a more motivated opponent, and met the ruination of my own design. Impulse, you are the true and rightful champion. You and others have used many words to describe me since then. I prefer “loss”, and since that doesn’t happen to me often, you should take it directly to the bank and into savings. But please, don’t insult me with words like “hubris.”
“Don’t tell me that I shouldn’t have marched on Russia in the dead of winter while I have Western Europe in the palm of my fucking hand. This game is about totality. Control the globe or fuck yourself.”
“If backing off that stipulation meant retaining the belt, then I didn’t want it anymore. The champion must push himself harder than any opponent will push, until the only man who can defeat him is the one in the mirror.”
“And now the first vision of mine since Perth is, oddly enough, a spitting image of myself. So many years internalizing the conflict, it actually split from me and formed a separate part.”
(Smiles)
CASTOR: “Very nice touch. Absurdity will only endear you to me, but the game is getting closer to being up. My associates and I are close, real close, to finding out who you are, and who pays you. I am not interested in some copy, some clone. But in whose best interest are you trying to distract me?”
“JJ’s power struggle becomes much easier with my focus shifted.”
“Fiona knows I want my belt back, and might do anything to keep me away while her protégé Jack Bryant climbs the ladder.”
“Jack Harmen sees that it’s only a matter of time before I get it back, so the lunatic could have paid a friend to occupy me.”
“The prime suspects are all there, but truthfully, my doubts and suspicions are equally strong. I need proof positive, and for the first time in my career, I feel like somebody is three steps ahead of me.”
“Until last week, that is, when I decided on a whim to open one of Alex Austin’s bank statements that still arrive in my mail. Funny I should see this...”
(Takes a piece of folded paper from his back pocket and unfolds it)
CASTOR: (reading) “Scanned check for $425 to the account of Alex Austin from a Mr. CV STRYFE.”
(Looks up, folds the paper and places it on the desk next to him)
CASTOR: “You should have gone paperless, Alex. Now I have you by the neck on the eve of your big moment, a shot at the Triple Crown Championship. You should keep training for that. Train hard (squints eye, squeezes fist). But on that night in Philadelphia, you will leave that stupid fucking necklace at home, meet me in the ring, face to face, and explain to the world and myself the origin of this Stryfe game.”
“Bring me up to speed, protégé. Turn on the lights and we can all watch the roaches scatter. Or I will cut you down before Ocho is even dressed.”
(FADEOUT)
‘JUST’ MARK (V/O): “...and witness Castor Strife and Impulse GO TO WAR for a FOURTH TIME, as this BLOOD FEUD FOR THE AGES gets a new chapter in the most brutal, death-defying match in NFW history!”
(The camera moves slowly left until it stops on the side profile of CASTOR STRIFE, hunched over at the end of a made Marriott bed, eyes staring large and blankly at the screen which flashes visibly over his face. Now he watches himself on this television promo attempt a ‘Cult Classic’ on Impulse, who reverses it with a hurricanrana that sends Strife crashing through the glass below the scaffold)
‘JUST’ MARK (V/O): “The FALL FROM GRACE, the CRASH that SHOCKED THE WORLD – the World Heavyweight Title changed hands that night in PERTH at an UN-FOR-GETT-A-BLE Reloaded FOURTEEN!”
(Screen changes to a commercial for Lowe’s)
CASTOR: “After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years...you end up worth more dead than alive.”
(Camera rotates to face Castor directly)
CASTOR: “Arthur Miller wrote that. It’s probably true about most things but is especially true about showbusiness, where you cut throats and outcompete and split heads and outcompete until all the competition is dead. And you become LARGE – several orders of magnitude larger than surface level travelers. The only person left to compete with is yourself, and he’s the one you hit the hardest.”
O’CONNOR (V/O): “Harmen received a standing ovation from our crowd over the break, but he’s fallen to his knees for the last thirty seconds.”
(Castor picks up the remote and shuts the television off. He gets up from the bed, and walks over to an open window, next to where he stretches then leans against the wall, looking out suspiciously across the hotel parking lot)
CASTOR: “How can I push? Reinvent, evolve. Me. I. When you talk about ‘you’ and around ‘me’, you should say it as ‘we’. Because I am King of a world that can’t afford to co-exist. This is the solitary life of an undisputed master, the AUTEUR. Get behind my vision, or go to sleep.”
“The last vision I had before Perth was the greatest risk ever taken. I stood high above the Cutting Room Floor, where I was ill-suited against a lighter opponent, a more motivated opponent, and met the ruination of my own design. Impulse, you are the true and rightful champion. You and others have used many words to describe me since then. I prefer “loss”, and since that doesn’t happen to me often, you should take it directly to the bank and into savings. But please, don’t insult me with words like “hubris.”
“Don’t tell me that I shouldn’t have marched on Russia in the dead of winter while I have Western Europe in the palm of my fucking hand. This game is about totality. Control the globe or fuck yourself.”
“If backing off that stipulation meant retaining the belt, then I didn’t want it anymore. The champion must push himself harder than any opponent will push, until the only man who can defeat him is the one in the mirror.”
“And now the first vision of mine since Perth is, oddly enough, a spitting image of myself. So many years internalizing the conflict, it actually split from me and formed a separate part.”
(Smiles)
CASTOR: “Very nice touch. Absurdity will only endear you to me, but the game is getting closer to being up. My associates and I are close, real close, to finding out who you are, and who pays you. I am not interested in some copy, some clone. But in whose best interest are you trying to distract me?”
“JJ’s power struggle becomes much easier with my focus shifted.”
“Fiona knows I want my belt back, and might do anything to keep me away while her protégé Jack Bryant climbs the ladder.”
“Jack Harmen sees that it’s only a matter of time before I get it back, so the lunatic could have paid a friend to occupy me.”
“The prime suspects are all there, but truthfully, my doubts and suspicions are equally strong. I need proof positive, and for the first time in my career, I feel like somebody is three steps ahead of me.”
“Until last week, that is, when I decided on a whim to open one of Alex Austin’s bank statements that still arrive in my mail. Funny I should see this...”
(Takes a piece of folded paper from his back pocket and unfolds it)
CASTOR: (reading) “Scanned check for $425 to the account of Alex Austin from a Mr. CV STRYFE.”
(Looks up, folds the paper and places it on the desk next to him)
CASTOR: “You should have gone paperless, Alex. Now I have you by the neck on the eve of your big moment, a shot at the Triple Crown Championship. You should keep training for that. Train hard (squints eye, squeezes fist). But on that night in Philadelphia, you will leave that stupid fucking necklace at home, meet me in the ring, face to face, and explain to the world and myself the origin of this Stryfe game.”
“Bring me up to speed, protégé. Turn on the lights and we can all watch the roaches scatter. Or I will cut you down before Ocho is even dressed.”
(FADEOUT)