Mulholland Dr.

EXT. - DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - LOW RENT OFFICE BUILDING - DAY

The street level of the office building is filthy and houses
stores selling racks of cheap toys. Up above we see office
windows and a big sign saying "Office Space For Rent" along
with a telephone number to call. We drift in toward one of
the windows on the sixth floor.

CUT TO:

INT. OFFICE ON SIXTH FLOOR

Two men are in the room, JOE and ED. Joe leans up against a
rack of filing cabinets. He is in his late twenties. He
looks like a run down, heavy metal rocker - wears a blue
denim shirt open, T-shirt underneath, black denim jeans and
motorcycle boots. His black belt has silver studs. He's
smoking a cigarette and is laughing at something the man at
the desk has said. His laugh is easy and his grin is
infectious.

The man at the desk, Ed, wears a clean, crisp black suit,
like a business man's but unlike a business man his blonde
hair is long enough to go over his shoulders.

JOE
So man, that's unheard of ... an accident
like that ... who coulda foreseen that.

ED
Unreal ... so, you're looking good.
Whatcha doin' these days?

JOE
Well, not much Ed. Just doin' some stuff
for this guy.

ED
Making ends meet, huh.

JOE
Hardly.

ED
Yeah, look at my digs ... times are tough.

JOE
Oh, things aren't so bad. Gee, I hope
you're not goin' to get in any trouble.

ED
It was just a thing. The story made you
laugh.

JOE
Yeah, that's a funny story.

Looking like he's rubbing the small of his back Joe moves
over to Ed at his desk. Joe looks down to the surface of the
desk - to a small worn black book.

JOE (cont'd)
So, there it is ... Ed's famous black book.

ED
Yeah, the history of the world in phone
numbers.

Joe's hand still at the small of his back moves into view
holding a silenced pistol and in one swift move reaches out
and fires a hole through Ed's temple - blowing Ed's brains
out across the desk, carpet and wall. Ed's head bangs down
on the desk, then is still save the leaking of blood from the
wounds. Joe flips his finished cigarette out the open window
behind Ed's desk, wipes the gun clean with a handkerchief and
places the cleaned gun in Ed's right hand. He places Ed's
right forefinger gently onto the trigger. As he puts the
finger on the trigger he presses a little too hard and the
gun goes off. The bullet shoots out and penetrates the cheap
wall at the far end of Ed's office. Joe hears a muffled
scream.

JOE (cont'd)
(disgusted with himself)
Oh...man!

With a sense of "just more stuff I got to do" Joe moves
slowly and begrudgingly out of Ed's office, checks the
corridor and goes toward the screaming which still persists.
He opens up the office door next to Ed's and finds a heavy
set woman screaming bloody murder as she is grabbing her
buttock and lower back. He sighs and walks over to her and
cups his hand tightly around her mouth to squelch the
screaming. Wide-eyed, she tries to fight him off and he
begins dragging her out of her office. Joe's foot catches on
a computer cable clumsily taped across the floor and he falls
backwards bringing the heavy woman down with a bone-crushing
blow on top of him. The woman begins beating his face with
her meaty fists. Joe snaps her head back, instantly stilling
her violent activity. He wrestles the stunned heavyweight
back to her feet and out her door. He pushes and pulls her
into Ed's office. Just before they enter, Joe notices a man
with a vacuum cleaner watching him from the far end of the
corridor. He stops and calls to the man.

JOE (cont'd)
Hey man. She's hurt bad. Get down here
and use the phone. Help me out. You
gotta call the hospital.

The man hesitates...not sure if this jives with what he's
seeing.

JOE (cont'd)
I mean it! Get down here quick! She's
hurt and I can't do everything myself,
man.

Joe pushes the woman inside Ed's office, throws a glance back
down the corridor and sees the man is on his way to him,
pushing his industrial vacuum and trailing a 200 ft. long
thick black cord as he goes. Joe goes in to Ed's office
with the woman. He throws her down on the floor in line
between Ed's desk and the bullet hole in the wall. She
starts screaming immediately and struggles to get up. Joe
grabs the pistol from Ed's dead hand and lifts it to fire,
but the woman has turned around and is almost standing.

JOE (cont'd)
No, no, no. You gotta be turned around.

He goes to her, slaps her hard in the face and spins her
around. Before she can turn again Joe races back to place
himself in the proper line at Ed's desk and quickly fires two
silenced shots into the back of her head. The man with the
vacuum enters. His eyes begin to widen in reaction to the
scene. Just then Joe fires a bullet into the man's chest.
The man inadvertently flicks on the vacuum cleaner as his
hands rush up to the wound. As the vacuum cleaner whines Joe
rushes to the man before the man falls back out into the
corridor. He pulls him into the room - the man moaning and
clutching his chest, starting to collapse. Joe releases him
and the man goes down. The vacuum cleaner seems to be
screeching now in the threshold. Joe fires the last bullet
into the heavy duty vacuum cleaner. The bullet shorts out
the internal wiring of the vacuum. That in turn blows the
building's circuit breaker and all the lights go out.

JOE (cont'd)
(disgusted with himself)
Oh ... man!

Now he hears voices - voices moving into the corridor.

VOICES
What the hell .... what happened? What's
this cord doing here? It's the vacuum.
It's the vacuum what did it.