Daily Dialogue — March 10, 2015
INT. RADIO STATION — DAY
Debi flips on the “ON-AIR” switch and prepares to speak into the microphone. Martin walks in. Debi sees him. They stare at each other. The song ends. Dead air. After a moment…
DEBI: (on air, groping) WRFN playing all vinyl, all the time. Oldies from the eighties. That was ah… the Specials. Doing… one of their songs…
Debi turns to turntable B and finds it empty. She turns back to turntable A and lets the record roll on.
DEBI: …and here’s another.
Debi swivels around to face Martin.
MARTIN: “Oldies from the eighties?”
After a long pause….
DEBI: I just play my own collection.
MARTIN: It’s nice to see you again.
Debi says nothing, just stares at him, in shock.
MARTIN: How long has it been?
DEBI: Since you stood me up on prom night and vanished without saying a word?
MARTIN: Ten years, I think. What I miss?
Debi slowly grooves into irony, her best defense.
DEBI: Well, let me see… they tore down the George Orwell monument and put up a bust of George Michael. Main Street’s a four-laner, no left turns four to seven. I was married and divorced. And Grosse Pointe is now officially the new sister city to Lower Hutt, New Zealand. We have fiber-optic town meetings every two months.
MARTIN: Here is now there. There is here.
Their eyes lock on each other…
DEBI: Those are the headlines.
The request line buzzes.
DEBI: Hold that thought. (into phone) WRFN FM, Grosse Pointe. All vinyl, all the… (pauses) No Pearl Jam. Call back in ten years.
Beat. Debi makes the move.
DEBI: Tell me about yourself.
MARTIN: I’m in California most of the time. Traveling a lot on business. That’s about it, really.
DEBI: That’s it?
MARTIN: Not much else.
DEBI: What’s your business?
MARTIN: I’m a professional killer.
DEBI: Professional killer. Do you get dental with that?
Beat.
MARTIN: Well, I’m in town for a few days, anyway.
They run out of words, the moment too big for small talk. Martin gets the fear, breaks it off.
MARTIN: Well, I gotta go. But I’ll come back.
DEBI: Okay.
Martin leaves Debi sitting alone, in disbelief.
[In the film she says “What are the chances”, and goes back to her job like he never existed.]
— Gross Pointe Blank (1997), screenplay by Tom Jankiewicz and D.V. DeVincentis &
Steve Pink & John Cusack, story by Tom Jankiewicz
The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Reunion. Today’s suggestion by Jon.
Trivia: Body Count: 14
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Jon: “There are numerous reunion scenes in this film. This one strikes me as most poignant and important since it has the two principals meeting. It is also very subtle in dialog and a lot of subtext implied in the situation, the characters’ baggage, and finally a sort of WTF moment when he leaves and she seems to blow it off as some kind of strange encounter. I love her line in the film ‘What are the chances?’ This encapsulate the whole movie theme of how chancy everything is from his survival to their ever getting back together.”
If you have a good suggestion for this week’s theme, please post in comments.