my best friend jordan died in 2012. i worked on a few drafts of this short film over my last few months in the COLLEGE OF THE CANYONS film program, and we just came frustratingly close to shooting it before our location bailed on us at the last minute. so now it's a blog post.

FADE IN:

INT. NOCTURNES - NIGHT

WALTER sits down at a stool in NOCTURNES, a near-empty, low-lit dive bar. It's not quite closing time but not far from it, and generic '90s rock plays softly in the background. A BARTENDER tends to her bar, paying little attention to anything else. Walter points to a bottle.

WALTER
That. Neat.

A series of quick motions from the bartender, and a full glass appears in front of Walter. He sips, and notices the coaster under his drink -- a sparse, black and white design reading "Nocturnes" under the image of an old-fashioned key.

The door chime over the entrance rings, and though we don't see him walk up, BRYAN takes a seat beside Walter.

Beat.

WALTER
What are you doing here?

Bryan shrugs.

BRYAN
There was a door. I walked through.

Walter downs his drink and motions to the bartender for two more. They appear, and Walter slides one over to Bryan. Bryan doesn't touch it.

BRYAN (cont'd)
What the fuck did I do?

WALTER
Wh--

BRYAN
You're giving me the silent treatment and sitting there with that grumpy-ass, sourpuss look on your face as if I did something, so what the fuck did I do?

WALTER
Nothing. Whatever. You did exactly what you wanted.

BRYAN
Damn right.

WALTER
How's that working out for you?

Bryan chuckles.

WALTER (cont'd)
It just... it might've turned out okay, y'know? We could have done something together. Something that would have made a difference. What we had... sometimes it was like we finished each other's--

BRYAN
--sandwiches.

Walter tries his best not to laugh. He fails.

CUT TO:

INT. NOCTURNES - NIGHT

Walter and Bryan are still seated at the bar, but are now facing outwards. Walt's second drink (or is it his third?) is in hand, and Bryan's drink is where Walter left it.

BRYAN
So? Catch me up.

WALTER
I'm still working nights, Debbie moved out about six mo--

BRYAN
No, dude. Catch. Me. Up.

Walter realizes.

WALTER
Oh. Well, Jesse Pinkman made it out, time is a flat circle, and the great unifier of pop culture fandom is apparently the Fast & Furious franchise.

BRYAN
Fucking called it.

WALTER
Oh did you?

BRYAN
Don't be bitter just because you don't have my clarity of vision.

WALTER
Right. No. That's always been the case.

Beat.

WALTER (cont'd)
Remember that time you were catfished by a 50-something year old mother in Illinois?

BRYAN
How the fuck was I supposed to know??

WALTER
Well, her favorite TV show was St. Elsewhere.

BRYAN
Okay, but--

WALTER
Her favorite album was Duke by Genesis .

BRYAN
Look, hindsight is--

WALTER
Her childhood crush was a mustached Elliot Gould.

They laugh.

CUT TO:

INT. NOCTURNES - NIGHT

The two friends are both standing against a wall, typical bar decorations behind them. Walter's drink is in hand and he is definitely buzzed, while Bryan's drink is hidden somewhere off camera. They're both more animated.

WALTER
You know what was great about Michael Jackson?

BRYAN
I suppose considering how many kids a man in his position could have debauched, it's commendable he had the self-restraint to only go for one or two--

WALTER
Bad.

BRYAN
Bad?

WALTER
Who in this universe other than Michael-goddamn-Jackson could release a track where -- as the chorus, in the highest falsetto possible -- he sings, "BAD! BAD! REALLY, REALLY BAD!" yet still be taken seriously as an artist and pop culture phenomenon? Not to mention how in this backwards-ass country, no one is ever going to break the sales records set by an effeminate black man.

BRYAN
You're right.

Beat.

BRYAN (cont'd)
THROW HIM A BOY!

CUT TO:

INT. NOCTURNES - NIGHT

Walter and the bartender and flirting and laughing while she pours two shots. Bryan sits to the side, his empty drink in front of him. Walter and the bartender take their shots, slamming the glasses down on the counter.

WALTER
I have one. What did Jay Z call Beyoncé before they got married?

BARTENDER
What?

WALTER
Feyoncé.

BARTENDER
(laughing)
You are such a dork. But wait wait wait, can top that. Why did Adele cross the road?

WALTER
Why?

BARTENDER
To say hello from the other side.

As they both crack up in their beautifully dumb, drunk way, Bryan gets up to leave.

BRYAN
When you two cheesy fucks are done, I'll be over here.

CUT TO:

INT. NOCTURNES - NIGHT

Bryan waits outside the restroom door. Walter, we presume, is inside.

BRYAN
Here's what I never understood. The very idea of a time machine is preposterous. It can't just "magically" appear in the same spot that it left. We live on a planet that rotates at one thousand miles per hour while it hurtles through the solar system at *sixty* thousand miles per hour around a sun that's traveling five times faster than that in a galaxy that's still fleeing from the Big-fucking-Bang! If the Delorean hits 88mph in the parking lot at Twin Pines Mall, the movie ends 19 seconds later as the ice crystallizes over Michael J. Fox's open, dead eyes in the cold void of space, because GUESS WHAT? Thirty years earlier, Chuck Berry's cousin Marvin is playing guitar at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance on an Earth that's a fucking trillion miles away!

WALTER (O.S.)
(muffled through the door)
Right. Wow. Yeah. What?

CUT TO:

INT. NOCTURNES - NIGHT

Walter and Bryan are seated at a table in their own little corner. Walter's last drink sits half-empty in front of him, beside Bryan's still-full drink. They've both mellowed. The night is near an end.

WALTER
What happens now?

BRYAN
You tell me, buddy.

WALTER
I... there's... I've been seeing things. I see--

BRYAN
A darkness?

WALTER
Fuck you.

Bryan "zips" his mouth shut. Walter sighs.

WALTER (cont'd)
I see... this man. With silver hair and black eyes. I've seen him all over the city. He sees me too. He smiles this black smile at me. I know he isn't really there, no one else can see him. But I see people walk by him... and after they pass him, they're dimmer. I don't know how else to explain it. As they pass him, he's... he's changing them. Damaging them.

BRYAN
Hm.

WALTER
That's all you have to say?

BRYAN
What were you expecting? Answers? The grand secrets of the cosmos?

Walter sips his drink and turns away.

BRYAN (O.S.)
Is it light where you are yet?

Walter immediately turns back, focused.

BRYAN
Y'know, everyone wants to think that light vs. dark is some grand fucking metaphor. It isn't. We're made of stars, light did create us, but only because it happened to spit out the elements of the universe in its birth throes. We're a byproduct, and light is way too busy trying to survive to care if we live or die.

WALTER
So... the Black-Eyed Man...

BRYAN
Imagine a program written over a program. Every time a universe collapses into darkness, a new one explodes with light. Billions of years, but if you watch from the outside, it all begins and ends in a breath. Think of ghosts, or night shifters, or the Black-Eyed Man as digital echoes on an old hard disk, bleeding through. He remembers the darkness of that old universe and he wants it back, so he's going rip away piece by piece at this one. Doesn't mean he's evil. He just wants his world to make sense again.

WALTER
So those of us that can see him... we have to stop him?

BRYAN
You don't "have" to do fuck all.

WALTER
I'm glad apathy still exists wherever you are.

BRYAN
Me too!

Beat.

WALTER
If darkness wins, we die. But if light wins, we die just the same. So good or evil, "god" or the "devil," it's all bullshit -- there's no side to pick. We only exist as long as there's a balance.

BRYAN
See? What do you need me for? You've got it all figured out. And you know the best part? Where I am, we have answers, but we can't change a thing. We're watchers, shadows of shadows. Here, you can act. And brother, your actions mean more than you realize. So maybe the real question is, "What are YOU doing here?"

WALTER
I--

Walter looks up at Bryan, but the seat is empty.

He glances around Nocturnes. He's alone. He takes his last sip and stands up. He places his empty glass on the bar and heads towards the exit.

On the table, Bryan's drink stands, untouched.

FADE OUT.

2015.04.20