foo Foo FOO bar BaR bAr # empty line coming up haha crash! line # a.vu b'vu c;vu d)vu e(vu f*vu g~vu h+vu i}vu j/vu k_vu l:vu m[vu n%vu o@vu p$vu q`vu r=vu s-vu t&vu u|vu v{vu w"vu x!vu y^vu z?vu # foo foo bar bar bar foo # INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - PRESENT This whole scene is shot using only extreme close-ups of eyes, cards, tapping fingers and mouths. We open on a bright pair of eyes. One is bruised and slightly swollen, but this does not detract from their clarity. EDDY Three card brag is a simple form of poker; you are dealt only three cards and these you can't change. If you don't look at your cards you're a `blind man' and you only put in half the stake. Three of any kind is the highest you can get: the odds are four hundred and twenty- five to one. Then it's a running flush - you know, all the same suit running in order; then a straight, then a flush, then a pair, and finally whatever the highest card you are holding. There are some tell- tale signs that are valuable; I am not going to tell you them because it took me long enough to learn them, but these can only help a player, not make one. So you want to play? DISSOLVE TO BLACK. THE FIRST OF THE CREDITS APPEAR ON THE SCREEN. FADE IN: What have you got? We cut to a beady pair of eyes and then to his cards as they are turned over: three hearts of no consecutive numbers are exposed. That's a good hand. A flush beats my pair. What about you? * Cut from completed film. Another pair of excited eyes widen to the question. We see more cards: a run is revealed. And here's me trying to explain the game to you. Hustlers, you're all hustlers! We cut to a shot of a small amount of money being scooped up. OK! You got some real money? DISSOLVE TO BLACK: MORE CREDITS APPEAR ON THE SCREEN. FADE IN: Ed scoops up a large pile of money. Odds chaps, you gotta remember the odds. There 161s a loud slam of a door. We cut to a wide shot of a policeman who has just entered. It is then revealed that two of the three players are also policemen. They stand to attention, red faced with embarrassment. SERG I hope I am not interrupting. Comfortable, Edward? EDDY I haven't slept for forty-eight hours, got a dozen broken ribs, can feel a case of the flu coming on and . . . SERG (interrupts) All right, all right, don't think I wouldn't like to get rid of you; but before I do, I need to know what's going on, son. EDDY If you think you're in the dark, I am in a black hole, blindfolded. DISSOLVE TO BLACK. THE MUSIC STARTS. We pull back out of the black to reveal that we have been sitting in the inside of a shotgun. The barrels recede further, then `boom.' LOCK STOCK are shot out of the top of the screen in peppered letters. We wait for a while, as the barrels reappear through. the smoke. We then see one smoking barrel; 'boom!' the other is let off: AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS joins the sentence.] EXT. STREET (FLASHBACK] - DAY We open on a smart, casually dressed man selling perfume and jewellery on a street corner. A crowd has gathered, attracted by the alarming volume at which he is advertising his wares. BACON See these goods, they never seen daylight, moonlight, Israelite, Fanny- by-the-gas-light. If you can't see value here today you're not up here shopping, you're up here shoplifting. Take a bag, take a bag. I took a bag, I took a bag home last night and she cost a lot more than ten pounds I can tell ya. Tell me if I am going too cheap. Not ninety, not eighty, not forty, half that and half that again, that's right, ten pounds. Don't think 'cos it's sealed up it's an empty box. The only man who sells empty boxes is the undertaker, and by the look of some of you here today I would make more money with me measuring tape. A well-dressed, zealous character (Eddy) appears from behind the crowd waving money. It seems he can't wait to get rid of it. EDDY Bargain, that's a bloody bargain if I ever heard one. Ten pounds you say? I'll have five. Certainly sir. I'll just wrap. Changing his attention. BACON Excuse me misses, sorry sir, ladies first and all that. A tourist spectator, rather than a buyer, has been. put on the spot. She fumbles through her bag hastily all too aware of the attention of the crowd, of which she is now the focus. She passes her money like it's contaminated. Others follow suit. Buy 'em, you better buy 'em; they're not stolen, they just never been paid for. This really stokes the fire. The money can't come fast enough. Just as business reaches its peak there is a call of alarm from the first enthusiastic punter, who seems to be rather more familiar than he first pretended. EDDY Bacon! Bacon's expression changes dramatically. A series of crash zooms between Ed's, Bacon's and a third party's eyes (the police) reveal there is a problem. They're off: EDDY and BACON run like they have done this before. They go down an ally; Ed jumps some stairs, we freeze. BACON (voice-over) Ed can run fast, talk fast, eat fast, and play cards fast, but he's fucking slow when it comes to spotting the roz. EDDY (voice-over) The reason he is called BACON is he spent so much of his youth in the police station that people thought he was one of them. But he is a big boy now and it is time to move on. We cut to a shot of Ed as he lands. He has made good distance. INT. GROCER'S SHOP - MORNING EDDY arrives at a grocer's shop. We meet Tom. Tom is talking to Nick the Greek. TOM What are you talking about? I am bloody skinny, pal. NICK Of course you are. All right, Ed. EDDY Nick the Greek, always a pleasure. All right Tom, what you been eating? Tom examines his midriff and adopts a confused expression. TOM Please, both join me in my orifice. INT. GROCER'S SHOP STORE ROOM - DAY They work their way past a maze of boxes. NICK (fingering and admiring one of the boxes) How much did you say it was, Tom? TOM You know how much it is, Nick. NICK And that does include the amp? TOM You know it doesn't include the amp. INT. RESTAURANT KITCHEN -AFTERNOON Tom and Ed make their way through a busy, well-equipped kitchen. This is obviously a smart and serious establishment. They stop in front of the man whose uniform is covered in blood; he appears to be the head chef. Meet Soap. TOM What have you come as? SOAP Cupid stupid! That's the last time I am getting any more fruit off you Tom. Call that fresh? There was more small hairy armoured things in your fruit than there was fruit. You should open a butcher's, not a grocer's. TOM If you will order stuff that comes from Kat-Man-Fucking-Du don't be surprised if your fruit picks up a few tourists en route. ~ Never mind that, what about the money? SOAP Get your fingers out of my soup! SLOW MOTION Soap pulls out a bag from under where he is sitting. TOM (voice-over) Soap is called Soap because he likes to keep his hands clean of any unlawful behaviour. He is proud of his job, and even more proud that it's legal. BACON (voice-over) He's a stroppy sod but he's got more balls than a golfer, only he doesn't know it. ' * Cut from completed film. 16 RELEASE SLOW MOTION] Ed looks in bag. EDDY Are you sure you can afford twenty-five? SOAP Well that depends on how you look at it. I can afford it as long as I see it again, if that's what you mean. You got the rest from the fat man and Bacon? Tom looks on with suspicion. TOM Who's this fat man, then? EDDY Bacon, the fat man and myself, and it's time to make a call to Harry. INT. HATCHET HARRY'S OFFICE - DAY A hard-looking man of about fifty is sat behind a large antique desk. On this desk is a hatchet resting in a block of wood, poised like a judge's hammer. Harry is obviously in the sex game. Cluttered up in a hazardous way are a selection of dildos, spanking paddles, etc. A cabinet of fine-looking shotguns is placed behind. We have a split screen involving EDDY and his friends (listening in) and Hatchet with one hand on the phone and the other on a shotgun. HATCHET You got it all? INT. KITCHEN - DAY. EDDY A hundred grand. FREEZE SHOT OF HATCHET TOM (voice-over) You see it's not easy to take a seat at this table; the money involved has to be a hundred grand upwards and there is no shortage of punters. EDDY (voice-over) The man who decides if you can play is this man Harry, or Hatchet Harry as some including himself like to call him. RELEASE FREEZE SHOT OF HATCHET HATCHET Well if you got it, you got it. Now, if you don't mind . . . The phone is slammed down. SHOT OF HATCHET SOAP (voice-over) When the old bastard is not playing cards he's chasing a thousand debts that ill-fated individuals owe for an array of reasons. BACON (voice-over) Sex and sleaze and antique shotguns are all deep and dear in Harry's stone cold heart. Cut from completed film. RELEASE FREEZE SHOT OF HATCHET HATCHET What's this EDDY like, then? The camera spins round to reveal a massive monster of a man sitting opposite Hatchet. Meet Barry the Baptist. FREEZE SHOT OF BARRY EDDY (voice-over) Hatchet has a colleague, a monster of a man: Barry the Baptist. BACON (voice-over) The Baptist got his name from drowning people for Hatchet. TOM (voice-over) But he needs him, because he is good at making sure debts get settled and jobs get done. RELEASE FREEZE SHOT OF BARRY BARRY EDDY been shaking the knees of a lot of good players. The boy has a rare ability, he seems to make cards transparent, got bluffing dow . . . HATCHET (interrupts) All right, all right, so we can say he is good. BARRY Better than good, he is a fucking liability. HATCHET Where did he get a hundred grand? 20 BARRY He has got some adhesive mates, they have tossed up between them. HATCHET And JD is his dad, and owns the whole property? BARRY No mortgage, no debts; lock, stock, the sodding lot . . . don't worry, I got it under control. HATCHET Good, you can get this under control now. A glossy Christie's brochure displaying a pair of impressive antique hammer-lock shotguns is shoved in Barry's face. It seems Lord Appleton Smythe has run out of money, and these little beauties are up for auction, but I am not paying quarter of a million quid for 'em, if you know what I mean Barry. One of my associates has given me an address and the location of these lovelies. Make sure we get everything from inside the gun cabinet. I don't want to know who you use, as long as they are not complete muppets; and don't tell them what they're worth. Changing the subject. 'Ere! Hold on, what do you think of these? We are selling hundreds. Holds up one of the spanking paddles. BARRY Er, very nice Harry. What's it for? HATCHET Don't # aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb cccccccccccccccccccc aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa abcdefghijklmnopqrst jfieowfjieowfjieowjf # 3.14159265358979323846 26433832795028841971 69399375105820974944 # this test case should not even be considered. # #