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END OF THE ROAD

(A Screenplay for a Cell Phone Videocam)

By

Tom Slattery

History:
Present Draft Copyright 2001
1st draft version Copyright 1994
Novel, End of the Road, Copyright 1989
Novel published 2001, available on web book sites

Tom Slattery
Bay Village, Ohio

tslat20@hotmail.com
"END OF THE ROAD"

FADE IN:

INT. FUTURISTIC TELECONFERENCE ROOM

On one side of a FUTURISTIC CONFERENCE TABLE sit PROFESSOR


HOFFMAN, female, 50s, and PROFESSOR SZASZ, male, 50s, both
in futuristic attire, perhaps one head is shaved and
painted (but dignified, professorial).

On the other side are four graduate students: LUCY, a


young Amerasian woman, mid-20s, futuristic attire and hair
style (perhaps shaved, head paint), HAROLD, young man,
mid-20s, in futuristic U.S. Army Uniform, PAMELA, young
woman, mid-20s, futuristic attire and hair style, and
ERIC, young man, mid-20s, futuristic attire, hair style.

Image of PROFESSOR THARP, male, 40s, silver-metallic hair


and more striking futuristic attire, MATERIALIZES at a
conference table chair.

We see faint LASER-BEAMS emitted from conference table to


create HOLOGRAM images for teleconference.

PROFESSOR HOFFMAN
(touch of sarcasm)
Glad you could make it, Professor
Tharp.

PROFESSOR THARP
Sorry, Professor Hoffman. Latin
American situation. Transmission from
Antarctica's been relayed through New
Zealand.
(nods Szasz)
Mongolia treating you okay Professor
Szasz?

PROFESSOR SZASZ
(noncommittally)
Genghis Khan's tomb's half done.

Professor Hoffman TAPS WRIST GIZMO and "PSEUDO-PAPERS"


appear on the conference table in front of everyone.
END OF THE ROAD 3
PROFESSOR HOFFMAN
Very well. We're all here.
(to Harold)
Harold, I am amazed at what you've
been able to accomplish with a war
going on around you.
HAROLD
(self-effacingly)
War wasn't as bad as the damn
mosquitos.

PROFESSOR HOFFMAN
(businesslike)
Well, laser-image teleconferencing's
terribly expensive. University's
threatening the History Department
over it, so let's get on with this.
(to students)
The committee has decided to approve
your joint video thesis, "American
Highway Era With Focus On 1995." Now
if you will all eye-scan sign . . .

ERIC
(interrupting)
Does this mean I can't back out?

LUCY
(hurt)
Eric . . .

PROFESSOR SZASZ
You can. But it may delay your
Master's. As much as a semester.

PROFESSOR THARP
(to Eric)
The committee has accepted your
written thesis, Eric.

PROFESSOR HOFFMAN
This only concerns the video thesis.

ERIC
(resigned)
Okay. I'm in.
PROFESSOR SZASZ
Pamela?

PAMELA
No problem.

PROFESSOR HOFFMAN
Seeing everything is in order, we will
now formally sign the joint video
thesis commitment.

The students focus eyes on pseudo-papers.

INSERT: LUCY'S EYES AS IF SEEN THROUGH EYE-SCANNER

Eyes make movements as if writing a signature. Digital


bar-code-like pattern accumulates in lower right screen.

RETURN TO SCENE

Professors Hoffman, Szasz, and Tharp look at pseudo papers


with eye movements like making a signature.

Professor Hoffman looks at her pseudo paper, nods, smiles.

She TAPS WRISTBAND and pseudo-papers DISAPPEAR.

PROFESSOR SZASZ
(very pleased to Harold)
Harold, how did you manage a
transmission through the siege of
Trinidad?

HAROLD
I'm out. Discharged yesterday.
Hopped an empty robot food-flight back
to Barbados.

PROFESSOR THARP
(admonishing)
Took a damn big chance!

HAROLD
Yeah. But better than staying cooped
up there!

PROFESSOR HOFFMAN
Stop by my office when you get back to
END OF THE ROAD 5
Ohio, Harold. Well that's it. Hope
to see an excellent video thesis.

Professor Hoffman taps wrist band. All three professors


de-materialize. Pamela and Eric de-materialize.

HAROLD
Hello, Lucy.

LUCY
Oh, Harold! You shouldn't have taken
that chance . . .

HAROLD
Had to get out of that hell-hole.

LUCY
Where are you now?

HAROLD
Not far. Back in the USA!

LUCY
Harold, call me at home in ten
minutes. We've got to talk. Kent
State University'll blow a fuse if
they find out we're chatting on their
laser-teleconference.

HAROLD
Okay, Luce.

Lucy stands, raises wrist toward Harold's image, PRESSES


WRIST-GIZMO.

Harold's image refuses to de-materialize. She PRESSES IT


AGAIN. Nothing happens! She looks at her wrist-band.

LUCY
What's the matter with this damn
thing, Harold?

Harold drums his fingers on the table. Ta-da-da-da-da-Da


sound.
LUCY
(realizing, overwhelmed,
delighted)
Harold! How?

Harold JUMPS UP, puts arms around Lucy, pulls her to him.

They KISS passionately.

They break and look at each other.

HAROLD
Levo-train from Miami.

LUCY
God I'm glad you made it. Alive!

HAROLD
Let's get married, Luce.

Lucy looks Harold in the eyes, studies him. Then she puts
her head on his shoulder.

LUCY
There's something I have to tell you,
Harold. I have to think.

We see TEARS FLOWING from Lucy's eyes as they hold each


other.

INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT COMPUTER LAB

There is a "GRID-WORK" associated with a computerized


LASER-HOLOGRAM set-up.

LUCY (v.o.)
It's what he wrote his manuscript on.
He let us bring it over to scan into
the computer.

HAROLD (v.o.)
Heavy old contraption.

On a desk is a 1940s Royal Standard TYPEWRITER. A


futuristic "SCANNING DEVICE" is mounted over it.
END OF THE ROAD 7
ERIC (v.o.)
They had primitive computers then.

Futuristic "door" zings open. Pamela, Lucy, Eric, and


Harold (now in futuristic civilian attire) enter.

PAMELA
He didn't like them.

LUCY
Sentimental. His ex-wife bought it
for him at a garage sale.

Eric goes to typewriter.

He runs his hand over the keys.

Nothing happens. He looks puzzled at the others.


ERIC
How does it work?

LUCY
You push on the keys.

Eric pushes lightly on typewriter keys.

ERIC
Nothing happens. Where's the readout?

LUCY
(to computer)
Computer: Drawer!

A drawer opens under the typewriter.

Lucy proudly lifts a piece of PAPER out.

LUCY
Friend copped it from the Art
Department. Ten dollars a sheet.

HAROLD
(points to ribbon reel)
Homemade ribbon. Cut from presso-
fiber. Took me a day to figure out
how it works.
Lucy turns on the "scanner," which shows a dull blue
light, inserts sheet into the typewriter, rolls it into
typing position.

LUCY
You have to snap the keys down like
this.

She taps randomly at typewriter keys. It clatters


xxxxxooooo.

Harold presses shift lock.

HAROLD
You want capitals. Capital letter
crank-or-whatever-you-call-it.

He randomly types capitals. It clatters: XXXXXOOOOOO.

PAMELA
He wrote "End of the Road" that way?

Eric attempts typing random letters. Typewriter clatters


XXXXOOOO.

ERIC
Probably got sore hands and fingers.

LUCY
So you guys want to start the
introduction in his college office?

PAMELA
That's what we decided. Follow his
manuscript.

Lucy holds a yellowed old PHOTOGRAPH in front of the


futuristic scanner.

ERIC
What's that?

HAROLD
Him in his office with this
contraption. Scan it in.

Lucy pulls photo from scanner, hands it to Pamela. Eric


looks on.
END OF THE ROAD 9
INSERT: PHOTO

DRIVER, (the Old Man in his younger days), mid-forties,


College instructor, worn sportscoat, rumpled trousers,
scruffy loafers, sits at his desk typing on typewriter.

PAMELA (v.o.)
So we scrap him buying the old car?

LUCY (v.o.)
We'll get to it. Computer: Generate
office scene, dialogue!

INT. COLLEGE INSTRUCTORS' OFFICE.

IDENTICAL TO ABOVE PHOTO, BUT WIDER ANGLE.

The shabby shared office has two desks. There is a


bookshelf, and over it are a couple framed diplomas.

Driver sits typing. Typewriter clatters. On the other


desk we see a cheap PC and printer. He stops, looks up as
we hear footsteps outside door, door-opening sound.

Door opens.

Mr. ENGLE, same actor as Professor Tharp but in 1990s


sportscoat and tie, long hair, stands holding the door
knob.

PROFESSOR SANDS, same actor as Professor Szasz but in


1990s suit and tie, looks with firm apology at Engle.

ENGLE
(pleading)
That's it, Professor Sands? Nothing I
can do?

PROFESSOR SANDS
I'm sorry, Mr. Engle. It's the
board's decision.

Sands nods acknowledgment to Driver and hurries away.

DRIVER
What was that about?
ENGLE
Been canned. College's downsizing.

DRIVER
Just like that?

ENGLE
Bottom line. Caught a glance at
Sand's list. You're on it.

DRIVER
When?

ENGLE
Next year.

DRIVER
Unless the economy changes.

ENGLE
Don't bank on it.

DRIVER
I was going to shock you with
something.

ENGLE
(throws up hands)
Don't spare me now!

DRIVER
You're a Deadhead . . .

ENGLE
Not really. I like the Grateful Dead
sounds. Been to some concerts.

DRIVER
(pauses for effect)
Jerry Garcia called me.

ENGLE
(astounded)
Called you?

DRIVER
Met him in sixty-four. Just after I
got back from Vietnam.
END OF THE ROAD 11
ENGLE
Army, you said.

DRIVER
Yeah. Drafted. Out about a month.
Literally living in a garage on High
Street in Palo Alto. Working as a
histology tech at Stanford U.
Hospital.

ENGLE
Sixty-four. The Warlocks In Menlo
Park.

DRIVER
Just down the street.

ENGLE
You never told me.

DRIVER
Wasn't anything.

ENGLE
Must have been something.

DRIVER
Young stud. I didn't care for his
music. I went to Menlo Park for the
girls. We were just two same-age guys
who had been in the Army and didn't
like it. Got to talking.

ENGLE
Met your ex-wife there?
DRIVER
No. Somewhere else. But Garcia had
just gotten married. Influenced me.
All I remember is a bacon and eggs
breakfast at Sanford's after being up
all Saturday night. Philosophical
discussion standing under a
streetlight at three A.M. Convinced
me never to cross picket lines.
Turned me against the Vietnam War.

ENGLE
That's all?

DRIVER
He resolved a testy romantic dilemma.
I got married a few months later.

ENGLE
Last saw him then?

DRIVER
About then. And not since in thirty
years.

ENGLE
How'd he find you?

DRIVER
Told me, from an article I wrote in
the Bay Guardian a few years ago.

ENGLE
What did he want?

DRIVER
Me to come out and talk. Sounded
down.
ENGLE
You don't even like his music. You're
a classical freak.

DRIVER
Life's ironies.

ENGLE
You going?

DRIVER
Yeah. Remember that book idea?
END OF THE ROAD 13

ENGLE
About the Interstates?

DRIVER
Roads. Highways. Something like
that. Guy across the street put a
"for sale" sign on his seventy-nine
rust-bucket. Two hundred bucks.

ENGLE
(breaking into laughter)
California of bust in a two hundred
dollar car!

DRIVER
Very essence of the story.

ENGLE
Gooood luck! Wish I could go. I've
got to pound pavement for a job.
(with warning finger)
Better hope your book sells.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: SCENE EVAPORATES INTO FUTURISTIC STUDENT


COMPUTER LAB

INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT COMPUTER LAB

Lucy, Pamela, Eric, and Harold get up and go to


typewriter.

ERIC
It's a start.

PAMELA
Looks okay.

LUCY
Tomorrow then?

PAMELA
Yeah.
Pamela touches wrist band and "door" zings open. She and
Eric start toward it. Eric looks back from the door.

ERIC
What time?

LUCY
Eleven sharp.

Lucy begins typing with one finger.

INSERT: PAPER BEING TYPED

Typed letters read out: H-A-R-O-L-D. Y-E-S.

ANGLE ON HAROLD, LUCY

Harold shows happy surprise, shakes his head with a big


smile, but resists overt demonstration. Lucy and he follow
each other's dancing eyes, exchange sly knowing smiles.

PAMELA
See you there.

Pamela and Eric go out "door."

Lucy rips out the typewriter paper, hands it Harold.

He takes it, smiles. THEY EMBRACE IN A JOYFUL DANCE.

INT. FUTURISTIC SMALL LIVING ROOM - DAY

ELECTRONIC CALENDAR CLOCK blinks: July 17, 2050. 10:56.

On a table near clock are: ancient MODELS of 1980s CARS


and TRUCKS, prominently, a gray 1979 DODGE OMNI, and an
ancient-appearing 1995 OHIO LICENSE PLATE.

LUCY (v.o.)
(distant, echoing)
Glad Barb's bunch got stuck with
the Mississippi Steamboat Era.
END OF THE ROAD 15
We see memorabilia of The Road, rusted metal traffic
signs, faded PHOTOGRAPHS of an Interstate with traffic, a
two-lane highway, motels, gas stations with gas pumps and
drive-on garage lifts.

HAROLD (v.o.)
(distant, echoing)
Yeah. We lucked out. You said
he seemed a little out of it?

Framed CAPTIONED PHOTOS: Carl Benz - first internal


combustion vehicle: 1885. Henry Ford and horseless
carriage. A Drive-in movie. A 1950s Drive-in restaurant.

PAMELA (v.o.)
(distant, louder)
Only when we began. But then he
snapped out of it. I don't think he
gets to talk much with anyone.

A loose stack of old yellowed typewritten pages is at a


corner. The title page on top reads: END OF THE ROAD.
Below the title: COPYRIGHT 1995. Near it, a new BOOK,
also titled END OF THE ROAD.

ANOTHER ANGLE

The OLD MAN, 110-years-old, dolled up in old worn 1990's


slacks (due to body-shrinkage ill-fitting) and a yellowed
(formerly white) wool cardigan sweater sits waiting in a
futuristic easy chair.

LUCY (v.o.)
The nurse said he never has any
visitors. Oh, Pam, did you get the
permit?

(The Old Man will move and speak slowly, carefully,


hesitatingly, as old people do, but his eyes are bright
and have a sparkle of wit and intelligence.)

PAMELA (v.o.)
Got it. We'll have a genuine
twentieth century lightbulb.
Beside the Old Man's chair is an ancient-looking wooden
end table and on it an ancient-looking TABLE LAMP with
visible (turned off) incandescent LIGHT BULB. Indoor
lighting comes from a row of light panels on the ceiling.

The Old Man glances at the calendar-clock.

INSERT: CALENDAR CLOCK blinks: July 17, 2050. 10:58.

INT. FUTURISTIC NURSING HOME CORRIDOR - DAY

Around the corner of the empty corridor we hear sounds of


GRADUATE STUDENTS approaching.

ERIC (v.o.)
(critically)
Burning up enough power to light a
whole block.

Students round corner.

Harold carries the typewriter, Lucy a futuristic VIDEO


CAMERA, Pamela a futuristic COMPUTER NOTEBOOK, Eric a
small homemade INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE.

HAROLD
(puffing with heavy
typewriter)
Adding to greenhouse warming.

PAMELA
Come on, guys. It's okay for an hour.

LUCY
Now remember, he was an English
instructor.

ERIC
(critically)
His manuscript was in the
"unpublished" Copyright files until we
found it?
END OF THE ROAD 17
PAMELA
(shows computer-notebook)
Yeah. Lucky we accessed their data
base.

LUCY
(correctingly)
KSU Press published it.

HAROLD
(critical, ill-intended)
Because it's quaint. Only thing the
geezer ever had published.

ERIC
(sarcastic, mocking)
Be nice, Harold. Or Lucy's not going
to put out.

PAMELA
Eric!

They arrive at a futuristic door.

LUCY
We're here. Be good, guys. Please.
He's a hundred ten years old.

She touches pressure-sensitive wall-area.

INT. LIVING ROOM

GENTLE CHIMES SOUNDS.

The Old Man looks up.

FLAT-WALL VIDEO SCREEN by door shows Graduate Students in


corridor outside the door.

OLD MAN
Please come in.

Voice-activated door responds. Students file in.

The Old Man struggles up, waves to calendar-clock.


OLD MAN
Right on time, Lucy.

INSERT: CALENDAR CLOCK, READING: July 17, 2050. 11:00

LUCY (v.o)
(softly, respectfully)
We try to be.

ANGLE ON LUCY, OTHER STUDENTS

Students stand respectfully while Lucy introduces them to


the Old Man.

LUCY
This is Pamela and Eric. You know
Harold.

HAROLD
Here's your -- uh -- typing-writer
back.

OLD MAN
Put it on the table there, Harold.

Harold puts typewriter by other things on the table. The


Old Man feebly shakes Eric's, Pamela's hands.

OLD MAN
Pleased to meet you all.
(points to Eric's engine
model)
What's that?

ERIC
Internal combustion engine.

PAMELA
Made it for our lab project.

HAROLD
It's composit, not iron. But it
works. You can have it.
END OF THE ROAD 19
The Old Man graciously takes the model engine.

He sits, looks it over.

Lucy presses her tiny videocam. A thin WIRE-LIKE TRIPOD


emerges, and she lets it rest there.

She checks the view in a palm-size hand-held VIEWFINDER.

LUCY
Let us know when you're ready.

OLD MAN
Anytime.

PAMELA
Do you know how to turn on the
lamp?

OLD MAN
Normally you press the switch.

PAMELA
Switch?

ERIC
(pointing)
The thing on the stem there.

OLD MAN
But this one's broke. You have to
screw the bulb.

The Old Man's innocuous statement brings cautious


exchanges of merriment at the innuendo.

PAMELA
(avoiding innuendo)
Could you just point to the bulb.

OLD MAN
The round glass thing. There.

Lucy operates videocam from hand-held viewscreen.


INSERT: HAND HOLDING VIDEOSCREEN, SHOWING VIEW OF THE LAMP

Pamela gingerly turns the light bulb.

The LAMP LIGHTS. The students applaud. Old Man smiles at


it.

OLD MAN
(admiringly, nostalgically)
Haven't seen one "on" in years.

We see Harold and Eric standing by the table display of


"Road" items. Harold points to it.

HAROLD
Luce, maybe you want to get some
of these?

ERIC
(motioning)
I guess that's the original
manuscript?

OLD MAN
(starts to get up)
Yes. That's it.

LUCY
(motions Old Man down)
No. Don't get up. Can he hold it up
for the camera?

OLD MAN
(sitting back)
Sure. Of course.

Eric holds manuscript to camera.

LUCY
(glances at viewer)
Looking good.

The grad students sit on cushions respectfully facing the


Old Man, Harold by the table.

Lucy works the videocam from her hand-held viewfinder.


END OF THE ROAD 21
HAROLD
Could you tell us about a car title?
Is that like the bar code in the
vehicle frame?

OLD MAN
Frames were steel, not composit. You
couldn't hide a magnetic code in them.
It was a piece of paper.

LUCY
Driver's licenses, too, we read.

OLD MAN
They were little cards.
(demonstrates size)
About so big. Issued by the States
back then.

ERIC
Registration was a piece of paper,
too? And parking tickets?
OLD MAN
(attempted humor)
Yes. They were pretty rough on trees
in those days.

Students politely laugh.

PAMELA
Is that a real wool sweater?

OLD MAN
(tugs a tuft of sleeve)
Yeah. Sealed away for years. I took
it out just for this. You probably
never saw one. Right?

Students NOD, MURMUR AFFIRMATIVE.

LUCY
In your manuscript you predicted they
might have to slaughter most of the
world's sheep.

OLD MAN
Methane. We knew about global warming
back then.
HAROLD
But no one did much. Population, too.
Now there's a big problem.

ERIC
(to Harold)
U.N. killed a lot of sheep.

PAMELA
(reproaching)
That was in 2028. Let's stick to The
Road. 1995.

LUCY
Yes. Anyway, the biggest cause of
Global Warming was all those
automobile engines.

Harold gets up, reaches to table, picks up 1979 Dodge Omni


model.

HAROLD
Was this the kind of automobile?

ANGLE ON MODEL DODGE

OLD MAN
Yes, that was it. A rusty '79 Omni.

LUCY
Can Harold take it back so we can scan
it into our computer? We only have
two-dimensional file photos.

OLD MAN
Be my guest.

INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT COMPUTER LAB

Harold holds the Dodge Omni model in front of the scanner,


turns it to different angles.

Pamela, Lucy, and Eric observe.

Harold puts model car down, nods.

LUCY
Okay, the part where he buys the car.
END OF THE ROAD 23
(queries others with looks)
We can always delete it.
(to computer)
Computer: Generate scene 2-A!

THE STUDENT COMPUTER LAB ERUPTS INTO A HOLOGRAM OF THE


SCENE.

EXT. BAY VILLAGE, OHIO, OAK CLIFF DRIVE, 1995 - SUMMER


DAY

A BATTERED RUSTY 1979 DODGE OMNI sits on a suburban lawn.


Sign in a window reads: FOR SALE - 79 DODGE OMNI - $200.

DRIVER (o.s.)
Two hundred?

CHRIS (o.s.)
It goes.

We see Driver walk up to car as CHRIS, suburban male late


30s, athletic, and MEGAN, suburban female late 30s, come
down yard to meet him.

DRIVER
(studying car)
Goes, huh. How far?

MEGAN
(pointing to briefcase)
Teaching this summer?

DRIVER
(lifts briefcase)
No. Turned in Spring grades.

CHRIS
So, what are you going to do?

DRIVER
Research a book.

MEGAN
On what?

DRIVER
American highway era.
EXT: BUSY TRAFFIC ON INTERSTATE 90, SEEN FROM CLAGUE ROAD
OVERPASS - HAUNTING SUNSET

DRIVER (v.o.)
Up on the Clague Overpass last week I
had the weirdest sensation. Haunting.
As if I were looking back from the
future.

STOCK: MISSISSIPPI STEAMBOAT SCENE

DRIVER (v.o.)
Our highway system will soon be
history. Another Mississippi
steamboat era.

RETURN TO EXT, CLAGUE AT I-90

DRIVER (v.o.)
They're not cost-effective. They're
environmental disasters. And
technology's passing them by.

RETURN TO SCENE

Megan, Chris, Driver stand by rusty beaten old Dodge.

DRIVER
(points to Dodge)
Okay, sold.

MEGAN
For your book?

DRIVER
Yeah. Disposable car. If it breaks
down, I'll take a bus back.
END OF THE ROAD 25
CHRIS
I put an electric fuel pump on it. It
rattles, but should save gas.

MEGAN
My uncle's a notary. I'll sign the
title over tomorrow.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: SCENE EVAPORATES.

INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT COMPUTER LAB

The four students stand after watching it.

Lucy turns to them.

LUCY
Keep it?

ERIC
Why not?

HAROLD
Follows his introduction.

PAMELA
Maybe we should talk to him more when
we start the main text.

LUCY
I set it up. Anyway, here's where he
starts out.

Lucy taps wrist band.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: STUDENT LAB ERUPTS INTO KALEIDOSCOPIC


COLORS

EXT. OAK CLIFF DRIVE, 1995 - HOT SUMMER DAY

Driver, carries hand bag and large suitcase from his house
to Dodge. Passenger door and hatchback are open.

PAMELA (v.o.)
Aren't those cute old houses quaint?
He tosses bag onto passenger seat, slams door, puts
suitcase in back, slams hatchback.

LUCY (v.o.)
Computer "newed" them up. That
neighborhood's a slum now.

We see Chris and Megan come out across street.

CHRIS
You're off?

DRIVER
On my way. Thanks for putting on new
brakes.

CHRIS
Worried about you. All that way.

MEGAN
Sorry there's no air conditioning.

Driver gets into Dodge, starts car.

DRIVER
All the better to feel the future.

CHRIS
You going to see Jerry Garcia?

DRIVER
Told him about my trip. Gave me a
number to call.

MEGAN
When?

DRIVER
When I get there. If I get there!
Around the second week in August.
(sighs, shrugs)
Really just to relive my own memories.
Well, here goes.

Car begins to move away.

Dodge pulls up to the corner of Oak Cliff and Lake Road.

MEGAN
(waving)
END OF THE ROAD 27
Take care.

CHRIS
(waving)
Have a good trip.

Dodge BEEPS as it pulls out.

We see back of Dodge moving east on Lake Road toward


Clague, past CLAGUE ROAD 500 FEET sign.

I-90 WEST. TOLEDO Sign.

Dodge drives under sign, turns onto freeway entrance,


heads west.

We see Dodge heading for traffic on I-90 (as in earlier


view from Clague Road Bridge).

SPECIAL EFFECTS: SCENE EVAPORATES INTO STUDENT COMPUTER


LAB

INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT COMPUTER LAB

Lucy, Pamela, Eric, and Harold stand thoughtfully.

HAROLD
That's the introduction.

PAMELA
Tomorrow at eleven again?

LUCY
Sharp. He's punctual.

INT. OLD MAN'S LIVING ROOM

The Old Man is in his chair. The students sit around on


cushions.

Lucy looks up from her viewfinder at the Old Man.


LUCY
Why did you begin and end your story
in Gothenburg, Nebraska?

OLD MAN
I don't really remember. That was
over half a century ago.

HAROLD
We were charmed by the thoughts.

Eric looks heavenward for "spare me" forgiveness. Pamela


taps computer-notepad.

PAMELA
(reading from compu-notepad)
Here's how you began: "The universe
might have a single solitary
beginning, and it all may come to a
single solitary end, but other than
that, nothing else does . . ."

OLD MAN
Best I can recall now is that I hoped
to link my adventure to the universe.
LUCY
(taps keys on viewfinder)
I'll punch in your voice pattern from
my audio, and you can hear yourself
read.

Pamela HOLDS COMPU-NOTEPAD toward LUCY'S VIEWFINDER. Lucy


looks at compu-notebook SCREEN, taps in a code. The Old
Man studies the mystifications of the new technology.

LUCY
(pointing to her pad screen)
Computer's got a preliminary test
scenario. But we'd rather wait and
show you our finished thesis.

EXT. SHAMROCK PLAZA MOTEL, OGALLALA, NEBRASKA - LATE


AUGUST MORNING

We see SHAMROCK PLAZA MOTEL sign and this art-deco vintage


1950's motel.

CLEANING LADY, older woman, drags a vacuum cleaner along


concrete sidewalk in front of motel room entrances.
END OF THE ROAD 29

Driver emerges from room, looks around as if last check on


forgetting anything.

LUCY (v.o.)
On page two the cleaning lady tells
you about the "Car-henge" monument
near Alliance.

EXT. PAN OF THE "CAR HENGE" POP-ART MONUMENT IN WESTERN


NEBRASKA NEAR ALLIANCE.

LUCY (v.o.)
But you say you have to get back
because classes start the next week.

RETURN TO MOTEL SCENE

LUCY (v.o.)
So she tells you to stop in Gothenburg
and see the Pony Express Station at
least. You remember that part?

Driver slams hatchback shut, gets in the drivers seat,


straps seatbelt.

The car drives out onto the street. We see: a sign


identifying Ogallala, an I-80 EAST sign.

INT. LIVING ROOM

Lucy removes hand-held viewfinder from Pamela's compu-


notebook.

OLD MAN
Only after I read the proofs a few
months ago. Seemed almost as if
someone else had written it.
PAMELA
Must have been a strange feeling.
(tapping compu-notepad key)
There. Now you can hear yourself
read your book.

ANGLE ON COMPU-NOTEPAD SCREEN

Dodge heads up freeway-entrance ramp.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


(tinny artificial, reading)
Beginnings or endings are only by
selection or definition.

The Old Man looks at the computer notepad, pleased.


Pamela desperately enters more into compu-notepad.

EXT. INTERSTATE 80, NEBRASKA - LATE SUMMER MORNING

Dodge drives out onto I-80, speeds down the Interstate.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


(artificial sound becomes real)
This trip did not begin in Gothenburg,
Nebraska, and it did not end there.

We see Driver driving the Dodge. Nebraska scenery goes


by. "GOTHENBURG 5 MILES" road sign comes up, goes by.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Nor did it begin as I drove off in Bay
Village, Ohio.

STOCK: AUTOMOBILE ASSEMBLY LINE CIRCA 1970s.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The car, you could say, began on a
Dodge assembly line in 1979.

STOCK: SCRAP YARD. CAR (Older than '79!) BEING COMPACTED.

STOCK: WRECKED CAR AFTER ACCIDENT.


END OF THE ROAD 31
OLD MAN (v.o.)
But the steel might have been recycled
a dozen times, starting with a Model-T
Ford.
INSERT: PHOTO, MODEL-T, HENRY FORD (from table display).

STOCK: MAGNETIC LIFT LOWERING COMPACTED CAR-METAL INTO


TRUCK OR TRAIN.

STOCK: Engineering drawing emerging from a computer


printer.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The design may have been done a few
years ago.

INSERT: DISPLAY PHOTO OF CARL BENZ 1885 VEHICLE.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But the design really began with Carl
Benz's horseless carriage in Mannheim
in 1885.

INSERT: PHOTO OF A HORSE AND BUGGY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And the carriage had already been
designed.

MONTAGE: PHOTOS, DRAWINGS: MORE ANCIENT CARRIAGE, AN OX-


DRAWN WAGON, ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DRAWING-PAINTING OF A
PHARAOH'S CHARIOT.

MONTAGE: PHOTOS: A SWORD, A CANNON, A KITCHEN SINK.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Some of the steel came from other
ancient swords, old cannons, kitchen
utensils.
STOCK: PHOTOMICROGRAPHS OF ANCIENT PETRIFIED PALEOZOIC
ORGANISM.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


You could say that iron had been
mined, but eons before it had been
deposited by microorganisms.

ANGLE ON: ANCIENT PETRIFIED LOGS, GINKGO STATE PARK,


WASHINGTON - LATE SUMMER EVENING (same view used later)

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And the petroleum from which the tires
were made came from ancient animals
and plants.

RETURN TO I-90 SCENE

Dodge zooms along I-80 near Gothenburg.

AERIAL VIEW: DODGE DRIVES EAST ON I-80 WITH PAN OF


NEBRASKA PLAINS - SUMMER DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Everything's made of the recycled
stuff of stars. You and I are
recycled ancient algae, dinosaur
flesh, mastodon breath, trilobite
tail, ancient trees.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "GOTHENBURG" - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLING ONTO EXIT RAMP - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Where we begin depends on how we
define ourselves.

Dodge drives past MOTEL SIGN (any).


END OF THE ROAD 33
OLD MAN (v.o.)
We sleep at night and immerse
ourselves in our primordial past,
awake each day with a new
consciousness.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "PONY EXPRESS STATION" - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOING THROUGH GOTHENBURG

Car goes past GEODESIC DOME hamburger restaurant. Car


slows. Driver looks admiringly, pulls into parking area.

Driver walks toward geodesic dome.

INT. GEODESIC DOME RESTAURANT

Driver looks around admiringly. He takes a seat, grabs a


menu. WAITRESS (could be same actor as Professor
Hoffman), late 40s, waitress uniform, approaches.

WAITRESS
What'll it be?

DRIVER
Burger. Fries. Lemonade.

WAITRESS
That your car from Ohio?

DRIVER
Yeah. Teacher. Off for the summer.

WAITRESS
Just riding around?

DRIVER
Researching. Maybe a book.

WAITRESS
About?

DRIVER
The road. The future.
WAITRESS
You see the Pony Express Museum yet?

DRIVER
No. How do I get there?

WAITRESS
(pointing)
Just follow the signs. All we got
here that's historical.

DRIVER
(waves around geodesic dome)
You've got this. I was never inside a
geodesic dome before.

WAITRESS
(with pride)
We built it. We just had a party here
yesterday to celebrate our thirteenth
year. My husband's a science fiction
buff. Likes things like this.

DRIVER
(holds up finger, gets up)
I wrote a science fiction novel.
College printed up some for my
classes. I'll give you a copy.

Driver gets up, trots out.

Driver returns carrying a paperback book, hands it to


Waitress.

WAITRESS
Well, thank you very much.
(looks at it)
What's it about.

DRIVER
A Neanderthal. A coming ice age. An
assassination plot. He'll like it;
it's a yarn.

WAITRESS
We'll read it.

She carries book to kitchen area.

Driver exits geodesic dome restaurant, goes to Dodge.


END OF THE ROAD 35

Dodge pulls out onto road.

Dodge pulls up in front of log cabin PONY EXPRESS STATION.


Driver parks, walks toward Pony Express Station.

INT. LIVING ROOM

Students sit on cushions listening to the Old Man.

LUCY
You said you drove by there on your
honeymoon -- before there was an
Interstate.

EXT: (MONOCHROME) TWO-LANE NEBRASKA ROAD

1959 CHEVROLET IMPALA CONVERTIBLE with Driver and YOUNG


ORIENTAL WOMAN goes by.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Yes. That was thirty years earlier.

LUCY (v.o.)
No kids? You never married again?

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

OLD MAN
No.

LUCY
I guess she's . . .

OLD MAN
Yes. I heard she died.
(hesitates, blinks hint of a
tear)
We were married nine years.

CHIMES RINGS, a soft pink light panel BLINKS.


OLD MAN
Oh. Lunch time already. I'm
thoroughly conditioned to salivate
like Pavlov's dog.

Students respond with appreciative LAUGHTER.

A section of WALL BECOMES A TELEVISION IMAGE showing a


series of food selection dishes.

LUCY
A quick question: did you read
Kerouac's On the Road before you
started?

OLD MAN
Yes. Years before. Decades before.

PAMELA
Did you know Jack Kerouac?

OLD MAN
Sad to say, no, Pamela. He was a
little ahead of my time.

ERIC
You would have been about our age when
he died eighty years ago.

OLD MAN
About.

HAROLD
So you lived in his time.

OLD MAN
Sure. Looking at it from now. But On
the Road came out in the 50s . . .

ERIC
Nineteen fifties.

OLD MAN
Yes. (sighs) A century ago. At the
beginning of the American fascination
with The Road. Before the Interstate
system.

PAMELA
What did you have in mind when you
END OF THE ROAD 37
started out?

OLD MAN
On the trip?

PAMELA
On the trip. Or the story.

OLD MAN
I don't really know.
(reflects)
It's just something I felt I had to
do. If there is some great wisdom
running the universe, some things may
be beyond our understanding.

LUCY
(taps viewfinder off)
On that omo thought we'd better shut
down for the day. We'll see you
tomorrow, same time. Okay?

Lucy stands, takes hold of tiny videocam, snaps up the


wire-like tripod legs into it, closes her palm around it.

The other students stand with their cushions in hand. The


Old Man struggles to stand up.

OLD MAN
I'll be right here. I don't get
around much anymore.

PAMELA
Someone get the incandescent lamp.

ERIC
(restraining snicker)
Harold, you want to screw the bulb?

OLD MAN
Unscrew.

HAROLD
Whatever.
Harold steps to the lamp, GRABS THE HOT LIGHT BULB,
SPRINGS BACK IN GREAT PAIN.

HAROLD
Yieeeeh! It's hot!

The lamp teeters ready to fall. Eric JUMPS, GRABS THE


STEM, saves it. Looks at others. They share relief.

Harold shakes his hand with mild pain. Others


unsympathetically smirk.

The Old Man holds up his hand over the lamp, demonstrates.

OLD MAN
Lightly, Harold. With your
fingertips. Like this.

The Old Man turns the bulb. It goes out.

LUCY
I shouldn't have turned off the cam.

OLD MAN
Maybe best that you did. We aren't
here to embarrass Harold.

LUCY
You're right. Well, we'll see you
tomorrow.

The door opens automatically. The students file out into


the corridor. Lucy glances back, waves goodbye.

INT. CORRIDOR

The door automatically shuts.

Students start down the corridor. Pamela pulls out CARD-


SIZE FLAT TV.

PAMELA
Noon news in three minutes.

ERIC
If the Latin Americans don't nuke us
before then.

LUCY
END OF THE ROAD 39
Not funny, Eric.

Eric and Pamela ignore it, walk on ahead. Lucy and Harold
lag behind, walk together.

HAROLD
Interesting old duffer.

LUCY
You can see he's trying hard to work
with us.

HAROLD
Yeah. So serious.

A beat. They walk.

LUCY
You talk to your parents yet, Harold?

HAROLD
Didn't have a chance.

LUCY
Nothing the matter is there?

HAROLD
No. Things just weren't right. Maybe
next week.

They round the corridor corner.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: EXT. COLLEGE CAMPUS WITH FUTURISTIC


VEHICLES PARKED AND MOVING (floating on magnetic fields,
or air cushions, a foot above roadways).

Focus on window of campus building.

INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT COMPUTER LAB

Lucy sits at desk in futuristic swivel chair studying a


yellowed old pamphlet in front of an obvious FUTURISTIC
EDITING SCREEN.

Futuristic video editing equipment is visible on desk,


along with stacks of old books, ancient-looking audio,
video cartridges.

Pamela walks in.

PAMELA
Still editing?

LUCY
Hello, Pam. You didn't go?

PAMELA
I already saw it. The guys just went
to see if we could do anything with
it.

LUCY
Is it really a piece of Interstate?

PAMELA
I'm not sure. It's pretty
deteriorated, overgrown.

LUCY
But road.

PAMELA
It was a highway. That's sure.

LUCY
How long is it?

PAMELA
Kilo. Maybe less. Whata you got?

Lucy hands pamphlet to Pamela.

INSERT: US GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT: NATIONAL DEFENSE HIGHWAY


ACT PROPOSAL (CIRCA?) 1948.

LUCY (v.o.)
Interstate System. They planned it
after World War II.

Pamela leafs through it, hands it back.

PAMELA
(guffawing)
National defense!
END OF THE ROAD 41
LUCY
Whatever. Funny the way they did
things.

PAMELA
We may look pretty funny ourselves
some day.
(beat)
You and Harold seem . . .

LUCY
(sharply)
Rather not talk about it.
(bites lip)
You know if they'll be back in time?

PAMELA
Should be here in a half hour.

LUCY
(uneasy)
Could go over the manuscript, get
ready.

PAMELA
Okay. I'll copy it into R2D2 for
better sound.

PAMELA (con't)
(to wall screen)
Computer: Copy text, voice. Read from
page 22.

Pamela holds her compu-notebook toward editing screen,


sits in FUTURISTIC EASY CHAIR near Lucy. Corner of wall
screen reads: COPYING: TEXT, VOICE.

LUCY
Computer: Chapter Two. Merge Road
graphics.

Editing screen shows: Map of United States. Then


Interstate system is superimposed.

LUCY
Professor Szasz should like this.

INSERT: EDITING SCREEN. Highlighted (color) LINE. Begins


at Bay Village (Cleveland), Ohio, MOVES ALONG I-90 west
across northern Ohio.

LUCY (v.o.)
What I have in mind is to go out and
follow his route as close as we can
after the weather cools. Take our
cams. Shoot it as it is now. Plug it
back into this.

Re-focus shows I-90 in Ohio. Highlighted line moves west.

LUCY (v.o.)
Maybe we can find some old motels, gas
stations . . .

RETURN TO SCENE.

LUCY
Places he mentioned.

PAMELA
Yeah, Luce. If we can't, maybe we can
ask around, find more old photos,
videos. Put them in.

LUCY
Juxtapose. Compare and contrast. Add
historical anecdotes.

ANGLE TOWARD EDITING SCREEN

Editing screen shows ONGOING COMPUTER MAP (used throughout


script). Screen shows highlight edging west along I-90,
Ohio.

PAMELA
Great. The guys'll go along with
it. We'll have a good time.
(taps wrist band)
Okay. Let's punch in his voice.

ANGLE ON EDITING SCREEN ONLY

LUCY (v.o.)
I scanned in old photos, postcards,
videos to merge the present terrain.
It's accurate plus or minus five
END OF THE ROAD 43
years.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


(natural-sounding voice)
The afternoon sun blazed down on Ohio
farms and fields. I held the Dodge to
fifty-five.

ANOTHER ANGLE: Lower right corner Computer Screen reads:


55 mph = 88.495 kph. Screen changes to:

EXT. INTERSTATE 90 (OHIO TURNPIKE) WEST OF CLEVELAND -


SUMMER AFTERNOON (1988)

Dodge, sunroof, windows open, rolls west along I-90 by


lush summer greenery amid roar of traffic noises.

We hear ZOOMING, ROARING, WHINING, SQUEALING HIGHWAY


NOISES.

We see huge 18-WHEELERS pass, engines grinding, wheels


whining, fixtures clattering, spewing exhaust FUMES,
mudguards flapping as they go by.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


. . . the zoom, the roar, the whine,
the squeal, the smell of hot rubber,
hot metal, and the stink of exhaust
fumes that some day will only be
experienced through recordings.

Two large new (1995) LUXURY CARS, windows rolled up, pass
the Dodge.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Smug, aloof drivers and passengers
sealed inside artificially cooled
environments, ruining the real
environment with fumes from their
exhausts.

Old psychedelic-painted VW VAN with PEACE SIGNS,


Environmental and Grateful Dead BUMPER STICKERS, chugs by.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


From time to time I would see a
Deadhead rumbling along. It crossed
my mind to stop him or her. Tell them
about going to see Garcia. But how
does one stop a strange car going the
speed limit on an Interstate?

Van disappears into traffic ahead.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Just as well. I loved anonymity and
never understood their esoteric world.

Another new luxury car slips quietly by. We hear the


CLATTER OF THE DODGE'S ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP and another
louder CLATTER (of the loosely attached wheel).

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Occasionally I would become aware
of the electric fuel pump rattling,
largely drowned out by road noises
and by the invisible air rushing
by the car.

EXT. LUSH GREEN OHIO SCENERY

Summer woods and fields, goes by.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Someone from the Egyptian desert would
have been amazed . . .

STOCK: EGYPTIAN DESERT SCENE

OLD MAN (v.o.)


. . . by the Great Green, the precious
green of life . . .

RETURN TO SCENE
END OF THE ROAD 45
OLD MAN (v.o.)
. . . supported by reliable climate
patterns, abundant rain. But I grew
up with it all around, oblivious.

EXT. VIEW THROUGH WINDSHIELD OF I-90, ROAD, ROAD SIGNS,


ROAD MARKINGS. "SLOW FOR INDIANA TURNPIKE TOLL BOOTH"
SIGN.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I had driven the route a number of
times in the 80s.

LUCY (v.o.)
Nineteen eighties of course.

EXT. ROAD SIGN ANNOUNCES BOOTH TARKINGTON REST AREA.

PAMELA (v.o.)
Quaint, isn't it?

OLD MAN (v.o.)


. . . and in 1970, my wife and I had
driven the other way in a borrowed '58
Chevy . . .

LUCY (v.o.)
Five years after his honeymoon trip in
'65.

DODGE PULLS INTO BOOTH TARKINGTON PLAZA, I-90 (INDIANA


TURNPIKE), DRIVES TO GAS PUMPS.

Driver gets out, looks at TRAFFIC DRIVING BY ON I-90. WE


SEE TRAFFIC ZOOMING BY.

Driver puts gas hose back in rack. Goes to PAY WINDOW.

INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT OFFICE/LAB

Lucy points at EDITING SCREEN showing Driver standing by


gas pump gazing at I-90 traffic. Pamela looks on.
LUCY
He must have been absorbed in
memories. Had locked his keys in the
car.

PAMELA
That wasn't in his book.

LUCY
No.
(to computer)
Computer, re-create Dodge Omni.

ANGLE ON: Holographic 1979 Dodge Omni, driver-side door


open, MATERIALIZES in Student office.

LUCY
Indiana State Police files for those
years were given to Purdue's Police
Sciences Department, later
computerized.
(to computer)
Scene!

SPECIAL EFFECTS: STUDENT LAB ERUPTS INTO 1995 SCENE

EXT. BOOTH TARKINGTON PLAZA, GAS STATION, INDIANA


TURNPIKE IN B.G.

INDIANA STATE POLICEMAN and Driver walk to Dodge.

Policeman uses a "FLAT HOOK" to slip down Dodge DOOR


WINDOW and RELEASE LOCK. He opens door. Nods, beckons.

LUCY (v.o.)
I searched up his license number,
found a note.

EXT. FREEWAY ENTRANCE RAMP

Driver drives Dodge onto it . WE HEAR RATTLING SOUND. It


joins traffic.
PAMELA (v.o.)
Luce, you're fantastic!
END OF THE ROAD 47
SUPERIMPOSED: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP SHOWS: PROGRESS TO
CHICAGO.

DODGE GOES BY CENTRAL CHICAGO ON I-90 WITH RATTLING SOUND.


Late day.

EXT. AERIAL VIEW OF I-90,

Dodge goes west, accompanied by RATTLING SOUND.

ANGLE ON: Driver driving, with RATTLING SOUND. DUSK.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I always tried to get past Chicago,
the end of the populous East, the
first day. After that traffic
thins, driving's easier.

ANGLE ON: CAR HEADLIGHTS AND TAIL LIGHTS BECOME MORE


PROMINENT - EARLY NIGHT. PRONOUNCED RATTLING -- MORE THAN
ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP -- NOW MENACING.

ANGLE ON: DODGE HEADLIGHTS PICK UP "WELCOME TO WISCONSIN"


SIGN - NIGHT.

ANGLE ON: MORE HEADLIGHTS AND TAIL LIGHTS - NIGHT.


CLATTER OF RATTLING SOUND LOUD.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


As traffic lessened and the clattering
grew, it became obvious that it was
not the electric fuel pump. Something
was definitely wrong.

ANGLE ON: HEADLIGHTS PICK UP "JANESVILLE" SIGN - NIGHT.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Every time I got to Janesville,
something was going wrong with
whatever car I was driving.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES INTO "MOTEL AMERICAN," PARKS - NIGHT.


OLD MAN (v.o.)
Like some mysterious force trying to
show me something. One result,
however. . .

INT. DODGE ON LIFT OF GAS STATION - DAY.

Driver and MECHANIC (grease-smeared young man in oily gas


station uniform) stand underneath '74 Vega or other '74
vintage car. Both look, point up.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


. . . I knew of a gas station that did
good work cheap.

RETURN TO "AMERICAN MOTEL" SCENE - NIGHT

Driver carries overnight bag from Dodge toward motel.

EXT. MOTEL PARKING LOT - MORNING

Driver, carrying OVERNIGHT BAG, goes from motel to Dodge,


loads bag into car. Dodge drives off. RATTLING IS NOISY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


In the morning I headed for the old
familiar gas station.

EXT. JANESVILLE GAS STATION - DAY

Dodge pulls into "GAS STATION." BUT IT IS NO LONGER A


FULL SERVICE GAS STATION. We see a CONVENIENCE STORE,
window with a CLERK.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


It was gone. Converted into a
convenience store selling gas.

EXT. OTHER JANESVILLE GAS STATION - DAY

Several cars are up on lifts, MECHANICS working. NOISY


compressed-air driven TOOLS HAMMER AND RATTLE. Workers
shout over din.
END OF THE ROAD 49
We also see a variety of computerized diagnostic and
repair equipment.

Driver and MECHANIC, noticeably sweating, under Dodge,


Mechanic fastens last lug with compressed air WRENCH.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I finally got it fixed for a lot more
at a franchise place down the street.

MECHANIC
(pulling wrench off wheel)
Should hold. Threads are a little
stripped, so keep an eye on it.
(wipes brow with sleeve)
Must be about a hundred out.

ANGLE ON ABOVE SCENE ON COMPUTER SCREEN: LOWER RIGHT


READS: 100o F = 37.7o C.

DRIVER
Maybe the greenhouse effect?

MECHANIC
Science fiction. Ain't no such thing.

DRIVER
(shrugs, points at gizmos)
Pretty fancy equipment.

MECHANIC
Yeah. Pretty near need a Ph. D. in
auto repair these days. Few years
back they'd hire anyone handy with a
wrench.

EXT. MISTY SUMMER VIEW OF I-90 WEST FROM CLAGUE ROAD


BRIDGE

Driver stands alone, looking at freeway traffic.


OLD MAN (v.o.)
The nostalgic feeling on the Clague
Road overpass had been my unconscious
revealing looming change.

RETURN TO GAS STATION SCENE

Driver backs Dodge off lift, backs out into, drives away.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


My trip had gotten off to a bad start,
but that problem was solved.

EXT. I-90 WISCONSIN FARM COUNTRY - MORNING.

Dodge drives north.

ANGLE ON: ROAD SIGN: "MADISON NEXT THREE RIGHTS" - DAY

ANGLE THROUGH WINDSHIELD: DODGE DRIVING I-90 FARTHER NORTH


- IN DARK THUNDERSTORM, DAY.

Deluge dumps on Dodge. Wipers fail to clear windshield.

Driver squints to peer through massive rain. Car begins


to jerk, motor cuts out. Driver pulls off road.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The Dodge couldn't take it and
stalled.

Heavy trucks go by, shake Dodge.

ANGLE AS RAIN CEASES - DAY:

We see two cars, first a RENAULT then the Dodge, stalled.


Renault cranks away trying to start.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I thought the electric fuel pump had
shorted. The Renault stalled in front
was a relief.

Renault starts, pulls out into traffic.


END OF THE ROAD 51
Dodge kicks over, starts. Drives out into I-90
traffic.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "WISCONSIN DELLS NEXT RIGHT" - DAY

SUPERIMPOSED ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS OF DODGE


ON I-90

QUICK MONTAGE: LACROSSE NEXT RIGHT SIGN. MISSISSIPPI


RIVER SIGN. DODGE CROSSES MISSISSIPPI. WELCOME TO
MINNESOTA SIGN - NOON.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVING I-90 ACROSS MINNESOTA FARM COUNTRY


- AFTERNOON.

SUPERIMPOSED: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: CONTINUES TO SHOW


DODGE GOING ACROSS MINNESOTA

QUICK MONTAGE: WELCOME TO SOUTH DAKOTA SIGN. SIOUX FALLS


NEXT TWO EXITS SIGN - LATE EVENING. SIOUX FALLS EXIT SIGN
FLIES BY CAR WINDOW - EARLY DUSK.

INT. DODGE - DAY

Driver looks at GAS GAUGE.

INSERT: GAS GAUGE. SHOWS NEAR EMPTY.

ANGLE ON: DRIVER

Driver mops brow, looks flustered, upset.

DRIVER
Damn! Now where's the next one?

ANGLE ON: ROAD SIGN: "SALEM NEXT EXIT" - LATE DUSK.

ANGLE ON: I-90 AT SALEM - NEAR DARKNESS


Dodge goes around cloverleaf, goes down country road.

ANGLES ON: BRIGHT-LIT AREA AHEAD BITES INTO DARKNESS AND


"GAS - FIREWORKS" SIGN - NIGHT.

Driver, driving Dodge, pulls off onto gravel apron of


COMBINED OLD-STYLE GAS STATION AND FIREWORKS STORE, pulls
up to old rusty gas pump.

Leaning on Dodge, he watches hose while tank fills, hangs


up hose, goes into store.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "NO SMOKING WITHIN FIVE FEET OF BUILDING"


- SPOTLIT IN NIGHT.

INT. GAS, CONVENIENCE-STORE, FIREWORKS-STORE

Driver enters. Tough WEATHERED-LOOKING GUY, 60s, rough


attire, behind cash register hands Driver change -- past
RACK of small POTATO CHIP bags. PAN of fireworks in store.

DRIVER
You have anything like a sandwich?

WEATHERED GUY
(nods toward microwave)
Could heat you up a hot dog.

DRIVER
(pulls bag of potato chips)
Nah. I'll take these. Don't know if
anything'll be open in Mitchell.

WEATHERED GUY
Most likely something. Don't know,
though. Haven't been there for a
while.

DRIVER
Is there a pay phone?
END OF THE ROAD 53
WEATHERED GUY
Nope.
(nods to old black dial phone)
You can use mine if you have a phone
credit card.

DRIVER
(shrugs, waves, starts leaving)
Never had one. Well, just have to see
what's open in Mitchell.

Dodge drives out of gas station and into the darkness.

ANGLE ON: SIGN LIT BY HEADLIGHTS ON I-90: "MITCHELL NEXT


RIGHT" - NIGHT.

MONTAGE: STOCK:

1. McGovern giving speech; 2. Vietnam battle scene; 3.


Anti-war Protest demonstration.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


On our last trip together, summer of
'72, we decided to stay on the town
where George McGovern was born.

ANGLE ON: DODGE TURNING ONTO OFF RAMP - NIGHT

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The motel had a giant painted
sculpture of a buffalo in the yard.
Our two dogs barked furiously at it.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLING INTO DRIVE OF MITCHELL MOTEL WITH


BUFFALO STATUE - NIGHT

We see the giant BUFFALO STATUE. Then we see NO VACANCY


sign.

Driver gets out of Dodge, goes to motel office.


OLD MAN (v.o.)
I always tried to stay there when I
came this way. Maybe they had just
one single.

INT. MOTEL OFFICE

MOTEL OWNER, 40s, cowboy hat and jeans, comes to desk.

MOTEL OWNER
All filled up. Everything in town's
full. Rotary convention. Tell you
what. I'll call down to Parkston.

DRIVER
Where's that?

MOTEL OWNER
20 miles south.

DRIVER
20 miles!

MOTEL OWNER
Either that or 65 to Sioux Falls, or
70 to Chamberlain. Want me to call?

DRIVER
Sure. Thanks.

EXT. "BUFFALO" MOTEL, MITCHELL - NIGHT

Driver goes back out, stands looking at giant buffalo


statue.

It begins to rain. Motel Owner leans out door.

MOTEL OWNER
Got two at the Rainbow Motel. Better
hurry.

DRIVER
(waves, goes to Dodge)
Very obliged.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVING DOWN 2-LANE HIGHWAY - RAINY NIGHT


END OF THE ROAD 55

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLING INTO PARKSTON, SOUTH DAKOTA,


RAINBOW MOTEL DRIVE - NIGHT, HEAVY RAIN.

Driver hurries into motel office.

INT. RAINBOW MOTEL OFFICE

LARGE MOTHERLY WOMAN, 50s, plain summer dress, steps out


to counter.

DRIVER
(wiping rain from forehead)
I brought you some rain.

WOMAN
Thanks. We needed it. You the guy
Herb called about?

DRIVER
I'm sure.

WOMAN
(slides registration card)
Last one.

DRIVER
(filling out card)
He said there were two.

WOMAN
Half hour ago.

EXT. RAINBOW MOTEL - NIGHT, RAIN

We see Driver, lit by motel night lights, hurrying in


downpour with bag from Dodge to motel room.

EXT. RAINBOW MOTEL - MORNING (no rain)

Dodge in front of Motel door. Driver opens door, carries


postcard in one hand bag in other. He throws bag in back
seat, places card on front. He starts car, drives off.

DODGE DRIVES AROUND CENTRAL PARKSTON - SUMMER SUNDAY


MORNING

Town appears deserted. We see a certain dinginess,


survival economy, absence of wealth.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Parkston. Sunday morning. Homey,
secure, but poor. Wealth clearly
flowed from here.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVING UP TO POST OFFICE - MORNING

Driver gets out, drops postcard into mail box out front.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I found the post office, mailed my
card, and headed for The Road again.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVING TWO-LANE ROUTE 37 NORTH TOWARD I-


90 - SUMMER MORNING.

We see evocative scenes of placid wetlands, cattail


marshes beside Route 37, South Dakota prairie and
farmland, wild birds flitting, cattle grazing.
Gentle summer morning sky. Strains of familiar American
tune HOME ON THE RANGE float unimposingly.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Where the buffalo once roamed.

ANGLE ON: I-90 SIGN GOES BY.

ANGLE ON: DODGE TURNING ONTO RAMP.

We see Driver driving Dodge, speeding up. Dodge merges


with traffic on I-90.

SOUNDS SUDDENLY: LOUD TRAFFIC NOISE: tire squeals,


screeches, engine roars, passing truck zooms.

We see black fumes from truck exhausts. Driver wipes


sweating brow.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


It was not yet noon and already hot,
getting hotter.
END OF THE ROAD 57

AERIAL VIEW: I-90 THROUGH PRAIRIE.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP SHOWS: PROGRESS ACROSS


SOUTH DAKOTA ON I-90

ANGLE ON: DODGE PASSES MISSOURI RIVER SIGN - MIDDAY.


(music: "Shenandoah."

ANGLE ON: DODGE CROSSES MISSOURI - MIDDAY (music phrases:


"I hear you calling . . . Across the wide Missouri" fades
to road noises)

QUICK MONTAGE: 1. DODGE DRIVES I-90 PAST SOUTH DAKOTA


FARMLAND; 2. GRAZING LAND; 3. VISIT WALL DRUG SIGNS; 4.
DODGE DRIVES I-90 AS SCENERY CHANGES TO BADLANDS; 5. WALL
DRUG x-MILES SIGN; 6. SIGN ANNOUNCES BADLANDS NATIONAL
MONUMENT; 7. ANOTHER VIEW OF BADLANDS; 8. SIGN ANNOUNCES
WALL DRUG NEXT RIGHT.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OFF I-90.

Driver stands beside Dodge parked in downtown Wall. We see


tourists.

TOURIST WOMAN carries a large ridiculous PLASTER


KNICKKNACK. TOURIST MAN sighs resignation.

TOURIST MAN
What'r ya goin' ta do withit, Martha?

TOURIST WOMAN
I donno. Put it in the yard or
somethin'.

EXT. (MONOCHROME)

A Model-T Ford drives along a dirt or minimally paved two-


lane road, circa South Dakota.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


In 1931 during The Depression, a guy
named Ted Husted bought the only
drugstore in Wall. The only real
resource the town could mine was the
highway -- now Interstate 90.

RETURN TO SCENE

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The phenomenon grew with the growth of
The Road.

INT. LIVING ROOM

Lucy, Pamela, Eric, and Harold, noticeably DISTANCED from


Lucy, sit on cushions facing the Old Man. Tiny remote
videocam records.

Harold and Lucy exchange glares.

A CLEANING ROBOT, with brushes and vacuum nozzle, opens


the door, enters, closes door. All turn and look.

OLD MAN
Not now, Nebuchadnezzar.

Robot makes gesture of acknowledgment, exits. Unbothered


as if it were perfectly normal, students return attention
to Old Man.

PAMELA
Were there any "Tin Lizzies" around
when you were young?

Focus toward photo of Model T.

INSERT: MODEL-T PHOTO

OLD MAN (v.o)


Yes, a few.

MONOCHROME STOCK: LATE 1930s, EARLY 1940s STREET SCENE


WITH TRAFFIC.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Until a few years after the war there
were all kinds of old cars. They
didn't make any during the war.
END OF THE ROAD 59

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

LUCY
(working handheld remote)
You mean World War Two.

OLD MAN
It was always "The War" to me.

PAMELA
Did they chug like you said?

OLD MAN
Oh yes. They chugged. I rode in the
rumble seat of my great uncle's Model
T when I was a kid.

PAMELA
Did people have refrigerators,
electric lights then?

OLD MAN
(ancient eyes twinkling)
Yes. Well, I was about six or seven
when we got our first refrigerator.

INT. (MONOCHROME) DINGY HALLWAY BY ICE BOX

ICE MAN, 1930s attire, shouldering CHUNK OF ICE WITH ICE


TONGS, opens ICE BOX, inserts block.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Before that my folks had an ice box.
I vaguely remember an Ice Man bringing
ice in a horse-and-wagon.

EXT. (MONOCHROME) 1930s SUBURBAN STREET

Ice man returns to ICE-COMPANY WAGON DRAWN BY WAITING


HORSE.

HAROLD (v.o.)
Horses! None now. After the methane
crisis.
RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

LUCY
We've only seen one horse. In the
zoo.

ERIC
(slight awe)
You actually saw the last days of
animal-powered vehicles.

PAMELA
(cutting in)
What were the roads like then? I
mean when there were still horses on
them.

STOCK: 1930s CAR DRIVES DIRT ROAD.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Two-laners. No freeways. Took a
couple hours to get across Cleveland.
Lot of dirt roads in the country.

STOCK: HORSE DRAWS PLOW

LUCY (v.o.)
You said in your book you saw the
transition from animal muscle power to
machine power.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

OLD MAN
The end of it. Hard work done by
living things was giving way to non-
living things doing it. And then came
an even more profound change.

PAMELA
Computers.

OLD MAN
(nods)
Non-living thinking machines.

HAROLD
END OF THE ROAD 61
You experienced both.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP SHOWS: PROGRESS ALONG I-


90, APPROACHING RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA.

OLD MAN
(sighs)
Yes.

EXT. I-90 FROM DODGE APPROACHING RAPID CITY - DAY, STORM


APPROACHING

Dark clouds of threatening thunderstorm cover western sky


over Black Hills.

SUPERIMPOSED COMPUTER MAP ENDS

ANGLE ON: SIGN GOING BY: "RAPID CITY NEXT THREE RIGHTS" -
DAY, STORM APPROACHING

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS ONTO EXIT RAMP - DAY, STORM


APPROACHING

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The experience in Wisconsin was still
fresh. Whether it had been the
electric fuel pump or not, I didn't
want to stall out on an Interstate
again.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS UP IN FRONT OF COFFEE SHOP IN RAPID


CITY - DAY, RAIN BEGINNING

In darkened daylight it begins to rain. Driver runs for


coffee shop.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


So I decided to wait it out.

Driver emerges from coffee shop in stark bright late


afternoon daylight, sparkling rain wet sidewalks,
glistening rivers flowing in gutters. Gets into Dodge.
Drives off.
AERIAL VIEWS: DODGE DRIVES I-90 WEST TOWARD WYOMING - DAY,
AFTER RAIN.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS TO


MOORCROFT, WYOMING

EXT. SPECTACULAR VIEWS OF SUNLIT LATE DAY CONTRASTING WITH


STORM IN BLACK HILLS, (perhaps) RAINBOWS.

ANGLE ON: SIGN "MOORCROFT" AS DODGE PULLS OFF I-90 AT


MOORCROFT, WYOMING - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE IS PARKED AT GAS STATION PUMP - EVENING,


THREATENING DARK CLOUDS.

Driver fills tank. Opposite side of pump isle, COWBOY-


TYPE, weatherbeaten, 40s, fills NEW VAN.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


A guy coming the other way told me
there was golf-ball-size hail. I
worried about my glass sunroof,
decided stay the night.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS UP TO A MOORCROFT MOTEL - LATE


EVENING

EXT. MOORCROFT MOTEL PARKING LOT - BRIGHT MORNING

Driver emerges, dumps bag into Dodge back seat, gets in.

COMPUTER MAP SHOWS: PROGRESS ON I-90 TO LITTLE BIG HORN --


SUPERIMPOSED ON: SCENERY, LITTLE BIG HORN, GOING BY - DAY.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "LITTLE BIG HORN BATTLEFIELD MONUMENT" -


DAY.

STOCK: BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN SCENE (OR PAINTING)

Soldiers battle Warriors.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


END OF THE ROAD 63
Last great battle of the four-hundred-
year war between Europeans and Native
Americans.

AERIAL VIEW: OVER LITTLE BIG HORN BATTLEFIELD, I-90 IN


B.G. - DAY

EXT. DODGE DRIVES I-90 BY PEACEFUL GRASSY HILLS OF LITTLE


BIG HORN - DAY.

MONTAGE: SERIES OF FOUR AREA GAS STATIONS - DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Years earlier I had gone by in my
rusty old 74 Vega. It had begun to
shudder and stall, and I went from gas
station to gas station. New points,
new spark plugs, adding dry gas.

EXT. HILL BEFORE BILLINGS, MONTANA, ALMOST TO TOP.

Dodge drives up.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


It gave up about here. Tried and
tried, and got it shaking, stuttering
over the top.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES OVER PEAK, GOES DOWNHILL. WE SEE


BILLINGS - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And coasted down into Billings.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES INTO CONVENIENCE STORE GAS STATION


AT BOTTOM OF HILL, BILLINGS - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Fortunately there was a gas station
with a mechanic, and he spent all day
-- between running out and filling
tanks -- installing a new timing gear.

Driver stops car at pump, gets out. He walks up to


convenience store.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But this one, too, like the one in
Janesville, was a convenience store
also selling gas.

Driver stands looking at spot on wall where lifts once


were, goes back to gas pumps, fills tank.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The Road had begun to change. Gas
stations with mechanics were slipping
into history.

AERIAL VIEW: MONTANA COUNTRYSIDE AND I-90 - DAY.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS ON I-90


WEST FROM BILLINGS TO LIVINGSTON

EXT. MONTANA COUNTRYSIDE FROM I-90 - LATER DAY.

ANGLE ON: EXIT SIGN: "LIVINGSTON" - EVENING.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS INTO (LIVINGSTON) RAINBOW MOTEL -


EARLY EVENING.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


After the experiences of the last two
nights in Parkston and Moorcroft, I
got a room before it got dark.

Driver gets out of Dodge, carries bags to room.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


This second Rainbow Motel in
Livingston looked like a quiet place,
but one never knows. Travelers take
their chances.

ANGLE ON: RAINBOW MOTEL PARKING LOT, WITH DODGE - DARK


NIGHT.

Loud diesel locomotive engine NOISES, train TOOTS, train


cars BANGING.
END OF THE ROAD 65

MORE DISTANT ANGLE SHOWS: NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY


SWITCHYARDS NEARLY ADJACENT MOTEL - DAWN.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Train noises reverberated through the
room all night.

EXT. LIVINGSTON RAINBOW MOTEL PARKING LOT - MORNING

Dodge drives onto road.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS UP TO "NORTHERN PACIFIC" RESTAURANT,


LIVINGSTON (a Victorian Railroad-era building) - MORNING.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Thus I learned that Livingston was a
main switching area on the historic
Northern Pacific Railroad. The
station was now a museum.

ANGLE ON: OLD LIVINGSTON NORTHERN PACIFIC STATION, NOW A


MUSEUM, AND MUSEUM SIGN - DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Steamboats had been replaced by great
railroads and they, in turn, had given
way to The Road. And The Road was now
slipping into history.

INT. LIVING ROOM

The Old Man is interrupted by Pamela as Harold, Eric, and


Lucy look on.

PAMELA
Several times you seemed to be
consciously paralleling the end of the
railroad era. Or was this something
unconscious?

OLD MAN
(after looking blankly,
thinking)
Oh, a little of both. We are not
entirely creatures of the conscious
mind.
(pauses remembering)
I just had a flash of memory.

EXT. (MONOCHROME) VIEW OF RAILROAD TRACKS UNDER CLAGUE


ROAD BRIDGE.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I had completely forgotten that the
Interstate paralleled railroad tracks
going under the Clague Road Bridge.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

OLD MAN
It just came back to me. Funny how
the mind works.

LUCY
(holds up a copy of book)
We went to some nearby places in your
book.

PAMELA
'Course everything's changed.

LUCY
I looked up some old maps.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: MAGNETIC LEVO-TRAIN SPEEDING.

LUCY
The old railroad is now the high-speed
levo-line from Cleveland Center to
Chicago Center.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

OLD MAN
(ponders a moment)
Figures. Tracks went from Cleveland
to Chicago.
END OF THE ROAD 67

STOCK: STEAM LOCOMOTIVE PULLING TRAIN.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


When I was young, steam-powered trains
ran on it.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

OLD MAN
How fast do those levo-trains go these
days?

ERIC
300 - 400 kph.

OLD MAN
What's that in miles per hour. I
never switched.

LUCY
(punches computer in remote)
Hundred eighty-six and a half, to two
hundred forty-eight and a half.

OLD MAN
Pretty fast. I rode one once. Seemed
about that.
LUCY
(shuts off camcorder with
remote)
Well, that's it.
(goes to camcorder, zings
tripod legs up)
Some of us will be back on Thursday.

OLD MAN
The others?

PAMELA
Playing the University of Chicago.
Exhibition baseball.

OLD MAN
(brightening)
Baseball! I thought that was gone
thirty years ago.

HAROLD
We revived it.

LUCY
A few years ago an ash tree on my
uncle's farm blew down. We hid some
of the wood from government
inspectors.

ERIC
(proudly)
We made genuine wood baseball bats.

LUCY
We also made our own baseballs. Well,
technically softballs.

HAROLD
Black market inner-city rat-hide
covers.

PAMELA
Lucy is -- uh -- pit-ching.

Eric pulls out a handkerchief. He gingerly unscrews the


light bulb. It goes off as the others start for the door.
END OF THE ROAD 69
OLD MAN
Pitch a no hitter.

LUCY
That'll be the day. Well, see you
after the game.

INT. CORRIDOR

Lucy goes out door, then Pamela and Eric. Harold comes out
last. Door shuts automatically.

Harold hurries up to Lucy.

HAROLD
Luce, I just . . .

LUCY
(stops, glares furious)
You just get out of my life, Harold.

HAROLD
But . . .

LUCY
Get away from me!

HAROLD
(shrugs, frowns, turns)
Okay.

Harold starts walking ahead of them.

LUCY
Damn you.

Lucy THROWS A BOOK AT HAROLD. He hurries around a corner.


Eric goes to console him.

Lucy leans on wall, sinks to carpeted floor.

Pamela goes to the book.

INSERT: BOOK, TOSSED AND OPEN ON FLOOR. AJAR COVER READS:


END OF THE ROAD. In corner, price circle reads: $430. OPEN
COVER PAGE READS: KENT STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2050 A.D.
Pamela brings book back to Lucy, now in tears.

PAMELA
Next time throw the disk version.
Twenty times cheaper.

EXT. MONTANA ALONG I-90 - MORNING

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP SHOWS: ROUTE FROM


LIVINGSTON TO BUTTE, MONTANA

EXT. MONTANA COUNTRYSIDE ALONG I-90 - MORNING

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES WEST IN MORNING DEW.

ANGLE ON: SIGN AT ROCKIES SUMMIT: "CONTINENTAL DIVIDE" -


DAY

ANGLE ON: BUTTE FROM HIGHER ELEVATION ON I-90 - DAY

ANGLE FROM CAR WINDOW: I-90 ZIPS BY - DAY.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "BUTTE NEXT RIGHT" - LATE MORNING.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OFF INTERSTATE - DAY

MONTAGE: THE UNIQUE MINING-BOOM ARCHITECTURE OF BUTTE -


MIDDAY.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS INTO GAS STATION WITH REPAIR


FACILITIES -DAY

Driver hangs up gas pump, lifts hood, checks oil. Oil


stick reads "full."

MECHANICS work under LIFTS in garage bays.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The car used no oil. All my previous
clunkers burned several quarts by now.

Driver hands money to WOMAN CASHIER, who rings it up on


END OF THE ROAD 71
old MECHANICAL CASH REGISTER.

DRIVER
Not many gas stations with garages
anymore.

WOMAN CASHIER
(handing back change)
Gettin' few and far between all right.

EXT. MONTANA COUNTRYSIDE and I-90 NEAR MISSOULA -


AFTERNOON.

Dodge drives west.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM


BUTTE TO WALLACE, IDAHO.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "MISSOULA" - AFTERNOON

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES OVER BITTERROOT MOUNTAINS PASSING


HEAVY TRUCKS - LATER AFTERNOON.

ANGLE ON: WALLACE NEXT EXIT SIGN - EVENING

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES INTO WALLACE - EVENING

We see mining town architecture against evergreen


hillsides.

Dodge stops at a traffic light.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Plans were to bulldoze Wallace, like
so many other small towns in the way
of the Interstates. But the people
here fought back.

ANGLE ON I-90 CUTTING THROUGH HILLSIDE AT WALLACE - DAY


OLD MAN (v.o.)
Forced the US government to build an
expensive bypass.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES OUT ON I-90, THROUGH COEUR D'ALENE


VALLEY - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM


WALLACE TO GINKGO STATE PARK (COLUMBIA RIVER).

AERIAL VIEW:I-90, EASTERN WASHINGTON DESERT - LATE DAY

EXT. DODGE GOES ACROSS WASHINGTON SEMI-DESERT - EVENING.

ANGLE ON: ROADSIGN: "GINKGO PETRIFIED FOREST STATE PARK" -


EVENING

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS INTO GINKGO PETRIFIED FOREST STATE


PARK - LATE EVENING.

We see panorama of Columbia Gorge and the artificial lake


of the Columbia River.

We see ancient PETRIFIED GINKGO LOGS AND STUMPS, and SIGN


IDENTIFYING THEM, THEIR AGE.

Driver stands looking. We see his LONG SHADOW across


petrified logs.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Million years here. Billion years
there. Who knows where the time goes?

EXT. GINGKO STATE PARK (MONOCHROME) YOUNGER DRIVER, YOUNG


ORIENTAL WOMAN.

The two are seen from behind, cast LONG SHADOWS, same time
of day. Two dogs sniff and frolic.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Decades earlier I stood exactly there.
With my wife, at that time of day.
Our last trip together.

EXT. GINGKO STATE PARK - LATE EVENING


END OF THE ROAD 73

Driver, very alone by the LONE CAR in the VASTNESS OF THE


LANDSCAPE, the canyon and artificial lake made by Wanapum
Dam. He pauses, opens Dodge door, climbs in. Dodge drives
off.

EXT. DODGE GOES ON I-90, HEADLIGHTS ON - VERY LATE


EVENING, FADING TWILIGHT

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM


GINKGO TO ELLENSBURG.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: HEADLIGHTS ON "ELLENSBURG NEXT EXIT" -


NIGHT.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Ellensburg's a college town. My old
alma mater. Still had a few friends
around.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOING THROUGH DOWNTOWN ELLENSBURG. WE SEE


A SIGN: "CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY NEXT RIGHT" - NIGHT

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS INTO LIGHTHOUSE MOTEL (1936 motel)


WE SEE NEON MOTEL SIGN - NIGHT.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Creature of habit, I always stayed at
the same motel. Built in 1936, early
in the highway system.

INT. FUTURISTIC LOBBY/NURSE STATION, NURSING HOME

NURSE, 50s, futuristic nurse uniform, looks up from panel


of futuristic monitors AS OUTSIDE AUTOMATIC DOOR OPENS.

Lucy, agitated, anxious, walks in.

NURSE
(puzzled)
Next week, wasn't it?
LUCY
I've got some things to straighten
out.

NURSE
He expecting you?

LUCY
No. Not exactly.

NURSE
Well, go on up. I'll tell him you're
on your way.

Nurse punches in VIDEOPHONE. We see the Old Man's face.

INT. LIVING ROOM

Old Man's chair is empty, an ancient wooden ROCKING CHAIR


near it.

Automatic door is open. Old Man, in blue jacket, stands


bent by it to greet. Lucy, flustered, showing regret, nods
a smile.

OLD MAN
(ushering her in)
Hello Lucy. Always good to see you.

LUCY
(tersely, going in)
Thanks.

OLD MAN
(bent, walking to his chair)
Have a chair.

LUCY
(looks reverently at rocker)
Okay?

OLD MAN
Sure.
END OF THE ROAD 75
LUCY
(sitting cautiously)
My great grandma had a real wooden one
like this.

OLD MAN
(carefully sitting)
I thought you were pitching in
Chicago.

LUCY
Oh, that isn't until Thursday.

OLD MAN
Thesis moviemaking okay yesterday?

LUCY
Sure. I just . . . I just . . .

The Old Man relaxes, twinkle in his eye.

OLD MAN
(interrupting)
Funniest memory just flashed by. A
hamster named Haruchan.

LUCY
(tense, interested)
That's a strange name for a hamster.

OLD MAN
Haru means spring in Japanese. Maybe
you know; my wife was Japanese. Chan
. . .

LUCY
I know. Grandma was Japanese. She
called me Lucy-chan.

OLD MAN
Ah so desuka. So you understand.
(a beat)
That was the summer of sixty-six.
LUCY
Eighty-four years ago.
(thinks)
Grandpa McKnight was born a year
later. Nineteen sixty-seven. In
California.

OLD MAN
(acknowledging)
We lived in California then. A
nineteen fifties apartment. Second
floor.

LUCY
Fresno?

OLD MAN
San Jose.

INT. LIVING ROOM, 1950s CALIFORNIA APARTMENT, GOODWILL


FURNITURE.

We see hamster cage, open. Hamster scampers, hugging


walls.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Little female hamster. We gave her
the run of the apartment -- left her
cage door open so she could get food
and water. She built herself a nest
in the bedroom closet. One day . . .

RETURN TO SCENE

The Old Man pauses for effect. Lucy sits girlishly


fascinated.

OLD MAN
. . . my wife remarked that we hadn't
seen her for a couple days.

INT. BEDROOM, 1950s CALIFORNIA APARTMENT.

Driver and Young Oriental Woman kneel searching into


closet.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


END OF THE ROAD 77
We searched her nest. All over the
closet.

Driver and Young Oriental Woman look under bed, behind


dresser.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


We searched the whole apartment.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

OLD MAN
There was no Haruchan.

LUCY
Did she get out?

OLD MAN
Almost. A few days later we overheard
the people downstairs talking about a
rat between the walls. Discussing
calling an exterminator.

INT. 1950s CALIFORNIA APARTMENT KITCHEN.

Young Oriental Woman points behind stove. We see a gnawed


hole in the linoleum baseboard.

LUCY (v.o.)
Haruchan.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Gnawed a hole behind the stove and
fell between the walls.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

OLD MAN
We could hear her trying to climb up
and then falling -- scurry, scratch,
thump. About nine feet down.
LUCY
Three meters.

OLD MAN
Yes.

LUCY
But you saved her.

OLD MAN
Yup. Ingenious things we do. I
bought some wire mesh, made a hamster
ladder.

INT. 1950s KITCHEN

Driver inserts final two feet of wire mesh ladder down


hole. Stands back. Oriental Young Woman and Driver wait.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And then we waited and waited. For a
whole 'nother day.

Young woman puts a piece of carrot near hole.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


She wasn't able to figure it out. Or,
she needed more incentive than food.

Driver sets cage with MALE HAMSTER by hole with end of


wire mesh visible.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


So we borrowed a male hamster from a
friend. It seemed as if there was
some kind of communication between
them. And it didn't take long after
that.

Haruchan, on end of wire mesh ladder, peers out of hole,


heads for cage of male hamster. Driver grabs her.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


About midnight she came up.

We see Haruchan's abraded feet, worn away claws.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


She had tried for days. Feet were
END OF THE ROAD 79
raw. Fingernails worn away. With her
last strength she climbed up to the
male hamster.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

The Old Man shoots Lucy an instructive look.

OLD MAN
Hormones. More powerful than hunger.

LUCY
(a beat. looks out window.)
Yeah. My problem. Hormones.

OLD MAN
The young man helping you with the
video?

LUCY
That obvious, huh. Yes. Harold.

OLD MAN
Good guess. But you two seem to work
together nicely.

LUCY
We live in the same co-op. We've
known each other for years.

OLD MAN
What's the problem?

LUCY
Remember the AIDS crisis?

OLD MAN
Something like that's going on again?

LUCY
No. Nothing like that. But it still
has its effects.

OLD MAN
AIDS?

LUCY
Yes. People who were given vaccines a
couple generations back still carried
it. They could still pass it on -- to
their children. Who would then be
given vaccines themselves. No one
died of it anymore. But the stigma .
. .

OLD MAN
Shouldn't it be moot? The new anti-
AIDS antibiotic?

LUCY
(looking mystified)
Yeah. Kills it. Not just immunizes.

OLD MAN
But doesn't kill the stigma.

LUCY
(tears begin streaming down)
No. My mother had it. She was born
with it. My grandmother gave it to
her. I took the antibiotic. There's
no virus in me now.
(cries tearfully)
But Harold . . . Afraid of what
his parents will say. Breaks up.

OLD MAN
And you asked him to talk to them?

LUCY
(angrily, sniffling)
Yes. He won't.

OLD MAN
He will. Give him time. He's as much
in love with you as you are with him.

LUCY
(brightening, hopeful)
You think so?

OLD MAN
Sure of it.

LUCY
(relaxing)
In the mean time . . .
END OF THE ROAD 81

OLD MAN
Work on your video thesis. Pitch a
no-hitter in Chicago.
(pause)
What about the North-South situation?

LUCY
Little scary. Specially if Brazil
backs out of the Greenhouse
Commitments. I daydream about living
back in the twentieth century when it
all was simpler.

OLD MAN
We had the Cold War, recessions,
homelessness, unemployment. When I
was a boy, World War Two -- Nazis,
genocide, all those things. Simpler
technology maybe.

LUCY
I guess. I'm a nostalgia freak.
That's why I majored in History.
(glances at wall clock)
Oh oh. Student cafeteria'll close.

INSERT: CALENDAR CLOCK READS: AUGUST 5, 2050. 11:24.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

LUCY
I've got to run.

OLD MAN
(as Lucy gets up)
Beat Chicago.

LUCY
Thanks. Thanks for . . .
OLD MAN
Enjoyed talking to you. Thanks for
reminding me about my hamster.

Lucy leaves. The automatic door closes.

WALL LIGHTS into Nurse (on TWO-WAY VIDEO SCREEN).

NURSE
Lunch in your room?

OLD MAN
Yes.

NURSE
Those boys and girls aren't putting
any strain on you?

OLD MAN
Oh no. I wouldn't let them.

NURSE
Be sure you don't, now. You are a
hundred ten, don't forget.

OLD MAN
Well, I've done pretty well up to now,
wouldn't you say?

NURSE
Okay, you tough old varmint. Just
keep in mind they could wear you out
without realizing it.

OLD MAN
I'm not going to dance The Riguzzi
with any of 'em.

NURSE
The Lezugggi.

OLD MAN
Whatever. Anyway, don't worry so
much.

NURSE
Okay. Suppilliuliumash should be
there to set the table.

Apartment door opens. FOOD-SERVICE ROBOT enters pushing


END OF THE ROAD 83
CART with TABLECLOTH, SILVERWARE, STEAMING FOODS under
cover.

OLD MAN
Just came in.

EXT. LIGHTHOUSE MOTEL PARKING LOT, ELLENSBURG - HOT SUMMER


NIGHT

With LIGHTHOUSE MOTEL SIGN visible, Driver pulls overnight


bag from Dodge's hatchback, carries it into motel room.

SUSANNE (same actor as Lucy, 90s attire, different


personality), attractive half-Native American young woman,
early 20s, Marilyn-Monroe-personality, summer shorts and
blouse , watches from adjacent room door.

Driver returns to Dodge, slams hatchback, looks at


Susanne. BOY, Asian, 5-ish, rides BIG WHEEL tricycle by
SOFT DRINK MACHINE nearby.

DRIVER
Komban wa.

SUZANNE
What's that mean?

DRIVER
Good evening. You look a little
Japanese.

SUSANNE
(shakes head no)
Yakima. Sort of. My great
grandfather was Norwegian. My
husband's Vietnamese. Boat people.
(nods at Boy)
Norwegian-Yakima-Vietnamese.
DRIVER
(looking at Boy)
Vietnamese. How'd you meet?
SUSANNE
(not happy)
In a bar. He ran off with my sister
six months ago.

DRIVER
So you're traveling somewhere?

SUZANNE
Because I'm here? No, half the motel
is County Human Services. We just
live here.

DRIVER
(glances at soft drink
machine)
Been driving all day. Thirsty. You
like anything?

SUZANNE
Orange'd be nice.

Driver gets two cans from machine, hands one to Suzanne.


She pops it, takes a swig.

SUZANNE
(Marilyn Monroe-ish)
Sure feels good going down. You
married?

DRIVER
Was once.

SUZANNE
Kids?

DRIVER
No.

SUZANNE
What do you do?

DRIVER
Teacher. Trying to be a writer.

Driver goes to front seat of Dodge, rummages in a box,


pulls out a small paperback book.

DRIVER
(handing book)
END OF THE ROAD 85
Here. You can have it. I wrote a
novel. School printed up some.

SUZANNE
(looking at it)
What is it?

DRIVER
Science fiction.

SUZANNE
I never met a real author before.

Suzanne looks to the side.

JIM, late teens - early 20s, scruffy attire, long hair,


dirty beard, just-got-up look (same actor as Eric,
different personality), saunters along walk in front of
motel rooms.

SUZANNE
Hi.

JIM
(studying Driver)
Hi. Just got up.

SUZANNE
This is Jim. A friend. Lives in room
29.

DRIVER
(showing disappointment)
Hi, Jim.

SUZANNE
Let's go in. Sit down. Air
conditioning's broke, but it's better
than standing.

DRIVER
Okay. But I'm going to turn in soon.
Been a long day of driving.

They go in.

INT. LIGHTHOUSE MOTEL ROOM - HOT NIGHT


It is a housekeeping suite, kitchen area, living room,
bedroom. Suzanne sits in easy chair, Jim at one end of
sofa, Driver in a hardback chair.

SUZANNE
(to Jim, holding book)
He wrote this.

JIM
(to Driver)
Writer, huh. You could write about
the drugs in the schools.

DRIVER
Drugs?

JIM
You ever do 'em?

DRIVER
No.

SUZANNE
Half the kids in our high school did.
High in class every day. Pretty
"high" high school.

DRIVER
(looking at both of them)
Same high school?

JIM
Yeah.

DRIVER
(to Jim)
You did 'em?

JIM
Yeah. I was one.
(a beat)
You want to hear a good story?

DRIVER
Sure.

JIM
Just before school let out we were
down at the beach at Vantage.
END OF THE ROAD 87
DRIVER
Where?

JIM
By Ginkgo State Park. On the
Columbia. Big lake made by Wanapum
Dam.

SUZANNE
Down I-90.

DRIVER
I know. Just came from there.

JIM
Drugs! Man, we had everything. LSD,
cocaine, grass, speed, beer, wine.
Everything.

EXT. BEACH AT VANTAGE (COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE) - LATE DUSK.

Jim, Suzanne, FOUR OTHER TEENAGERS, all in bathing suits,


barefooted, ALL STAGGERING, STONED, DRUNK. They get a
bonfire of driftwood going.

CLOTHES SEEN DRIFTING AWAY IN ROWBOAT.

JIM (v.o.)
(as rowboat slips offshore)
Someone noticed the boat drifting. All
our clothes were in it, including our
car keys.

One male teenager, one female teenager (same actors as


Harold, Pamela) jump in, start swimming after it.

LATE DUSK BECOMES DARKER. We see TWO OARS on the beach.

JIM (v.o.)
Couple kids swam after it in the dark.

Female teenager seen thrashing around.

JIM (v.o.)
One of them was shouting that she was
drowning. We couldn't see. We were
all pretty stoned anyway.

Others peer out in panic.


JIM (v.o.)
No phone or anything around. My keys
were in my pants in the boat.

Jim, other male teenager, begin to trot. We see them


enter desert sagebrush barefoot, walk gingerly as fast as
possible.

JIM (v.o.)
The only thing we could do is walk
barefoot across a mile of sagebrush to
a gas station. Oh man that hurts,
even when you're stoned out of your
mind.

Bottom right screen reads: 1 mile = 1.609 km.

We see Jim, other Teen, approach GAS STATION.

We see Jim talking, desperately, animatedly, on (non-pay)


PHONE on gas station counter.

JIM (v.o.)
At first the cops didn't believe me.
I finally convinced them.

COP CARS, LIGHTS FLASHING, doors open, stand at water's


edge.

An INFLATABLE MOTORIZED RAFT, TWO MEN IN WET SUITS, seen


being launched in headlights shooting out into the
darkness.

The beam of the Inflatable Raft HEADLIGHT DIMINISHES as it


goes out over the dark water.

JIM (v.o.)
The oars were on the beach. They were
just drifting.

UNIFORMED COP picks up oars.

JIM (v.o.)
They finally found them. Pretty close
to the dam.

In DARK WATER, LIT BY SEARCHLIGHT, Wet-suited man in raft


END OF THE ROAD 89
TOSSES LINE to drifting rowboat with two cold, grateful
looking teenagers in bathing suits.

RETURN TO MOTEL SCENE

JIM
Cops gave us a written warning.
Didn't ask about drugs or anything.

INSERT: NEWS PHOTO, ACCIDENT DEMOLISHED CAR.

SUZANNE (v.o.)
The girl was a good friend. She died.
Crashed her car couple months later.

RETURN TO MOTEL SCENE

DRIVER
Sorry! Stoned?

SUZANNE
Drunk.

DRIVER
Way it goes.

JIM
You want to hear another?

DRIVER
One's enough for a couple good
nightmares.
(glances at watch)
I think I'll turn in. Been a long
day.

Driver gets up, goes toward door.


EXT. CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIV. CAMPUS, ELLENSBURG - NIGHT

Driver ambles thinking across campus in the darkness.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But I couldn't sleep. I got up and
walked around town, around the campus.
Next day I drove out to see old
friends.

EXT. FOURTH PARALLEL ROAD, BADGER POCKET, FARMHOUSE


OUTSIDE ELLENSBURG - DAY.

Dodge pulls into driveway. MIKE O'BRIEN, 50s, farm


attire, exits house, waves a greeting. SHARON O'BRIEN,
40s, casual dress, looks out, waves. Their DOG barks a
greeting.

Driver gets out of Dodge, walks toward house.

MAUREEN, shy 14-year-old girl, carrying book, joins


parents in waving.

SHARON
Come on in.

MIKE
Have a beer.

DRIVER
Hello, Maureen.

MAUREEN
Hi.

SHARON
(to Maureen)
Trigonometry. Until supper.

MIKE
(to Driver)
How was the Lighthouse Motel?

DRIVER
Going down. Half of it's welfare now.
One of 'em told me an amazing story.

INT. 1980s FARMHOUSE KITCHEN - DAY


END OF THE ROAD 91

Sharon, Mike, and Driver sit relaxed around kitchen table


sipping beers.

DRIVER
(relating story)
. . . so they were ready to go over
the dam. The girl was killed in a
car accident a couple months later
anyway.

SHARON
We know the high school's gotten
pretty bad. We keep the girls on a
shorter leash now.

DRIVER
Where's the other one?

SHARON
Eileen? College library. Studying.

MIKE
You want to hear another related
story?

DRIVER
Sure.

MIKE
Friend has an orchard. You probably
passed it. He carries a sidearm now.

EXT. CENTRAL WASHINGTON ORCHARD - DAY

FARMER, 50s, farm attire, gets off tractor, inspects


orchard tree near ROAD.

DRIVER (v.o.)
A gun?

Unnoticed by Farmer, two PICKUP TRUCKS pull up. SEVEN


scruffy "FARM LABORERS" (20s, prefer Hispanic) get out,
appear to "deal." Farmer turns, looks at it puzzled.

MIKE (v.o.)
A gun.
(sighs)
Seems he nearly inadvertently
interrupted the transfer of some
eighty pounds of pure cocaine from one
group of "farm laborers" to another.

Transparent plastic bags of white powder are handed from


one pickup and placed under an orchard tree.

Suddenly, SHOUTING. CONFUSION REIGNS.

A SWAT TEAM of TEN D.E.A.-JACKETED ARMED MEN, AND LOCAL


UNIFORMED SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES springs into action from
hiding places behind trees, etc.
MIKE (v.o.)
A SWAT team erupted out of nowhere!

D.E.A. MAN DEPUTY


(shouting) (shouting)
FREEZE! HANDS ON THE TRUCK!

"Laborers" are, searched, cuffed, marched away.

MIKE (v.o.)
Nabbed 'em. Took 'em away. But there
are lots more.

RETURN TO KITCHEN SCENE

MIKE
I-82 and I-90 seem to have become
major dope corridors from Mexico since
the Coast Guard tightened up on West
Coast ports.

SHARON
So some farmers are carrying guns. I
think they're over-reacting.

DRIVER
But they're out there all alone.
The problem is not so much the sellers
as the buyers. What spawned this huge
appetite?

MIKE
I don't know. Wasn't like this when I
taught high school.
(stands)
END OF THE ROAD 93
Come on. We'll pick some supper.

EXT. FARMHOUSE YARD.

As Mike and Driver walk we see VIEWS OF THE KITTITAS


VALLEY, perhaps MT. RAINIER in background, a sense of
space. Driver motions to HILL in the Yakima Firing Center
(US Army).

DRIVER
Thirty years ago I was a drafted
soldier up there. On war games I
would look down here wondering what
all the civilians were thinking. One
day we got our orders for Southeast
Asia.

MIKE
And you never really got out of Asia.

DRIVER
Guess not. Japanese wife. Living
there as a civilian. I still have
nightmares that they won't let me out
of the Army.

MIKE
Heard lots of guys say that.
(waves to garden)
Pick out some vegies.

DRIVER
(begins scouting vegetables)
Hunter gathers. How many people in
this country pick their own suppers?

MIKE
They all do. In the supermarket.

They give each other "bad joke" looks.

EXT. FARMHOUSE DRIVEWAY - MORNING

Driver leans out window of Dodge. Sharon and Mike stand


in driveway.
DRIVER
Maybe see you next year. Or the year
after.

Driver backs Dodge out. We see Sharon and Mike wave.

ANGLE ON: DODGE HEADS DOWN TWO-LANE KITTITAS VALLEY ROAD -


MORNING.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES BY ORCHARD, SLOWS, SPEEDS UP AGAIN.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS ROUTE FROM


ELLENSBURG ALONG I-82, US 97, STATE 14, TO MARYHILL
MUSEUM.

ANGLE ON: DODGE TURNING ONTO I-82, GOING OVER RIDGE.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "YAKIMA FIRING CENTER, US ARMY" - DAY

Driver PULLS CAR OVER, STOPS A MINUTE, looks over Yakima


Firing Center entrance, sighs, pulls away.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "US ROUTE 97" AS DODGE TURNS ONTO IT.

ANGLE ON: DODGE ON ROUTE 97 NEAR SATUS PASS - MIDDAY.

ANGLE ON: SIGNS: "ROUTE 14" "MARYHILL MUSEUM" - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLING INTO MUSEUM DRIVE - HOT MIDDAY.

Driver gets out, walks toward museum. We see vastness of


the Columbia Gorge as he walks.

INSERT SIGN: "Japanese ukiyo-e print exhibit on tour"

ANGLE ON: MUSEUM DOOR

Driver goes in.

INT. MARYHILL MUSEUM


END OF THE ROAD 95

Driver buys ticket from TICKETSELLER.

DRIVER
Nice and cool in here.

TICKETSELLER
Hundred ten out there.

Bottom right screen reads: 110o F = 43.3o C.

Driver wanders through Japanese woodblock print exhibit


(use museum-quality copies; the exhibit-on-tour is gone).

Driver stops in front of print "Cherry Blossom Viewing at


Asakusa Temple" by Utagawa Kunisada.

INSERT: CHERRY BLOSSOM VIEWING AT ASAKUSA TEMPLE.


Prominent date: 1856.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Peaceful scene. I was there over a
century later.

EXT: (STOCK?)PRESENT VIEW OF ASAKUSA TEMPLE (pulling back


to Tokyo crowds and traffic with traffic noises) - ANYTIME

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The world had gone mechanical.

RETURN TO MUSEUM SCENE

Driver walks out museum door into sudden brightness.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Outdoor heat whacked into me.
EXT. MARYHILL MUSEUM - HOT AFTERNOON

We see another panorama of vast Columbia Gorge as Driver


walks to Dodge, gets in.

Driver, sweating profusely, drives Dodge through Columbia


Gorge.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I had never experienced such heat.
Air coming through the vents was like
from an oven.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES INTO BINGEN, WASHINGTON - HOT


AFTERNOON

ANGLE ON: BANK CLOCK-THERMOMETER FLASHES: 2:07. (then)


122o F. (then) 50o C. (then) 2:08 - HOT DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS UP BY PAY PHONE - HOT AFTERNOON.

Driver drops coin, stands sweating at pay phone.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I called Bridget at home, not really
expecting to find her in. She had
written that she was teaching summer
school. Not knowing which school, I
expected to wait a couple hours.

Driver looks pleasantly surprised as he listens on phone.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But the extreme heat had shut down the
summer school. So I drove on up to
Husum.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS ROUTE FROM BINGEN


TO HUSUM, WASHINGTON.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Bridget came from Bay Village, and her
mother had given me a package to
deliver.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES ALONG ROAD TO HUSUM - DAY.


END OF THE ROAD 97

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS ONTO DIRT ROAD - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


She had designed and built her house,
by herself, with little help from
anyone.

EXT. BRIDGET'S WOODSY RURAL HOUSE - HOT AFTERNOON

Dodge pulls into driveway.

BRIDGET, 30s, teacherish, casual attire, comes down to


meet Driver. He holds forth album-sized package. He
looks, impressed, at house.

DRIVER
Built this by yourself?

BRIDGET
(takes package, proudly)
Yeah. Kind of nice, isn't it?

DRIVER
Amazing!

BRIDGET
(partially tears open package)
Album of childhood photographs. Come
on. I'll show you around.

They head up toward the house.

INT. BRIDGET'S LIVING ROOM - DAY

Bridget and Driver enter living room from kitchen.

BRIDGET
(proudly, happily)
Have a seat.

DRIVER
(both sitting in chairs)
Satiated the nest-building instinct?

BRIDGET
Completely. Last house I ever build.
You want to hang around here for a
while? I can sure use some help.

DRIVER
A while?

BRIDGET
The summer.

DRIVER
No. Can't. Got to finish this trip.
Write the book.

BRIDGET
(shakes head, sighs)
Always driven by unseen forces to do
uncommon things. Stay tonight?

DRIVER
I could. But then I'd have to skip
the Oregon Coast. Memories. I
planned to stay in an old motel in
Wheeler tonight. Friends in Grass
Valley August 8. Have to be in San
Francisco next day.

BRIDGET
The Jerry Garcia thing?

DRIVER
Yeah.

BRIDGET
Like an appointment?

DRIVER
Way it seemed. And I don't have the
cash to wait around out here until his
secretary can reschedule me or
something. Even if I did, my job's
hanging by a thread. Got to get back
for orientation week.

BRIDGET
But if he wants to see you, you'd
think . . .

DRIVER
Trouble is, I don't know how those
celebrities operate. And I'm afraid
END OF THE ROAD 99
to ask.

BRIDGET
Okay. Quick lunch?

DRIVER
Yeah. That'll be good.

She gets up and goes toward kitchen.

EXT. BRIDGET'S HOUSE DRIVEWAY - MORNING

Bridget stands beside Dodge. Driver leans out window.

DRIVER
I'll try to get back here next summer.
Fewer complications.

Dodge starts to move.

BRIDGET
You gotta do what you gotta do. Have
a good trip. Send me a copy of the
book.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DISAPPEARS AROUND BEND - MORNING

OLD MAN (v.o.)


A pang of sadness, loneliness struck
me. Like a soul alone for eternity in
the vastness of the universe.

ANGLE ON: DODGE STOPS AT INTERSECTION WITH "HUSUM" ROAD.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But there was little choice.

Driver hesitates. Looks back. Sits with hand on the gear


shift.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OUT ONTO "HUSUM" ROAD FROM DIRT ROAD
- MORNING

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I weighed it all. Purposes, costs,
memories, my job. I was too old to
start all over again.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OUT ONTO ROUTE 14, WEST, FROM ROUTE
141 - MORNING

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP SHOWS: ROUTE FROM HUSUM


TO CANNON BEACH, OREGON (CIRCUITOUS - ROUTE 14, I-5, US
26, US 101)

OLD MAN (v.o.)


So I continued on.

EXT. EXOTIC SCENERY OF COLUMBIA GORGE, ROUTE 14 - HOT


SUMMER MORNING.

Dodge seen as dwarfed by majesty.

ANGLE ON: I-5 SIGN. PORTLAND SIGN - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE TURNING ONTO I-5, SOUTH, CROSSING BRIDGE,


"ENTERING OREGON" SIGN - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES FREEWAY THROUGH PORTLAND - DAY

ANGLE ON: US-26 SIGN - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE EXITS I-5 - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES THROUGH OREGON FARM COUNTRY - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The almost unbearable heat began to
cool as Coastal climate took over.
END OF THE ROAD 10
EXT. TOWARD PACIFIC OCEAN FROM HILL AT CANNON BEACH - 1
DAY

Dodge descends hill.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I felt wonderful, invigorated -- by
the coolness and the ocean air.

INT. LIVING ROOM

Pamela and Eric enter with recording equipment. The Old


Man sits in his chair.

PAMELA
Lucy's pitching in Chicago.

ERIC
I think Harold went to Chicago to
watch. He punched in a ticket on the
student computer.

PAMELA
Really to talk with Lucy, though.

OLD MAN
(pleased, shows fingers
crossed)
Well, fingers crossed.

ERIC
(going to lamp)
Oh, we'll win. Chicago's still
learning. We've played four different
teams.

PAMELA
(positions mini-videocam)
Lucy's the best pitcher in the league.
Her uncle taught us the rules. They
still play in Japan.

ERIC
(screws in bulb, which lights)
Ceremonial-like, though.
PAMELA
(as they sit on cushions)
Did you know that Mike and Sharon's
daughter, Maureen, still lives in that
house in Badger Pocket?

OLD MAN
(astonished)
No. I didn't.

PAMELA
She's seventy. Lives alone.

OLD MAN
I lost track of them years ago.

PAMELA
I called her. She vaguely remembers
you. The guy who drove out from Ohio
to visit. You and her father talking
into night in the kitchen.

ERIC
We've been putting together a research
trip to follow the route you took. As
close as we can. Road's mostly gone.

PAMELA
Make videos. Maybe find some historic
things. Like motels where you stayed.

ERIC
After the weather cools down some.

PAMELA
We plan to interview Maureen. I
transed your book, and she read most
of it. Doesn't think the place has
changed much in sixty years.

OLD MAN
Wish I could go with you.

ERIC
We'll show you all the videos. As it
looks now, of course.
END OF THE ROAD 10
OLD MAN 3
And Bridget? Did you . . .

PAMELA
(shakes head sadly)
According to what we found she died in
twenty thirty-two. Did you see her
the next summer?

OLD MAN
No. Never got out there again.
School let a bunch of us go.
Unemployment. Then illness. Then
barely-enough-to-live-on Social
Security. We wrote. But it dwindled.

ERIC
Her house still seems to be there. We
accessed Klickatat County building
records.

PAMELA
We'll get you a video.

OLD MAN
Be grateful.

ERIC
(eagerly, changing subject)
We found a piece of old Interstate.
71 or 76. Half kilometer.

OLD MAN
Some real road?

EXT. WEED-AND-TREE-OVERGROWN ABANDONED ROAD - DAY

Lucy, Pamela, and Eric, work at clearing abandoned road.

ERIC (v.o.)
Yeah. Someone already illegally cut
down some trees. We cleared some
growth.
Lucy, Pamela, and Eric carry a beat-up, old-looking
FUTURISTIC WHEEL-LESS CAR up to partially cleared
abandoned road.
PAMELA (v.o.)
Modified an old levo-car.

Wheel-less car, Lucy driving, cautiously negotiates


cleared stretch of abandoned road.

PAMELA (v.o.)
We took turns "driving" the Interstate
to see how it felt.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

ERIC
Of course it wasn't like it really
was. Toxic fumes. Screeching rubber.
Huge dangerous trucks.

OLD MAN
But you had a good time.

PAMELA
Yeah. A really good time. We also
went to the Henry Ford Museum last
week. We told the museum director
about our thesis project, and he got
someone to drive us around the
building in a genuine 1996 gasoline-
powered car.

ERIC
Funny rumbling-grinding sounds. Had
an actual steering wheel, gear-shift.
Like being in an old 20th-century two-
dimensional video.

PAMELA
Seemed a little dangerous, too. Hard
to imagine going . . .
(punches handheld computer,
video monitor)

Bottom right screen reads: 110 kph = 68.353 mph.

PAMELA
. . . almost seventy miles per hour in
it.
END OF THE ROAD 10
OLD MAN 5
Some went even faster. People passed
me all the time when I was going 70.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: HIGHLIGHTED LINE SHOWS


ROUTE FROM BAY VILLAGE, OHIO, TO JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN.

ERIC
You talked about going from Bay
Village to Janesville with a loose
wheel.
(frowns, scratches head)
At that speed?

OLD MAN
Yes. But I didn't know it was loose.
Parts had no failure sensors then.

PAMELA
We examined some of the museum's
liquid-fuel cars. Thousands of parts.
Seems a miracle they didn't have more
accidents.

OLD MAN
You had to drive alert. Ready for
anything. Brakes failed on two of my
old cars. Had to grab the emergency
brake.

ERIC
(enthusiasm for it)
Every day must have been like a levo-
car race.

OLD MAN
I hate to disillusion you, but it
didn't seem that way at all.

PAMELA
Just doing the best you could with
what you had in those days.

OLD MAN
Yes. That's all we can do.
ERIC
Knowing what you know now about how
dangerous it was, would you have gone
out on the road in the summer?
OLD MAN
Certainly! It didn't seem the least
bit dangerous. And as I drove, I felt
in tune with some strange silent music
of the universe. Making a little
record of the Road Era. I had a grand
old time doing it.

PAMELA
Did the future turn out like you
thought?

OLD MAN
Pretty much.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM


CANNON BEACH, OREGON, TO WHEELER, OREGON

EXT. HIGHWAY 101 AT CANNON BEACH - AFTERNOON

Dodge descends toward Pacific Ocean.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


These Oregon beach towns owed their
existence to highways that brought
tourists. So I might rationalize
roaming into cool ocean air and
remarkable beauty.

ANGLE ON: DODGE TURNS ONTO HIGHWAY 101, WITH VIEW OF


PACIFIC OCEAN - LATE AFTERNOON.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Originally my thoughts had been to
stick to the Interstates. But I could
not resist the pull of memories.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS ALONG


PACIFIC COAST ON 101, (ALSO SHOWING I-5 PARALLELING DOWN
INLAND OREGON) FROM CANNON BEACH TO WHEELER.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Thirty years earlier my wife and I had
END OF THE ROAD 10
taken a trip along the Oregon Coast. 7
Places where we stopped might no
longer be there.

MONTAGE: SEVERAL VIEWS OF DODGE DRIVING ALONG OREGON


COAST. BEACH TOWNS. CLIFFS. WAVES AT ROCKY COAST - GROWING
TOWARD EVENING.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But the Coast itself changed at a
geological pace, too slow for us
short-lived mortals to see.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "WHEELER" - EVENING

OLD MAN (v.o.)


My plan was to stay in an old Wheeler
motel with memories.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS UP IN FRONT OF (FORMER) MOTEL,


WHEELER - EVENING.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But it had been converted into low-
rent apartments.

Driver gets out of car, looks longingly.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I stood looking at it for some
minutes. Then suddenly I didn't want
to be in Wheeler anymore.

Driver gets into Dodge, pulls door shut.

MONTAGE: SEVERAL VIEWS OF DODGE ON 101 SOUTH OF WHEELER


AND OREGON COAST - DARKENING EVENING.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I drove on, getting hungry and tired,
driving, until I didn't want to drive
anymore.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: HEADLIGHTS ON "LINCOLN CITY" - LATE DUSK.


ANGLE MOVING THROUGH LINCOLN CITY WITH NEON MOTEL SIGNS -
DARKNESS.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I made the mistake of picking a cheap
franchise motel, and they gave me a
room next to the highway.

EXT. LINCOLN CITY. HIGHWAY 101, LOGGING TRUCKS ROLLING BY,


(with engine, mechanical sounds) - NIGHT.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


All night long logging trucks roared
by a few feet from my bed. I slept
poorly and therefore slept in late.

EXT. LINCOLN CITY, HEAD OF STAIRS TO BEACH, LOOKING OUT ON


PACIFIC - DAY.

Driver stands looking, starts down steps.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


After I got up and had breakfast, I
had to see the beach.

EXT. (MONOCHROME) SAME LOCATION ABOVE, LOOKING AT BEACH -


DAY.

Younger Driver and Oriental Young Woman walk on beach


while their two dogs race around and sniff.

EXT. LINCOLN CITY BEACH - DAY.

Driver, alone on the beach, ambles near water's edge as


waves roll in, looks wistfully, goes to stairs, starts up.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And I spent more time there.

EXT. HIGHWAY 101, SOUTH OUT OF LINCOLN CITY - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM


LINCOLN CITY TO COOS BAY.
END OF THE ROAD 10
9
Dodge drives south on 101.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


It was noon before I got started
again.

MONTAGE: SEVERAL PROLONGED VIEWS OF THE EXOTIC OREGON


COAST - BRIGHT SUNSHINY DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But it was a strikingly beautiful day.
Unforgettable. Enchanting.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "OREGON DUNES NATIONAL RECREATION AREA" -


DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OFF ON APRON WITH SEA VIEW - DAY

Driver sits in car looking at EVOCATIVE SCENE of sunlight


brightly sparkling on waves, waves breaking into beach.
We hear the ocean roar.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I stopped and gazed out spellbound for
the longest time.

ANGLE ON: DODGE CROSSING BRIDGE AT NORTH POINT - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM


COOS BAY ON ROUTE 42 TO I-5

ANGLE ON: SIGNS: "COOS BAY. ROUTE 42" - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I headed inland for I-5 to get quickly
south.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES FORESTED COQUELLE VALLEY - DAY

ANGLE ON: SCENERY GIVES WAY TO CLEAR-CUT LOGGED LAND - DAY

Dodge drives by logging trucks.


OLD MAN (v.o.)
Away from the ocean it got hot again.
How much would worldwide logging would
affect future climate?

ANGLE ON: CENTRAL OREGON VALLEY FARMLAND. I-5 SOUTH SIGN


SEEN FROM DODGE - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE ENTERS TRAFFIC SOUTH ON I-5 AMID FUMES AND
DIN - AFTERNOON.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS ON I-5


FROM ROSEBURG, OREGON, TO RED BLUFF, CALIFORNIA, AND ON
ROUTE 99 FROM RED BLUFF TO CHICO, CALIFORNIA.

MONTAGE: QUICK VIEWS OF DODGE AND I-5 BETWEEN ROSEBURG AND


GRANTS PASS - AFTERNOON.

ANGEL ON: SIGN: "ROGUE RIVER CAMPGROUND NEXT RIGHT" - DAY

EXT. (MONOCHROME) ROGUE RIVER CAMPGROUND CENTERING ON


HOMEMADE GEODESIC-DOME TENT.

Driver and Oriental Young Woman sit at nearby picnic table


with two dogs.

ANGLE ON: ROGUE RIVER CAMPGROUND AREA AS DODGE DRIVES BY


ON I-5 - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE AT SISKIYOU SUMMIT, PARKED TRUCKS WAITING


TO DESCEND - DAY

ANGLE ON: PANORAMA OF "CALIFORNIA" FROM I-5 HEIGHTS, WITH


"WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA" SIGN - DAY
END OF THE ROAD 11
Driver leans back while driving, inhales a 1
satisfaction, and sings a hint of pathos.

DRIVER
(loudly singing)
"California here I come; right back
where I started from."

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "YREKA NEXT RIGHT" - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OFF I-5 - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Creature of habit. But practical,
too. I always tried to stop at the
same restaurant when I came this way.
OLD MAN (v.o.)(con't)
The food was decent. And there was a
phone to call my friends in Grass
Valley.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS INTO YREKA TRUCK-STOP RESTAURANT


PARKING LOT - DAY

Driver parks near a telephone booth, gets out, dials


phone, puts in gobs of change.

DRIVER
Hello. Judy?
(listens)
Yreka. (pronounce: Why-reeka)
(listens)
No I got started late. I'll try to
make Chico tonight.
(listens)
Yeah. See you in the morning.
(sound of COINS CLUNKING)
Yeah, coins ran out. Gotta hang up.

Driver hangs up.

He goes to a yellow San Francisco Chronicle vending box,


puts in coin, pulls out newspaper, continues on into
restaurant.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OUT ONTO I-5 - DAY


ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS INTO CALIFORNIA FRUIT INSPECTION
STATION NEAR WEED - DAY

ANGLE ON: DODGE CONTINUES SOUTH ON I-5. WE SEE VIEWS OF


MOUNT SHASTA - LATE AFTERNOON.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Shasta-san. Magnificent.
Supernatural. Or maybe just a pile of
solidified molten rock. Impressive
and heartwarming though.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DESCENDS INTO CENTRAL VALLEY ON I-5 - LATE


AFTERNOON

ANGLE ON: SCENERY BETWEEN REDDING AND RED BLUFF - EARLY


EVENING.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "ROUTE 99 NEXT RIGHT" - EARLY EVENING

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OFF I-5, DRIVES 99 - APPROACHING


DUSK.

ANGLE ON: WINDSHIELD ON TWO-LANE ROAD - NIGHT.

Insects, thick in headlights, smash against Dodge.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Insects got thicker, their short lives
shortened more. Flattened on whizzing
steel and glass.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES BY WALNUT GROVES, ROUTE 99 NEAR LOS


MOLINOS - DUSK.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: HEADLIGHTS PICK UP "CHICO NEXT RIGHT" -


LATE DUSK
END OF THE ROAD 11
OLD MAN (v.o.) 3
I started looking for an inexpensive
motel in Chico.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES THROUGH CHICO - NIGHT.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES UP TO OLDER CHICO MOTEL - NIGHT.

EXT. ROUTE 99 SOUTH FROM CHICO - MORNING

Dodge drives through Central Valley farmland.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Already hot and getting hotter in the
Central Valley.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM


CHICO TO YUBA CITY ON ROUTE 99, FROM YUBA CITY THROUGH
MARYSVILLE AND ON UP TO GRASS VALLEY ON ROUTE 20.

ANGLE ON: DODGE ON ROUTE 99, CENTRAL VALLEY FIELDS, SUTTER


BUTTE IN BACKGROUND - MORNING.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "YUBA CITY - MARYSVILLE" - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Gold Rush towns. The State of
California is a state of mind.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES THROUGH THE YUBA CITY-MARYSVILLE


URBAN TRAFFIC CONGESTION - MORNING.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES UP WINDING ROUTE 20 - MORNING.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The name "California" came from a
fictitious place in a 16th century
Spanish novel.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES BY SIGNS: SMARTVILLE; ROUGH AND


READY; ALTA HILL; OUTDOOR BULLETIN BOARD WITH PHOTOS -
MORNING.
OLD MAN (v.o.)
Gold Rush camps. Newly invented
photographic images objectively
preserved the flavor.

MONTAGE: SERIES OF EARLY GOLD RUSH PHOTOGRAPHS.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The gold was real. More of it than
found almost anywhere else. But the
lure was mythological.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES ON ROUTE 20, PASSES "GRASS VALLEY X-


MILES" SIGN - DAY

INSERT: OLD PHOTO OF EARLY CRANK MOTION CAMERA IN USE.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And as the final gasps of the Gold
Rush died, the motion picture gizmo
was invented.

INSERT: EARLY SILENT MOVIE POSTER.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And the lure of a new mythology caught
the state of mind called California.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "JUNCTION ROUTE 49" WITH DODGE TURNING


ONTO IT - DAY.

DODGE GOES BY LARGE SUBURBAN-TYPE HOUSES, SHOPPING


CENTERS.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Route 49 was a wagon road that strung
together the Gold Rush camps and
towns. Now it was the abode of home-
work-station professionals who panned
silicon chips strung together along an
information superhighway.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OFF NEAR PARK-AND-RIDE PARKING LOT -


END OF THE ROAD 11
DAY. 5

EXT. JUDY AND KRISHNA CHAKRAVARTI'S SUBURBAN GRASS VALLEY


HOUSE - LATE MORNING.

Dirty, beaten-up old Dodge pulls into driveway next to


CLEAN NEW CAR.

JUDY, 40s, average American, casual wear, and KRISHNA,


50s, dignified Indian intellectual, casual wear, exit
house as Dodge comes to a halt.

KRISHNA
Well, you finally made it.

DRIVER
Finally.

JUDY
(studying Dodge)
In that!

DRIVER
So far, so good.

KRISHNA
Let's go inside. It's cooler.

INT. GRASS VALLEY LIVING ROOM - DAY

PICTURE WINDOW looks out on GARDEN. Judy, Krishna, and


Driver enter.

DRIVER
(motions to garden)
How are your earwigs?

KRISHNA
Healthy. We only feed them herbicide-
and-pesticide-free vegetables.

Krishna, Judy find seats on SOFA, EASY CHAIR, Driver in


ROCKING CHAIR.

JUDY
Been a good trip?
DRIVER
Wonderful.

JUDY
What are you going to call the book?

KRISHNA
Soliloquy to a Steering Wheel.

DRIVER
End of the Road.

JUDY
Nothing sexy? Like Shack Out On
Highway 101?

DRIVER
Like the movie? I don't know. Maybe
I'll think of something.

KRISHNA
Or maybe you won't.

DRIVER
In which case I have something.

KRISHNA
(standing)
You're a day late. We already planned
a picnic. Old Gold Rush places.
Malakoff devastation.

JUDY
In our car. Not yours!

DRIVER
Okay with me. Let's go.

EXT. ROUTE 49 AND 20 THROUGH NEVADA CITY - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: COMPUTER MAP SHOWING TOUR: GRASS VALLEY TO


NEVADA CITY, TO WASHINGTON, TO NORTH BLOOMFIELD, ACROSS
MALAKOFF DEVASTATION AREA, AND BACK TO GRASS VALLEY.

ANGLE ON: CHAKRAVARTI'S CLEAN NEW CAR GOES THROUGH NEVADA


CITY, CALIFORNIA - DAY
END OF THE ROAD 11
We see Gold Rush architecture. 7

KRISHNA
Gentrified Gold Rush.

ANGLE ON: NEW CAR TURNS OFF ON ROAD TO WASHINGTON,


CALIFORNIA - DAY

ANGLE ON: NEW CAR STOPS IN FRONT OF GOLD RUSH BUILDING IN


WASHINGTON (or use other Gold rush town) - DAY

Judy, carrying camera, Krishna, and Driver get out.

DRIVER
A genuine Gold Rush town.

JUDY
Not changed a whole lot.

KRISHNA
Over a hundred years.

Judy snaps Krishna and Driver with historical building in


background.

ANGLE ON: NEW CAR DRIVES OUT OF WASHINGTON - DAY

ANGLE ON: NEW CAR DRIVES THROUGH MALAKOFF DEVASTATION


AREA, PULLS TO A STOP - DAY

Judy, Krishna, and Driver get out of New Car, scan


landscape.

ANGLE ON: PANORAMA OF DEVASTATED LANDSCAPE - DAY.

JUDY
One of the great ecological disasters.

INSERT: HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPH OF GOLD RUSH WATER CANNON.

KRISHNA (v.o.)
They blasted the hills with giant
water cannon to get the gold.

AERIAL VIEW: MALAKOFF DEVASTATION AREA SHOWING VAST


EXTENT.

Judy takes photograph of devastated landscape.

DRIVER
Sure is ugly now. Must have been
beautiful once.

JUDY
Hundred fifty years ago.

DRIVER
Let's go. Gives me the creeps.

They get into the New Car and drive off.

INT. GRASS VALLEY HOUSE DINING AREA - MORNING

Driver, rumpled, half-awake, wanders toward dining table.

Judy and Krishna sit having breakfast, drinking coffee.


Both look up.

JUDY
(to Driver)
Have a seat. French toast?
DRIVER
Yeah, thanks.

Krishna points remote at TV set. It comes on silent.

KRISHNA
Almost time for the news.

JUDY
Sleep okay?
END OF THE ROAD 11
DRIVER 9
Yeah. Wonderful here. Sung to sleep
by a billion crickets.

KRISHNA
Still going to see this Garcia chap
tomorrow?

JUDY
(sighs, shakes head at
Krishna)
He cares about as much for the
Grateful Dead as for our earwigs.
(to Krishna)
Right?

KRISHNA
Oh, I don't mind 'em. Remind me of
the '60s. Our wild times. Better
music than all this gangsta rap stuff
now.

DRIVER
Way I feel.

JUDY
You going to tell him that when you
see him?
(glances at TV screen)
Oh look. There he is . . .

ANOTHER ANGLE on TV screen showing JERRY GARCIA'S FACE.

KRISHNA
(reaching for remote)
Probably telling the world about you
coming to talk to him . . .

INSERT: TV SCREEN. Jerry Garcia's face on.

TV NEWSPERSON (v.o.)
. . . leaves everyone in the music
world stunned by his sudden death.

RETURN TO SCENE
DRIVER
Whose . . .

JUDY
Shhhh.

ANGLE ON TV SCREEN SHOWS NEWS ANNOUNCER.

TV NEWSPERSON
Stay tuned. We'll be back in a minute
with more on the unexpected death last
night of Jerry Garcia at the age of
fifty-three . . .

Krishna flicks remote to Mute. Commercial comes on


silent.

KRISHNA
Well, grateful or not . . .

JUDY
Not funny.
(to Driver)
Changes your plans.

DRIVER
(stunned, recovers)
Uh, no. I don't think I was going to
talk to him long. Maybe an hour.
Exchange Palo Alto memories. He said
he still remembered my ex-wife.
Thought maybe I might ask him about
what I could do instead of teach.

KRISHNA
Well, that's out. Stay here for a few
more days.

DRIVER
Wish I could. Got a few more places I
have to see for the book. Then I
gotta zoom on back.

JUDY
Sorry for you.

DRIVER
(shrugs whistfully)
END OF THE ROAD 12
One more guy I met. Quite a few no 1
longer with us now.

EXT. DRIVEWAY GRASS VALLEY HOUSE - MORNING.

Driver leans out window of Dodge, motor running. Judy and


Krishna stand nearby.

DRIVER
(throws hand out)
Well, that's the breaks. You feel
guilty, always. Wonder if maybe there
was something you might have done.

JUDY
When's school actually start?

DRIVER
Fall orientation's in three weeks.

Dodge starts easing out.

KRISHNA
Well, send us a copy of the book.

DRIVER
If I write one. I'll try to get
back next year.

INT. FUTURISTIC NURSE'S STATION, NURSING HOME - DAY

Nurse looks up as Lucy and Harold enter.

NURSE
He's waiting. Just go on up.

LUCY
Thanks.

Lucy and Harold exchange friendly glances, walk on by.


INT. LIVING ROOM

The Old Man stands bent over by the automatic door as Lucy
and Harold come in.

OLD MAN
Come in. Come in. Have a seat.

Lucy and Harold go to two chairs set up close to each


other facing the Old Man's chair. The Old Man struggles
back to it.

OLD MAN
(as they sit)
Well, who won?

LUCY
We did.

OLD MAN
No hitter?

LUCY
Not quite. Shut Out, though.

OLD MAN
Shutout?

HAROLD
Nineteen to nothing.

OLD MAN
(admiringly)
Nineteen to nothing!

LUCY
Only eight innings, too. It started
to rain. We were trying for twenty --
uh -- runs.

OLD MAN
Can't always get what you want. But
you didn't come here to just tell me
about the baseball game.

LUCY
No, uh . . .

OLD MAN
Let me guess. You two decided to get
END OF THE ROAD 12
married. 3

LUCY
(beaming)
Yes!

HAROLD
And we decided to tell you first.

OLD MAN
I'm honored. Congratulations.

HAROLD
I told my parents about AIDS in Lucy's
family. They didn't care.

LUCY
So . . . Well, thanks.

HAROLD
Lucy told me about your talk. About
your hamster, too.

OLD MAN
Sure was nice to tell someone about
that hamster after all these years.
It almost got roasted in the oven
once.

LUCY
The oven?

OLD MAN
Before ultra-microwaves. Even before
microwaves. Old gas oven.

HAROLD
I know. My grandmother still has one.
Can't legally use it though.

INT. 1950s KITCHEN

Driver watches Oriental Young Woman place casserole in


oven, close door, turn on gas.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


My wife put a casserole in the oven
and turned on the gas.
LUCY (v.o.)
Which lit the oven?

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Yes. Suddenly we heard a frantic
scurrying around, little feet on
metal.

Driver runs to oven, shuts off gas. Oriental Young Woman


pulls open oven door, yanks open grill door below it. She
pulls out hamster.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


We both knew. Jumped to the oven.
Rescued it in the nick of time.

Oriental Young Woman holds up hamster. We see singed


whiskers, red little feet.

RETURN TO LIVING ROOM SCENE

OLD MAN
Whiskers were burned off. Feet
burned. My wife put some butter on
them. We confined it to its cage for
a few days, just to make sure it was
all right.

LUCY
Did you ever see your wife again?

OLD MAN
Once. In twenty-oh-nine. She was
coming back from Japan by way of
Europe. Air fare was still cheap
then. We had breakfast at the
airport.

HAROLD
At least you got to see her again.

OLD MAN
Yes.

LUCY
We're all packed, ready to head west.
Follow your route.
END OF THE ROAD 12
HAROLD 5
Weather's cooling. Exams are over.
OLD MAN
When are you going to get married?

LUCY
When we get to San Francisco. Eric's
best man. Pamela's best woman.

HAROLD
We'll bring you videos of everything.
Old places from The Road. Wedding.
Anything else you might want?

OLD MAN
I can't think of anything. It was all
so long ago. If Lucy hadn't accessed
my manuscript from the Copyright
Office, I might have forgotten it.

LUCY
I'm sure glad I found it and KSU Press
published it.

OLD MAN
Yes. I'm grateful to you. Things
turned out well for all of us.

HAROLD
Speaking of grateful, I never dreamed
I'd actually meet someone who knew
Jerry Garcia.

LUCY
His Army bunker-buddy had old Grateful
Dead audio-crystals. Kind of a
latter-day Deadhead.

HAROLD
Most of the time he was stoned on
ipicu. On Trinidad you could get it
easily. Spent the best part of his
enlistment staring out in space,
nodding his head to the beat. Span
missiles dropping in, exploding.
Didn't blink! Would never have
thought then . . .
LUCY
(standing, followed by
Harold)
None of us ever thought. It was a
real trip.
LUCY (con't)
Well, thank you for the interviews.
We'll have an excellent History video
thesis.

HAROLD
(as Old Man struggles up)
As soon as we get these last shots of
your route.

OLD MAN
(all heading toward door)
Well, have a fine trip. And a long
and wonderful married life.

LUCY
(as automatic door opens)
Oh we will.

Lucy and Harold go into corridor, holding hands down it.

OLD MAN
Be good.

LUCY
(turning while walking)
Take care.

EXT. HIGHWAY 49 - MORNING.

Dodge goes by "Auburn" sign, "Junction I-80" sign.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Out of the gold country, back to the
Interstates.
END OF THE ROAD 12
SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS ROUTE FROM 7
GRASS VALLEY TO AUBURN ON ROUTE 49, FROM AUBURN TO
VALLEJO ON I-80, FROM VALLEJO TO US 101 ON ROUTE 37, AND
101 SOUTH ACROSS THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE INTO SAN
FRANCISCO.

QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE TURNS ONTO I-80. VIEWS OF/FROM DODGE


ON I-80. SACRAMENTO NEXT 5 EXITS SIGN. DODGE CONTINUES
ON I-80. VALLEJO AND ROUTE 37 SIGNS.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I used to wonder what lay beyond an
enchanting grove of eucalyptus trees.

ANGLE ON: DODGE EXITS I-80 - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I took a road I had never taken
before, just to see.

ANGLE ON: DODGE ON ROUTE 37 - DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


It was nicer than just zooming into
San Francisco on I-80. But I found
nothing unusual.

ANGLE ON: DODGE ARRIVING AT JUNCTION WITH HIGHWAY 101 -


DAY

Driver looks back.

EXT. (MONOCHROME) SAME VIEW FROM A PASSING BUS.

RETURN TO SCENE

Driver drives off, turns south onto Highway 101.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But now I knew. There was that
satisfaction.
QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE GOES ALONG 101 SOUTH. SAN FRANCISCO
__ MILES SIGN. GLIMPSE OF SAN FRANCISCO FROM 101 ACROSS
GOLDEN GATE. DODGE GOES OVER GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. DODGE
IN SAN FRANCISCO TRAFFIC.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES UP PINE STREET PAST TEMPLE HOTEL (469
PINE).

EXT. (MONOCHROME) TEMPLE HOTEL, SF, FRONT - GRAY EVENING.

Younger Driver, hunched over in shabby raincoat, goes in


door.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I considered staying in the old
downtown hotel where I had lived after
the divorce.

RETURN TO SCENE

DODGE CONTINUES UP PINE STREET.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


But those memories were painful.

MONTAGE: VIEWS OF SAN FRANCISCO, OF DODGE ON SAN FRANCISCO


STREETS, LOVELY VIEWS OF THE CITY - SUNNY DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I lingered for a while in the
enchanting city.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PARKS NEAR CHINATOWN GATE - DAY

Driver gets out, walks up Grant Street to GLOBOS


RESTAURANT.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES UP SECOND AVENUE, STOPS IN FRONT OF


A HOUSE - DAY

Driver looks out at HOUSE.


END OF THE ROAD 12
EXT. (MONOCHROME) HOUSE - GRAY DAY. 9

Oriental Young Woman climbs steps carrying bag of


groceries, key ready for door.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I looked long at the house. As if
looking could somehow bring back those
days.

RETURN TO SCENE.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES SLOWLY AWAY.

QUICK MONTAGE: HIGHWAY 101 SOUTH (BAYSHORE FREEWAY) SIGN.


DODGE HEADS ONTO HIGHWAY 101 (BAYSHORE FREEWAY), HEAVY
TRAFFIC - RUSH HOUR.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


By the time I got going again it was
rush hour.

CONTINUED QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE DRIVES HEAVY TRAFFIC,


BAYSHORE FREEWAY PAST BRISBANE - LATE DAY. DODGE GOES
SOUTH ON 101 BY SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM SAN


FRANCISCO TO ATASCADERO ON 101, ATASCADERO TO MORRO BAY ON
ROUTE 41, MORRO BAY TO SAN LUIS OBISPO ON HIGHWAY 1.

QUICK MONTAGE: SAN JOSE SIGN. DODGE GOES ON. VIEW OF


DODGE SOUTH OF GILROY ON 101 - EVENING. DODGE CONTINUES
ON 101.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "SALINAS" - NEAR DARK.

Driver leans back, sings (refrain from Bobby McGee).

DRIVER
(singing)
"Then somewhere near Salinas, I let
her slip away."
QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE CONTINUES SOUTH PAST SALINAS -
DARKNESS. HEADLIGHTS PICK UP SOLEDAD SIGN. HEADLIGHTS
PICK UP PASO ROBLES SIGN. HEADLIGHTS PICK UP ATASCADERO,
ROUTE 41 SIGNS.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OFF 101 - NIGHT.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And at about this time of night I
turned off here and headed for Morro
Bay, and my wife woke up.

ANGLE ON: DODGE WANDERS SLOWLY AROUND SUBURBAN ATASCADERO


- NIGHT.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


And as before, I got lost.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS UP TO DRIVEWAY WITH LIGHTS, HUMAN


ACTIVITY - DARK NIGHT.

Driver stops at driveway. YOUNG MAN 1, YOUNG WOMAN 1,


college age and attire, (played by Harold and Lucy actors,
different personalities) jump into PICKUP TRUCK.

Driver leans out Dodge window.

DRIVER
(shouting)
How do I get to Morro Bay?

YOUNG MAN 2, YOUNG WOMAN 2, college age and attire (played


by Eric and Pamela actors), stop and look.

Pickup truck zips down driveway, STRIKES DODGE BUMPER with


car accident sound.

In the darkness Young Man 1 and Young Woman 1 jump out of


Pickup Truck. Young Man 2, Young Woman 2 run to accident.
Driver emerges from Dodge with resignation.

YOUNG MAN 1
Sorry.
END OF THE ROAD 13
All examine Dodge bumper. RUBBER STRIP DANGLES FROM 1
PLASTIC BUMPER.

DRIVER
Forget it. Nothing serious.
(handles torn rubber strip)
Thing's going to flap around. Wish I
had a staple gun.

YOUNG MAN 1
Got one.

Young Man 1 reaches into back of pickup truck, pulls out


STAPLE GUN.

YOUNG WOMAN 2
Just finished putting up election
posters.

She reaches into the pickup truck, pulls out VOTE FOR HOLT
poster.

DRIVER
Who's Holt?

YOUNG WOMAN 1
Environmental candidate.

DRIVER
Hope he wins.

Young Man 1 staples rubber strip to plastic bumper.


YOUNG WOMAN 2
Hope she wins.

YOUNG MAN 1
(pointing to stapled bumper)
Okay?

DRIVER
Yeah. Great. Disposable car. Two
hundred bucks. Now how do I get to
Morro Bay?

YOUNG WOMAN 2
(pointing)
Turn right up there. Just keep going.
YOUNG MAN 2
You got the time?

DRIVER
(glances at watch)
Five to eleven.

Driver gets into Dodge, drives off.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES WINDING ROUTE 41.

EXT. (MONOCHROME) 58 IMPALA CONVERTIBLE WEAVES AND WINDS


THROUGH HILLS.

Oriental Young Woman, now awake, and Driver sway as


convertible winds on winding road.

ANGLE ON: DODGE TURNS LAST BEND. WE SEE PACIFIC OCEAN -


NIGHT.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS UP IN FRONT OF MOTEL BY MORRO BAY


HARBOR.

INSERT: SIGN: NO VACANCY - NIGHT.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The motel where we had stayed was
dark, closed.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES ON, DARK HULK OF EL MORRO IN


BACKGROUND - NIGHT.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES HIGHWAY ONE SOUTH - NIGHT

ANGLE ON: HEADLIGHTS CATCH SIGN, "SAN LUIS OBISPO" - NIGHT

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS UP IN FRONT OF OLD DOWNTOWN HOTEL -


NIGHT.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Only thing open was an old downtown
END OF THE ROAD 13
hotel. 3

EXT. SAN LUIS OBISPO HOTEL - DAY

Driver tosses overnight bag into Dodge, gets in.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Slept until noon.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES ONTO CAMPUS OF CALIFORNIA


POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY - DAY.

ANGLE ON: DODGE drives by sign: CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC


UNIVERSITY. PARKS NEAR CAMPUS BUILDING.

Driver gets out of Dodge walks toward building.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Spent more time waiting to see a
department head at Cal Poly. She was
in a meeting. I waited.

INT. CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OFFICE

DEPARTMENT HEAD (Professor Hoffman looking very different


in 1990's attire) and Driver are seated at desk.
Department Head gets up, opens filing cabinet drawer,
shows Driver it is filled with resumes.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


We saw each other for five minutes.
She showed me a drawer full of
resumes. In that instant I knew I'd
never have the luxury of freewheeling
the road to the West Coast again.

EXT. CAL-POLY CAMPUS - DAY

Driver exits same building, gets into Dodge, drives off.


OLD MAN (v.o.)
I decided to see a few more places out
west I might never get to. Seemed
like every day the world had more
people and fewer jobs.

ANGLE ON: DODGE ENTERS HIGHWAY 101 - DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Now I'd be late for dinner with my old
Army buddy and his wife in Los
Angeles.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS ON


HIGHWAY 101 FROM SAN LUIS OBISPO TO CENTRAL LOS ANGELES.

QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE ON 101 NEAR PISMO BEACH. DODGE ON


101 IN EXOTIC SCENERY SOUTH OF SANTA MARIA. DODGE ON 101
ALONG PACIFIC OCEAN NEAR SANTA BARBARA. SANTA BARBARA
SIGN. DODGE TURNS INTO SANTA BARBARA. VIEW OF SANTA
BARBARA MISSION, DODGE PARKED BY FOUNTAIN - DAY.

Driver stands looking at Mission, gets in Dodge, drives


away.

QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE DRIVES ALONG PACIFIC COAST ON 101 -


DAY. DODGE GOES THROUGH EUCALYPTUS GROVES ON 101 NEAR
VENTURA-OXNARD. DODGE BEGINS TO PICK UP TRAFFIC AS IT
ENTERS GREATER LOS ANGELES ON HIGHWAY 101

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I got to Los Angeles at the worst of
all times, but the best of all times
for me: rush hour.

ANGLE ON: LOS ANGELES RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC ON 101 - DAY

TRAFFIC SOUNDS

OLD MAN (v.o.)


There I was in the greatest free flow
of internal combustion powered traffic
the world has ever known.

ANGLE ON: DODGE MOVES IN L.A. RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC - DAY


END OF THE ROAD 13
OLD MAN (v.o.) 5
And how might historians see this?

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES ALONG INTERSTATE 210, HEAVY TRAFFIC -


DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I had called a reservation ahead to
the Motel 6 in Arcadia.

ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS INTO MOTEL 6, ARCADIA - LATE DAY.

Driver lugs overnight bag to second story room. We see


exotic panorama of SANTA ANITA RACETRACK from balcony
walkway.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


It turned out to be a pleasant
surprise, an exotic view of Santa
Anita Racetrack.

STOCK: (MONOCHROME) LOUIS B. MAYER AT SANTA ANITA

OLD MAN (v.o.))


The last of the great movie moguls,
Louis B. Mayer, had spent his last
deposed days there.

STOCK: (MONOCHROME) JAPANESE-AMERICANS BEING INTERNED

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Japanese-Americans briefly interned
there in World War II before being
shipped to concentration camps had
their own memories.
Driver steps out of motel room, makes sure door is locked.

Driver parks Dodge in front of the Reinekes' house just


above Hollywood Boulevard. WOLFGANG, late 40s, and PETRA,
40s, workday attire, come to curb.

Driver gets out.

PETRA
We're starved.

DRIVER
I'm sorry.

WOLFGANG
Time always seems somehow to move
slower for you.
(to Petra)
He was always the last one out of the
mess hall. Last one out for reveille.

DRIVER
Got out of the Army ten days early,
though.

They start walking.

PETRA
Indian food okay?

DRIVER
Sure. Anything's okay.

WOLFGANG
Even C-rations?

DRIVER
Even cold C-rations out of the can.

We see an earthworm struggling across a sidewalk.

Driver crouches, struggles to pick it up.

WOLFGANG
We're not that hungry, are we?

DRIVER
Ceremonial. After thinking about The
Road all summer.
(motions to sidewalk)

INSERT: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP.

Computer Map shows the Interstate system.

DRIVER (v.o.)
The country's divided into little
sections.
END OF THE ROAD 13
COMPUTER MAP CONTINUES 7

Computer Map continues to divide into US Routes, State


Routes. Magnifies on local section. Continues to divide
into County Routes. Magnifies. Marks local roads.

PETRA (v.o.)
And animals become imprisoned in them.

RETURN TO SCENE

Driver tosses worm onto lawn.

DRIVER
Big ones. Little ones. Like the
worm, they try to escape. Most get
squashed.

EXT. HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD - EARLY EVENING.

Petra, Wolfgang, and Driver walk on Sidewalk of the Stars,


sometimes stop to look at a star with movie star's name.
We see a few of these stars.

DRIVER
I found Jim Drummond.

WOLFGANG
Pfc. Jim Drummond?

DRIVER
Just before I left, I called all the
Drummonds in the Detroit phone book.
One of them was an uncle. Gave me his
address in Boston.

WOLFGANG
What's he doing?

DRIVER
Executive. Trucking company.
WOLFGANG
Didn't re-up for the benefits.

DRIVER
No. Not a name on the big black wall
after all.

WOLFGANG
We all lucked out. Old Sergeant
Wellman died a few months ago. Saw
his obituary in the paper.

DRIVER
Here? In L.A.?

WOLFGANG
Must have retired here. Never knew it
until he died. Big city.

They reach a street corner.

PETRA
(pointing)
Restaurant's just down the street
here.

They turn, go down the street.

WOLFGANG
You starting back tomorrow.

DRIVER
Tijuana tomorrow. Then back.

PETRA
Tijuana?

DRIVER
Never been in Mexico. Never may get
to again. Also want to see some old
mining towns in Nevada.

We see a RESTAURANT SIGN. Wolfgang motions to it. All


three increase their pace.

PETRA
Sorry about Garcia.

WOLFGANG
Maybe he could have made some contacts
END OF THE ROAD 13
for your writing. 9
DRIVER
I'll always wonder.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVING ALONG OCEAN NEAR OCEANSIDE ON I-5.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM


ARCADIA TO SAN ISIDRO, MEXICAN BORDER, I-210, I-5

OLD MAN (v.o.)


We talked into the wee hours, and I
got started late again.

EXT. MOTEL 6, SAN ISIDRO - LATE AFTERNOON.

Driver gets out of Dodge carrying overnight bag, climbs to


balcony walkway facing Mexico.

We see "cleared" land looking toward Mexico.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I could see Mexico from my room. See
a half mile of cleared land between
the border and the motel. It looked
like a free fire zone.

EXT. MEXICO SIDE OF THE BORDER BRIDGE - SATURDAY NIGHT.

Poor Mexican Indians try to sell cheap items to American


tourists, who try to ignore them, their plight, their
massive numbers.

EXT. TIJUANA MAIN STREET - SATURDAY NIGHT.

Mixture of rich American teenagers, off-duty military


personnel, Mexican nationals, Saturday night traffic,
honkings, hawkings, strains of Mexican music.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


There would be a big problem South of
the Border some day. I got smashed.
Mexican beer. Tequila.

EXT. (STOCK?) CLEARED LAND BETWEEN MEXICAN BORDER AND


MOTEL 6 - SATURDAY NIGHT.

Dark figures of Mexican nationals climb over fences. Run


up freeway center strips.

EXT. I-15 WITH DODGE HEADING NORTH - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS NORTH


FROM SAN ISIDRO ON I-805, I-15, I-15E, US 395 TO BIG PINE,
CALIFORNIA

OLD MAN (v.o.)


In the morning I had a hangover.

QUICK MONTAGE: US 395 SIGN. DODGE EXITS I-5. DODGE


DRIVES THROUGH JOSHUA TREE COUNTRY. EVOCATIVE AERIAL VIEW
OF LONELY LONE DODGE ON U.S. 395.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES PAST GREAT BARE RED VOLCANIC CONE -
LATER DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Time and money were running out. I
longed to linger, but couldn't.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVE THROUGH DESERT COUNTRY WEST OF DEATH


VALLEY - LATER DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


The lonely desert desolation seemed to
ask how I'd spent my time.

QUICK MONTAGE: HEADLIGHTS PICK UP BIG PINE SIGN. DODGE


PULLS INTO MOTEL PARKING LOT, BIG PINE - NIGHT.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS FROM BIG


PINE, CALIFORNIA, ON ROUTE 168 TO ROUTE 3 (NEVADA), TO US
95, TO I-80, AND I-80 TO WINNEMUCCA, NEVADA.
END OF THE ROAD 14
QUICK MONTAGE: 1. AERIAL VIEW OF DODGE (LOOKING 1
DISTANT, LONELY) 2. CROSSING DESERT ON ROUTE 168 - DAY.
3. DODGE CLIMBS REMARKABLE SCENIC DESERT MOUNTAIN. 4.
ENTERING NEVADA SIGN.

ANGLE ON: AWESOME VASTNESS OF NEVADA DESERT FROM LIDA


SUMMIT - DAY

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I had seen no cars for an hour. I
suddenly felt anxious about my old
$200 car.

QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE DRIVES ACROSS DESERT. JUNCTION US 95


SIGN. DODGE GOES NORTH ON US 95. GOLDFIELD SIGN. DODGE
GOES THROUGH GOLDFIELD. WE SEE EXOTIC MINING-ERA
ARCHITECTURE - DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Tore up the land to get gold and built
exotic edifices with the money.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES NORTH ON US 95. PANORAMA OF DRY LAND


- DAY.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Plenty of land. Very little water.

QUICK MONTAGE: TONOPAH SIGN. DODGE GOES THROUGH TONOPAH -


DAY. DODGE GOES BY WALKER LAKE - LATER DAY. DODGE GOES
THROUGH IRRIGATED FARM FIELDS NORTH OF WALKER LAKE -
EVENING.

ANGLE ON: SIGN: "JUNCTION I-80" AS DODGE ENTERS I-80 -


DUSK.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I was back on the Interstates, and the
goal was home. The energy I had when
I began was gone.

ANGLE ON: DODGE CONTINUES ALONG I-80 - NEARLY DARK.


ANGLE ON: DODGE ENTERS WINNEMUCCA, DRIVES BY NEON MOTEL
SIGNS - NIGHT.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVING I-80 THROUGH CENTRAL NEVADA -


MORNING

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS ON I-80


FROM WINNEMUCCA, NEVADA, TO ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING --
SUPERIMPOSED ON:

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Like a truck driver with a
destination.

QUICK MONTAGE: 1.DODGE DRIVES I-80 EAST OF ELKO - LATER


MORNING. 2. DODGE GOES ACROSS SALT FLATS - MIDDAY. 3. VIEW
OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE. 4. SALT LAKE CITY SIGN. 5. DODGE
CLIMBS WASACH MOUNTAINS - DAY. 6. WELCOME TO WYOMING SIGN.
7. RED ROCK COUNTRY, WYOMING, ON I-80 - LATE DAY. 8. GREEN
RIVER, WYOMING, AS DODGE GOES BY - LATER DAY.

9. ROCK SPRINGS SIGN - LATE EVENING. 10. DODGE PULLS INTO


ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING, AND WE SEE MOTEL SIGNS - LATE DUSK.

AERIAL VIEW: DODGE ON I-80, EAST OF ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING


- MORNING.

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS ROUTE FROM ROCK


SPRINGS, WYOMING, TO OGALLALA, NEBRASKA. BROKEN-LINE
EXTENSION TO GOTHENBURG -- SUPERIMPOSED ON:

OLD MAN (v.o.)


I continued on, hoping that the
"disposable" car would hold up.

ANGLE ON: DODGE GOES THROUGH WYOMING SAGEBRUSH COUNTRY -


MORNING.

QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE CLIMBS DRY MOUNTAIN RANGE, GOES BY


CONTINENTAL DIVIDE SIGN - DAY. CHEYENNE SIGN. DODGE GOES
BY - DAY. WELCOME TO NEBRASKA SIGN - LATER DAY. DODGE
GOES THROUGH NEBRASKA BLUFF COUNTRY - LATER DAY. EXPANSE
NEBRASKA NEAR I-80 - LATER DAY. OGALLALA SIGN - EVENING.
END OF THE ROAD 14
ANGLE ON: DODGE PULLS OFF I-80 (SAME EXIT AS EARLY 3
SCENE) - DUSK.

ANGLE ON: SIGNS: "SHAMROCK PLAZA MOTEL" AND "OGALLALA" -


DUSK.

INT. FUTURISTIC NURSE STATION, NURSING HOME - DAY

Lucy comes bouncing in, all smiles. The Nurse looks up


grimly.
LUCY
(bubbling, with pride)
We're back. We got great videos. I'm
now Mrs. Harold and I got married in
San Francisco Saturday.

A beat. Lucy studies Nurse with increasing foreboding.


Nurse's expression remains glum.

NURSE
I don't know how to tell you this.

LUCY
Something happened.

NURSE
The old man died early Sunday
morning.

A beat. Lucy stands stunned.

LUCY
(gasping faintly)
Died?

NURSE
Sorry.

Tears well up, stream down Lucy's face. The Nurse gets
up, goes to her. Lucy slumps down in a WAITING ROOM
CHAIR.

Lucy CRIES, sobs great sobs. The Nurse sits in ANOTHER


WAITING ROOM CHAIR beside her, strokes her hand.

NURSE
I cried too. We got to know each
other rather well.

Lucy re-composes herself slightly.

LUCY
Were you there?

NURSE
No. Died in his sleep. Monitors went
off. Ingrid -- the night nurse -- got
up there as fast as she could. But he
was dead. Living will said no extreme
revival.

Lucy takes a deep breath.

LUCY
His family?

NURSE
Only a niece's grandson. In Los
Angeles. They called him. He'll be
here tomorrow. Simply outlived all
his relatives and friends.

LUCY
I guess. Hundred ten.

NURSE
You made him so happy. He really came
back to life these last couple months.
If you want, you can go up to his
room. Everything's still the way it
was.

LUCY
No. Rather just have the memories.

NURSE
You have all those videos. And you
got his book published. He was so
pleased and happy about that.
END OF THE ROAD 14
LUCY 5
(sighs, smiles)
We got more videos. We followed the
route of his book. Lots changed. Too
bad he didn't live . . .

NURSE
Maybe it's best he didn't. Whatever
he may have told you, memories of that
trip were precious to him.

LUCY
I wonder if . . . Could you ask his
niece's grandson if he might consider
donating his manuscript and road
things to the university museum? Lots
of people are getting interested in
those days of The Road.

NURSE
(standing up)
I'll ask him.
LUCY
(standing up)
Thanks.
(a beat)
Is there anything I can do?

NURSE
(begins escorting Lucy to
door)
No. It's all been taken care of.

They stop at door.

LUCY
I don't know how to tell the others.
Especially Harold.

NURSE
Just tell them.

Automatic door opens.

LUCY
(starting out)
Strange isn't it. Just after we got
married.
INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT COMPUTER LAB

Harold sits on futuristic TWO-PERSON COUCH. Lucy stands


thoughtfully, near computer.

LUCY
Computer, run last segment: End of the
Road.

On EDITING SCREEN, we see: exterior PONY EXPRESS STATION,


GOTHENBURG, NEBRASKA - DAY

Lower right corner reads: FINAL SEGMENT, FIRST DRAFT: END


OF THE ROAD.

HOLOGRAPHIC Dodge Omni MATERIALIZES in Grad Assistant


Office.

Driver gets into Dodge.

Gothenburg background and Pony Express Station


MATERIALIZES around Dodge.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES OFF THROUGH GOTHENBURG STREETS.

QUICK MONTAGE: DODGE GOES BY GEODESIC DOME RESTAURANT,


GOTHENBURG, SLOWS, CONTINUES ON - DAY. DODGE TURNS OUT
ONTO I-80 EAST AT GOTHENBURG - DAY. DODGE GOES BY EASTERN
NEBRASKA COUNTRYSIDE ON I-80 - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS BROKEN-LINE


PROGRESS FROM OGALLALA TO GOTHENBURG, PROGRESS FROM
GOTHENBURG TO OMAHA.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


From Gothenburg the countryside became
more and more like Ohio, familiar,
pleasant, comfortable, but lacking the
exotic.
END OF THE ROAD 14
EXT. NEBRASKA COUNTRYSIDE AND OMAHA SIGN - EVENING. 7

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Tired, I took it easy. Got a little
past Omaha by evening.

QUICK MONTAGE: WELCOME TO IOWA SIGN - EVENING. IOWA


COUNTRYSIDE ALONG I-80 - OVERCAST MORNING. DODGE GOES
EAST ON I-80.

ANGLE ON: DODGE AND DRIVER PASSING PSYCHEDELIC-PAINTED


"DEADHEAD" VAN AND CONTINUING - OVERCAST DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: ONGOING COMPUTER MAP: SHOWS PROGRESS ON I-80


FROM OMAHA TO MORRIS, ILLINOIS, THEN ADDS EXTENSION FROM
MORRIS TO BAY VILLAGE, OHIO.

QUICK MONTAGE (as music accelerates): DODGE DRIVES ACROSS


IOWA - OVERCAST DAY. DES MOINES SIGN. WELCOME TO
ILLINOIS SIGN. I-80 ACROSS ILLINOIS COUNTRYSIDE -
OVERCAST LATE DAY. MORRIS NEXT RIGHT SIGN - EVENING.
MORRIS MOTEL SIGNS. DRIVER PULLS INTO ONE. ILLINOIS
COUNTRY ALONG I-80 - RAINY MORNING. DODGE DRIVES THROUGH
RAIN. INDIANA TURNPIKE, PAY TOLL SIGN, IN RAIN. OHIO
TURNPIKE, PAY TOLL SIGN.

OLD MAN (v.o.)


A cold front had come down, and it was
dull and overcast all day.

MONTAGE (as music quickens): DODGE ON OHIO TURNPIKE -


RAINY DAY. ANGLE ON WHEELS OF EIGHTEEN-WHEELER IN RAIN.
ANGLE ON INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE RUNNING. DODGE ON
TURNPIKE NEGOTIATING ORANGE BARRELS. ANGLE ON EXHAUST
PIPE AND EMISSIONS.

ANGLE ON: DODGE DRIVES THROUGH TURNPIKE PAY TURNSTYLE.


DRIVER PAYS TAB - RAINY AFTERNOON
EXT. CLAGUE ROAD BRIDGE, BAY VILLAGE - RAINY EVENING.

We see EVOCATIVE VIEW from overpass of headlights an tail


lights streaming both way along I-90 in the rainy evening
twilight (similar to beginning scenes).

OLD MAN (v.o.)


Where were they all going? Why did I
have that vision? What did it all
mean?

I had gone out to seek the meaning,


but it had eluded me. I had enjoyed
those days on The Road, which had to
come to an end some day. But what
might that mean to anyone else?

SPECIAL EFFECTS: I-90 DE-MATERIALIZES.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: Dodge Omni DE-MATERIALIZES.

ANGLE ON: EDITING SCREEN IN GRADUATE STUDENT OFFICE

Lower right Editing Screen reads: SEGMENT COMPLETED /


CONTINUE? / END?

INT. FUTURISTIC STUDENT COMPUTER LAB

Lucy and Harold sit on mini-couch. He has his arm around


her shoulders.

Lucy looks sadly, lovingly at Harold. He pulls her to


him.

LUCY
End!

Editing Screen shows above freeze frame of dusk traffic in


rain, headlights and tail lights on I-90.
END OF THE ROAD 14
Lower right screen continues to read: SEGMENT COMPLETED 9
/ CONTINUE? / END?

Last word, END, flashes brighter several times. Screen


goes blank.

FADE OUT

THE END

Bay Village, Ohio


July 27, 2001
END OF THE ROAD
Important Notes
This script appears long. But the script-length is due to
descriptions of "travelogue" visuals, not time-consuming
dialogue. In reality, estimated time-length would be about
the same as a 125-page script.

The script was adapted from the first-draft experimental


novel manuscript. As a script it is additionally
experimental, with the "travelogue" of the American Road
becoming an almost virtual character. The novel was
subsequently rewritten to fit the script and published.

If a cell phone videocam filmmaker wants to keep the story


in the late 1990's timeframe as in this script, road
scenes with inevitably newer cars could be shot wit a
blurred lens. Alternatively, the story line can be
slightly updated to "present time."

Several good actors will be needed. But most parts can be


filled by people with moderate acting ability. Futuristic
props will be needed in a few cases. But a good
craftsperson can make these out of simple materials like,
for instance, paper-mache. Same with the serving robot.

I used the term cell phone videocam generically. A small


hand-held video camera may be needed at least part of the
time.

I really did buy an old car from the couple across the
street for two hundred dollars and drove the route of the
script in the summer of 1988. Some things will have
changed. Filmmakers will have to use their imaginations.
Tom Slattery
Bay Village, Ohio
Christmas Day 2008

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