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draeven · 2 years ago

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below the cut i'm going to be noting & detailing aspects of the screenplay i found interesting. as of right now, i don't think i'll be altering my canon too much save for some little, tiny things. this is going to be a very long post so you are by no means obligated to read it but if you do you have as much dedication as i do & i commend you for that.

to start off with, top - dollar is not the head honcho, he's 2nd or 3rd in command. the real big bad is called lao.

sarah is instead called "elly" which i dislike. too close to "shelly."

the skull cowboy makes several appearances as a sort of undead mentor to eric & trains him in honing his new supernatural abilities.

( at the hotdog stand )

MICKEY: what's goin' on, elly? ELLY: i went to see a friend of mine. MICKEY: well, how's your friend? ELLY: she's still dead.

eric was, in fact, buried in a suit. still no shoes. what's up with that

not only is he still capable of touching people/objects & seeing flashes of their fate, but he can absorb their pain. this is one of few things i will be applying to my canon.

( on the fire escape )

ERIC: my kitten walks on velvet feet, and makes no sound at all. and in the doorway nightly sits to watch the darkness fall. i think he loves the lady night... ( to crow ) am i alive? am i dead? something else? something in between?

inscrutable. no answer here.

ERIC: ( almost bemused, steadier. a hint of friendliness. ) thanks for sharing that.

eric is not immediately a master at his new abilities. he learns as he goes. also something i will be applying to canon.

he also suffers from a head - splitting pain once the flashes of memory are over. the longer they are, the more drained he is. applying to my canon.

elly/sarah actually calls darla "mom."

when he first holds gabriel, the memory he gets is of himself strumming his strat o.s. on the floor with shelly holding gabriel. he stops, shocked by the pain, gathers gabriel up again. this time:

A MAN and A WOMAN make love on a big bed amidst a hundred points of candlelight. shelly and eric once upon a time. FLASH ENDS.

as the cat, dropped, hits the floor and scrambles out of the way.

CLOSE UP - ERIC. vising his head, teary-eyed, his nose bleeding.

ERIC: no! don't look! no! no!

he whirls unexpectedly and punches his fist completely through the masonry wall. FLASH: eric and shelly in a mock waltz. he spins her and they collapse on the bed. FLASH ENDS.

ANGLE - ERIC slowly pulling his arm out of the wall.

ERIC: ( whimpering ) stop it.

his eyes roll up and he slumps the length of the door frame. a drowning man.

[...] ANGLE - ERIC ON FLOOR. he's awake. pushes himself up. realizes he is in the center of a faint chalk outline on the hardwood floor. he reaches to touch the dark stain of old blood.

FLASH: shelly spills into frame, mouth bloodied. t-bird instantly on top of her, rough. FLASH ENDS.

ANGLE - WITH ERIC. as he abandons the outline and staggers to the window...where he cuts open his hand on jags of glass.

FLASH: eric held firm in the grasp of t-bird and funboy, one arm in each. five bloody bullet holes in eric's chest. the thugs 1-2-3 and hurl eric backwards through the window, which shatters. FLASH ENDS.

ANGLE - ERIC AT THE WINDOW. reeling backwards, same trajectory as in the flash, but toward the floor in SLOW-MO. overloaded. blacking out. AS ERIC FALLS, INTERCUT MONTAGE.

a jumble of good/bad images from the loft: tin-tin embedding a page of paper in the loft wall with a throwing knife...shelly's face as she lights a candle...a POPPING champagne cork...the echoing CANNONADE of the shots that killed eric...skank backhanding shelly...shelly blowing bubbles from a clawfoot tub full of suds...eric catching funboy's first slug high in the chest...NEW ANGLE of the glass in the window blowing out as t-bird and funboy throw eric through...

ANGLE - ERIC'S REALTIME FALL. he plummets to BLACK OUT FRAME. THUMP. out cold.

[...]

SKULL COWBOY: having fun yet? no? ( beat ) i'll give you a hint. remember whatshername? ERIC: shelly? SKULL COWBOY: miss her? ERIC: yes. SKULL COWBOY: kill the men who killed you both, and the day of the dead will be your reunion. ( the skull cowboy prestigitates a flat throwing knife like tin-tin's. eric's gaze follows it closely ) you must use your eyes. ( he points the crow )

as he DUCKS out of the path of the knife he sees through the bird's eyes. he rolls. ON THE CROW. it hops out of the way as the knife embeds in the wall. eric finishes up his roll nearby.

ERIC: goddammit. he grabs for the knife as if to use it on the skull cowboy, but FLASH: eric bouncing off the bedroom doorframe, tin-tin's knife stuck in his shoulder. FLASH ENDS. vising his head with his hands, in pain. too much pain.

[...]

he picks up the cat -- wary of flashes, which don't come this time -- and returns to the window. feeling safer.

ERIC: the last time we saw each other, i didn't do so well. ( holds cat up ) huh, gabriel?

he moves to the fireplace. with his free hand, lifts the tragedy mask off its hook. puzzles it, face-to-mask.

ERIC: i bet you need some cat food...right?

at first, that tragedy mask is what eric wears during his encounter with tin-tin.

FLASH: shelly, sleeping in her divan, a year ago, wakes up as eric ( o.s. ) says "boo." she cracks an eye open.

SHELLY: your scary quotient needs some work

FLASH ENDS.

ERIC AT VANITY. considering old cosmetics. everything he touches will hurt. but he's ready to eat this pain. he grabs a lipstick. FLASH:

SHELLY: i think red's my color, don't you?

FLASH ENDS.

[...]

FLASH: eric, smashed on the street, t-bird's car b.g. upside in eric's pov as he rolls over and blood courses from both corners of his mouth, a definite foreshadow of "the crow." FLASH ENDS.

EXTREME CLOSE - THE MIRROR

ERIC: she always said red was her color. we see only a reflected corner of eric's mouth as he duplicated the blood trail in red lipstick, making one half of a harlequin smile.

[...]

eric and elly/sarah are sitting on a car hood togeter:

ELLY: what are you supposed to be? a clown? ERIC: he smiles for what seems to be he first time. warm, even past his crow makeup. sometimes. ELLY: you look like a rockstar without a job. ERIC: i dabble. may i? he indicates the car hood, a "seat" next to elly from which he may observe the pit. ELLY: if you're not some kinda child molester. eric looks behind himself. who, me? genuinely amused. he shakes his head no and sits down next to elly.

[...]

ELLY: can you play that thing or do you just carry it around everywhere? elly indicates to the guitar strapped to eric's back. ERIC: i can pick out a tune now and again. ELLY: can you play "teddy bears' picnic?" ( re: the doll in her lap ) it used to be her favorite. ERIC: does she have a name? ELLY: no name. you sure ask a lot of questions. elly hands the doll to eric and he experiences a wholly unexpected FLASH: elly and shelly at shelly's vanity, goofing with makeup, test-driving lipstick, the doll visible on the vanity. FLASH ENDS.

instead of "hangman's joke," eric's band was called "diabolique."

the scene with eric, funboy and darla:

FUNBOY: you better take your bird and leave, freako. ERIC: rips open his shirtfront to reveal a circlet of bullet punctures. this gives funboy pause. take your shot funboy, you got me dead bang. FUNBOY: tilts the gun off-target. grins as eric flat-handedly pats his chest, indicating where to shoot. you are seriously fucked up, man. just look at yourself. in a blur, he sighs, and shoots eric through the heart. BANG! he shoots, he scores! then his expression drags a bit. ERIC: looking down and daubing his fingers in the bullet wound. bull's-eye. good shot.

and then they duke it out, eric breaks funboy's shooting hand, asks if it hurts and says "i have some painkiller right here" as he fills the needle all the way with morphine.

during the scene with albrecht he says shelly only said one thing to him before she died. eric lowers his head and says, "my name."

when eric is making t-bird drive, he's rifling through his glove box and tossing out various objects, one of them being "a giant d*ldo ( brief eyebrows up to t-bird )"

when eric has t-bird strapped down in his own car: ERIC: a little restrictive? good. ( chilling ) you held her down and r*ped her. you were the first. she burned while you were inside of her. ( re: bomb ) what's the lag on this? about 20 seconds, would you say? i've comrades in hell, t-bird. give them my best.

[...]

the big shootout scene. everyone is dead but eric and top-dollar.

ERIC: top-dollar, you're the only one here who's still wasting good air... TOP-DOLLAR: five large, in the drawer right over there. i never saw you. ERIC: do you know what you destroyed? TOP-DOLLAR: take the dope too. ERIC: ( backhands top-dollar into a wall. gets in his face, seething ) a year ago. a very nice lady circulated a petition. she died. last hallowen. yes or no. TOP-DOLLAR: that's ancient history. ERIC: it's yesterday! do you know what you destroyed? TOP-DOLLAR: who gives a fuck?! i'm a businessman. you gonna do me, then do me and shut your face! ERIC: you don't even remember... TOP-DOLLAR: i never forget anything, dickhead. that building was a sweep-and-clear; the bitch was a nuisance with her goddamned petition. it got a little rowdy...end of story. ERIC: rowdy. let me fill in some gaps for you. and he grabs top's head the way he grabbed albrecht's earlier, slams top into the wall, nose-to-nose. FLASH: shelly backing away from oncoming funboy in the loft, trying to retreat, nowhere to run, her home invaded, scared. FLASH ENDS. top is quivering, almost helpless in eric's hypnotic grasp. eric winces hard and-- FLASH: shelly cut, bleeding, struggling against t-bird. wild. FLASH ENDS. you're a detail man, top. you need to see more. this time, top tries to twist from eric's grasp but it's no good. FLASH: shelly, comatose in icu, eyes fixed and staring, hoses darting in and out, cold blue refrigerator light. bloody, bruises and broken ( from albrecht's memory ). top is arching, stiffening in pain. all of her pain, top. thirty hours. all at once. eric bears down on top again. top screams. blood begins to leak from his eyes, nose, ears. FLASH: rapid fire close-ups. a jagged compound fracture, jutting. shelly's eye, blood red sclera, purpled and sunken. her scraped-raw hand clawing at air. icebox lighting. a tight shot on her monitor flatlining. eeeeeeeeeee..... FLASH ENDS. top sags in eric's grasp, terror fixing his wide-staring dead eyes. eric lets him drop like a laundry sack. i didn't think you could handle it either.

in the car with albrecht after the big police chase, eric's been shot 14 or 15 times to which he says, "it's only a flesh wound."

ERIC: i'm finished. shoots him a doubtful look. i mean, i've done what i came to do. it shouldn't hurt this much. but it will pass... ALBRECHT: ( not buying it ) right. ( beat ) you sure i can't take you to the emergency ward? ERIC: they couldn't do anything for me. ALBRECHT: how 'bout the morgue? ERIC: no. i have one more thing to do. i have to prepare for an anniversary. this coming night.

back in the loft with eric and elly/sarah as he's burning what's left of his life with shelly:

ELLY: what's going on...? ERIC: a remembrance. ( beat ) a closure. better now. i feel good. how are you, elly, my friend? elly is clearly uncomfortable, clearly looking for an excuse just to see eric. eric is staring at her intently. what is it? ELLY: i knew. i knew i knew you. even with the makeup and stuff you wore. ( beat ) you really loved her, didn't you? ERIC: you brought flowers. as long as you don't forget her, elly, she lives. ELLY: ( upset ) she's dead. she's gone. and now you're just gonna go away and never come back, too. i hate this place; it isn't fair. ERIC: elly...he draws her close. wipes away an errant tear with his thumb. sometimes the people we care about are gone, for no reason. sometimes that's really tough. i cry. but if the people we love are gone, we keep them -- ( he taps elly's temple, then his ) -- right here. it's a big responsibility. and that makes it okay to mourn. ( beat ) i know that if you weren't here, i'd be very sad. ELLY: gives eric a hug. you look funny without your white face on. like it's your day off or something. ERIC: her quizzical expression amuses him. somebody here wants to meet you. gabriel? gabriel the cat has wandered near the fireplace to join them. elly is immediately smitten. happy. ELLY: i remember him! here gabriel...here kitty...gabriel...is he still yours? ERIC: i think he's yours now. the cat seems to like that idea. elly wraps him hugely up in her arms, talking to him: "how're you, gabriel? whatcha doin'?" while elly is preoccupied with the cat, eric gives up his last bit of shelly to the fire - a portrait photo of her, small and creased. he puts it in the fire, watches it burn for a beat, then turns to elly. i have something else for you. eric lifts off his neck shelly's ring for elly's inspection. ELLY: nobody ever gave me something like that before. ever. eric places it around her neck. she beams. ERIC: she would've wanted you to have it. this way, you'll think of her every time you see it... ELLY: and she'll be alive. up here. elly taps her own temple with a smile, keeping one hand on the ring.

on the roof of the loft as eric plays guitar a second time:

dark clouds have gathered to highlight the sunset. eric plays the guitar -- LOUD, the shelly theme in major key. where before it was wandering, uncertain; now it's bold and heartbreaking. definitive. pain replaced by strength and a sense of homecoming. as eric gets to the end of it, the notes are flying out...at the climax, rips the guitar up over his head and brings it down -- SMASH -- on the amp. he's finished here.

later on as eric is approaching the church to rescue elly/sarah:

SKULL COWBOY: stop screwing around. TIGHT ON ERIC. angry, ready to battle. you talking to me? your job is done. you interfere with the living again. ERIC: tell me i'll get hurt. that i might die ( beat ) i've already done that. i don't need anyone's help. yours included. SKULL COWBOY: do this thing and you will be vulnerable. the blood will not return. no powers. no reunion. nothing. ERIC: fine with me. SKULL COWBOY: you'll be alone. ERIC: i'm already alone.

up on the rooftop where the fight unfolds, lao shoots albrecht dead and blames it on eric's interferance. lao has tumbled down the slant of the roof. eric has him by the lapel in a fist, furious; the crow has pecked out lao's eyes:

ERIC: time for a sacrifice. LAO: i don't need eyes to take what i want from you. he embraces eric and RAMS the killing blade deep into eric's back! ON ERIC as he looks down to see the blace protruding from his sternum. tight grimace. a lot of pain. ERIC: can you fly? he pulls lao into a BACKWARD ROLL down the roof, holding him TIGHT. eric lands on his back, forcing the blade through himself and INTO lao. eric completes the roll and KICKS LAO OFF THE ROOF, the killing blade still in him!

after eric has saved elly/sarah, at the cemetery. ready to say goodbye:

ELLY: eric is bloody and out of it. she helps him walk. now do you get to see her? shelly, i mean. ERIC: in a better place, i hope. ELLY: you're not gonna come back, are you? ERIC: his response is halting and uncertain. but he tries to give her hope. he reaches for shelly's ring around her neck, holds it up to her. i don't know if i can. but you have this..and you know where to come. ELLY: you mean you'll, like, dig your way out of the grave? eww. ERIC: amused by this in spite of his grievous injuries. he grasps elly's face in his hands and bends, painfully, to kiss her on the forehead. for you, i'll try. spent, empty, he holds the rose determinedly, but he's never going to make it the few yards back to his own grave. so close. his legs finally go and he collapses onto the humus. one groping hand tries to drag him further. leave me now.

elly has tears on her face. she can't watch this. she turns and drops the flowers on shelly's grave.

ERIC'S POV, his own grave. still too far away to matter. RESUME ERIC ON THE GROUND. he gives it up, his face sinking into the wet grass for a beat before SHELLY'S hand intrudes into frame to grasp his hand. no ethereal glow, no heavenly choir...just a near-dead eric's blank faced astonishment. and he moves forward. [...] eric is gone. the white rose lies neatly in the top of undisturbed earth there

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