Mission Impossible II Script
FADE IN:
A WORN SATCHEL (MOVING - DAY)
is being carried by a world weary middle European wearing a black
armband. VLADIMIR NEKHORVICH exits a gleaming building, pausing
for a moment, under a motto clearly visible above his head,
’Where the future is now’. He checks the time.
INSERT - WATCH
set in Countdown Mode. It’s at 19 hours forty-seven minutes and
sixteen seconds and dropping, 19:37.15, :14, :13, :12 etc.
O.S. children are singing:
Ring a ring a rosy/a pocketful of posy/
a tissue a tissue/we all fall down.
Nekhorvich looks to see children at play outside the adjacent
Natural History Museum. They are moving in and around an odd
freeform sculpture.
POV - SCULPTURE AND CHILDREN
a blur where the sculpture seems to be distorting the children,
almost like mirrors in a fun house.
NEKHORVICH
wipes his eyes, a horn honks. He looks toward the sound.
MOVING SHOT - SATCHEL (INT. AIRPORT SECURITY - DAY)
on the belt that takes it thru X-Ray. On the other side a guard
opens the satchel and pokes thru a few toilet articles, personal
items, books, a battleship gray digital camera and - in a small
plastic container marked ’S.G.’ - a small, square shiny object,
hi-tech and at odds with the other items. She pulls out an urn-
shaped vessel.
GUARD
What’s this, then?
NEKHORVICH
(handing her documents)
The ashes of a colleague, I’m taking them
to his family. If you wish to open it,
please be careful.
COMPUTERIZED SCREEN DISPLAY (INT. PLANE - MOVING - DAY)
on the cabin wall displays a colorful map showing the flight
point of departure in Sydney, continuously updating distance,
direction and time to its ultimate destination, Atlanta, Georgia.
CAPTAIN’S VOICE
- folks, we’re a little over two and a
half hours from touchdown in Atlanta, but
if you look out your windows on either
side of the aircraft, we’ll soon be
crossing the southern section of the Rocky
Mountains, a range which includes more
than 50 peaks rising above 14,000 feet.
The chain’s loftiest point, Mount Elbert,
at 14, 433 feet should be coming into view
as we pass over central Colorado shortly..
NEKHORVICH (INT. CABIN - DAY)
seems intent on the map, its changing times and distance. He
checks his watch - the countdown has gone from 20 to three hours
and 32 minutes as Nekhorvich is mesmerized by the descending
seconds whipping by.
ETHAN HUNT sits into shot on the vacant first class aisle seat
beside Nekhorvich.
ETHAN
You keep staring at that watch as if your
life depended on it, Doctor..
NEKHORVICH
Well, yes. I suppose I am a bit anxious.
ETHAN
They’re ready and waiting. You’ll soon be
with old friends.
NEKHORVICH
(meaning Ethan)
I’m with an old friend now, Dmitri.
ETHAN
Sorry it couldn’t be under happier
circumstances.
NEKHORVICH
Yes, I’m sorry too.. ’You’re sorry and I’m
sorry..’
(bemused laughter, then looks at Ethan)
- you do know Gradski thought the world of you.
Nekhorvich is overcome. Ethan puts a comforting hand on his
shoulder:
ETHAN
He was quite a man. Did he know before
the end you two had succeeded?
NEKHORVICH
Yes, he knew. Just..
ETHAN
..not in time to save him.
NEKHORVICH
No. After you’ve lived with Chimera for
twenty hours, nothing can save you. Not
even...Bellerophon.
Nekhorvich pats the satchel.
ETHAN
You carry them together? Safely?
With an almost impish grin and a wink:
NEKHORVICH
Yes, and you’ll get us to a safe place
with them, thank god!..left to my own
devices, I’m an old fart too inept to read
a railroad timetable!..
Good-natured laughter. Cut off by a flight steward who passes
by, giving a sidelong silence in Ethan and Nekhorvich’s direction.
Oxygen masks suddenly deploy from the ceiling. Passengers are
puzzled and alarmed.
CAPTAIN’S VOICE
You Captain again. We’ve experienced a
slight but abrupt drop in cabin pressure..
A passenger struggling with his mask. As Nekhorvich fumbles with
the strap on his mask he notes that the display screen shows
their altitude is below 30,000 feet and dropping. He checks the
countdown time on his watch again. Nekhorvich looks around him.
The flight attendants are conspicuously absent and all the
passengers who have on oxygen masks are passed out.
INT - COCKPIT
The flight crew now wearing their oxygen masks.
CAPTAIN
(into radio)
Pan, pan, pan, Denver Center. This is
Trans Pac Flight two-two-zero-seven, 747
heavy. We are not reading you. We’re
unable to maintain cabin pressurization.
We have initiated a descent to one six
thousand.
The Co-pilot is working on the plane’s altitude when his hands
slip off the controls. His eyes flutter, then:
CO-PILOT
Captain, I don’t..can’t..
He passes out. The Captain, HUGH STAMP, turns to verify that the
relief pilot is also unconscious at the controls.
He then removes his oxygen mask, sets the auto pilot, inputting
numbers to slow the plane and descend. As the craft titles
downward...
INT - GALLERY
The flight attendants are pulling on jump suits. Stamp emerges
from the cockpit.
INT - CABIN
Ethan returns. Nekhorvich beckons to him. Ethan sits. Grinning
around, Nekhorvich conspiratorially:
NEKHORVICH
..it seems we have a problem, Dmitri.
ETHAN
(in the same tone)
You keep calling me Dmitri. You really
shouldn’t.
Nekhorvich’s eyes narrow.
NEKHORVICH
You’re not Dmitri?
With a lightning swift move Ethan breaks Nekhorvich’s neck.
ETHAN
- no.
He grabs the satchel.
ETHAN (cont’d)
(to Wallis)
Wallis, hold onto it.
Wallis slashes the satchel handle open, takes the satchel for
Ambrose. He peels off the latex mask, revealing SEAN AMBROSE.
ETHAN (cont’d)
Ulrich, pull the -
He tears off the vocal oscillator at his adam’s apple, clears his
throat, now as Ambrose:
AMBROSE
- pull the NO2 tank and dump it, it’s potential evidence..
STAMP
(the ’captain’ into shot)
All done, chief..
AMBROSE
(what else)
- right -
(kidding)
- don’t go too far ahead of me now -
STAMP
Not possible..
Ulrich has rolled back the carpet over an access panel just
beneath them that leads to the belly of the plane. Stamp pulls
back the panel, hops into the compartment below which is four
walls of electronic equipment. Stamp kneels and slides back the
floor hatch. The wind howls, puffs of cloud zip by beneath them.
As they descend into the belly:
WALLIS
Checkpoint Charlie plus 30, altitude minus
two-zero-thousand. Airspeed one-seven-
niner knots..
AMBROSE
It’s that time. Go.
They don goggles and, with Ambrose in the lead,
the team leaps, one after another from the hatch, sailing off
into the sky.
INT - COCKPIT (DAY)
An automated voice repeats in an ominous monotone:
VOICE
Terrain, terrain. Pull up, pull up.
The co-pilot stirs. He blearily rouses himself just in time to
see:
A mountain rushing toward him. As mountain meets airplane, the
frame is filled with fire, but when camera pulls back from the
fireball, it is in fact no more than a match head filling frame,
which ignited, lights a fuse..
The MI theme music kicks in, the main credits roll to:
EXT - FACE OF MOUNTAIN (DAY)
For a moment it might be thought part of the same range when the
plane crashed but when Ethan Hunt climbs into frame the angle
widen and titles down, revealing more of where he’s come from
than where he’s going. Aside from the fact that he’s in the
midst of free-climbing what is easily a sheer rock face of at
least a thousand feet, there’s the sunny picture-postcard view of
a lovely valley and pellucid lake thousands of feet below. Ethan
climbs out of shot.
WIDE UP ANGLE (DAY)
revealing the summit, a light breeze hitting the lichen and
whatever growth has a slender purchase on the rocky mountainside,
fluffy clouds overhead.
Ethan into shot. Despite the spectacularly precarious handholds
he’s using to hang onto the mountain and his life, he appears
relaxed, engaged - for him - in the equivalent of busman’s
holiday. It’s leisurely danger for Ethan; one might almost
expect to hear Julie Andrews trilling ’Climb Every Mountain’ on
the soundtrack.
Then a rock he’s been grasping crumbles and Ethan drops about six
inches before he grabs onto the mountain again. As he hangs by
five fingers thousands of feet above the earth he doesn’t seem
terribly concerned until he spots a helicopter.
It’s materialized behind the summit and passes surprisingly close
just overhead, casting its shadow downward over Ethan.
Instinctively, Ethan flattens himself against the rock surface,
as if the copter poses some sort of threat to him. But when
its rotors whir it into the distance Ethan relaxes and resumes his
climb.
A HAIRY OVERHANG (EXT. MOUNTAIN - DAY)
near the summit Ethan departing from the vertical and is now
traversing the mountain with more of his back than his feet
exposed to the earth far below. He’s clinging to the mountain
almost like a fly walking on the ceiling. When he reaches for a
handhold that will restore him to the vertical, he dislodges a
lizard - and manages to catch it before it plunges thousand of
feet to oblivion.
ETHAN
Whoaa..
He pockets the lizard, climbs the overhang.
REVERSE ANGLE - SUMMIT
with Ethan’s hand, then Ethan coming into view and making the
summit. He reaches into his pocket and releases the lizard who
favors Ethan with a stern reptilian stare by way of gratitude. To
lizard:
ETHAN
You’re welcome.
The lizard scampers off, then a low beeping sound at his back
attracts his attention. He turns to see the source of the
beeping, a small package in day-glo colors with a day-glo
streamer. Ethan looks to the sky where the helicopter is now
ominously circling back.
Ethan lifts the day-glo package and waves it in the direction of
the copter. With a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
The helicopter once again turns, banks and disappears. Ethan has
opened the beeping package and finds a pair of sunglasses.
ETHAN’S POV SUNGLASSES
First, a retinal scan.
ELECTRONIC VOICE
Identity confirmed.
SWANBECK
Good morning, Mr. Hunt.
Swanbeck’s face flashes onscreen. Over his introduction of Nyah
is a series of satellite photographs whose subject is so elusive
she never seems to give the camera a clean shot.
SWANBECK’S VOICE
Your mission, should you choose to accept
it, requires you to recover a stolen item,
designated Chimera. Essential to the
mission is the recruitment of a civilian --
a Miss Nyah Nordoff-Hall. She is a highly
capable professional thief currently
active in Spain.
A series of Nyah’s ’accomplishments’, i.e., warrants, complaints,
Interpol summaries of her various criminal activities, as well as
glimpses of the elusive Nyah circulating about Seville.
SWANBECK’S VOICE (cont’d)
Her dossier’s available on I-COM 3. You
have 48 hours to recruit Ms. Nordoff-Hall
and meet me in Seville to receive further
details. Should you or any member of your
IM force be caught or killed, the
Secretary will disavow all knowledge of
your actions.
Swanbeck’s face reappears on screen:
SWANBECK’S VOICE (cont’d)
And Mr. Hunt - the next time you go on
vacation, please be good enough to let us
know where you’re going. This message will
self-destruct in five seconds.
Ethan removes the glasses, then tosses them into space.
ETHAN
If I let you know where I’m going -
The glasses explode in a puff of smoke.
ETHAN (cont’d)
- won’t be on holiday.
Ethan, with a fair amount of disgust, gets to his feet and jumps
off the mountain, in, what for a moment looks like a suicidal
snit. Then, somewhere hundreds of feet below camera, there’s a
little puff of color as the tulip-shaped chute pops out of his
back-pack. Begin the sound of a castanets and the animal-like cries
of flamenco dancers.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT - ANDALUSIAN VILLA (EVE)
Bustling in the activity of a large private party, with arriving
guests and attentive valets, as a young woman, her face unseen,
exits her car and enters the villa.
A FLASH OF SKIRT AND LACE (INT-EXT. VILLA - FLAMENCO DANCERS - EVE)
where to the cries of dancers add graceful feminine hands
wielding the castanets. The dancers perform on a raised platform
and NYAH NORDOFF-HALL’S face can be glimpsed thru the swirling
skirts and pounding heels, looking thru, not at them.
REVERSE ANGLE - ETHAN
looking back in a similar way to Nyah; surreal lighting and the
relentless chorus of pounding heels seem to isolate them in the
crowed party. Nyah continues to look at Ethan over the shoulder
over her wanna-be escort, a very attentive gentleman. Nyah
offers up her empty glass, and the gentleman eagerly takes it to
the bar for a refill, leaving Nyah and Ethan looking at one
another. Ethan approaches her.
ETHAN
Do you know me?
NYAH
No. Should I?
ETHAN
No. You just looked as if you did.
NYAH
No. Just as if I’d like to.
ETHAN
Oh. Well. I think that can be arranged.
NYAH
Not tonight. Bad timing. Sorry -
ETHAN
There’s not enough time in the world for
any of it to be bad.
This stops her. Nyah moves closer to him, until they’re nose
to nose. Whispered but breezy:
NYAH
Look, it’s either you or the rent and I
don’t mind telling you it’s not an easy
choice.
ETHAN
What if I pay the rent?
NYAH
Uh-huh.
ETHAN
Uh-huh?
Glancing at the gentleman making his way back with her drink
then:
NYAH
Go find the wealthy lady you came with and
next time we meet - I’ll pay your rent.
(kissing him, sweetly)
Now bugger off.
And purposeful creature that she is, she takes her frustrated
desire upstairs, timing her footsteps so as to use the sound of
the dancer’s steps to cover her own. Once upstairs, a security
guard near the master bedroom can be seen eagerly following her
down the hall, both moving past a pair of windows, visible to
Ethan. In a few moments, Nyah can be seen past the
windows in the opposite direction, without the guard following.
In another moment or two, a very puzzled looking security guard
can be glimpsed in the first window, looking up and down the
hall, clearly having lost sight of Nyah. Ethan smiles, moves out
of shot.
INT - MASTER BEDROOM (EVE)
Nyah has opened the door and moves swiftly thru the bedroom.
INT - BATH (EVE)
A decadent looking affair with suggestive lighting, mirrored
walls. The tub has a tray across it which includes a wine cooler
chilling a bottle of Crystal and a mound of caviar on a bed of
ice. Nyah can’t resist. She spoons a dollop of the caviar and
downs it before she moves along the frescoed walls of the tub to
its back. There, she pulls out her compact and removes the puff,
revealing an electronic density meter. She turns it on and holds
it at the rear of the tub. Its sweep gauge jumps sharply from
green thru yellow and into red.
NYAH
(her fondest hopes confirmed)
Mmmm.
She now steps into the tub and focuses on the grout between the
tiles just above the sop dish. Her knee eyes search for any
cracks in the grout and she spots one. Using a tweezers she
pulls the silver of the grout out from between the tiles, revealing
something that looks like a credit card wedged between the tiles.
She slips the card into a narrow opening under the sop dish.
There’s the sound of hydraulics and two arms move the marble
casing out from the rear of the tub. Nyah breathes a sigh of
relief and anticipation: kneeling in the tub she finds herself
looking down at an open safe, revealing some half-dozen locked
compartments. As she studies them:
ETHAN
Decisions, decisions.
Nyah looks up to see Ethan’s reflection in the bathroom
mirrors, looking down at her kneeling in the tub.
NYAH
What are you doing here?
ETHAN
Think you’re the only one who can pick a
lock?
NYAH
(not altogether pleased)
I see. You’re not just another pretty face..
Before Ethan can answer, a voice can be heard coming from the
bedroom warbling Granada in Spanish, and with considerable gusto.
NYAH (cont’d)
Oh god. A bloody baritone.
Nyah catches a reflection behind Ethan’s in the bathroom mirror.
She reaches up and grabs Ethan by the lapel, yanking him into the
tub, pulling him down on top of her. Once again they’re nose to
nose.
ETHAN
I take it you prefer tenors.
She glances up at the mirror. In it is the reflection of SENOR
AUGUSTO DE L’ARENA, a big amiable Castilian in his fifties who’s
changing a white dinner jacket that’s had wine split on it. He
breaks into a heavily accented version of ’Now or Never’, and
disappears from the dressing room mirror.
NYAH
Would you mind if I’m on top?
ETHAN
Oh, either way works for me.
With a jaundiced look she rolls over on top of Ethan and begins
working on one of the safe compartments, using a tiny torque
wrench from a tube of lipstick and a carbide pick from a mascara
brush. She glances down and is rather disconcerted. Continues
working with the pick and wrench.
ETHAN’S VOICE
You’re never gonna find it there.
NYAH
(she jumps, dropping the torque wrench)
Damn it! Find what?
ETHAN
His ex-wife’s Bulgari necklace that goes
up for auction Tuesday.
Looking down to Ethan, a touch of indignation:
LOOKING UP
more or less, hands locked behind his neck as he rests against
the raked back of the tub, his eyes and nose inches from Nyah’s
lower pelvic region as she straddles him. Not exactly in the mood
to move:
She stiffens - he knows too damn much.
NYAH
- right..where is it?
ETHAN
Far right.
She immediately switches her efforts from top left to the
bottom right compartment. She’s utterly nonplussed:
NYAH
Where’s the bloody -
ETHAN
(plucking it off his chest,
offering it up like a mechanic
under the chassis)
- torque wrench.
NYAH
- this is very disconerting..
ETHAN
Hey, you put me here. I just do what I’m
told.
NYAH
- right..
She unstraddles him and, with a few deft moves with the torque
wrench and carbide pick - and it’s open. She withdraws a velvet
pouch and opens the pouch. Out spills the spectacular necklace.
NYAH (cont’d)
Lovely.
(starting to close the safe)
Who are you and what’s it going to cost me?
ETHAN
(having sat up)
I wouldn’t do that.
NYAH
Do what?
The alarm goes off.
ETHAN
That.
The bathroom is suddenly filled with security guards, gun drawn
Senor de l’Arena, looking highly upset, pops in.
SENOR DE L’ARENA
Oh, Senor Keyes, thank God it is you!
(in Spanish to security guards,
annoyed)
It’s Senor Keyes, the security engineer.
ETHAN
Well, Senor de l’Arena the goods news is
that the heat sensors were activated. But
Miss Nordoff-Hall, my associate -
Senor de l’Arena kisses Nyah’s hand.
SENOR DE L’ARENA
Mucho gusto, senorita.
ETHAN
- did feel that she had rather too long to
work on the safe before they triggered the
alarm, isn’t that right Miss Hall?
NYAH
Oh yes. Absolutely. Much too long I
should yes.
Nyah’s initial shock and panic slowly gives way to a wary,
intensified curiosity - about Ethan.
ETHAN
Under the circumstances I think we would
recommend re-setting the senors to
respond to a lighter load. How do you
feel about forty kilos, Miss Hall?
NYAH
Indeed.
ETHAN
Well, Senor de l’Arena, there’s no reason
to disrupt your party any longer. we have
some further concerns about the disposition
of your security guards, which you’ll
receive in our written report by fax in the
morning, hard copy to follow. Shall we?
He offers Nyah his arm. They start out. Ethan immediately stops.
ETHAN (cont’d)
Miss Hall. Haven’t you forgotten
something?
Nyah looking genuinely puzzled.
NYAH
The necklace?
Nyah slowly reaches into her dress and withdraws the glittering
string of diamonds and rubies from her bust.
SENOR DE L’ARENA
(a great kidder)
What are you trying to do, senorita? Rob
me.
They all laugh, and Ethan’s got her out the door.
EXT - ANDALUSIAN VILLA (LATE NIGHT - PRE DAWN)
The stars dimming, the sky a gun metal blue. Ethan and Nyah
emerge from the villa, walking slowly. Nyah’s clearly
preoccupied.
NYAH
I’m missing something here, aside from a
500,000 pound necklace. Even after I
botched the job, I could’ve walked out of
there with the bloody thing.
ETHAN
At least you walked.
NYAH
If you weren’t going to let me get away
with it, why did you let me go thru with
it?
ETHAN
Wanted to see how good you were.
I’m hoping we might work together.
NYAH
May I say something, no offence? You
look like a gigolo, you sound like a
thief, you act like a cop - what the
bloody hell do you have in mind?
ETHAN
Working under adverse conditions. Highly
adverse conditions.
NYAH
Sounds smashing. I’m in. Muchacho, mi
carro, por favor! Now be serious. You
couldn’t possibly want me off tonight’s
performance..
ETHAN
You didn’t do that badly.
Her car arrives.
NYAH
(as she moves to her car)
You’re apologizing for me? Quite the
gentleman..
ETHAN
(opening the car door)
Not really. I triggered the alarm..
One foot on the floorboard she freezes, back to Ethan.
ETHAN
Hey, the Bulgari job last week was
flawless. And I’ve always been partial to
pale yellows.
She slides behind the wheel.
NYAH
(as he leads on the car)
I don’t do laundry, or put up with
cheeky bastards who set me up on their
territory so they can poach on mine.
She takes off, spewing bits of gravel and dust in her wake.
Ethan smiles and shakes his head.
ON THE ROAD - NYAH (MOVING)
around curves, hair flying, she’s free. Her car phone rings.
Perplexed, she lets it ring once or twice picks it up:
NYAH
(tentatively)
Hola..
ETHAN
Hi. Would you mind slowing down?
NYAH
Where did you get this number? I don’t
even have it!
ETHAN’ VOICE
Would you like it?
She hits the End button and disconnects. The phone immediately
rings again. She refuses to pick up. Ethan pulls alongside hers.
She looks at him. They speak through the open cars.
ETHAN
Pull over and listen to me, will you?
Just listen..
NYAH
Listen to what?
ETHAN
I need your help and I thin you can use
mine.
NYAH
Your help? What are you talking about?
ETHAN
Scotland Yard, Interpol, every Dutch
authority. I can make them go away.
NYAH
Oh bloody hell. You’re a spy.
She floors it and shoots ahead of Ethan, nicking his car as she takes off.
ETHAN
(to himself)
I deserved that.
SERIES OF DRIVING SHOTS - NYAH AND ETHAN
Ethan rings her again. And keeps ringing. Her face becomes
grim, her flight progressively more desperate and with Ethan’s
pursuit progressively more determined. They are reaching the
limits of adhesion around blind curves.
MORE SHOTS DRIVING (DAWN)
The sky’s battleship gray; Ethan pursues Nyah around hairpin
turns high above the Costa del Sol; they rip thru patches of
marine fog drifting on the road, obscuring it.
Both are appalled by the other’s willingness to escalate risk in
this game of flight and pursuit until Ethan tears thru a fogbank
and sees on his GPS what Nyah can’t see thru the fog -
less than four hundred meters ahead is a turn she can’t possibly
negotiate and if she can’t she’ll plunge off the road hundreds of
feet to rock and sea below. Ringing her number again:
ETHAN
(half to himself)
Slow down, slow down.
She turns up a mound and loses control. She spins out and heads
toward the edge of the cliff.
NYAH
(realizing she’s in trouble)
Uh-oh.
Ethan cuts her off and sends them both into a 540 degree spin.
Her car stops just at the cliff’s edge.
Furious she wrenches open the car door and gets out.
ETHAN
No!
Suddenly there’s no Nyah. Ethan leaps over to Nyah’s car and
sees Nyah dangling over the ocean and rocks hundreds of feet
below, holding the door handle.
NYAH
Oh..oh..
Taking a firm grip on her wrist.
ETHAN
Don’t look down. Just..look at me.
That’s it..that’s it..
He pulls Nyah up to the car, across the seat and half into
his arms. For a long moment it looks like she’s in shock. Then:
NYAH
What’s you name?
ETHAN
Ethan Hunt.
NYAH
Well, Ethan Hunt, what is it you want to
talk to me about?
Thru the veil of morning fog, Nyah looks at Ethan. Her dark eyes
suggest wit, and willingness, and longing.
ETHAN
...more than I thought..
They scarcely to move to bring their lips together:
NYAH
Awfully short notice..
ETHAN
Care to wait a decent interval?
NYAH
Who wants to be decent?..
DISSOLVE:
CLOSE - ETHAN (INT-EXT. SAFEHOUSE - SEVILLE - DAY-EVE)
sleeping. His eyes open slowly. He comes to full consciousness,
his head still on the pillow. Something approaching serious
anxiety informs his features. He lifts his head and looks at his
left, angle widening. Nyah lies on her side facing him,
sleeping serenely. Anxiety on the order of oh-God-this-isn’t-
approved-recruiting-technique, confirmed. He lets his head flop
back on the pillow. Then he turns so he and Nyah are profile to-
profile. As he looks at her sleeping his anxiety fades, replaced
by curiosity and even wonder. He lifts his hand and just
brushes her cheek. Her eyes open. She knows where she is.
ETHAN
So what’ve you got against spooks?
Nyah smiles.
NYAH
When they’ve got your recruiting
technique? Not a thing.
ETHAN
Oh. Well..this isn’t exactly by the book.
NYAH
They’ve got a book for this?
ETHAN
They’ve got a book for everything.
NYAH
The only other spook I knew was a liar.
Charming but absolutely incapable of
telling the truth. He’d lie about his
favorite color. But then I reckon it’s an
occupational hazard. All spies really do
is conceal the truth and tell lies.
ETHAN
Not revealing information doesn’t
necessarily make someone a liar.
NYAH
That’s not the point. In the end what
spies rely on is the one thing they think
they know that you don’t.
ETHAN
Which is?
NYAH
That they’re lying.
Ethan laughs.
NYAH (cont’d)
..once they know that they can
get very very..crosee..
Nyah shoulder and moves into Ethan.
ETHAN
So where did I got right?
NYAH
You’re not a liar. Or you’re an awfully
good one..
(then)
..this thing these blokes pinched..
ETHAN
I don’t know that they ’pinched’ it.
Don’t even know that they’re blokes.
Nyah stops to think about this.
NYAH
Well, then, what I am I doing here? I assume
I’m meant to be some sort of thief-to
catch-a-thief..
ETHAN
So do I. Sort of.
Nyah looks at Ethan, a little worried.
NYAH
Spoken like a spook..you ever afraid?
ETHAN
Of what?
Nyah laughs.
NYAH
Ask a question, you get an answer!..
ETHAN
Damn, you’re beautiful.
NYAH
That’s because I’m on my back.
Quick as a cat Ethan flips Nyah over so she’s looking down
at him.
ETHAN
I don’t think so.
She sinks into his arms.
EXT-INT - STREET - SEVILLE (VALENCIA FESTIVAL) (EVE)
Ethan’s step is unusually jaunty as he bounces along, making his
way thru the festive and jostling crowds preparing for the Crema
portion of the Fallas de Valencia. On this night great papier
mache effigies, some serious, some comic, are placed all thru the
city and torched in great bonfires. Outside the bar Ethan’s
looking for there’s a street vendor, hawking Fallas mementos and
flowers. He starts past the vendor, and it hits him - he’s going
to buy some flowers.
He chooses a colorful spring bouquet so fresh the dew can be
seen on the petals. Ethan pays the vendor, starts into the bar,
and thinks better of walking into Swanbeck with the bouquet.
Turns back to the vendor.
ETHAN
Are you gonna be here a while?
VENDOR
Si, senor.
ETHAN
I’ll pick’em up on my way out, okay?
Ethan enter the bar and goes upstairs to the second floor where
he passes security at a pair of double doors.
INT - IMF BRIEFING ROOM
Swanbeck stands looking out the window. Noisy crowds from the
festival provides a constant walla, and during the sequence, the
first effigies are lit, and smoke and flame provide a vivid
background thru briefing room’s window.
SWANBECK
Fetival’s a pain in the ass. Honoring
saint by setting’em on fire.
(turning to Ethan)
Sit down, sit down.
Ethan sits.
SWANBECK (cont’d)
Let’s you know what they think of saints,
doesn’t it? Damn near set me on fire on
my way over here. As if I haven’t been
burned enough today.
A moment where it’s impossible to tell which way the wind is
going to blow between these two. Then civilly:
SWANBECK (cont’d)
Sorry I barged in on your vacation.
ETHAN
Sorry I didn’t let you know where I was.
SWANBECK
Don’t be. Wouldn’t be on vacation if you did.
ETHAN
Well. You’re sorry and I’m sorry.
SWANBECK
Why did you phrase it like that?
ETHAN
Like what?
SWANBECK
’You’re sorry and I’m sorry.’
ETHAN
You gotta be kidding.
Swanbeck turns to his computer and begins play on a DVD, and
projected onto a computer screen staring back at Ethan is:
VLADIMIR NEKHORVICH
NEKHORVICH
(with exaggerate brio)
Well, Dmitri! How are you?..
Nekhorvich pauses as if waiting for reply. Ethan smiles.
ETHAN
..I’m fine..and you?
NEKHORVICH
I’m fine..
Ethan laughs.
ETHAN
I’m fine and you’re fine..
With Ethan simultaneously whispering:
NEKHORVICH
I’m fine too.. I’m fine and you’re fine - do
you remember, dear fried, how you got
Sergei and I to repeat those lines from Dr.
Strangelove and we gave you the name of that
silly Soviet Premier because we didn’t know
your name?..In those days, you not only
saved our lives, you saved our sanity. ’Now,
then Dmitri - we have this little problem’:
Every search for a hero must begin with
something that every hero requires; a
villain. Therefore, in a search for our
hero, Bellerophon, we created a monster
Chimera. I beg you, Dmitri, come to Sydney
and accompany me to Atlanta immediately.
However we travel, I must arrive at me
destination, within 20 hours of departure.
Forgive this fanciful explanation, but for
now prudence dictates that I communicate
nothing but the gravest urgency.
I fear I can entrust this to no one but
you, Dmitri. as we say, ’I’m sorry and
you’re sorry’..
Swanbeck stops the DVD.
SWANBECK
Let me ask you something. You have any
idea what the hell he’s talking about?
Ethan smiles.
ETHAN
An idea, yeah.
SWANBECK
Like?
ETHAN
Like it’s a good idea to pick him up in a
hurry. And a bad i