"MIAMI VICE"
screenplay
by
Michael Mann
based on "Miami Vice"
created by
Anthony Yerkovich
First Draft
9/22/04
WGAw
FADE IN:
FADE IN:
EXT. OCEAN - CLOSE UP: WATER - MORNING LIGHT
We are at the delicate interface between ocean and
air...liquid and gas...the event horizon where molecules
evaporate. This interchange is ethereal. Then, low
frequencies rumble through depths...louder...closer, now...
And the ocean surface is torn by a 46-foot catamaran and the
ROAR of 2,700 horsepower, rocketing at us at 140 knots...
OFFSHORE RACER: "BORN TO WIN"
in PROFILE.
AERIAL: "BORN TO WIN"
...has a canopy, low like a B-1 bomber and extends a half
mile. It launches off two-foot swells, goes airborne, pushes
to 150 knots with another 1,100 RPM left...
INT. RACE BOAT - SONNY CROCKETT
pilots the "Born to Win" in full helmet. On the throttle and
flaps is RICARDO TUBBS...
EXT. OCEAN - "BORN TO WIN"
leads the frontrunners towards a finish line demarcated by a
couple of $10 million yachts loaded with media. At the last
moment occurs a small power loss, and "Born to Win" gets
nosed into second place by the 46-foot Skater, "Goddess"...
CUT TO:
EXT. MARINA - "BORN TO WIN" - LATER
thunders to the dock, throttled down at low revs. The canopy
is up. Crockett and Tubbs' helmets are off. Dockhands tie
it off. It's the same crowd you catch at a Grand Prix: nine-
figure money, tall, Northern Italian women and minor German
princesses with Swiss educations, no bimbos and no questions
about asset origins. The exception is "Born to Win's"
sponsor, a blonde, dreadlocked, bearded 6'4" SWITEK. He
looks like a dot-com entrepreneur who got out in time. Next
to him is a blonde Ukranian lady with high cheekbones. We'll
see her again.
WINNING CIRCLE - CROCKETT + TUBBS
in second position to the Japanese driver and throttle man of
"Goddess," neither of whom speak English. The #3 boat,
"Bicardi Silver," was driven by David Scott and throttled by
John Tomlinson...
CROCKETT + TUBBS
leave the winning circle among Asian and Mexican
billionaires. As the small crowd breaks up...
A DEEPLY-TANNED PLAYER
named NICHOLAS in Vuarnet wraparounds and buzz-cut white hair
glides by...
NICHOLAS
(low)
Burnett, what's crackin'?
CROCKETT
Nothing.
TUBBS
Maxin' and relaxin'.
NICHOLAS
(doesn't believe them)
Sure. Change your mind; get
inclined? Let me know...
Whatever Nicholas is soliciting, Crockett and Tubbs don't
want. (Nicholas brokers "go-fast" runs, moving loads from
offshore into South Florida. Among guys who pilot offshore
race boats, there are one or two who've never run a load, but
no one's found them yet.) Meanwhile...
CUT TO:
INT. ALONZO STEVENS' HOUSE - A KITCHEN - NIGHT
A couple-hundred-thousand-dollars worth of granite and steel.
Off-screen a restaurant-grade Sub-Zero opens with a hiss.
Fan starts. Beyond the kitchen we SEE through a dining room
to a den. A chair is overturned. We HEAR muffled sounds.
We SEE feet extend through a door jamb. Someone's on the
floor. A television is playing, distantly.
INT. DEN - SEE FAMILY PICTURES
so close they almost come to life. A Venezuelan family, two
boys and a girl in a pool. Maria, Alonzo, the two boys at
their sister's baptism. And we see holding the baby daughter
is Riccardo Tubbs.
A family dinner at a South American restaurant. Tubbs sits
with the youngest daughter on his lap. Maria is on the other
side of him. This is the image that almost comes to life.
We hear the vivacious latin ambience late on a Sunday
afternoon when families take the grandparents and have
dinner.
INT. KITCHEN - SUB ZERO REFRIGERATOR
MOVE from the bright glare of the interior ONTO
the broad neck of a MAN. A Viking is tattooed there. The
image morphs into a naked woman presenting her rear to a
muscled biker next to a chopper above a swastika residing
between shoulder blades. SS lightning bolts are on his neck.
PULL BACK from this MAN, who is bent into the frig because
he's hungry. His head is shaved and he's naked from the
waist up. A BLACK HEFTY GARBAGE BAG is tied around his
waist. Yellow industrial gloves are on his hands. Something
bad is happening in this house...
CUT TO:
INT. HELICOPTER - NIGHT
It's a Sikorski skimming across the water of Biscayne Bay on
a moonlit night at living-room level past stilt houses.
RICARDO TUBBS
pilots the chopper past the brightly lit windows of high-rise
Collins Avenue condos for the fugitive rich...and heads
towards the MacArthur Causeway.
CROCKETT
What's our deal?
TUBBS
Backup in case the Russians get
physical.
CROCKETT
How lucky's Miss Universe gotta be?
TUBBS
Skin has to touch skin. That's the
requirement for the warrant. Then
he makes a credible excuse and he
stops....
(beat)
Her crew blackmailed and asset-
stripped the last mark down to his
social security...
In the back - her long copper legs stretched out under a
short skirt - is GINA CALABRESE.
GINA
This I gotta see...
(beat)
...the "make up an excuse and stop"
part.
CROCKETT
Have faith.
GINA
I have faith. In horoscopes and
fortune cookies...
TUBBS
So?
GINA
Switek pulling this off...? That's
not faith; that's delusional...
Wearing enough of nothing to hide the micro .380, which Gina
checks right now. There's a round in the chamber.
AERIAL: THE SIKORSKI crosses past the stacks of $5 million
condos to a landing pad on a roof. The Miami of the '80's,
that twilight-zone frontier built on coke-fueled cash flow,
is over. The frontier development stage is passed. It has
BECOME Casablanca. Anything goes; everything has a price.
CUT TO:
EXT. ROOFTOP LANDING PAD - WIDE
The chopper rockets in, settles.
INT. UTILITY STAIRCASE
Crockett, Tubbs and Gina descend to the 25th-floor penthouse,
the target. As Crockett and Tubbs continue down to 24, she
looks over her shoulder at Tubbs...
TUBBS
Damn, girl...
INT. SURVEILLANCE APARTMENT (ONE FLOOR BELOW THE TARGET)
PENTHOUSE - CROCKETT + TUBBS - NIGHT
enter. Two surveillance technicians, RICK and FRANK, are
glued to a monitor showing a bedroom in which nothing
happens. LT. CASTILLO is there, out of a past somewhere
between CIA and the Jesuits...
Referring to the monitor on which there are NO PEOPLE in an
EMPTY BEDROOM.
They are watching air move.
TUBBS
This is exciting...
RICK
That's 'cause nothing is happening.
CROCKETT
No shit...?
FRANK
(it goes past him)
Yeah. This is their
surveillance...how they video their
marks? See, we jacked their fiber
optics, like we piggybacked their
signal. Get it?
TUBBS
Cooool...
They exit to...
INT. PENTHOUSE CONDO - CROCKETT + TUBBS
are met at the door by security, who recognizes them, and are
welcomed by their host, UGO. This is the Baccardi Cup After-
Party. The same players from the marina...
OVER CROCKETT + TUBBS
enter an 8,000-square-foot penthouse...offshore racer types,
players, So Bee models...
UGO
Runnin' the Biscayne 200?
Crockett wanders off...
TUBBS
If a coupla new exhaust manifolds
show up...
CROCKETT
approaches a bar and female bartender...
CROCKETT
Gin and Tonic. Plymouth or
Boodles.
BARTENDER
(Scandinavian accent)
Lemon or lime?
CROCKETT
Lemon doesn't go in Gin and Tonics,
darlin'. Where ya' from?
BARTENDER
(leaning in)
Gottingen. That's in Sweden.
CROCKETT
You in Miami workin' on your
complexion...?
She's beautifully bronzed.
BARTENDER
(laughs)
No. I was in Namibia...
CROCKETT
Doing...?
BARTENDER
With the United Nations High
Commission on Refugees. Famine
relief.
Gina's listening on her personal comms.
CROCKETT
Really? I did refugee relocation
in Somalia. But they transferred
me out after I was wounded...
Gina rolls her eyes as she crosses by Tubbs.
GINA
Only African he ever "relocated"
was a $2,000-an-hour Nigerian model
for Gucci, and he got wounded when
she took an NBA draft choice to the
Super Bowl instead of him...
TUBBS
He did volunteer one time...
TRUDY
(entering)
For a massage parlor bust?
(beat)
Why am I here...?
TRUDY JOPLIN is a tall African-American. She whispers into a
small mic. If you looked closely, she's ripped...as if steel
cables moved under her smooth skin. She slides past Tubbs
and Gina...
TUBBS
(low)
...to backup Switek. But only if
it gets lethal.
TRUDY
That's impossible.
TUBBS
Why?
TRUDY
Because you cannot kill him.
SWITEK
all white bling, is arguing with his blade-thin, glassy-eyed,
adrenaline junkie partner, ZITO. Approaching is "Miss
Ukraine." High cheekbones suggest one of Genghis Khan's
horsemen found her maternal ancestor as attractive as Switek
finds her...
Tubbs clocks three beefy Russians in a corner, one is
unusually fit.
TUBBS
And there's Dmitri...
CROCKETT
The honey trap. And there's the
honey.
TUBBS
Hello, Miss Ukraine...
MISS UKRAINE brings Switek his glass of champagne... She
whispers something in his ear...and is led towards a back
bedroom. Gina ambles over.
TRUDY
(to Crockett)
Eleven to seven he blows it.
CROCKETT
(whispers)
Twenty on my man...
TRUDY
You're giving away your money,
fool...
Tubbs opens his Moto as if he's about to make a call...Trudy
looks over his shoulder. What we see is the feed from the
monitor in the surveillance room downstairs.
CLOSER: TUBBS'S MOTO
Two blonde people starting to get naked. Switek and Miss
Ukraine. A second call comes in. Tubbs ignores it.
TUBBS
(to Zito)
You bet your partner?
ZITO
Sure. Switek versus primal impulse
from the amygdala. Higher thinking
versus the lizard brain. Tectonic
plates of libido confront the
cognitive.
GINA
Oh, bullshit. She cops his joint.
He pushes the button.
TRUDY
What's so fucking difficult?
THEIR FACES. They watch. And...Crockett's cell phone rings.
He separates from the group...
CROCKETT
Yeah...?
STEVENS (O.S.)
Sonny...?
CROCKETT
Yeah.
STEVENS (O.S.)
Where's Riccardo?
CROCKETT
On the phone.
STEVENS (O.S.)
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Sonny...
EXT. BALCONY - CROCKETT - NIGHT
enters. He's come outside to hear better.
In the background Gina shakes her head about Switek. He blew
it. Trudy looks at Crockett and sees Crockett's focused,
hearing...
CROCKETT
Who is this?
INTERCUT
WITH:
INT. BENTLEY - ALONZO STEVENS - NIGHT
He's cruising at 85. He's floating in a magnolia leather
interior. But it's bloodstained from his nose and mouth.
He's been beaten. His white shirt is torn. He doesn't
care...
STEVENS
(voice cracks)
It's fucked up. I'm sorry...
CROCKETT
(recognizing him)
Alonzo?
(beat)
What are you talking about? Where
are you...?
STEVENS
They had me from the gate.
CROCKETT
I don't understand...
Crockett's alarmed. He catches Tubbs' eye and waves him
outside...
STEVENS
I gave up nothing on you guys.
Don't worry. I kept you and Rico
out of it. Only the Feds. They're
on their own...it's all their deal,
anyway, so fuck 'em.
CROCKETT (O.S.)
Alonzo, what's goin' on?!
STEVENS
After I check on Francine and the
boys, then I'm gone. Sonny, tell
Rico I'm so sorry. I wanted you to
know...
Tubbs joins Crockett on the balcony.
CROCKETT
Where are you?
STEVENS (O.S.)
...look after her. Ask Rico to.
Okay? Do that for me. I had to do
it. They had me from the gate.
Do that. Whatever you can do for
them. Okay?
(breaks)
Look what I did to them, Sonny...!
CROCKETT
Alonzo...!
STEVENS (O.S.)
Goodbye.
Crockett's phone goes dead.
TUBBS
What is it?
CROCKETT
Alonzo...
TUBBS
Stevens?
CROCKETT
(nods)
Something's wrong.
Crockett's entering a number while...
TUBBS
(dialing)
I'll try Francine...
Meanwhile Crockett HEARS...
MACHINE VOICE
(recording)
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Our office hours are...
(Crockett punches three-
digit code)
FBI AGENT VOICE
F.B.I....
CROCKETT
(cuts him off)
This is Detective Crockett. Miami-
Dade P.D. Patch me through to your
Special Agent in Charge, James
Fujima? It's an emergency...
FBI AGENT
He'll be in on Monday...
CROCKETT
I said, "emergency." If he's not
reachable, who's running the
weekend? The ASAC?
FBI AGENT
We don't give that out...
CROCKETT
Listen carefully.
Crockett compels himself to be patient. Meanwhile, Tubbs has
struck out with Alonzo's home phone.
CROCKETT (cont'd)
(into Nextel)
An informant who is working one of
YOUR cases right now called me.
YOU may have a problem. So get me
somebody on the other end of this
telephone who knows what the hell
I'm talking about...!
Meanwhile...
TUBBS
(into phone)
C'mon...
VOICE (O.S.)
Miami-Dade PD Tech...
TUBBS
(into phone)
Bobby G. The firefly we used to
have on Alonzo Stevens' Bentley,
check if it still runs; if so,
launch Air Support. Locate the
Bentley...
(pause, listens)
I don't know...we haven't worked
with him for six months...
CROCKETT
(waits, then hears a click
on his Nextel)
Hello?
FUJIMA (O.S.)
This is Agent James Fujima.
CROCKETT
Detective Crockett.
FUJIMA (O.S.)
What's your Miami PD badge number?
CROCKETT
4-4-7 Charlie 12-92.
FUJIMA (O.S.)
(pause)
Okay. What's up?
CROCKETT
A C.I. we cut loose to your Joint
Interagency Task Force. Name of
Alonzo Stevens. Now, he's YOUR
informant. Stevens, called us. I
haven't spoken to him for six
months.
I do not know what case you have
him on. I do not know what he is
talking about. But whatever he is
doing for you, it sounds like it is
going bad. Right now...
FUJIMA
How do I discuss operations over an
open line?
CROCKETT
How do I know?
(beat)
I got the call from Alonzo on an
open line. That is the hand we
have been dealt at this moment, at
eleven-forty-seven o'clock Friday
night. Okay? I am trying to alert
you, here.
(beat)
You know whether or not...you have
a thing goin' down. I do not.
(beat)
But we know this guy. I think you
know this guy. Normally, he is
cool. Tonight he is distraught.
That is atypical. That engenders
foreboding. Do you understand the
meaning of the word "foreboding"?
As in badness is happening to your
deal right fucking now?
CUT TO:
EXT. ABANDONED METAL SHED, INDIAN RIVER - WIDE - NIGHT
Nothing. Rusting marine parts and corrugated metal fall into
weeds next on a channel of the Indian River. It cuts through
inner-city Miami. Distant noise. But...
INT. METAL SHED - ARYAN BROTHERS
in low light are strapping up. Kevlar vests go over tattooed
arms and chests. Glimpses of swastikas. Handguns in
waistbands. SMGs (Small Machine Guns) slung from shoulders
over white shirts, business-suit jackets. Everybody wears
surgical gloves. Shoes are industrial.
REAR SHOT: TWO OF THE BROTHERS
are leaving. One carries a very long rifle with a flash
suppressor. It is a bolt action .50 caliber Burrows.
NEARBY ON THE RIVER
is a second Aryan Brother sniper team with an identical
weapon aimed at an empty lot a thousand yards away across the
Indian River...
INT. METAL SHED
Two Suburbans and an Escalade pull out...
CUT TO:
EXT. INDIAN RIVER - EMPTY LOT
Caribbean freighters seized by US Customs rust at the bank.
MOVE IN. Two Cadillacs are parked. Waiting. A door opens.
An interior light comes on. MOVE CLOSER. Two Russian
slickster types. Patient. One looks at a watch. The other
triggers his cell phone. A meeting is imminent.
MEANWHILE:
INT. FBI OFFICE - RAC JAMES FUJIMA - NIGHT
Empty except for the FBI Agent in a sweatsuit carrying files,
as if he stopped by when Crockett's call came in. He's on a
computer. He picks up the phone...
FUJIMA
Guy's involved in a "meet"...
CROCKETT
"Buy and walk"? "Buy and bust"?
"Reverse undercover"? What?
FUJIMA
Meet and greet. "I flash you some
of mine, you flash me some of
yours?"
CROCKETT
And the deal goes down at another
place at another time.
FUJIMA
That's right.
CROCKETT
...so there's no industrial-
strength HRT weapons team out there
tonight?
Crockett puts his Nextel on "speaker" so Tubbs can hear, too.
FUJIMA
Correct. Flash samples. Flash
cash.
TUBBS
(into phone)
Haitian, Dominican, Russian,
Israeli?
FUJIMA
White supremacist types.
Crockett's impatient.
CROCKETT
OMGs, Mongols, Nazi Low-Riders,
prison gangs?
FUJIMA
NLR, we think. I wanna know...
TUBBS
(sarcastic)
Oh, good...
FUJIMA
...what else, what else did he
indicate to you? I need to know
everything he said.
CROCKETT
He is saying they had him from the
gate. He is saying to my partner
and I and to his family "goodbye."
What does that tell you?
CUT TO:
INT. MIAMI-DADE P.D. CHOPPER - SWITEK + ZITO
in the back seat get lucky. The pilot reacts as the
TECHNICIAN in the copilot seat has picked up a signal from
the FIREFLY...the LOCATOR...on Alonzo's Bentley.
SWITEK
(keys radio; too much
static, tries cell phone)
Sonny, we got him...
INT. BLACK SIKORSKY CHOPPER - CROCKETT + TUBBS
Tubbs pilots it while Crockett gets the location of Alonzo's
car and repeats it into the headset to Tubbs as the...
EXT. SKY OVER MIAMI - C + T'S SIKORSKY - NIGHT
banks hard left and heads for north 95 towards Lauderdale.
Meanwhile...
CUT TO:
EXT. INDIAN RIVER - WIDE: THE DEAL - NIGHT
Three Aryan Brothers in business suits get out of the rear of
the Escalade and Suburban with a driver in each. Our two
"Russians" approach from their Cadillac with a backup
Cadillac and one driver on the other side.
CLOSER: ARYAN BROTHERS. Friendly. Hip-hop culture has
invaded White Supremacist gangs. Buzz cuts. Goatees. A
couple of diamond earrings.
RUSSIAN #1
...sample now is okay. And we want
sample load when we do deal...
ARYAN BROTHER
Sure, man.
RUSSIAN #1
What inventory you can supply...?
ARYAN BROTHER #1
Meth. Glass, ice, K's, E's,
Mitsu's, Ames, Ex...whatever you
need. Coke? Tonnage. And
Colombian H. But give us a heads
up...
The Aryan Brother pops him a couple of vials.
ARYAN BROTHER #1 (cont'd)
Ice. Spectra-analyze that shit.
And party-on with the coke. You
are looking at ninety-two percent
pure...none of that jumped-on
powder they sell up in New
Yorioo...
ARYAN BROTHER #2
Yeah...
(beat)
Now, let's see the green...
One of the Russians puts his hand on a weapon as the other
opens up a Nike sports bag.
RUSSIAN
Never seen money before? This is
called "money."
Aryan Brother #1 reaches into the bag at the wrapped stacks
of hundreds. Flips through a couple, takes one or two at
random. Russian nods for him to go ahead.
ARYAN BROTHER #1
Okay. You got lotsa green. We got
all the goodies. We party.
Larry'll call you in the AM and
talk money, quantity, time and
place...
WIDEN. Everybody goes back to their cars. As the two
"Russians" get into theirs, Aryan Brother #1 turns from the
running board of the Escalade with his driver's door open.
ARYAN BROTHER
Hey, Ivan! I forgot to ask you
something, my brother...
He looks at his partner and nods, who says something into a
Nextel.
ARYAN BROTHER (cont'd)
...they have a decent death-benefit
program in the FBI?
For the Russians in the car, time freezes. As they start
to react, they're blown up by .50 caliber rounds from the two
sniper positions. The .50 caliber rounds go right through
car bodies, sheet metal, upholstery, glass, human flesh,
bone, more upholstery and metal and out the other end.
Another round goes through the passenger door, through the
passenger, through the driver, out the driver door and into
the night...
WIDE
The three Aryan Brothers approach the steaming cars with the
chopped-up occupants and take the gym bag full of cash. The
Escalade driver dons night-vision goggles. They load up and
drive off as we hear the "thump, thump" of Air Support and
some distant sirens. Meanwhile...
CUT TO:
INT. MIAMI-DADE CHOPPER - SWITEK + ZITO - NIGHT
at 170 knots watching a thermographic image of Alonzo
Stevens' car on a monitor weave through traffic northbound on
the 95... SEE Tubbs' Sikorsky beyond Switek + Zito as it
swoops from a higher altitude right past the Miami-Dade
chopper, banks and dives for the freeway.
EXT. FREEWAY
Tracking with Stevens' Bentley from the front.
The black Sikorsky is almost on the Bentley's hood. Tubbs
racks the chopper sideways so that Alonzo can see Crockett in
the copilot seat...
CLOSER: CROCKETT
has his handgun out and is waving Alonzo over to the
shoulder. Tubbs keeps the chopper almost blocking Alonzo's
Bentley. Alonzo pulls over. Tubbs wheels around and lands
on the shoulder. They approach...
ALONZO STEVENS
exits the Bentley and walks toward Crockett and Tubbs. He
holds his hand out to keep them at a distance.
Freeway traffic roars past. Crockett and Tubbs don't get too
close, heeding Alonzo's warning...
TUBBS
(incensed, over traffic
noise)
What the hell did you do?
STEVENS
The Feeb gig was I front a coupla
undercover, Russian-speakers to
them. One's ATF. And broker the
deal. Set up the meet with the NLR
types...
Stevens takes a low-resolution E-mailed image from his pocket
and hands it to Tubbs. Tubbs looks up, shocked, hands it to
Crockett. Stevens' head rotates loosely on his
shoulders...his mind's elsewhere...
CROCKETT'S POV: IMAGE
Alonzo's wife, Francine, is bound - clothes torn - to a chair
in a TV room. On the floor are two young boys bound with
plastic ties. Paper bags are over their heads. Francine's
eyes are as large as saucers. Around her neck is a necklace
of C-4 explosive connected to a detonator.
STEVENS (cont'd)
(shouts)
So I gave them up, man! Gave up
the Feds! Gave up everything
I knew. Now I got to go home...
CROCKETT
How'd they get onto you?
STEVENS
How do I know? But it was from the
get-go. Knew the FBI had run me
into them.
(beat)
Sonny, I gotta go...!
MEANWHILE:
INT. ALONZO STEVENS' HOUSE - TRUDY - NIGHT
and a Miami PD SWAT team crash through the front door.
Another team through the back. Trudy in a tactical vest is
second in with a 12-gauge. The house is empty. Gina and
other detectives hang in the rear. First SWAT team "clears"
the living room, dining room. Second clears the kitchen,
maid's quarters...
INT. ALONZO STEVENS' HOUSE - DOOR TO DEN - NIGHT
...last room to clear...center of the house. SWAT teams
appear around corners. Weapons up. The looks on their faces
tell us nobody is here...nobody alive...and what they see
gives even these veterans pause as blood pools around the
legs of a family and overturned chairs. Alonzo didn't save
anyone.
TRUDY
(after changing channel)
Hello, Sonny...?
EXT. FREEWAY - TUBBS
on police radio listens to a message from Trudy while...
STEVENS
(to Tubbs)
I gotta, I gotta go...!
TUBBS
Alonzo...
STEVENS
What...?
TUBBS
(voice cracks)
Alonzo, you don't need to go home.
Now Alonzo knows.
STEVENS
They said they wouldn't hurt them,
wouldn't hurt them if...
TUBBS
They lied.
CROCKETT
They been known to do that...
Alonzo Stevens has a strange look in his eyes. He looks at
Crockett and Tubbs, as if to say something. He doesn't.
Crockett and Tubbs walk towards him, to reach him...to
console him...
BUT ALONZO STEVENS
backs away. Looks at them sadly. And before they can stop
him, he steps out onto the freeway, opens his arms, and
embraces the front bumper of a 70 m.p.h. 18-wheeler.
INT. MERCEDES CL-500 - CROCKETT + TUBBS - NIGHT
Grim, silent, race through Miami traffic to the crime scene
we know is ahead because...
OVER TUBBS' SHOULDER we see all the lights from two dozen
emergency vehicles a quarter mile ahead. Death is not
procedural or casual, not when it's somebody you know, like
an informant you worked cases with. Cell phone rings.
TUBBS
Yeah.
CASTILLO (V.O.)
What's your twenty?
TUBBS
Quarter mile away. We see the
lights...
CASTILLO (V.O.)
Turn around.
TUBBS
(taking cell)
We know these people...!
CASTILLO
Grieve elsewhere.
CUT TO:
INT. PARKING STRUCTURE, TOP FLOOR - ANGRY MEN - 3 A.M.
in a concrete space. We've entered mid-scene.
FUJIMA
We're not certain...
CASTILLO
You said Nazi Low-riders...?
FUJIMA
We're not certain!
TUBBS
C'mon, man!
FUJIMA
We think NLR. We don't know!
Alonzo only fronted as a broker for
our guys to make the meet. He
wasn't deep into the crew.
CROCKETT
White gangs...? It doesn't track.
TUBBS
White gangs is tweakers and a
crystal meth lab in a trailer park.
Bounce around the old lady Saturday
night and get your recidivist ass
busted back...
FUJIMA
Not anymore. This is a distribution
network out of South Florida,
moving poly-drug loads, crystal
meth through coke, to Nashville,
Atlanta, Memphis, Cleveland. And
computer fraud, identity theft.
It's like that.
CASTILLO
(to the point)
Tell them what you want.
FUJIMA
They knew about Alonzo, before he
made a move on them. They had our
operation. They've cut into us.
CROCKETT
How?
FUJIMA
We don't know.
TUBBS
Break your encryption? Hack your e-
mail? Employee databases?
Somebody on the inside?
FUJIMA
We don't know. And that's the
point. Maybe there's a mole.
Whatever, it's a disaster. And
it's a Joint Interagency Task
Force. I have DEA, ATF, U.S.
Customs components in on it. So
the penetration could be from any
one agency. What we do know is I
have to suspend operations right
now from undercover work through
interdictions 'cause I have to
assume our Operational Security is
blown.
TUBBS
As in, your ass is dead in the
water.
FUJIMA
But Miami PD wasn't part of the
J.I.T. And from what Alonzo said,
he didn't give you up.
CROCKETT
So what do you want?
FUJIMA
To recruit you.
Pause.
CASTILLO
...I didn't want you around the
crime scene because it's crawling
with federal law enforcement. We
don't know who's straight up, who's
not...
CROCKETT
Recruit us to do what?
FUJIMA
Get into business with this crew,
identify them. Illuminate their
network. If you're lucky, discover
their source, how they penetrated
us. We'll indict and take it from
there...
CROCKETT
How do we do that? Make a buy?
(wry)
That went well...
TUBBS
Reverse undercover? WE supply to
them?
FUJIMA
They got a steady stream of supply.
So, no...
CROCKETT
From whom...?
FUJIMA
A Colombian producer. Named
Archangel de Jesus Montoya-Londono.
CROCKETT
Never heard of him.
FUJIMA
From the North Valle area. New.
Low-level, we think.
TUBBS
Aryan brothers are not going to
change-up suppliers. So...
CROCKETT
Transpo? How they bringing the
loads in...?
FUJIMA
They're not. They collect in
Miami. Montoya, the producer,
handles deliveries. That's his
end, and he varies the routes. We
got some FLIR off an AWAC of a
coupla go-fast boats, on one run,
that's all.
Fujima boots up his military-spec laptop to view the FLIR
video. Meanwhile...
TUBBS
Track with me, here...
(beat)
They knew the "Russians" were
undercover Feeb? They should have
no-showed. But, no, these guys
show anyway, and commit murder upon
federal officers. And steal all
your money...
(beat; to Fujima)
What does that say to you?
CROCKETT
(speculating)
It says, "We do not fear you."
(to Fujima)
It says, "Fuck off and die." It
says, "We get down for
recreation..."
Fujima's Dell laptop glows to life. Two almost
indistinguishable boats and their wakes are SEEN.
CROCKETT (cont'd)
Blow that up...
Crockett's attention goes to something atypical he spots
about the wake emerging behind each boat. He exchanges a
look with Tubbs. But they say nothing.
TUBBS
(to Crockett)
So?
CROCKETT
We could try to run loads into
these guys.
(to Fujima)
Run a few loads for Montoya into
South Florida. Into this group.
FUJIMA
You need to consider a few issues.
CASTILLO
(to Crockett + Tubbs)
...you'd be operating outside
territorial United States. Your
badges do not count. You have no
authorization to carry weapons. If
you're busted, it could take a long
time to get you re-patriated. And
there's no backup...
(to Fujima)
And you will share with them all
your intel on Montoya...
FUJIMA
Sure.
CASTILLO
I mean full disclosure.
FUJIMA
Of course. From my side, I don't
WANT to know anything about what
you're doing or how you do it...
(to Castillo)
So let me know if we're on...
Fujima splits. Castillo waits until Fujima's car pulls away.
CASTILLO
(to Tubbs)
About the Stevens family, I'm
sorry. I know you were close to
them.
TUBBS
I was the kids' godfather.
CASTILLO
(intuits)
And...?
TUBBS
"And" what?
CASTILLO
I got to know. There is never any
room for "personal"...
CROCKETT
(for Tubbs)
He is fine. And we know the jokes.
When it gets vengeful, things get
messy. When they get messy the
wrong people die...
(beat)
Everybody gets it.
CASTILLO
Good.
TUBBS
And the answer is "yes."
(beat)
Before she met Alonzo, once upon a
time, a long time ago.
(beat)
You bet it was personal.
...and is now compartmentalized in the past.
CASTILLO
Okay.
(to Crockett)
What'd you spot...?
CROCKETT
Three wakes off the back of those
boats. Who runs three Sterling
engines off a deep-V hull?
TUBBS
Sal Maguda.
CASTILLO
He any good?
TUBBS
Oh, yeah...
CASTILLO
So what's gonna persuade Montoya to
change off Sal Maguda running his
deliveries...?
It's a rhetorical question.
CUT TO:
EXT. INDIAN RIVER - THERMAL IMAGE OF TWO DEEP V-HULL GO-FAST
BOATS - NIGHT
They're two feet out of the water on their dry dock, next to
a Marine Shed.
It's an unlikely location because derelict factories, cheap
apartments, weeds and marine scrap metal are the
neighborhood.
EXT. SURVEILLANCE LOCATION - CROCKETT + TUBBS
and a SWAT team in the weeds across the river. They include
SGT. JEAN-LOUIS BASTIDE, a Haitian in dark sweats. They all
are in plain clothes.
BASTIDE
Odile, she say they're pregnant...
We don't know what that means, yet.
TUBBS
Yeah? Okay. Only Jean-Louis and I
do the talking...
CUT TO:
INT. MARINE SHED - DOOR - NIGHT
Both steel doors EXPLODE as if their molecular structure,
itself, disintegrated from one BLAST of Tubbs M-40 grenade-
launcher firing a canister of ball bearings like a king-size
shotgun on steroids as...
GUARDS
react, but Crockett draws down on one with an AK-47. Bastide
wounds the second GUARD who had drawn down his H & K. A
Third Guard begs to live in French Patois. They own the
place. And Crockett sees...
800 individually-wrapped bricks of North Valle Colombian
cocaine are on a table.
TUBBS
Comme on dit...
(Like they said...)
JEAN-LOUIS
Charger et les recoit d'ici...
(Load 'em up and get out of
here...)
BAD GUY
You crazy? Que fais-tu?
TUBBS
Que faisons-nous? De qu'a-t-il
l'air, fou! Nous voulons tous
votre drugs.
(What are we doing? What's it look
like we're doing, fool? We are
stealing all your dope.)
Suburban crashes through the wreckage of the door and backs
to the table. Jean-Louis and SWAT #1 start throwing bricks
into the back. Tubbs with Crockett exit.
EXT. MARINE SHED - DRY DOCK - CROCKETT + TUBBS
approach the two deep V-hull go-fast boats with three engines
off the back. Tubbs cracks the breech of the grenade
launcher and loads a 40-millimeter shell, while he strolls
down the dock...
CROCKETT
tosses two Willie Peters (white phosphorus grenades) into the
boats. Tubbs fires the M-40 at a third boat, which explodes
flame, followed by...
TWO CARNATIONS OF WHITE PHOSPHORESCENCE
destroy the smuggler's Strykers, which we saw in Fujima's
video. Crockett + Tubbs have just put Sal Maguda out of
business. They walk away and around the side of the shed,
disregarding the curious citizens of Little Haiti, come to
watch the fireworks...
CUT TO:
INT. MERCEDES CL 600 ON A MIAMI STREET - CROCKETT + TUBBS -
BRILLIANT DAYLIGHT
drive. Crockett reaches into a paper bag full of cell phones
and grabs one. He dials up a number, grabs another and hands
it to Tubbs.
CROCKETT
(in the phone)
Hey, Sailor...
(pause)
Yeah, I'm good.
(beat)
Got a hole in the
calendar...looking to charge up the
cash flow.
(waits)
Yeah, later.
Crockett struck out. While...
TUBBS
(into phone)
Hey, Nicholas, my ace. Wha's up?
NICHOLAS (V.O.)
You know. Same old...
TUBBS
(into phone)
We got idle all of an instant. You
got something from somewhere that's
got to go someplace, somewhen,
which is not too distantly in the
future...?
INT. COLLINS AVENUE CONDO - NICHOLAS - DAY
...the guy with the white hair.
NICHOLAS
It is fortuitous that you called...
CUT TO:
EXT. LA PERLA DISTRICT OF SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - TWILIGHT
Corrosion and decay. People look coldly at us. Malevolence
and malefaction on every corner. No one's picked up the
garbage for a month. Poverty in the Caribbean half-light...
CROCKETT & TUBBS
cross the street to CAMERA from their rental car. The La
Perla section was a 16th Century haven for pirates. It's had
little civic improvements in 400 years.
They enter a nightclub - shabby neon.
INT. NIGHTCLUB - CROCKETT + TUBBS - TWILIGHT
There are no customers. They're cautious. Men stop them
and frisk them. They expected that.
CROCKETT
We're from Nicholas to meet José...
They're waved to the rear. They start towards a back table.
A small group of people wait...
OVER CROCKETT + TUBBS APPROACHING: JOSÉ "COCHI LOCO" YERO
He's a former right-wing Colombian paramilitary from the
North Valle near the Pacific coast. He runs operations,
communications and security. He has cold eyes and a corpulent
face. He's notorious for using torture to ferret-out
informants. Right now he watches these two Americans
approach. Security people are on either side of him.
JOSÉ YERO
(extends hand)
José...
CROCKETT
Sonny Burnett...this is my partner,
Rico.
JOSÉ YERO
Sit.
As Crockett sits, he notices that at a table a few to the
side is a woman. This is ISABELLA. Behind glasses, she
seems immobile, filled with intelligence, well-dressed in
subdued Tom Ford and staring at him. Reading him. Crockett
holds the look that extra beat and turns back to business...
CROCKETT
(to Security)
Dos café.
He's security, not a fucking waiter. But Yero nods.
Security fetches coffee, anyway.
TUBBS
So lay it out, my brother...
JOSÉ YERO
Nicholas said you okay. That's
nice. But how I know if you any
good?
CROCKETT
What...?
JOSÉ YERO
Who you run loads for? Cause other
than Nicholas, you knows you?
Tubbs looks at Crockett. They thought it was a done deal.
CROCKETT
(dark)
My mommy and daddy know me.
Isabella tilts her head imperceptibly.
TUBBS
And we didn't come down here to
audition. Business auditions for
us...
(beat)
...and know who we are and know
they want their load run by us
before Nicholas calls.
CROCKETT
That way we do not waste AvGas or
our motherfucking time.
Yero's security reacts to the tone and raises weapons. A few
start up out of their chair as...
ZITO + SWITEK
appear at the door, SMGs from shoulder straps. Zito flips a
D14 hand grenade which Crockett snatches out of the air,
pulls the pin and slams on the table. Everyone FREEZES.
Only Crockett's hand pressure restrains the clip.
CROCKETT (cont'd)
(goes right up in Yero's
face)
You want to "know" shit? Who the
fuck are you? You got a side deal
with U.S. Customs to open up the
coast in a few spots...in exchange
you flip them some gringo runners?
Like us...?
TUBBS
You wearing a wire?
Tubbs rips open Yero's shirt.
CROCKETT
Or DEA? The Feeb?
Yero's shirt...open to the waist. No wire. Yero's furious.
Yero's people have weapons pointed their way. They outnumber
Switek and Zito. Slack's taken up on triggers. It's on the
edge. And the edge is overloaded. Tubbs reads that, warns
Yero...
TUBBS
People gonna walk into this place
and say, "Ola, hijo! That some
crazy wallpaper. Whew...it wild!
Is that a Jackson Pollack?"
CROCKETT
"No, viejo. That was José Yero,
splattered all over his
motherfucking wall."
TUBBS
So we can close each other's eyes
right now. Real easy. Real fast.
(pause)
But, then, nobody makes any
money...
Yero gestures his security to calm down....one notch.
Crockett and Tubbs still hold the grenades.
Then Crockett opens his shirt. No wires. So does Tubbs.
Pause.
JOSÉ YERO
(flat)
Equipment?
TUBBS
Slow and low, Adam A-500s...
(Yero looks quizzical)
...carbon composite, stealthy, 1400
nautical-mile range, thousand ki
payload...all the way to Caravels
and 727's from a source country to
a transshipment point. Small
freighters. We've done
containers...
CROCKETT
And specialize in very fast go-fast
boats for coastal runs.
TUBBS
What kind of weight?
JOSÉ YERO
We don't talk weight. We talk
logistics.
Isabella sits, watching this. She drinks her coffee.
JOSÉ YERO (cont'd)
You get longs and lats for the
pickup. Open ocean. You run it
in. On shore, our people receive
the loads.
CROCKETT
(interrupts)
The people on shore who handle a
load we run are our people, not your
people. No tweakers, dopers, first-
timers we don't know. They didn't
do time with us, they ain't doing
crime with us.
TUBBS
What you get from us is a date. A
place. "In the parking lot of a
Jack-in-the-Box in north Miami." At
such-and-such time, an eighteen-
wheeler will be there. Keys in the
ignition. Ready to roll. You pick
it up. And you drive it...
(waves his left hand)
...away.
CROCKETT
Money thing is done in advance in
places where there are no guns.
Because when money and guns get
together, there is violence...
JOSÉ YERO
You afraid of violence?
CROCKETT
I am not John Wayne. There is no
"S" on his chest. We get down if
the play calls for it. But we are
into business and making money.
TUBBS
And violence is extra. And
expensive. So how much weight you
looking to move?
JOSÉ YERO
Nothing. 'Cause how you do
delivery on the beach, I don't
like. Maybe this does not work.
CROCKETT
Then it don't work.
TUBBS
What happened to the last
transporter you had?
JOSÉ YERO
What do you care?
TUBBS
(to Crockett)
Do we need this...?
CROCKETT
(rises)
Red light, green light, José?
JOSÉ YERO
(doesn't answer, leans
back)
I'm also called "Cochi Loco." That
means "Crazy pig." 'Cause I
enforce security and get people to
tell me what I need to know. That
part of what I do, you never want
to find out about.
(pause)
Other people will negotiate the
money and go or not go. Not me...
TUBBS
Then what were we talking to you
for?
JOSÉ YERO
I had to lay eyes on you.
CROCKETT
And...?
Isabella watches Crockett...
JOSÉ YERO
(to Tubbs)
You seem okay.
(to Tubbs re: Crockett)
But him? I don't like... how he
looks...
Everything goes from tense to lethal. Has Yero made them?
TUBBS
What do I care what you think about
how he looks? You wanna fuck my
partner or do business?
JOSÉ YERO
Wait by the phone.
(pause)
You get a call. Or maybe you
don't. Until then, piss off back
to where you come from...
Crockett flips the hand grenade and catches it with his left
hand...and he drops it in front of José Yero. It spins on
the table. He had reinserted the pin. And they back out.
CUT TO:
INT. MIAMI SAFE HOUSE - TUBBS IN THE SHOWER - NIGHT
Contemplative. Offscreen a door opens. Entering is Gina
Calabrese. She's naked. She washes his back. She dumps too
much shampoo on his head. He tries to clear it from his
eyes. Laughs. They start to make love under the water, in
the steam, through the misted glass, offscreen we hear an
engine rumble...
CLOSER: GINA
Somebody's coming.
TUBBS
...Sonny can wait.
Tubbs and Gina are not random lovers, they're in love. The
look in her eyes, the openness is pure femininity behind the
Bronx presentation. She smiles, touches the side of his
face.
EXT. SAFE HOUSE, ON THE INDIAN RIVER - CROCKETT - NIGHT
ties up a 75' Sun Seeker. It looks like a 38' deep-V
offshore racer on growth hormones. Crockett's alone, as dusk
fades over the '60's ranch house on the river. It's under
tropical trees, with one strip of white neon utility lighting
outlining the flat eave.
INT. SAFE HOUSE, KITCHEN - CROCKETT
let himself in. He's at a kitchen stool at the counter when
Tubbs enters in sweats.
TUBBS
Anything?
CROCKETT
Nothing.
Gina enters in a robe...
GINA
(beat)
"Hi, Gina. Hi, Sonny."
CROCKETT
Hi, Gina.
(putting shopping bag on
table)
This is from Frick and Frack.
Trudy?
TUBBS
(re: bag)
What do we got?
Crockett pulls out three overly-large cell phones...
CROCKETT
Satellite. New encryption.
Supposedly sharper than the G...
(to Gina)
How good's our background?
Tubbs and Crockett look at the Mac screen as Gina boots it
up. Gina's fingers tap dance on the keyboard.
GINA
You're so not the PD, if you got
busted on a DUI, you're in serious
trouble...you're bad men back to
grammar school.
(to Tubbs)
San Quentin. Pelican Bay.
(to Crockett)
Marine Corps. Statesville.
Pelican Bay, where you guys hooked
up. Now you're too smart and too
fast to get jacked again...
CROCKETT
How will it stand up?
GINA
If they ran the rental car or lease
on this place...even if it's EPIC
database in El Paso...they'd have
to work through the layers of
bullshit three weeks deep. Then
they'd find your deeper, hidden
criminal selves...
INT. LIVING ROOM - BAD 3 AM TELEVISION - LATER
No one's watching it.
INT. BEDROOM - GINA
asleep. Tubbs' eyes are wide open, staring...
INT. SECOND BEDROOM - ECU: PAGER
lights up. Beeps. Crockett's hand grabs it. It's the
summons from José Yero.
INT. KITCHEN - GINA - PRE-DAWN
GINA
(Lazily)
What am I supposed to do after I
get my nails and hair done...?
TUBBS
Reality TV and stay by the phone.
That's what all wives-in-crime
do...
He leans over and kisses her. She holds firmly the back of
his neck and looks into his eyes.
GINA
Be...careful... You hear me?
He winks at her in assurance and he's gone. Her lazy smile
drops off. "Careful"...she's not so sure he will be...
CUT TO:
INT. LEAR 55 JET - TUBBS PILOTS
Crockett in the copilot seat. Switek and Zito are in the
back, barely awake. Zito hands out coffee. Switek's
stashing weapons behind the fuselage upholstery. Tubbs is
clearing US air space as we...
EXT. SKY - AERIAL: LEAR JET
rockets through cumulonimbus against a black sky up to 35,000
feet.
TUBBS
Where we meeting 'em...?
CROCKETT
Port-Au-Prince.
EXT. PORT-AU-PRINCE AIRPORT, RUNWAY - LEAR JET - DAWN
touches down, drives towards us... Turns towards commercial
aviation facility...
CLOSER: HATCH
opens. Switek and Zito emerge to rental cars with two car-
rental clerks waiting...
CUT TO:
INT. PORT-AU-PRINCE HOTEL ROOM - DOOR - DAY
Crockett and Tubbs make a careful entry. Hands on weapons,
carrying bags...
CROCKETT
What do we got?
TUBBS
Five minutes...
We see TRADECRAFT. They clear the room. They check for bugs
and external surveillance. They pull curtains. Tubbs from a
bag pulls a scanner. Under the two beds. Behind the
picture. The lamp. The telephone. Meanwhile...
CROCKETT
"traps" the room to reveal if it had been searched while they
were gone. He aligns the suitcase perfectly parallel on the
bench. A matchstick goes against the closed closet door. A
ballpoint pen is leaned against the telephone.
TUBBS (cont'd)
...show time.
From his bag Tubbs pulls a Smith & Wesson J-frame hammerless
in .357 Magnum. He holsters this on his ankle. A Remington
780 shotgun with pistol grip, sawed-off to a 12-inch barrel
gets slung on a bungee-cord shoulder strap under his right
arm. .9mm under his shirt in his waistband and two spare
magazines clipped to his belt.
CROCKETT
loads a .45 "race" gun with rounded sights and a magna-ported
barrel, cross-drawn, and a blunt .45 Para-Ordnance in the
small of his back. They're ready.
INT. CORRIDOR - THEIR DOOR
opens. Crockett "traps" that door, too, with a small piece
of tape.
CROCKETT + TUBBS
All of it tells us that where they are and where they're
going is a high wire act without a net. No backup. Their
badges don't work. There is no law; there is no order. They
are in a state of nature where people get killed for their
shoes.
DISSOLVE
TO:
EXT. PORT-AU-PRINCE CEMETERY (HAITI) - CROCKETT + TUBBS -
LATE AFTERNOON
wait. Shadows on white limestone monuments. Bird songs.
DISSOLVE
TO:
WHITE MAUSOLEUMS - DUSK
They wait. And wait. And nothing happens.
TUBBS
They watching us watching them
watching us waiting for them? Or
what?
CROCKETT
Who knows...
Still apprehensive, concluding they're victims of a "no-
show"...
TUBBS
That's it.
They split.
CUT TO:
INT. HOTEL - THIRD FLOOR CORRIDOR - CROCKETT + TUBBS -
TWILIGHT
approach their door. Crockett stops. The tape "trap" is
torn. Weapons appear in their hands. Someone's been here.
INT. HOTEL ROOM - CROCKETT + TUBBS
enter stealthily. Then, they relax. They need not have
bothered being so careful about detecting a clandestine
surveillance.
OVER CROCKETT + TUBBS
The room is overtly destroyed. Not one piece of furniture is
unbroken. Walls have been opened. Pictures ripped.
Curtains. Their stuff's strewn all over. And, then...
DOORS CRASH
in. HAITIAN PARAMILITARY in soccer jerseys and shorts with
assault rifles...
BEDROOM DOORWAY - FOUR MORE PARAMILITARY
AK's are aimed at Crockett and Tubbs' heads. Crockett's .45
and his Para-Ordnance are in each hand. Tubbs' shotgun is
aimed at the front door, his .9mm at the men streaming in the
windows. Frozen moment. A woman's voice...
ISABELLA (O.S.)
(to Crockett)
Put your guns on the table...
(enters, sits)
If we wanted you dead, you would no
longer be drawing breath in Miami.
We wouldn't have brought you all
the way here.
CROCKETT
Really? So, what is this, a party?
Crockett + Tubbs put down their weapons.
TUBBS
We'll have room service wipe up the
furniture...and bring drinks.
Isabella says something in French. The Cops ease-up.
Isabella's personal security frisks Crockett + Tubbs and
remain. Paramilitary leave.
CROCKETT
Glad we came. This place is a lot
of fun if you're Doctors Without
Borders. So...?
Isabella takes off her glasses. She's Afro-Cuban.
ISABELLA
I run down the numbers. Nothing is
very negotiable. Small loads? We
pay three thousand a ki.
We pay your fuel costs up front
plus ten percent. The next ten
percent on U.S. landfall.
TUBBS
Define small.
ISABELLA
Two, three thousand a ki.
Two thousand ki's, your end is
$6,000,000.
(beat)
Complex transshipments or dealing
with containers, these have front-
loaded costs we pickup.
(beat)
For this kind of weight, the
balance of 80% is when our buyer
picks up the load.
(beat)
Transactions are offshore. Dollars
or euros. Secure internet
transfers. We have lists of Cayman
and Isle of Man banks infiltrated
by IRS, to be avoided...
(beat)
No transactions of cash or other
banking instruments take place on
U.S. soil...
(beat)
That's the deal.
CROCKETT
I thought we had to meet the Man.
ISABELLA
You do.
CROCKETT
When?
ISABELLA
Right now.
As she leaves...
INT. MERCEDES - CROCKETT + TUBBS - NIGHT
in the back seat on a rural road. Isabella is not with them.
One of her Russians is. In the front seat, his SMG is ready;
his eyes never leave Crockett and Tubbs.
EXT. ROAD - CARAVAN
A military Hummer in the front carries Isabella with her
security. Behind is a crew cab with bench seats loaded with
Haitian paramilitary.
INT. MERCEDES - TUBBS
They approach a town. He nudges Crockett. A police
roadblock's ahead.
CROCKETT
has seen something else. He indicates the pager on his
waist.
TUBBS' POV: PAGER - NO SIGNAL
That's what's surprising. Tubbs pulls his cell phone.
Meanwhile, they're slowing down for the police roadblock.
Crockett gets tense...
TUBBS
watches. His cell's SIGNAL STRENGTH INDICATOR steps down to
zero.
EXT. POLICE ROADBLOCK - COPS
stop the caravan. Is this turning bad?
INT. CAR - CROCKETT
alarmed.
EXT. ROADBLOCK - HAITIAN COPS
check under the vehicles with mirrors. See all the weapons.
Salute. Usher the convoy past.
INT. MERCEDES - CROCKETT + TUBBS
exchange a look. Then they get it. The cops work as
security for the narcotrafficker. The caravan advances
towards a major intersection. This one is blocked-off by
Haitian military.
EXT. SECOND CHECKPOINT - CAR DOOR
is snatched open. Haitian soldiers search Crockett and
Tubbs. They defer to the Russian-speaking security.
Mercedes pulls forward...
CROCKETT
eyes his pager; Tubbs his cell phone: no signal in an urban
area? Blocking signal traffic is something the CIA does over
Baghdad. It's not supposed to be happening in Haiti on a
dope deal.
CROCKETT + TUBBS
SEE a third circle of security approach.
PRIVATE-SECTOR TYPES IN BUSINESS SUITS
carrying automatic weapons, some more casually dressed, some
with night-vision goggles. The vehicles stop.
EXT. TOWN SQUARE
Crockett and Tubbs are directed to get out. They're pushed
around and searched. A working class Glaswegion Scot, a
couple of 5'10" Brits are off to the side with short hair and
shoulders that are too deep and faces like Rugby players (ex-
SAS). Russians are ex-KGB. Languages overheard: smatterings
of Russian, Hebrew and English. Crockett and Tubbs look at
each other: they get it. This is the cream of private
sector security. And it says top dollar infrastructure.
THEY + WE SEE: EXT. TOWN SQUARE
Four avenues lead in. Each avenue is blocked. The square is
closed down to vehicles and pedestrians. Locals have
disappeared. In the center of the square are FOUR MATCHING
BLACK SUBURBANS.
CROCKETT
gestures to Tubbs to look up. They see...
ROOFTOPS: TWO-MAN TEAMS - SNIPER + SPOTTER
with night-vision goggles...
CROCKETT + TUBBS
are clean.
CROCKETT, TUBBS + ISABELLA
cross through a no-man's land. It feels like being in the
open in Kosovo.
TUBBS
checks out the first Suburban's uplink satellite dish on a
hydraulic mast. The rear's converted into computer equipment
sitting in ruggedized racks...
INT. SECOND SUBURBAN - WIDE
Doors open. The interior has been converted into a
luxurious, limo-like office with swivel seats. Isabella
followed by Crockett and Tubbs enter. It's occupied by
ARCHANGEL DE JESUS MONTOYA-LONDONO. He's not flashy. He has
smooth skin, slightly opalescent, black eyes. His right arm
is normal length, but shriveled.
MONTOYA
Please take that seat on the
side...
TUBBS
Thank you.
MONTOYA
(polite, friendly)
Excuse me because I am very busy
and have many things to do, so this
will be brief. Yes?
(beat; not waiting)
We will try you on a "run." One.
To build trust. We do a thousand
kis. In all matters, when you work
for us, you must do exactly what
you say you will do.
(beat)
In this business with me, if you
say you will do a thing, you must
do exactly that thing.
(beat)
Then? You will prosper beyond your
dreams and you can live in Miami in
millionaire style.
(beat)
If you are arrested, there will be
lawyers made available to you in
the United States. You will use
them. Anything you need, you will
be provided by me. It cost you
nothing. You will contact and work
through José Yero on logistics and
communications. To do with money,
you will work through my wife,
Isabella...
Crockett notices that Montoya lightly holds her hand. It's
confident. And he sees the slight smile on Isabella's face
as she watches he and Tubbs...
MONTOYA (cont'd)
More than I, in finance and
business, she is very dangerous. I
look forward to our doing work
together. Whether we do or not, it
is unlikely we will meet again. So
I extend my best wishes to your
families...
(to Tubbs)
Particularly to your beautiful
wife.
(beat)
Thank you for making this long trip
to see me...
Dismissed, they exit.
EXT. TOWN SQUARE - EXTREMELY CLOSE: TUBBS
Subterranean alarms are going off. Tubbs finds himself in
this small city, occupied by narcotraffickers and their
security in the middle of nowhere. Urgency agitates Tubbs.
He controls it...
CROCKETT
in the town square, now, too. But Isabella stayed inside
Montoya's Suburban. Now, she lowers her window.
ROADBLOCKS
break up. Montoya's Suburbans pull out. The security cordon
deforms. It all disappears around them. It leaves only the
Mercedes, a driver, and Crockett and Tubbs...
CLOSER: CROCKETT
looks after the caravan.
CROCKETT'S POV: ISABELLA'S EYES
in the side-view mirror on the passenger side. She is
looking at him.
CROCKETT
holds that look.
ISABELLA'S EYES IN THE MIRROR
holds his.
CROCKETT
Sound deadens. His attention is on the woman in the
mirror...until it's broken by Tubbs' attention to his cell
phone.
TUBBS' CELL PHONE
Signal strength returns. Tubbs punches in numbers.
TUBBS
(low)
...who did we just meet?
He waits. A phone rings. It's picked up by Gina.
GINA (O.S.)
Hello...?
Tubbs is relieved...
TUBBS
You okay?
GINA
Yeah.
TUBBS
You sure?
GINA
Yes. What's up?
TUBBS
Nothing. Calling to say hi...
What's up with you?
INTERCUT WITH:
INT. SAFE HOUSE, KITCHEN - GINA
GINA
Bored.
To Tubbs, that's good news.
TUBBS
Okay...see you soon.
GINA
...and thanks for the flowers.
EXT. HAITIAN TOWN SQUARE - TUBBS
TUBBS
What flowers?
GINA
The bouquet, here. Five-hundred
dollars worth of roses...yellow.
Pause.
TUBBS
There a note?
Pause.
GINA
You mean with the flowers...?
TUBBS
What's it say?
GINA
"Salutations from the south..."
A deep chill.
GINA (cont'd)
I...I thought it was from you.
And, now, she gets it. Gina is in the kitchen. Alone, in
their secret safe-house location. She and Tubbs have nothing
to say. He looks to Crockett. The message from Montoya-
Londono is clear: I know you. I can reach out and locate
you our yours. Anytime. YOU ARE NOT SAFE.
TUBBS
We're on our way...
INT. KITCHEN - GINA - NIGHT
TUBBS (O.S.)
(forced casual)
So why don't you...meet the
plane...
We sense this is code. It means get the fuck out of there
right now!
GINA
(cool)
Okay.
TUBBS
Good idea.
(beat)
We'll grab a bite.
Gina ends the call, drops to the floor to the wall, kills the
lights, holds her Sig .9mm at her side as she moves deeper
into the interior...
CUT TO:
INT. CUBAN CAFE ON CALLE OCHO, MIAMI - TUBBS + GINA - 4 AM
Close on their two faces. He's holding her hand under the
table. The noise of the surrounding crowd is a ROAR. That's
the idea. They want their words buried under noise...
PAST GINA: CROCKETT
discreetly at the door, watching the street. Trudy, Switek
and Zito are at adjacent tables.
GINA
...the lease, the phones, the
cars...layers of false ident.
Would take the FBI weeks. How long
did it take them? Three hours?
Four?
(re: the note)
This means, "We can reach out and
touch somebody." Like Bad
Teleflora.
TUBBS
(cuts in)
...even if they could run the
identities you built to EPIC, all
they'll find is more cover...
Trust what you built. It's
quality, girl. We're cool...
GINA
(leans in; holds his hand
tighter)
...you are trying to reassure me
because you know when people get
anxious, they make mistakes.
You're worried about me. Do not
be.
(into his eyes)
I am careful. I am cool. I got
Trudy, backup, whatever. You worry
about you. Because you are the
ones who are in denied territory,
not me. If your focus is on me,
you'll miss something coming at
you. That's how people slip up.
Get hurt. And I'd die if anything
happened. You worry about you.
You and Sonny...are in the
dangerous place. I'm fine...
Gina leans back in her chair. Their eyes still connect
across the distance between them. Their hands still touch.
GINA (cont'd)
(loud)
Fuck 'em. They sent us some
flowers. Big deal. Thanks for the
flowers...
Gina Calabrese shrugs. Tubbs laughs, and we are...
INT. SAFE HOUSE - BEDROOM - 4 AM
Low music. Dark shadows. Half-light washes the walls from
passing headlights. Tubbs are Gina are naked. It's the
lovemaking of a man and a woman when they hold precious the
moments they have because they know that in these moments
they are safe. And that the present is fleeting. And they
know their time together is about luck. Because life is
short. Departure is imminent. Nothing lives forever. It's
in their faces and their eyes...
CUT TO:
INT. SHACK (GUAJIRA PENINSULA, COLOMBIA) - CROCKETT - DAWN
A lantern lights his face. The night is soft. Crockett's
with a couple of campesinos, playing poker and drinking beer.
Whoever's shack this is, is a Tupac Shakur freak. His image
is on all the walls. A diesel truck starts and pulls away
outside.
EXT. LANDING STRIP - TUBBS - NIGHT
checking the cargo tie-downs inside an A-500 Adam aircraft.
He's sweating. His shirt's off. The cargo is ten black
plastic-wrapped and taped bundles. Like any good pilot,
Tubbs trusts nobody but himself to tie-down the load. The
rear seats are removed. There's a plastic bladder holding a
reserve of 50 gallons of AvGas.
INT. SHACK - CROCKETT
wins. The girls shriek. Crockett pushes the money towards
the Campesinos. They refuse. Crockett insists. One will
only accept the money if Crockett accepts his Randall hunting
knife. He does. Tubbs is in the doorway.
CROCKETT
We set.
Crockett kisses the girls, gracious about the gift. Tubbs
looks out into the night.
TUBBS
To the limit.
CROCKETT
You worried about the tree line, US
Customs AWACS, or something else on
your mind?
TUBBS
Like...?
CROCKETT
Gina in the Miami pad.
(no answer)
You gonna give me phony denials?
TUBBS
No.
(beat)
You gonna give me phony
reassurances?
CROCKETT
No.
TUBBS
Good. So let's go...
They head toward the strange-looking plane. It's a single
fuselage with two propellers...one at the nose, one at the
tail. Off the wings are two booms that connect to a rear
wing. It's a Burt Rutan aircraft design.
There is neither metal nor exposed exhausts for radar or IF
to spot. It does 200 knots at 22,000 feet. It'll fly,
forever, 1,000 kilos of flake worth $23 million, and the
total air weight is less than two Bentleys. It's the
smuggler's dream airplane.
EXT. LANDING STRIP - END OF RUNWAY - A-500 ADAMS
heads for the tree-line. It will not make it. At the last
moment, Tubbs pulls back the stick and the plane lofts over
the trees, clipping the tops...
INT. A-500 - CROCKETT
throws a look sideways at Tubbs.
EXT. SKY - A-500
airborne over the Caribbean, heading north...
CROCKETT (O.S.)
(into radio)
Transglobal Airlines flight zero-
zero-zero...is in the air...
ZITO (V.O.)
Roger that.
INT. A-500 - CROCKETT - MUCH LATER
is dozing. A signal.
Tubbs points up and to the right. Crockett wakes, looks. An
Aero Commander Turbo Twin is paralleling the A-500's course.
Now, it slides over them...almost into a collision. It sits
right over the A-500, separated by only 75 feet.
INT. OPA-LOCKA AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL - TRAFFIC CONTROLLER - DAY
handling a myriad of flights, reacts. On his radar he sees
next to the image of the Aero Commander, a ghost image....
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
Eleven-ten, Sierra, do you have a
visual on another aircraft...?
INT. AERO COMMANDER - SWITEK + ZITO - DAY
Switek is flying and looks down at the A-500 below...
ZITO
Negative, Opa-Locka.
INT. OPA-LOCKA AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL - TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
keys his radio.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
Opa-Locka Air Traffic Control to
JIT 0-seven-six-Nellie-Charlie...
AWAC (V.O.)
Hello, Opa-Locka. What's up?
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
I've got an Aero Commander coming
in on a two-seventy-nine heading,
but I had a double image...like
there's another plane there, now
I'm only picking up on one. What
do you read?
INT. US CUSTOMS AWAC - RADAR OFFICER
RADAR OFFICER
Let me see...
His FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) picks up Switek and
Zito's Air Commander. He flips through all the different
modalities of detection, including thermography, for anything
else suspicious in the airspace...
AWAC RADAR OFFICER
(into mic)
Too many Mai Tais at lunch...
You're seeing double. One blip.
One plane.
EXT. SKY - SIDE SHOT: THE AERO COMMANDER LIKE A PANCAKE ON
TOP OF THE A-500 RIGHT BELOW IT
We get the joke. The A-500 with its stealthiness under the
Aero Commander together like a single footprint.
AERIAL ANGLE: TWO PLANES
piggybacked, enter US airspace and cross the coastline into
Florida.
From underneath, the Aero Commander sweeps to the right on
approach as Tubbs radically dives for the trees, hugging the
contour at 220 knots at 150 feet...having snuck this plane
and its load into the United States of America.
CUT TO:
EXT. CIRCLE 6 MOTEL, PARKING LOT - U-HAUL-IT TRUCK - NIGHT
Alone in the acid-yellow glare of the sodium vapor lights.
We wait. We don't know why we're here.
PARKING LOT PERIMETER - SAWGRASS
MOVE IN...and we REVEAL staked-out are Crockett, Jean-Louis
and Tubbs...
CROCKETT
Neptune gonna show?
We don't know who he's talking about.
JEAN-LOUIS
Oh, he'll show. This is his kind
of deal. Crime on crime. Who's
gonna call the cops?
CROCKETT
(skeptical)
Usually his thing is street
dealers. Torture their families
until they cough up the stash.
This...?
JEAN-LOUIS
He's ambitious.
TUBBS
Heads up...
ESCALADE
Lights off. Cruises through the parking lot past the U-Haul-
It to the other side and disappears.
TUBBS (cont'd)
That's slick: Neptune's Escalade's
worth more than the real estate.
But no one's supposed to notice his
drive-by?
CROCKETT
Here's another incognito genius...
ANOTHER ANGLE: MALIBU SS
cruises the other end of the parking lot. The Escalade
returns. All's clear. Both converge around the U-Haul-It
truck. Out of the Escalade steps NEPTUNE - 6'4", narrow-
shouldered and bald. From the Malibu and back of the
Escalade, Four more Haitian ZO POUNDERS with handguns,
shotguns and shades...
NEPTUNE
pops the lock on the U-Haul-It with a crowbar. He rolls up
the door expecting millions worth of cocaine. Instead he
comes face to face with the barrel of a 12-gauge...
TRUDY
April Fool, motherfucker.
Trudy whips the butt end of the shotgun around, caving in
Neptune's cheekbone and nose...
WIDER - NEPTUNE
goes down for the count. Switek - under the truck - rolls
out. Crockett, Tubbs with shotguns, Jean-Louis and Zito with
CAR-15s emerge from the perimeter with bright lights on
shouting for the Haitians to freeze...
TUBBS
(Patois)
Arrete! Arrete! Freeze!
(to one)
Et vous, mo-fo!
A 250-lb. ZO POUNDER brings up his weapon. Crockett BLOWS
the guy's legs out from under him. Zito disarms him. The
other two are disarmed.
NEPTUNE
is rolled over by Crockett. He plastic-ties his wrists and
feet. Others are manhandled...
JEAN-LOUIS
(in French)
Get the fuck in the truck...!
Zo Pounders, plastic-tied, are thrown into the truck with the
thousand kilos of cocaine. But not Neptune. The gate is
rolled down and padlocked.
CUT TO:
INT. SAFE HOUSE - CROCKETT - NIGHT
staring at his satellite cell. Waiting. He looks out the
window at the passing river. Soft voices from another
room...probably Tubbs and Gina. It's five in the morning.
It rings. He answers.
JOSÉ YERO (O.S.)
Client got delivery. But there
were..."extras" in the back of the
truck.
CROCKETT
"Extras" tried to relieve us of
your weight...
(beat)
And by the by, you know of a player
in Overtown who goes by the name of
"Things Aquatic"?
JOSÉ YERO
I do. We don't do business with
him...
CROCKETT
He tried to..."do business"...with
you. Around ten. His place. Be
there.
JOSÉ YERO
I'll be there.
EXT. OVERTOWN STREET - JOSÉ YERO IN A TINTED EXCURSION - DAY
cruises storefront churches, chacouteries, Baptist missions,
Haitian restaurants and palm trees. Men in dark trousers and
white shirts lean in doorways. The SUV preceding Yero stops
three houses before us. The Excursion with Yero stops two
houses beyond. Security - very casually - deploys. NOW,
Yero approaches...seen through the curtains of the window
we're looking through. Reveal Tubbs watching.
And, he crosses to the door and opens it as Yero cautiously
enters.
INT. LIVING ROOM - YERO
And his face registers surprise.
CROCKETT
Look familiar?
DOPE
Carefully stacked in the living room are the PLASTIC-WRAPPED
BRICKS OF COCAINE THAT CROCKETT AND TUBBS STOLE FROM SAL
MAGUDA'S WAREHOUSE WHEN THEY BLEW UP HIS BOATS.
Hog-tied and bleeding all over his clothes, in the corner is
Neptune. His mouth is taped. He's shaking his
head...disclaiming, disowning and disavowing...
TUBBS
This the load you lost a while
back?
JOSÉ YERO
It is. He try to take tonight's
load?
CROCKETT
Yeah.
JOSÉ YERO
And what do I do with him?
TUBBS
(shrugs)
Whatever you want. Like we said,
we're not into violence.
Yero looks around the corner and sees Switek and Zito in the
dining room, casually at ease with Galil assault
rifles...meaning "don't even think about it"...
CUT TO:
INT. AN EMPTY MANSION - JOSÉ YERO - DAY
The empty mansion is on its own peninsula. Through the
windows we see a yacht and Crockett's 48' Stryker, its canopy
open but without its racing supergraphics. The mansion
interior...all Beaumaniers limestone...is devoid of all
furnishing. They sit on white plastic garden chairs from
Sears.
JOSÉ YERO
(suspicious)
I walk into Neptune's house...very
nice. But I also see you... and
our drugs that got ripped from
Maguda.
TUBBS
You don't like us finding your
load? We can go and lose it all
over again...
CROCKETT
How 'bout this? How'd Neptune know
where to hit us? Huh? Whose Op
sec's got a leak? Yours?
JOSÉ YERO
What'd Neptune tell you?
CROCKETT
He didn't. Interrogation's not in
our skill set.
(beat)
So c'mon, what suspicions have you
master-minded off these
associations?
JOSÉ YERO
(whispers in Spanish to
Isabella)
Here's what this is...ask how much
they want to turn back to us our
load...
Yero's certain about their motive.
ISABELLA
We want it back.
CROCKETT
Okay.
ISABELLA
What's the recovery? How much are
you looking for?
TUBBS
(to Crockett)
How much we looking for?
CROCKETT
Nothing.
ISABELLA
What's "nothing"?
CROCKETT
Nothing. As in "free, gratis."
TUBBS
And as an investment in the
future...
ISABELLA
(takes off her glasses and
looks at Crockett)
"Future" of...?
CROCKETT
A fine...business...relationship...
She holds Crockett's look...as she did before.
TUBBS
It's yours cause what's yours, is
yours. And what's ours is ours...
(to Yero)
...like the second ten-percent,
which is now due, Yero, my ace.
Isabella gestures. Yero kicks across the floor a cardboard
box full of money. Tubbs glances inside. Doesn't count it.
TUBBS (cont'd)
What's up next? Or is this a one-
time deal?
Isabella decides.
ISABELLA
(to Yero)
Give them the shipment on the
seventeenth...
Yero doesn't like it. She gestures "do it."
TUBBS
Conveyance?
ISABELLA
Maritime. Jose will fill you in.
And she starts to leave...and sensing Crockett's gotten up
and follows her. Meanwhile
TUBBS
(to Yero)
Lay it out...
And Crockett, close behind Isabella, now...
CROCKETT
(low)
There is one thing you can do for
me in recognition of the death-
defying risks we took to recover
your product...
ISABELLA
(low)
And what is that?
This is the wife of narcotrafficker Archangel de Jesus
Montoya-Londono.
CROCKETT
Let me buy you a drink.
Isabella pauses. Crockett may get killed right now. They're
near the open doors to the patio.
ISABELLA
(low)
What do you like to drink?
CROCKETT
(low)
I'm a fiend for mojitas.
Isabella looks over at Crockett's boat. Back to Crockett...
ISABELLA
(low)
How fast does that go?
CROCKETT
It goes very fast.
ISABELLA
Show me...?
Isabella and Crockett head outside towards the dock, Tubbs
overtakes...
TUBBS
Can I talk to you for a second,
partner...?
They step aside.
TUBBS (cont'd)
(low, re: Isabella)
Wha's up...?
CROCKETT
(low)
I know what I'm doing.
And he leaves to help Isabella board. Switek unties and
pushes off the boat. Looking out the window at them is José
Yero, as perplexed as Tubbs, who covers...
TUBBS
...secure satellite comms.
encrypted e-mail, the longs and
lats for the transshipment
point...all that? It's all cool.
But I need a vector, not a
location. 'Cause ships move.
That's why they call them ships.
Ship stops? It's trying to be an
apartment building. At sea that
attracts attention. That's bad...
Meanwhile...
INT. STRYKER, CABIN - CROCKETT + ISABELLA
pulling away from the docks at 12 knots, repressing the
thunder of the 2,700-horsepower engines. Crockett leaves the
canopy slid back. They're open to the air. He gives
Isabella headsets so they can talk over the roar. The wind
starts to move her hair. She's not sure how to put on the
headset.
Crockett lets the boat rock over the swells while he arranges
her headset around her ears. His fingers brush her hair,
touch her skin...
It was not intentional. But the look in Crockett's eyes is
as if a small voltage passed through him.
He plugs her headset into the dash, regains the wheel, shoves
the throttles forward and...
EXT. OPEN OCEAN - "BORN TO WIN"
cuts and then leaps over swells. In seven seconds they're
doing over 70 knots. And Crockett holds it there as...
ISABELLA
The wind whips her hair behind her, now. The two are small
against the smooth 50' long hull. Crockett hands her
wraparound shades for her eyes. She doesn't want them...
CROCKETT
(through headset)
So where's the best place for
mojitas?
ISABELLA
Bodeguita del Medio. It's the only
place for mojitas...
CROCKETT
Where's that?
ISABELLA
Off a little alley with
cobblestones. Hemingway went
there...
CROCKETT
The Keys?
ISABELLA
Havana.
CROCKETT
Havana? Cubans don't like us or my
business...
ISABELLA
Are you afraid?
(smiles; Crockett shakes
his head "no")
Good. And you don't need a visa.
Cause you're with me.
EXT. OPEN OCEAN - OVERHEAD "BORN TO WIN" - DAY
rockets from one swell to the next, getting airborne. Wind
and salt electrify Isabella. She turns to Crockett and
smiles, putting on the glasses, now. Crockett gestures to
her knees. She should keep them bent. Crockett pushes it to
75 knots...
FRONTAL: CROCKETT + ISABELLA
in strong light, ripped by wind. Behind them are ocean and
sky and twenty-foot plumes which jet from the props and make
a wake that vectors in diagonals to what each is leaving
behind them...where they've been...and converge to push them
to the new places where they're headed. Behind, the skies
are leaden. They're racing a storm. Sunlight shafts through
a gap in thunderclouds, turning the clouds yellow. Now, they
turn peach against the darkening open water and the grey sky
behind. The boat vibrates, the engines scream and...
CROCKETT
waves her over to join him behind the wheel. He holds out
his left hand to steady her. He brings her to him. Both
lean against his high upholstered chair. He holds her to his
side. Indicates the wheel...
CROCKETT
Light touch. Everything comes to
you through the wheel.
CROCKETT
stays on the throttle, throttling back when the props are out
of the water so you don't redline the engine and forward
when reentering. The swells are now four feet. They launch
off each, get airborne, cut into the next...
CROCKETT (cont'd)
How do we get into Cuba?!
ISABELLA
My cousin is the harbor master.
You must not bring in drugs. You
cannot be armed. If you're
carrying, it has to go. Or stow it
inside. No one will go near your
boat...
CROCKETT
You do business in Cuba with your
husband?
ISABELLA
I never do business in Cuba.
(beat)
And nobody goes to Cuba but me.
(smiles)
And he is not my husband...
Crockett's surprised. And he doesn't push it.
CROCKETT
Were you born in Havana?
ISABELLA
Angola. My mother was being a
surgeon there. She volunteered.
Mozambique and Mali, too...
(over the wind)
...those days, in those days...she
was part of Cuba's gift to the
third world. She came from a
bourgeois family with a house in
Verdado...we still have the house.
We will go there...
CROCKETT
Where's she now?
ISABELLA
She's dead...
Crockett looks at her. Her perspective is that of the '60's
and '70's, the politics of national liberation, the
perspective of Marcuse and Franz Fanon.
CROCKETT
Your father?
ISABELLA
Angolan Military. Went back to the
fighting. Disappeared. Who
knows...?
Isabella looks at the look on Crockett's face.
ISABELLA (cont'd)
Go ahead and ask...
CROCKETT
How's he not your husband?
ISABELLA
I am no one's wife. I live in my
own house. I do not live in a
man's house. He has a wife. We
are together. I am free. Because
of banking and finance and travel...
(looks at him, shouts over
wind)
And I can do anything I want...
She laughs. She has that combination of intellect, beauty
and youth. Everything is possible...life will never
end...she can ride this crest eternally.
And Crockett knows that her confidence makes her oblivious to
peril, makes "right now" too real because she believes she
will live forever.
CROCKETT
can't help it. He looks right at her. She lifts her face to
the spray. Some clouds part and light strikes her...
And Crockett wants to possess her; to protect her. He wants
no one else to have her. He wants no harm to come to her.
And this is an impulse that takes him over to the core of who
he is. And, as we MOVE IN CLOSER, Crockett has to turn
away...
ISABELLA
sees this. She's quizzical. Crockett looks back at her.
Their eyes connect.
"BORN TO WIN"
leaps...
CROCKETT
his left arm around her shoulder, his right on the wheel.
She rocks back against his body. They rip across the seas...
CUT TO:
INT. "JAZZ" - A HAVANA NIGHTCLUB JAMMED WITH PEOPLE - NIGHT
14-piece Afro-Cuban band. IN THE PRESS OF dancers at a small
table, Crockett and Isabella...
CROCKETT
(shouts over noise)
Mojitas...?
ISABELLA
(shouting back)
Later! Do you dance?
CROCKETT
I dance...
They move into the crowd under two-story high windows
overlooking Meyer Lansky's Hotel Riviera - freeze-dried 1959
Las Vegas.
CROCKETT + ISABELLA
Whatever we knew about Sonny Crockett, we did not know he
could dance. Their feet, their knees and thighs, perfectly
matched, they samba, like lightning.
He swings her around and turns her to a close embrace as
their hips and legs parallel each other's, as he turns her
under his arm, stops her, pulls her backwards into his body,
her hips into his, the fast beat, the footwork, and he spins
her back facing him, pressing her closer as it gets faster
and...
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - CROCKETT + ISABELLA
fall onto a bed, shedding the last of their clothes, making
love in a house somewhere. Beyond them is an open window to
the ocean. The sky turns red and grey but the water stays
molten.
Their eyes are open...because they're locked together the
whole time and their faces are steady and urgently surprised
because this is not language; not a symbol, not a
representation of a thing. Jesus Montoya is not here. Miami
is not here. This is discovery. This is fact. They have
discovered each other and have never felt like this about
anyone before in their lives.
CUT TO:
INT. HOUSE, BEDROOM - CROCKETT - MORNING
His eyes open. He wakes up. Light and situation flood in.
He does not know where he is. He pulls on his pants.
Barefoot, he walks to the window. The interior is high-
ceilinged with immaculately polished floors. And Crockett
looks around, a stranger in a stranger place.
EXT. THE BALCONY - CROCKETT
enters. The paint on the outside of this house is peeling
and patinaed with stain. The yard is overgrown. The stucco
fence around the streamline deco facade is crumbling from
weather and time...
CROCKETT WATCHES THE OCEAN
from the balcony of the futuristic villa in Verdado... A
futurism from 1939, peeling aqua, aging science fiction.
Wherever we are in the world, this place is out of the
stream, outside history. And Isabella, this woman from a
different world, enters, brings him an oversized cup of
coffee. In his trousers, Crockett drapes an arm across her
shoulders and they stand in the air.
CROCKETT
hears voices from the interior.
ISABELLA
My aunt. She's ancient. She looks
after the place...
(beat)
This was my mother's family's
home...
CUT TO:
INT. BODEGUITA DEL MEDIO - CROCKETT + ISABELLA - AFTERNOON
in the funky yellow restaurant drinking mojitas. They've had
lunch served to them at the bar. Frosted glasses have sugar
on the bottom and are loaded with crushed Cuban herbs. The
bartender has been there for 40 years. Crockett and Isabella
look like regulars. They've served chicken and plantains.
Like any restaurant, the people eating at the bar are the
regulars. They sit where Hemingway sat in the slow part of
the afternoon.
ISABELLA
Tell me everything.
CROCKETT
No.
ISABELLA
I insist.
CROCKETT
(flip)
Okay.
(beat)
Macon, Georgia is where I was born.
Wound up in a juvenile facility. I
was 14. Then the military. Then
prison. Because I was dumb and
angry. Then I read. Then I got
smart. Then I discovered what I
know, now...it's all business...
Isabella smiles.
CROCKETT (cont'd)
(to Bartender)
My friend, two more.
(beat)
What was your mother's name...?
ISABELLA
Blanca...a rubio like you.
(pause)
I see her in a dress...an old
photograph from Lucinda somebody's
wedding...everybody is with
couples. Husbands and wives. They
all pose. My mother is alone
because my father had to go back to
the fighting.
(she points)
...she looks right into the camera.
She is the most beautiful woman in
the room. By herself. In a party
dress. And she looked like she
knew she would die alone...
(beat...remembers)
She spoke many languages. We were
in Luanda when she died. I went to
her friends in Mali. They sent me
to the Ecole Polytechnique in
Geneva to study mathematics, where
I met Montoya in the discos. He
had banking there...I was seventeen
and very much into the clubs. And
he sent me to University for an MBA
in Finance.
(pause)
Your mother?
CROCKETT
Died in childbirth, having me...
ISABELLA
To mothers. And all that we owe
them...
Isabella looks at Crockett and smiles and puts on her
sunglasses.
CROCKETT
You know how improbable this is...?
ISABELLA
"Probable"...applies to an event
that may be real. Doesn't apply
here.
CROCKETT
...'cause we have no future...are
of today and not tomorrow.
ISABELLA
(laughs)
That's right.
CROCKETT
...and therafore there is no
consequence?
ISABELLA
Exactly.
Crockett's hand is around her waist and slips down her hip as
he pulls her closer and takes off her glasses and she puts
down her drink and kisses him at the bar and Crockett's eyes
dwell on her and she looks back at him and, now, knowing what
he's thinking...
CUT TO:
INT. THE STREAMLINE HOUSE IN VEDADO - LEADEN SKIES - LATE
AFTERNOON
The water is like sheet metal as clouds allow only a sliver
of light to illuminate the sea while rain greys-out most of
it. Minute crimson is a freighter heading to the stone
harbor. Fabric billows in the wind. PULL BACK into the room
to Crockett and Isabella...
TWO NAKED BODIES
...one light skinned, the other brown, intertwine in the
opiated moments after sensuality. The afternoon half-light
drapes parts of their bodies, making a relief against which
their eyes hold each other's...
CUT TO:
INT. SHOWER - CROCKETT - LATER
focused elsewhere. It's as if he's struggling to record the
event of her in memory so she'll sustain there, because he
compels himself to a different place, now. Then, the shower
curtain parts. It startles him...
ISABELLA
enters. She touches his back. He turns to her with a smile.
CROCKETT
(soft)
Let's talk deliveries.
Isabella is not let down by the switch to commerce. She
merely goes there, too. After all, this is their subject.
Soft smiles.
CROCKETT (cont'd)
...and a different kind of deal.
ISABELLA
Like...?
CROCKETT
Like "three thousand a ki?" That's
nice.
And I can supply the transportation
into South Florida and the Gulf,
more reliable and on-time than
FedEx. But, three per ki was OK
for openers.
ISABELLA
And why should continuing
excellence cost more?
CROCKETT
Cost less. That's the point.
ISABELLA
Is it December?
CROCKETT
What do you mean?
ISABELLA
Did Christmas come early this
year...?
CROCKETT
Better than that.
(beat)
We become partners. Only in this
territory and only on loads we run.
And you don't pay us three thousand
a ki. You pay us zero. Why we
get is thirty percent of the load.
Product or cash. "And why," you're
thinking, "would I be crazy enough
to out in these gringos like that?
Is he chipping? Crazy for my love?
Too many mojitas?" And the answer
is, "of course" but also "no. It
is because Sonny can deliver what
no one else can."
ISABELLA
Good samba dancing...?
CROCKETT
Zero risk.
ISABELLA
'Cause you don't lose loads?
CROCKETT
'Cause we guarantee every load.
(beat)
Anywhere, for any reason, it comes
up short, we make good. Your
operations will, from now on, run
risk-free.
ISABELLA
And you're our thirty-percent
partner?
Her knowing smile speaks of experience beyond her years.
ISABELLA (cont'd)
(deadly seriously)
What if I tell you that your ideas
are too big for your skin?
(beat)
That merely to propose this is a
dangerous thing?
CROCKETT
Then I would say to you, this has
been fun...
There's a long pause. This is business. This is what is.
ISABELLA
The range should be between fifteen
and seventeen-point-five percent of
the P.O.E....to even consider it.
CROCKETT
I need thirty. Calculate in, also,
the cash you don't have to front...
ISABELLA
Available cash is not an issue for
us...
CROCKETT
Twenty-eight-point-five.
ISABELLA
What if I pushed to twenty-one...?
CROCKETT
I would say you're...
(hesitates; holds up four
fingers)
...four percentage points away from
a deal...
ISABELLA
Maybe I'm only one.
And she slides into his arms. And smiles...
CROCKETT
We'll do it at twenty-two...
Isabella laughs. She kisses him under the shower water. And
it's tough to know who is pushing it further out onto the
edge.
CROCKETT (cont'd)
...and now what?
ISABELLA
And now I make you breakfast
again...
Her breathing is heavier as she buries her head in his neck.
CUT TO:
INT. BOAT ON STORMY SEAS - DAY
Crockett is alone. Black skies mottled with grey.
CROCKETT
Rain and wind rip across his face. He left Isabella in
Havana.
SATELLITE PHONE
rings. Crockett picks it up. It's Tubbs...
TUBBS (V.O.)
Where the hell are you, man?
CROCKETT
(into phone)
On my way back...
Crockett disconnects. He pushes it. It launches from one
swell, airborne, and knifes into the next. It's violent.
Crockett's thoughts and expression are about Isabella. They
are criminal conspirators, a woman cheating on her
narcotrafficker "husband," an outlaw smuggler who's really an
undercover cop...
OVER CROCKETT: GOVERNMENT CHANNEL - "BORN TO WIN"
rockets in and then throttles back.
CUT TO:
EXT. INDIAN RIVER SAFE HOUSE - TUBBS - DAY
sitting on the U-shaped jetty as we HEAR Crockett kill the
engines, tying it off. Gina stands halfway up the small lawn
to the early 60's ranch house under tropical palms. Tubbs'
mood is dark. As Crockett approaches, he looks blankly at
Tubbs, offering no explanation...
TUBBS
(mutters)
The meet with Castillo and the fed
got set up. It's in 45 minutes...
Tubbs goes inside. Crockett follows. As he passes Gina...
GINA
What's up, Sonny...?
Crockett looks at her. He has no answer.
INT. HOUSE - CROCKETT
enters. While Tubbs is strapping up...
TUBBS
Where'd you go?
CROCKETT
Hit a couple of jazz clubs. Fell
back to her place.
TUBBS
Where?
CROCKETT
Verdado.
TUBBS
Verdado where?
CROCKETT
It's in the suburbs outside Havana.
TUBBS
Havana, Cuba...?
CROCKETT
No. Havana, Louisiana.
(beat)
Don't we have a meet?
TUBBS
...where you're makin' a move on
the wife of Archangel de Jesus
Montoya?
CROCKETT
No.
TUBBS
You're not makin' a move on her...?
CROCKETT
We're makin' moves on each other.
TUBBS
Oh, that makes it okay, then.
CUT TO:
INT. ENGINE ROOM OF A TRAMP FREIGHTER SEIZED BY US CUSTOMS
AND TIED-UP ON THE INDIAN RIVER - FBI RAC JAMES FUJIMA - DAY
We've entered a secret meeting mid-argument.
FUJIMA
Who said, "go exploring"? We want
this staying on track.
CROCKETT
(to Fujima)
Who's the "we"? There's you and
there's us. And all we got from
you was bad intel. "Low-level
producer." Yeah, right...
FUJIMA
What are you talking about?
CROCKETT
Montoya. We went to meet the
village priest. It turns into
Alice in the fucking Vatican and
here's the Pope...of the North
Valle Colombia dope trade.
TUBBS
His operations are kingpin size and
first-class. His security is ex-
Eastern bloc, ex-SAS and Israelis.
Their comms are satellite uplink
with mainframe encryption,
significant Sig Int and in their
zones of activity, they have signal-
jamming capability...
Fujima is surprised...
CROCKETT
Yeah. CIA-level stuff...
TUBBS
And what does that level of
spending on first-class, private-
sector infrastructure signify to
you?
CROCKETT
Mega-tonnage and mega-cash flow...
FUJIMA
Out of...?
CROCKETT
Haiti and Puerto Rico. Money
through Dubai and Geneva maybe.
TUBBS
Their loads are poly-drug. "E"
from Holland, methamphetamine
precursors from Jordan, Afghan "H."
Mid-ocean transshipments. His real
business is: he's a network.
CROCKETT
And we can illuminate part of it
from the inside out.
TUBBS
So we want to change-up the mission
statement.
FUJIMA
(no)
Identify and indict the white
supremacist group of importers.
End of story. Everything else I'm
hearing is speculation masquerading
as intel...
Crockett flips him a set of keys.
FUJIMA (cont'd)
What's this?
CROCKETT
Keys to the boat. Go do this
motherfucker yourself.
Fujima looks at Castillo...who is this insubordinate prick?
FUJIMA
Who are you talking to?
TUBBS
He's talking to you, bro.
(beat)
What he means to say is he is
reluctant to abandon the
penetration of a major
narcotrafficking organization...
CROCKETT
(re: Fujima)
Hey, fuck him.
TUBBS
Chill out Sonny.
CROCKETT
We're the ones doing the death-
defying shit? And he wants us to
give that up? For what?
A chump-change bust so he can get
his picture in The Miami Herald to
impress the slug farm in DC...
FUJIMA
(to Castillo)
Control your men.
CROCKETT
I'm my own man. And anytime you
want to see how much man I am?
CASTILLO
(low)
That's. It.
Everybody shuts up.
CASTILLO (cont'd)
(to Tubbs)
Where are you on this?
We know Tubbs has doubts about Crockett's motives and
methods, nevertheless...
TUBBS
With Sonny. 110%.
CASTILLO
Then that's it.
(to Fujima)
Change the mission statement.
Crockett stays in. He keeps
working up the ladder. The
local importers get a pass for the
time being.
FUJIMA
I don't know.
CASTILLO
Yes you do...
FUJIMA
I got to talk to my ADO...
CASTILLO
No, you don't, Jim.
(beat)
'Cause if I close this down, you
got nothing to make a phone call
about. And my guys don't have a
week for a Feeb bureaucratic
process. Every hour longer they're
in there, they risk exposure. So,
right here, right now, they're back
in or I pull them out and close you
down. What's it going to be?
Fujima nods acquiescence.
FUJIMA
Okay.
He leaves. When he's out of earshot...
CASTILLO
(to Crockett)
You fuckin' better be right...!
CUT TO:
EXT. FREIGHTER ON THE INDIAN RIVER - CROCKETT + TUBBS - NIGHT
step across to a second ship among the dozens tied-up along
the river. Its crimson paint is peeling and it's been
stripped of everything salvageable. They're alone.
TUBBS
(low)
What is going on...?!
CROCKETT
As in...?
TUBBS
There is "undercover." And there
is "Which way is up?"
CROCKETT
You think I am in so deep I forgot?
TUBBS
I am asking. You to me.
CROCKETT
Do you believe...I have forgotten I
am a cop?
TUBBS
I would never doubt you.
This is the answer Crockett needed to hear.
TUBBS (cont'd)
And do you doubt I will slot anyone
complicit in the death of Maria,
Alonzo and those children?
Anyone...whoever they are...
CROCKETT
No, I do not.
And we know that might mean Isabella.
EXT. MONTOYA COMPOUND, GUAJIRA PENINSULA, COLOMBIA - ISABELLA
- NIGHT
We are on a peninsula with palm trees. A bluff dotted with a
small forest of satellite dishes. A ribbon of white-sand and
beyond that is silver light off the water. It is rural and
futuristic at the same time.
ISABELLA (O.S.)
...90- and 120-day futures with
shorted Canadian and US dollars...
CUT TO:
INT. MASTER BEDROOM SUITE - ARCHANGEL DE JESUS MONTOYA-
LONDONO
in pajama top and boxer shorts, smoking a cigar. In a
sweatsuit is Isabella, delivering a financial report. It's
from memory. Nothing is written down, in the tradition of
the elite section of Swiss private banking in which clerks
commit portfolios to memory. There are no documents.
ISABELLA
...and we're looking at Nigerian
crude...
MONTOYA
Precursor shipments from Ras Tanura
and Ju'aymah?
ISABELLA
Transshipped to a Malaysian
container ship.
MONTOYA
Not French registry?
ISABELLA
They've been targeted. And
Pakistani registry is too
vulnerable to search and seizure
right now.
MONTOYA
José doesn't like the deal in South
Florida...
Montoya's referring to Crockett. Alarm bells go off.
ISABELLA
(cuts in)
Burnett?
(shrugs)
They want 22% of the value on loads
they run into South Florida. It's
the Juarez cartel model.
They guarantee the loads. The
upside is our risk goes to zero.
That frees-up capital.
MONTOYA
But what does your intuition tell
you...?
Is he suspicious? Does he suspect Isabella and Crockett are
lovers?
ISABELLA
My "intuition"...? My intuition
made him breakfast the other
morning in Havana.
Her lieson with Crockett is the last thing we expected to
hear from Isabella.
MONTOYA
And...?