Tower

FADE IN:

EXT. CORPORATE TOWER - DAY

The Tower stretches to grey mist and clouds that shroud its top floors. CAMERA DESCENDS each story until reaching the lobby entrance.

Corporate individuals, ages 30 - 60, enter the building. No one exits. They wear varying suits -- some black, some blue, some with charcoal vests, some without -- but each wears the same tie: grey on its outer border, with an inner grey-blue pattern spanning its length.

EXT. BENCH NEAR TOWER - DAY

COLE, 29, sits at the bench, which rests in front of a railroad bridge passing over a body of water. He wears a gray suit and white dress shirt with no tie as he fixates on the Tower’s top floors.

JEREMY, 61, passes under the bridge while walking towards Cole. He wears casual, but still fashionable, clothes. Upon reaching Cole, he does not sit and waits for Cole to speak. After a long moment, Cole points at the Tower.

COLE: Which floor do you look at first?

Jeremy turns from Cole to the Tower.

JEREMY: I suppose the lobby.

COLE: Because that’s where the motion is?

JEREMY: I suppose.

COLE: That’s where I started, too. Now I look straight to the top.

Cole whistles, curling his finger upwards. Another pause. A train loudly passes by on the bridge behind them.

JEREMY: (reaches into jacket) Would you like to take a look at it?

COLE: No greetings first? I remember a time when you couldn’t stop talking about how long you’ve known my family.

JEREMY: Cole. Please.

COLE: (mock seriousness) Jeremy.

Jeremy doesn’t respond, instead checking his watch.

COLE: Whether or not you’re interested in my scheme, your handiwork’s a part of it. -- (gestures) -- So come on. Sit.

Jeremy, stalling, turns to examine the moving train. After a long moment, he sits.

COLE: Did you notice this whole stretch is almost like an island?

JEREMY: I did.

COLE: Good observation. I didn’t even catch that my first time here.

CAMERA MOVES to the surroundings, revealing more of the wide river that rests underneath the railroad bridge.

COLE (O.S.): Their own little corporate peninsula. Of course, they added all the other fixings to not draw attention to the buildings.

CAMERA FRAMES the skyline behind the bridge.

COLE (O.S.): You’d be surprised at how few people question why a train would pass over a body of water just to get here, and then turn around.

CAMERA RETURNS to the two men.

COLE: But when there’s an adult bookstore and some coffee shops, it’s just a normal urban center. -- (waves hand) -- Although it doesn't matter since the wars, the corporate takeover. These puppies can get away with whatever they want. Everyone's too weary to care.

JEREMY: (pauses, shrugs) It’d seem so.

Cole shoots Jeremy a judgmental gaze.

COLE: It'd seem some of us are fine with the new hellscape of a country.

The train’s last car passes behind. The noise dissipates.

COLE: (scoffs) How long do you think that train went by for, hm? A minute? Two?

Jeremy checks his watch. No response.

COLE: Come on. You and I both know you don’t have anywhere else to be. You’re a tailor, not the president.

JEREMY: (snaps) And you do? Yes, you’re very busy sitting here all day watching empty suits walk in and out of a skyscraper.

COLE: (laughs) Finally got you talking. Two things, though. They only walk in. No one comes out. And I already told you, I don’t even look at the entrance anymore. I look straight to the top.

Cole repeats the same whistling and finger motion.

JEREMY: (agitated) What are you talking about, “No one comes out”?

COLE: I am trying to be a good observer. You’re more than welcome to sit along with me -- (makes air quotes) -- “all day,” watching these “empty suits.” And you will see the same thing I do. No one comes out.

Jeremy turns to the building with greater focus. Indeed, businesspeople flood in, but no one exits.

JEREMY: So what are you gonna tell me? They’re being turned into soylent and shipped away in the train cars?

COLE: (seriously) I hadn’t thought of that...

Cole takes a pen and scuffed notebook from inside his jacket and adds a bullet point to a lengthy list.

JEREMY: What are you doing here, Cole? If you want to talk, we can talk. Is this how you’re coping with--? You know...

COLE: Do I know? You can say it.

JEREMY: I worked with your family for a long time. You’re right. I made your confirmation suit. Your sister’s prom dress. Your parents’ wedding clothes. And I was there for all of that.

Cole sarcastically scratches his head and sets his notebook aside on the bench.

COLE: And could you remind me what happened to them?

JEREMY: What do you want me to say? Now they’re gone, and you’re throwing away your life? Asking me to make...

Jeremy pulls from his coat a package wrapped in brown paper.

JEREMY: ... Who knows what this is?

COLE: I’d think a clothier would know what it is I asked you to make. But now you’ve got me curious as to what you did create. Let’s see it.

Jeremy slowly unwraps the package, revealing a tie with the same pattern sported by the Tower’s inhabitants. He hands it to Cole, who holds it up to the sky, comparing it side by side with the Tower.

COLE: So... -- (lowers tie) -- You did get my designs. Nice job.

Cole sets down the tie, removes bills from his wallet, and hands them to Jeremy. Jeremy pushes them away.

JEREMY: What are you doing here, Cole?

Cole stuffs the money inside his jacket and throws the tie around his neck. He begins fastening cufflinks.

COLE: You brought up the subject of my sister. Not far from the mark. -- (dryly) -- You remember what happened to her, right?

Jeremy looks around awkwardly, avoiding Cole’s gaze.

COLE: You probably remember... a building involved. I doubt you know, though -- (points at Tower) -- that it was that one right there. Fell from floor 29. You probably heard it was a suicide, right? -- (finishes with cufflinks) -- Yeah, you did. That’s what they told me as well, but... you know that’s not what she was like. What she would do.

JEREMY: Cole, I don’t think anyone sees something like that coming.

COLE: Her death, I didn’t see coming. Her suicide, I couldn’t have seen coming. Because that’s not what happened.

Cole buttons his top button and begins with his tie.

COLE: She worked there. She told me all these things I couldn’t decipher, a few days before she... “fell.” She told me things about what goes on in that building, what those corpo freaks are doing to us... things I still don’t understand. -- (finishes tying) -- But she was telling me something. And I will find it, because I’ve got nothing better to do than idle away my days.

JEREMY: (gestures at Tower) And what do you think they’re conspiring?

COLE: I don’t know.

Cole picks up the notebook from the bench and gestures with it while speaking.

COLE: As you can tell, I’ve thought about it a lot. The trail is there, like it’s being spoon-fed to me. -- (reads from notebook) -- The train goes in and stops right by the Tower every day. It stays for an hour and a quarter, only an hour on weekends. -- (points at bridge) -- Train’s short enough to pass over that bridge in a minute. The Tower’s lights stay on every second of every day. No one leaves. I have never seen a spot of sun shine down on this miserable land mass. Just how they want it, I'm sure.

Cole stands and pockets the notebook.

COLE: And every time I get too close, these people give me this look. They know something. There’s something there.

Cole pauses and turns to Jeremy.

COLE: Thanks for the suit, too. You gave it to me for Mom’s funeral, if you remember.

Cole turns to the Tower.

COLE: You probably do.

Cole begins walking towards the Tower. Jeremy’s previous hard expression fades into sympathy.

JEREMY: You need a Balthus.

Cole stops, only half-turning to Jeremy.

COLE: What?

JEREMY: You tied a Windsor. -- (points at Tower) -- I see they’re all wearing a Balthus.

COLE: I tied a double Windsor.

JEREMY: The double Windsor doesn’t exist. There’s a half Windsor and a full Windsor. You tied a full.

Cole turns to Jeremy and sighs.

JEREMY: C’mere.

Cole undoes the knot as he walks over to and sits with Jeremy. With the tie still on Cole, Jeremy begins making a Balthus knot. He ties quickly and cleanly.

JEREMY: It was a good Windsor, though. Did your Dad teach you?

COLE: Mom did, at Dad’s wake.

JEREMY: Oh, I remember that. She was more into suits than he was.

COLE: (laughs softly) She was.

Jeremy finishes tying. During a long moment, Cole’s posture weakens, and he rests his head on his hands.

COLE: (less confidently) Do you think I’m just seeing these things ‘cause I don’t understand?

JEREMY: What don’t you understand?

COLE: How she could do that.

Cole looks down, staring sorrowfully.

COLE: I knew my sister. She wasn’t like that. But maybe I just... want to see the Tower in some big way. Some grand conspiracy. -- (sighs) -- Like a crazy person. Maybe I’m one of those crazy people who’ll do anything to avoid facing something they don’t understand.

Jeremy takes a long moment, contemplating.

JEREMY: Well, you’ve convinced me.

COLE: (smiles) Have I?

JEREMY: I don’t know what it is, but there’s something going on. You’re right.

COLE: (to himself) Right. I’m right... -- (to Jeremy) -- Thank you.

Jeremy smiles softly and sighs. He places his hand on Cole’s shoulder.

JEREMY: Good luck.

Cole stands and walks to the Tower. Jeremy stays.

EXT. ROAD LEADING TO TOWER - DAY

Cole enters a cluster of businesspeople approaching the Tower. He glances to his left, his right. The suits look onward, expressionless, silent. He travels in the dense pack’s middle, barely able to see anything outside of it.

Cole gazes downwards at his tie and notices a small white scuff on it, distinguishing it from the ties surrounding him. He discreetly rubs out the mark and confidently tightens the knot closer to his neck.

Cole turns back to Jeremy, who still sits at the bench. Mirroring Cole’s posture from earlier, Jeremy gazes at the Tower’s top, mystified.

Cole’s group engulfs him, blocking his view of Jeremy. Cole breathes deeply as he hears the Tower’s automatic doors open, his group fast approaching the entrance.

FADE OUT.

END