THE BELIEVER


                           by

                       Henry Bean


                        Story by

               Henry Bean & Mark Jacobson




















2000
Final Shooting Script







BLACK SCREEN

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          "And God said to Abraham, 'Take your
          son, your only son, whom you love,
          Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah
          and offer him there for a sacrifice
          upon a mountain that I will show you..."

INT. YESHIVA CLASSROOM -- DAY

A run-down place. A dozen 12-year-old BOYS sit at old-
fashioned desks. These are not Hasidim, but Orthodox Jews:
normal American kids in yarmulkes. The teacher, RAV
ZINGESSER is young, overweight, acnescarred, good-humored.

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          And why did the Holy One -- blessed
          be He -- do this? Why did he ask
          Abraham to sacrifice his only son,
          whom he loved?

Two boys off to one side: AVI (a smart, tough, brownnose)
and DANNY (the eternal dissident) argue under their breath....

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          Isaac wasn't his only son. Ishmael
          was his son, too.

                    12-YEAR-OLD AVI
          The only son he loved.

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          Oh, they only kill them when they
          love them...?

                    12-YEAR-OLD STUART
              (up front; answering Zingesser)
          It was a test of Abraham's faith. Of
          his devotion to God.

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          It's not about Abraham's faith. It's
          about God's power. God says, "You
          know how powerful I am? I can make
          you do anything I want, no matter how
          stupid. Even kill your own son.
          Because I'm everything, you're nothing."

TITTERS. Danny looks around at his classmates: nerds,
wankers, nose-pickers. Two kids in back furtively read the
racing form under their desks. He hates them for their
indifference as much as he despises Stuart's piety or Avi's
ass-kissing.

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          But, Danny, if HaShem is everything,
          and we are nothing how are we to
          judge His actions?

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          We have free will and intelligence --
          which God allegedly gave us....

                    AVI
          Anyway, God never lets Abraham kill
          Isaac. He provides the ram so that --

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          Personally, I think that's a lie. I
          think he did kill him.

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          You think?! Based on what?

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          There's midrash supporting this. My
          father read a book by Shalom Spiegel
          that -- Isaac actually died and was
          reborn.

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          No one follows that midrash.

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          I do; I follow it. But okay, say God
          provided the ram. So what? Once
          Abraham raised the knife, in his
          heart it was as if he'd killed him.
          He could never forget that. And
          neither could Isaac. Look at him:
          he's traumatized, he's a putz for the
          rest of his life. By the end he can't
          tell Jacob from Esau....

The kids laugh. Zingesser CRACKS a ruler against a desk.

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          Watch your language....

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
              (rising impassioned)
          I think the whole Jewish people were
          permanently scarred by what happened
          on Mt. Moriah, and we still live in
          terror....

                    12-YEAR-OLD STUART
          Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          Fear of God makes you afraid of
          everything. All the Jews are good at
          is being afraid. And being sacrificed.

Oooo. CRACK, CRACK, CRACK. Even the guys with the sports
pages are shocked by that one.

                    12-YEAR-OLD STUART
          Don't you believe in God?

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          I'm the only one here who does
          believe. You say he's mysterious, yet
          merciful. I see him for the power-
          drunk madman He is. And we're
          supposed to worship such a Deity?? I
          say Never! I say...fight him. I say --

The ruler has been CRACKING from "power-drunk" on.... Now
Zingesser grabs Danny, yanks him out of his chair.

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          Avi -- ask Rabbi Springer to come
          remove Danny from the class....

Avi rises, grinning, as...Danny struggles wildly to get free.

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          And you, if you had come out of Egypt,
          you would have been destroyed in the
          desert with those who worshipped the
          Golden Calf.

                    12-YEAR-OLD DANNY
          Then let Him destroy me now. Let Him
          crush me like the conceited bully He is.
              (to the ceiling)
          Go ahead. Kill me. Here I am. Do it!!

The class sits frozen in terror, waiting for God to kill
Danny. But nothing happens.

INT. YESHIVA STAIRWELL -- NIGHT

Danny runs down the steps alone.

EXT. RUN-DOWN COMMERCIAL AREA -- TWILIGHT

Danny walking home alone. He sees TWO KIDS (older, tougher,
blonder) coming toward him. He slips off his yarmulke and
slants across the street. The kids slant that way. He hears
a RUMBLING, looks up at an ELEVATED TRAIN entering a station.
He runs up the steps toward the SHRIEKING train....

INT. 7 TRAIN -- 1998 -- DAY

TITLE: 13 YEARS LATER

The train passes above used car lots, discount furniture
stores, residential side streets...finally pulls into a
station. The doors open. People file on, the CAMERA letting
them go by until it spots a tall, thin COLLEGE STUDENT in a
YARMULKE. Danny grown up?

PAN with him as he sits, opens an organic chemistry text. The
doors close. The train starts up, but the Jewish boy hardly
notices; he is already reading. He sways with the motion of
the car, half-hidden by other passengers. We realize he is
being watched.

REVERSE ANGLE: another YOUNG MAN, standing -- a "SUEDE-HEAD"
(his hair cut so short it's like a fine fabric).

SUEDE-HEAD'S POV: THE JEWISH BOY pushes his glasses back up
his nose, wipes the nose with a handkerchief, puts the
handkerchief away, and all the time his eyes have not left
the page. Suede-head steps between passengers and stands
directly over the Jewish boy. He looks down at the yarmulke
pinned to the stiff, wavy hair, at the oversized shirt
collar, scrawny neck, prominent Adam's apple, pimples,
dandruff, ingrown facial hair...

He steps closer, crowding the boy's knees. The boy shifts a
little without looking up. Subtly but relentlessly, Suede-
head pursues him along the bench until, unable to slide
farther, the boy flattens his legs against the seat. Suede-
head presses into the boy's knees.

The boy accidentally bumps a BUSINESSMAN to Suede-head's
left. The man (late 30s, Wall Street Journal, African-
American) looks from the boy to Suede-head and understands
at once what is going on.

Suede-head stares right back -- and the BUSINESSMAN returns
to his paper. Suede-head eases him aside and steps on the
boy's shoe.

SHOES -- A HEAVY BLACK BOOT PINS A BROWN WINGTIP TO THE FLOOR

The wingtip wiggles back and forth, finally working free.
The boy still hasn't looked up.

SUEDE-HEAD & THE JEWISH BOY

swaying, locked in a strange, silent intimacy. Suede-head
forces the boy into ever more contorted postures,
increasingly ridiculous denials of what is happening. And
the boy not only never stops reading the chemistry text, he
keeps highlighting relevant passages.

The train slows. The boy closes the book, caps the
highlighter, gathers his things and manages to stand up,
wriggling awkwardly around Suede-head. The doors open, he
gets off.

INT. STATION -- DAY

Looking up a long escalator, the Jewish boy riding down
toward us.

Suede-head arrives on the run at the top, races down a
flight of stairs, vaults the bannister, slides down a metal
slope....

Lands on his feet and comes to stand at the foot of the
escalator.

The boy rides inexorably down. At the bottom, he tries to go
around Suede-head who blocks this way, then another, driving
him into a corner.

The boy realizes he has nowhere to go -- finally turns to
face his tormentor. Their eyes meet for the first time. He
is actually bigger than Suede-head, but not nearly as strong.
He won't fight, is simply acknowledging what he can no
longer deny. There is even an odd relief that disgusts
Suede-head more than all the rest.

                    SUEDE-HEAD
          Fucking kike.

He slaps him in the face. He stumbles backward. As Suede-
head goes to hit him again, the boy holds his books in front
of him. Suede-head punches the books straight into his face.
The boy falls, curls into a fetal position. Suede-head kicks
him....

                    SUEDE-HEAD
          Get up.... Get the fuck up....

He won't budge. Suede-head punches him repeatedly until he
hears VOICES approaching. He runs back up the stairs to the
train and only as we FOLLOW him do we realize that he is our
protagonist. This is Danny grown up.

                                            CUT TO:

INT. DANNY'S STUDIO APARTMENT -- NIGHT

Like his brain, the room is at once crowded and tidy and has,
so far as we can see, neither windows nor doors. Shelves of
books, CDs, magazines, videotapes loom over a neatly made bed.

Danny, in briefs and boots, is lifting weights. The phone
rings. A machine picks up: no outgoing message, only a BEEP.
Then:

                    WOMAN'S VOICE
          Is this working? I'm trying to reach
          Danny Balint...Danny, it's Vicki, we
          met at Happy Jack's last month...?

He keeps doing curls.

                    WOMAN'S VOICE
          I was hoping maybe we could...get
          together again... Give me a call --
          718-555-0193.

She hangs up. A moment later Danny finishes the set, gasping
for air, heart pounding, muscles throbbing.

INT. SAME -- NIGHT

A radio is playing the news. Danny sits at a small desk, on
the phone and browsing the Internet, a take-out menu beside him.

                    DANNY (INTO PHONE)
          ...Is it completely vegetarian?
          ...What do they make the stock
          from?... Not chicken, you're sure?...
          And no dairy... No, no cheese I don't
          eat cheese... Yeah, all right. And
          the tropical fruit shake... How long?...

Over this we see: COMPUTER SCREEN: GLIMPSES OF PASSING PHRASES:

...ZIONIST OCCUPATIONAL GOV'T CONTROLS 78% OF THE SENATE, 62%
OF THE HOUSE...DYNAMITE CAN BE STOLEN FROM CONSTRUCTION
SITES & ROAD CREWS, PARTICULARLY IN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS...
CURTIS ZAMPF IN NYC 5/18...JEWISH PIMPS, DRUG DLRS &
ABORTIONISTS HAVE AS THEIR MAIN GOAL...CONVERTING THE GLOCK
901 TO FULLY AUTOMATIC IS RELATIVELY SIMPLE. FIRST, REMOVE
THE FIRING PIN...

He HIGHLIGHTS the item about Curtis Zampf...

EXT. VOMPADINK -- TWILIGHT

A tough working-class Queens bar.

INT. VOMPADINK -- TWILIGHT

Men drink in clusters, including a group of skinheads....
Danny takes a place alone at the bar, drawing furtive
attention from the regulars. When the BARTENDER finally
comes over...

                    DANNY
          Vodka tonic.

A strange call for this place. As he waits, Danny turns and
watches the skinheads enough to make them aware of him.

The girls watch him, too. The skins don't like that. One of
them (Billings) seems ready to do something about it. The
others try to calm him, and when they look back, Danny has
left. He barely touched the drink.

The skins are puzzled, but one indicates his watch: time to
go. They gather their stuff....

EXT. CITY/INT. 7 TRAIN -- EVENING

Looking out the front of the train as it rushes toward
Manhattan. A dramatic sky rises above the skyline.

EXT. STREET -- NIGHT

The three skins -- O.L., CARLETON, BILLINGS -- walk up an
East Side street. Billings is telling a story....

                    BILLINGS
          ...So she takes the pants in back --
          where they try them on? And I think
          fuck it....

                    CARLETON
          Are you shitting me?? Right in the store?

                    BILLINGS
          She's been giving me the eye. She's
          hot. So I wait till the owner goes up
          front....

During this, O.L. starts to SPRAY PAINT a crude SWASTIKA
onto a BUS KIOSK. A VOICE startles them....

                    VOICE
          What are you doing??

They jump, turn. Danny steps out of the shadows.

                    DANNY
              (indicating swastika)
          What do you think you're doing?

                    BILLINGS
          Who the fuck are you?

                    DANNY
              (coming toward them)
          Who am I?? Who are you, you schmucks,
          you can't even make a decent
          swastika.... Give me the paint.
              (O.L. looks to his friends)
          Give it to me.

Danny's will is stronger; O.L. hands over the spray can.
Danny shakes it, critiques O.L.'s rendering....

                    DANNY
              (gruff but avuncular)
          It's too squared off. You got to
          orient it up and down, diamond-shaped,
          like this....
              (sprays an excellent swastika)
          ...The arms go clockwise.
              (hands the can back)
          You're going to Curtis Zampf; me, too.
          Let's go?

They exchange looks: how did he know about Curtis?

                    CURTIS ZAMPF (O.S.)
          ...Where I grew up in South Boston
          twenty years ago, when a kid walked
          down the street, everyone knew who he
          was...

INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT

Grand but threadbare. The skins enter: O.L. like a child,
Carleton like a sardonic adolescent, Billings like a
revolutionary, Danny like an uncrowned prince.

CURTIS ZAMPF is addressing a dozen or so guests. He is 40
but appears younger; with rough good looks, longish hair and
a leather jacket, he seems more like an aging rock star or
sexy novelist that a standard-issue American Nazi.

                    CURTIS
          ...If he ran out in front of a car,
          some old Mick'd yell at him, "Jimmy
          Dunne, get back on that sidewalk and
          stay there...."

He does the Boston Irish accent so well, everybody laughs.
Up front we notice the only WOMAN in the room. She is in her
40s, regal, beautiful, forbidding. Her name is LINA MOEBIUS.

                    CURTIS
          ...The day he graduated high school,
          he'd go see his uncle down at the gas
          works, or the priest's brother in the
          shipyard, get his apprentice papers,
          eight years later he'd be making
          $16.50 an hour, have four kids, play
          ball on Sundays in Columbus Park, and
          when he died, the whole town'd get
          drunk and cry over him....

The crowd -- nonunion electricians, white taxi drivers,
unemployed bookkeepers, failed academics, off-duty cops --
listens quietly.

During this, a young woman (CARLA) appears from the rear of
the apartment, heading for the kitchen with a coffee cup and
a history book. She glances into the living room.

                    CURTIS
          ...Today, when that kid walks down
          the street it's full of trash and
          half the faces are black. The
          shipyard's closed, all the jobs at
          the gas works are set-asides, and by
          the time he drops out of school, he
          can barely get a job at Burger King.
          So he drinks, smokes crack, and when
          he hangs himself on the front porch
          at twenty-three, the only people at
          his wake are a couple of buddies and
          his mother. The boy's father won't
          find out he's dead till six months
          later.
              (beat)
          The soul of this country is being
          destroyed, and all the government can
          offer is free trade, mutual funds and
          IPOs.

                    GUY DANIELSEN
          You sound like a leftist.

                    CURTIS
          I used to be one.... No, seriously, I
          called myself an anarchist. I stood
          up for the oppressed. I opposed state
          power.

                    AN OLD COOT
          Don't you still?

                    CURTIS
          I oppose the present state because
          it's weak. It has been ever since the
          left emasculated it over Vietnam. But
          I think the average man is crushed
          less by accumulated capital than the
          loss of community or real leadership,
          the personal emptiness he simply
          cannot fill on his own....
              (matter-of-fact)
          That's why I'm a fascist. It's the
          only form of government that
          addresses our deepest needs.

Silence. Danny -- who has spotted Carla -- begins to clap, a
few others join in. Danny raises his hand; Curtis nods to
him....

                    DANNY
          What do you think the fascism of the
          twenty-first century will look like?

Everyone -- including Carla -- turns to see who asked that.

                    CURTIS
          More cultural than political.

                    DANNY
          Obviously.

                    CURTIS
          Decentralized, nonviolent,
          increasingly mainstream. We'll see
          antiabortion, anti-immigration groups
          form alliances with the gun lobby,
          Christian identity types, tax resisters
          and even some libertarians....

The crowd seems impressed, but restless and bored.

                    OLD COOT
          What about race?

A stirring: many share the concern. Lina watches closely.

                    CURTIS
          This isn't the time for that.

Murmurs of surprise, disappointment.

                    DANNY
          I disagree.
              (glances at Carla)
          I think race is central to everything
          we're talking about.
              (murmurs of agreement)
          Spiritual life comes from race. From
          the blood. Without that, we're no
          better than the Jews....

The magic word. The whole room comes alive. Zampf grimaces.

                    CARLA
          What's wrong with the Jews?

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Carla...

                    DANNY
          Have you read Toynbee? Spengler?

                    CARLA
          Nobody reads that stuff anymore.

                    DANNY
          Too difficult?

                    CARLA
          Too Christian. You know Jameson? Paul
          Virilio?

                    DANNY
          The point is, the modern world is a
          Jewish disease.

                    CARLA
          Disease? What disease?

                    DANNY
          Abstraction. They're obsessed with
          abstraction.

That stops the conversation. But Carla is intrigued; here is
someone whose mind moves in strange and interesting realms.

                    VOICE (GUY DANIELSEN)
          What would you propose?

The questioner is a young man (GUY DANIELSEN), better spoken
than the others. Danny feels all eyes on him.

                    DANNY
          Killing Jews.

A tremor of fear and excitement ripples through the room.
Zampf glances at Mrs. Moebius; she is watching Danny intently.

                    CURTIS
          That would be a catastrophic mistake.

                    DANNY
          People hate Jews. Do you agree?

                    CURTIS
          They used to. Today it's not an issue.

                    DANNY
          No, but deep down, beneath the
          "tolerance" they learn on television,
          nothing's changed. The very word
          makes their skin crawl.
              (around the room people nod)
          It isn't even hate, really. It's more
          the way we feel when a rat runs
          across the floor. We want to step on
          it. Crush it. We don't even know why.
          It's a physical reaction. Everyone
          feels it.

                    GUY DANIELSEN
          Which ones would you kill?

                    DANNY
          Prominent Jews. Who are either
          symbols in themselves or who
          represent aspects of the Jewish
          character people despise.

                    GUY DANIELSEN
          Such as?

                    OLD COOT
          Barbra Streisand.

Mutterings: "Who's she?" "Yeah, her..." But Danny says:

                    DANNY
          Too obvious.

                    VOICES
          Kissinger...Dershowitz...Roseanne...

                    DANNY
          Yes. And Larry King...

                    OLD COOT
          Is he Jewish?

                    DANNY
          ...Leona Helmsley, Michael Eisner, Bob
          Dylan, Phillip Roth, Ruth Bader
          Ginsberg, Steven Spielberg, Winona
          Ryder, Beverly Sills, Alvin Toffler,
          Katherine Graham. All of them. But
          not yet. We don't want celebrity
          obscuring the issue.

                    CARLA
          Which is what?

                    DANNY
          At first, no one will know why the
          victims are being killed.

                    CURTIS
          You wouldn't announce it?

                    DANNY
          I'd say nothing. After two or three,
          people will try to find a pattern. A
          reason.

                    CURTIS
          But when it comes out, the public
          will be outraged. It will look like
          Germany all over again.

                    DANNY
          Isn't that what we want? Germany all
          over again? Only done right this time...

The crowd feels a deep atavistic thrill. Zampf glances at
Mrs. Moebius....

                    DANNY
          Without speeches or political parties.
          A movement without leaders so that no
          one can stop it...

The room is stunned to silence. Mrs. Moebius signals Curtis.

                    CURTIS
          Okay, let's break this up for now....
              (to Danny)
          Could you wait a minute...?

INT. SAME -- FIVE MINUTES LATER

Danny -- flushed with triumph -- stands looking down at the
city.

ACROSS THE ROOM -- MRS. MOEBIUS & CURTIS ZAMPF

                    CURTIS
              (low)
          ...I thought we agreed, no anti-
          Semitism...it's exactly what we're
          trying to put behind us.... Trash the
          blacks, fine; but...

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Did you see how they reacted to him?

                    CURTIS
          Yes, of course. But that only plays
          in this room, with people who aren't
          embarrassed to call themselves Nazis.
          If you want a modern fascism, you
          don't mention Jews.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          It's a romantic movement, Curtis. It
          always has been.

                    CURTIS
          Lina, the Thousand-Year Reich barely
          lasted a decade.... Do you really
          want to go down that road again? In
          America of all places, where
          obedience and discipline are not
          exactly the national virtues...

She looks over at Danny, now chatting with Carla....

                    LINA
          He's very bright.

                    CURTIS
          He speaks well. But what do we do
          with him?

                    LINA
          Let's find out who he is.

                    CURTIS
          You mean who he really is.

ON DANNY & CARLA

                    CARLA
          You're not in school? What do you do?

                    DANNY
          I work at the Big Boy warehouse. In
          Queens. I drive a fork-lift.

                    CARLA
          Where'd you read all that stuff?

                    DANNY
          I just read it....

                    LINA
          Young man...

He turns. She's beckoning to him. He gives Carla a look,
then crosses to her, sitting in a chair she indicates.
Curtis offers him a drink; he declines. Carla takes one.

                    LINA
          Lina Moebius. And you are...?

                    DANNY
          Daniel Balint.

                    LINA
          Balint?

                    DANNY
          It's German.

                    LINA (IN GERMAN)
          What part of Germany are you people from?

                    DANNY (IN GERMAN)
          From the Rhineland originally.

                    LINA (IN ENGLISH)
          Are you with the FBI, Mr. Balint?...
          Or any other law enforcement agency?

                    DANNY
          I was going to ask you the same thing.

Smiles, laughter. Everyone seems to relax.

                    LINA
          So what are you really after,
          Daniel?... Do you just want to kill
          Jews, or do you have something larger
          in mind?

Carla watches, silent. Danny is aware of both mother and
daughter.

                    DANNY
          Without blood -- a willingness to
          spill it -- there's no real power, no
          authority.

                    LINA
              (pleased by this)
          Curtis is afraid you'll marginalize us.

                    DANNY
          We're already marginal. We are saying
          what no one else has the guts to say.
          Isn't that precisely our appeal?

                    LINA
          So what Jew would you kill first?

                    DANNY
          Ilio Manzetti...former ambassador to
          France. Managing partner at Damon,
          Schwarzchild.

                    CURTIS
              (to Lina, explaining)
          An investment banking house.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          He's Jewish? Manzetti?

                    DANNY
          Totally. The family emigrated from
          Bulgaria when he was eleven.

                    CURTIS
          How would you kill him?

                    DANNY
          I'd have to research it, study his
          routines, his security.... But
          ideally on a New York street at
          midday, using a small-caliber
          automatic without a silencer.

                    CARLA
          Why no silencer?

                    DANNY
          You want it to be an event.

Lina stands, takes a sherry. Everyone else rises with her.

                    LINA
          Danny, why don't you come visit us in
          the country. We have young men with
          lots of energy and no ideas. Maybe
          you could give them something to
          think about.... Bring your friends,
          if you like....

As Curtis leads him toward the door, Danny looks around for
Carla, hears WOMEN'S VOICES arguing in German. Frustrated,
he goes down the stairs....

EXT. STREET -- NIGHT

Danny and the other skins walking down the middle of the
street, drinking beer, oblivious to traffic.

                    BILLINGS
          Bring your friends.... We're not his
          friends.

                    DANNY
          Then I won't bring you....

The others laugh. Someone HONKS behind them. Billings turns:

                    BILLINGS
          FUCK YOU.

                    BLACK VOICE (O.S.)
          Hey, bonehead...get your moon ass off
          the street.

Billings turns and throws his beer at the voice. A CRASH,
BREAKING GLASS, a screech of BRAKES, CAR DOORS open and shut...

                    BILLINGS
          Why don't you go back to Rwanda and
          give each other AIDS.

That does it. The skins run out of frame. SOUNDS of a fight.
Danny watches, indifferent, then finally joins in.

INT. PRECINCT LOCKUP -- NIGHT

The skins in a cell. O.L., head bloody, moaning and vomiting.

                    O.L.
          I can't see....

Carleton comforts him. Billings paces, looks at Danny,
sitting against the wall, relaxed for the first time.

                    BILLINGS
          What, do you like it here?

                    DANNY
          Read Mein Kampf? Hitler had all his
          best ideas in prison.

                    OFF-SCREEN VOICE
          Daniel Balint?

Danny looks up: a JAILER unlocks the cell. Carla appears
behind him. Danny stops without stepping through the open door.

                    DANNY
          I'm not leaving without them.

The other skins are surprised, moved. Carla and Danny stare
at each other. Finally she turns to the jailer....

                    CARLA
          Can I use a credit card?

EXT. STREET CORNER, SUBWAY ENTRANCE -- NIGHT

A Mercedes pulls up, Carla driving. The skins climb out,
Carleton guiding O.L., who cannot see.

                    CARLA
          He should go to a hospital.

                    O.L.
          I'm okay.

Billings turns back, sees Danny still in the car.

                    BILLINGS
          You coming?

                    DANNY
              (glances at Carla, stays
               in the car)
          We'll go to the country sometime, okay?

Billings nods grudgingly. The car drives off. Carleton grins.

                    CARLETON
          Fucking Danny, man...

                    BILLINGS
          He's an asshole.

INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- TWILIGHT

Carla leads Danny through the darkened apartment.

INT. CARLA'S ROOM -- TWILIGHT

An old bookcase full of leather-bound German volumes...Danny
opens one marked Hofmannsthal. He tries to read a marked
passage.

                    DANNY
          "...und die Worte zerfielen mir im
          Munde wie modrige Pilze..."

                    CARLA
          "And the words fell apart in my mouth
          like moldering mushrooms..."

                    DANNY
          How come so many of the books are in
          Spanish?

                    CARLA
          They're my father's. He's from
          Argentina. My mother's family went
          there during the war. That's where
          they met.

                    DANNY
          Are they still together?

                    CARLA
          He's in a mental institution.... He's
          been there for ten years, off and on.
          Mostly on.

                    DANNY
          Is he a Nazi?

                    CARLA
          I guess. His parents are. He doesn't
          care about that.

                    DANNY
          What's he care about?

                    CARLA
          Killing himself.

They look at each other. There's that gulf between them that
they have to cross, but they're not sure how.

                    DANNY
          You think people ever commit suicide
          out of happiness?

                    CARLA
          That's stupid. Why would they?

He shrugs. She takes his hand, rubs the bruised knuckles.

                    CARLA
          You're not like the others, are
          you?... Your friends.

                    DANNY
          Yes, I am. Basically I am.

She leans close, whispers....

                    CARLA
          Hurt me.

He's surprised, but not very. He grabs her wrist, twists it.

                    CARLA
          Ow! That's too hard.

He pulls her out of frame. She starts to say something, but
it's cut off by another CRY OF PAIN. We keep looking out the
window....

INT. SAME -- LATER

The light has shifted across the city, and we hear only a
muffled sobbing.

The CAMERA TURNS to look at...Carla and Danny naked on the
bed. He lies back, reading the German book. She's curled on
her side, weeping abjectly. Still sobbing, she rolls over,
buries her face in his chest. We see that his neck is
scratched up.

                    CARLA
          Do it again....

She begins to fondle him. He ignores it until he finishes
the poem, then turns to her.

INT. SAME -- LATER

The light has shifted again. Danny sleeps alone, his face
strangely innocent. Carla drops onto the bed, shakes him.

                    CARLA
          Get up...you gotta go.

He opens his eyes. She's dressed, her hair wet from the
shower, a faint puffiness around her mouth. He pulls her
down to him.

                    CARLA
          No, you have to leave. I've got to
          write a paper.
              (slaps his stomach hard)
          Out!

He looks up. Her face is cold, indifferent. He gets to his feet.

INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- DAY

Danny on his way to the door, hears something, turns...CURTIS
ZAMPF is coming out of a bedroom in his underwear. From
within...

                    LINA MOEBIUS (O.S.)
          Bring the paper, too.

Curtis now sees Danny. A look between them. Danny goes out.

EXT. QUEENS, STAIRS TO ELEVATED TRAIN -- DAY

Once a Jewish neighborhood, now occupied chiefly by blacks,
Latins and more recent immigrants.

As Danny (wearing headphones) comes down the steps... TWO
BLACK KIDS (big, menacing, boombox) are coming up, blocking
his way. Danny walks right between them, forcing them apart.

They turn, glare after him. He turns, glares back. They
scoff and keep going up. He walks on.

EXT. OZONE PARK HOUSE -- DAY

He lets himself into a row house. We barely notice the
mezzuzah on the door post.

INT. OZONE PARK HOUSE -- DAY

A nearly vanished world of lower-middle-class Jewish life,
though the "Jewishness" (menorah, kiddush cup...) is
restricted to one dusty corner behind a secular chaos of
books, newspapers, half-empty cups, half-filled glasses...

Danny's FATHER, 55, sits on a faded chair, an oxygen mask on
a cart beside him. Danny's sister, LINDA, 30, is cutting his
hair with a scissors. When Danny enters, they both look up
at him in surprise, alarm, possibly even love. For a moment
no one knows what to do.

The father begins to wheeze, puts the mask over his face and
breathes deeply. Linda tells him to lean back; resumes
cutting. On the wall we see Danny's BAR MITZVAH PHOTO.

Meanwhile, Danny has found a stack of mail, all addressed to
him. His father and sister are visible behind him in a
mirror. Without speaking, he goes down the hall, and we hear
him DESCEND STAIRS to:

INT. HOUSE, BASEMENT -- DAY

Danny has taken off his coat (revealing a black T-shirt with
a red swastika), and is going through a number of cardboard
boxes marked "D," pulling out comic books, baseball gloves,
martial arts gear, drawings of voluptuous women, morbid
gothic figures, gun magazines, books about Hitler,
Nazis...and finally a .22 AUTOMATIC stuffed in a blue sock.

INT. HOUSE, BASEMENT

He removes the clip, checks the slide, while nodding to the
MUSIC coming through his earphones. He looks up, sees LINDA
at the foot of the stairs, pulls off the headset.

                    LINDA
          I knocked, you didn't answer.

It's too late to conceal the gun; he places it beside him.
She does her best to ignore the swastika shirt....

                    LINDA
          What are you doing here?

                    DANNY
          I just came to get some stuff. I'll
          be out in five minutes.
              (off her)
          He doesn't want me around.

She looks down as if that were not true, or the way in which
it is too complicated to go into.

                    LINDA
          He's going to die.
              (as Danny looks away)
          He won't take his medicine. He eats
          dairy. He probably still smokes when
          I'm not around.
              (off Danny's helpless gesture)
          I asked him to come live with us.
          Alex offered to share his room,
          unsolicited.... But he didn't want to
          be any trouble.

                    DANNY
          Then he couldn't be bitter about
          living alone.

                    LINDA
          Why deprive him of his greatest pleasure?

They exchange what are almost smiles. But then the subject
she's been trying to avoid -- the only subject -- suddenly
erupts...

                    LINDA
          Ah, Jesus Christ, Danny, how can you
          wear that thing?... You know what it
          means? To your people...

                    DANNY
          They're not my people....

                    LINDA
          Tell it to Hitler.

                    DANNY
          Oh, he decides? Hitler's the chief
          rabbi now?...

                    LINDA
          Is this because of those kids who
          used to beat you up?

                    DANNY
          What kids?...

                    LINDA
          The Polacks? From Sacred Heart?

                    DANNY
          Nobody ever beat me up.
              (as she sighs, turns to go)
          Look, Linda, there're fifty reasons.
          Even if you knew them all, there'd be
          another fifty you didn't know.

                    LINDA
          Do you know them?
              (off him)
          I made him some noodles for dinner.
          You can heat them up and --

                    DANNY
          I've got to get back to the --

                    LINDA
          You can heat them up and eat with him.

INT. LIVING ROOM, QUEENS HOUSE -- NIGHT

Danny (now wearing a plain white T-shirt) bends over the
coffee table eating a noodle casserole and reading the Post.
His father eats off a TV table. He finishes, cursorily wipes
his mouth, picks up a remote and turns on the television.

                    DANNY
          It's Friday....

                    FATHER
              (a hoarse rasp)
          Do I give a shit?

Danny holds up both hands: he's not arguing, simply informing.

                    FATHER
          The Torah says not to light a fire on
          the Sabbath, because it's work,
          correct?
              (Danny sighs)
          But if alternating current's running
          through the wires every second of
          every day, and I throw a switch, send
          it here instead of there, how is that
          lighting a fire?

                    DANNY
          "Do chickens give milk?"

                    FATHER
          Exactly.

He channel-surfs until he comes to a stand-up COMIC doing a
routine. They both watch.

TV: the COMIC is funny in a brutal, compulsive way. Lots of
pop references, implicit postmodern nihilism. The routine
reflects what Danny (and the Shiites, the Unabomber, Timothy
McVeigh, T.S. Eliot, et al.) have against the modern world.

                    FATHER
          Who's this?

                    DANNY
          Dennis Leary.

                    FATHER
          Leary?

                    DANNY
          No.

The father grunts with grim satisfaction, he suspected as much.

                    DANNY
              (offering consolation)
          Howard Stern.

                    FATHER
          Obviously.

Danny sighs: why bother. But adds...

                    DANNY
          Adam Sandler.

                    FATHER
          Funny?

                    DANNY
          Not like Mr. Dorfmann.

                    FATHER
          He was funny.

As they watch, apropos of nothing:

                    FATHER
          After your mother died, that's when
          you stopped going to shul. Doing your
          homework. Everything.

                    DANNY
          And that's when the Mets started to
          stink.

                    FATHER
          'Cause they got rid of Johnson. He
          knew how to deal with the assholes.
          Dallas Green, please...

                    DANNY
          Valentine...

The father snorts. On TV the comic gets off a line, and they
both laugh. Their laughs are quite similar; they glance at
each other.

                    FATHER
          There's some maple walnut in the freezer.

                    DANNY
          Linda says you're not supposed to
          have dairy.

                    FATHER
          Just a little... What's the difference?

Danny goes into the kitchen. The father extracts a pack of
Salems from between the cushions, lights one, takes a
desperate drag... The phone RINGS. He curses, stubs it out,
grabs the phone.

                    FATHER
          Yeah?... Hold on.... It's for you.

Danny gives his father a dish of ice cream, takes the phone.

                    DANNY
          Hello...?

                    VOICE
          Daniel Balint? My name's Guy
          Danielsen. I'm a reporter with the
          New York Times.

                    DANNY
              (impressed, suspicious)
          New York Times...?

His father looks up. Danny takes the phone into the kitchen.

                    VOICE
          I'm doing a piece on right-wing
          groups, post Oklahoma City. I hear
          you're an important figure in those
          circles. You have a lot of interesting
          ideas....

INT. KITCHEN -- NIGHT

                    DANNY
          Who told you that?

                    VOICE
          Isn't it true?

                    DANNY
          No, it's...yeah, it's true, but...
          how'd you get this number?... No, not
          here... Maybe Sunday? There's a place
          off Queens Blvd. Near the courthouse...

EXT. COFFEE SHOP, QUEENS -- DAY

A HIGH-ANGLE view of the coffee shop. After a moment, Danny
enters frame, starts toward it....

INT. COFFEE SHOP, QUEENS -- DAY

Danny enters, looks around. To his surprise he sees GUY
DANIELSEN from the Nazi meeting rising, extending his hand.

                    GUY DANIELSEN
          Danny...Guy Danielsen...

                    DANNY
              (sardonic, now he gets it)
          You...

Guy shrugs, smiles apologetically.

ANOTHER ANGLE -- DANNY & GUY WITH COFFEE

                    GUY
          Milk...?

As Danny declines, Guy gets out a small cassette recorder,
is about to turn it on, when he notices Danny's reaction....

                    GUY
          Is it okay if I record this?

                    DANNY
          No... Yeah, fine, go ahead... So
          what's this about? Is this about me?

                    GUY
          I'm trying to figure out where the
          radical right is going to next....I
          thought you were the most interesting
          person at that meeting.

                    DANNY
          What about Curtis Zampf?

                    GUY
          Curtis is a politician -- and a bit
          of a hustler. He's not a thinker.

                    DANNY
          I agree.

                    GUY
          The other night you said the modern
          world is a Jewish disease. Could you
          elaborate on that?

                    DANNY
          In the movement -- the racialist
          movement -- we believe there's a
          hierarchy of the races. Not just in
          IQ, but in the civilization, the art,
          the forms of government, the
          civilizations that each race
          produces... Why are you writing this
          down if you're recording it?

                    GUY
          It helps me concentrate.... So does
          that mean you're a white supremacist?

                    DANNY
          What should I be, a white inferior-
          ist? A multicultural Zulu egalitarian?
          Let me ask, where are your people from?

                    GUY
          My mother's family is French, my
          father's was German, originally.

                    DANNY
          German. Mine, too. So who do you
          think's given more to the world, the
          Germans -- Beethoven, Goethe,
          Nietzsche -- or the entire continent
          of Africa? Ibos, Bantus, Mandingos...

                    GUY
          Danny, what about the Jews?

Danny shifts in his seat, growing more interested....

                    DANNY
          The Jews are different.... Blacks are
          disgusting and inferior, but it's
          like criticizing a retarded child.
          The Jews are...a poison in the human
          well....

                    GUY
          A poison...?

                    DANNY
          Let me give you an example.... Sexuality.

                    GUY
          Sexuality??? What do you mean?

                    DANNY
          You ever fuck a Jewish girl?

                    GUY
          What??!?

                    DANNY
          Did you ever fuck one, Guy?

                    GUY
              (laughing, embarrassed)
          What's that go to do with...I've gone
          out with a, with Jewish women. Why?

                    DANNY
          And? WHat did you notice?

                    GUY
          Notice? Like what...?

                    DANNY
          Jewish girls like to give head, right?

                    GUY
          I don't know. Is that right?

                    DANNY
          And Jewish men like to get it.

                    GUY
          Everybody likes to, don't they?

                    DANNY
          Yes. It's very pleasurable. But the
          Jews are obsessed with it. You know why?

                    GUY
          Why?

                    DANNY
          Because the Jew is essentially female.

                    GUY
          Female...

                    DANNY
          Real men -- white, Christian men --
          we fuck a woman. We make her come
          with our cocks. But the Jew doesn't
          like to penetrate and thrust -- he
          can't assert himself that directly --
          so he resorts to perversions. Oral
          sex is technically a perversion, you
          know that, don't you?
              (as Guy nods)
          After a woman has been with a Jewish
          man, she never wants a normal partner
          again. A normal man.

                    GUY
          Does that mean the Jew is the better
          lover?

                    DANNY
          You're not listening. He isn't better.
          He gives pleasure, but that's
          actually a weakness.

                    GUY
          Danny, what makes you think you know
          all this?

                    DANNY
          Let's just say I've done due diligence.

                    GUY
          So, fine, it's not that the Jew, the
          Jews own the media and the banks.
          It's that they're sexually corrupt.

                    DANNY
          The Jews clearly control the media
          and the banks. Investment banks, not
          the commercial ones. But the point is
          they carry out in those realms the
          same principles they display in
          sexuality. They undermine traditional
          life; they deracinate society.

Danny leans over to make sure Guy's getting it right.

                    DANNY
          Deracinate... Tear out the roots. A
          people -- a real people -- derives
          its genius from the land: the sun,
          the sea, the soil. This is how they
          know themselves. But the Jew doesn't
          have soil.

                    GUY
          He has Israel.

                    DANNY
          Those aren't Jews.

                    GUY
          Of course they're Jews.

                    DANNY
          Notice the Israelis: a fundamentally
          secular society. They no longer need
          Judaism because they have soil. The
          real Jew is a wanderer, a nomad. He
          has no roots, no attachments. So he
          "universalizes" everything. He can't
          hammer a nail, plow a field. He can
          only buy and sell, invest capital,
          manipulate markets. He takes the life
          of a people rooted in soil and turns
          it into a cosmopolitan culture based
          on books, ideas, numbers. This is his
          strength....
              (pumped; this is what
               he loves)
          Take the great Jewish minds: Marx,
          Freud, Einstein. What have they given
          us: communism, infantile sexuality
          and the atom bomb. In a mere three
          centuries since these guys emerged
          from the ghettos of Europe, they've
          taken us from a world built on order
          and reason and hurled us into a chaos
          of class warfare, irrational urges
          and relativity, a world where the
          very existence of matter and meaning
          is in doubt. Why? Because it is the
          deepest impulse of the Jewish soul to
          unravel the very fabric of life until
          nothing is left but thread, nothing
          but nothingness. Nothingness without
          end...

                    GUY
          Are all Jews the same?

                    DANNY
          Differences exist, of course, but
          they're irrelevant. For the Jew, his
          Jewishness dominates everything. Even
          the ones who renounce it, who hate it,
          who want to cut it out of their
          hearts a knife...can't escape.
          They're still just Jews.

Guy finishes writing that and looks up.

                    GUY
          Danny, this is great. You're
          incredibly articulate. One more
          thing... How can you believe this when
          you're a Jew yourself?

A beat. Danny smiles at the mistake....

                    DANNY
          What? Excuse me?...
              (Guy says nothing)
          You're kidding, right?

                    GUY
          Do you know Rabbi Stanley Nadelman?
          He used to be at Congregation Beth
          Elohim in Ozone Park...?

                    DANNY
          Who? How would I know him?

                    GUY
          He says you were bar mitzvahed there,
          in March 1988.

                    DANNY
          You believe that? And you call
          yourself a reporter?

                    GUY
          So you're saying it's not true.

                    DANNY
          Look at me.  DO I look Jewish?  Look...

He indicates his hair, turns sideways to show his profile?

                    GUY
          Were you ever bar mitzvahed anywhere
          else?

                    DANNY
          Do you know who you're fucking with here?

                    GUY
          That's what I'm trying to find out,
          Danny. Who am I fucking with here?

                    DANNY
              (sputtering, unsure
               what to say)
          Listen to me....

                    GUY
          Why would Nadelman lie?

                    DANNY
          To discredit me. Because I know who
          they are. Look, I thought I explained
          it to you. Those people can say or do
          anything. And they will. It's all
          narrative to them, it's... Are you
          going to print what this guy said?

                    GUY
          Give me a reason not to.

                    DANNY
          It's slander. It's reckless disregard.
          I'll sue you and your fucking Jew paper.

                    GUY
          Does that mean you deny what he says
          is true? Yes or no.

GUN: pulled from Danny's pants, slammed down on the table...
Guy sits back abruptly. Danny picks it up, cocks it....

                    DANNY
          Look at me. Look at me, Guy.... Oh,
          now you can't look at me? Look at me,
          you schmuck. Look at me....
              (pokes the gun in Guy's face)
          You print that shit in the New York
          Times...I'll kill myself.

Everyone in the place is staring. Danny walks out, stuffing
the gun in his pants, shoving a man aside to get to the door.

EXT. COUNTRY -- DAY

Traveling through low, tree-covered mountains listening to
the overture to Tannhäuser.

INT. VAN -- DAY

Carleton driving; O.L. (one eye bandaged) riding shotgun. In
back: Billings and Danny (flipping through a Times.)

                    BILLINGS
          Do we have to listen to this shit?

                    DANNY
          Yes.

                    BILLINGS
          Why'd we have to leave so fast?

                    O.L.
          Nobody made you go.

                    CARLETON
          Danny's running from the law.

                    BILLINGS
          O.L., how come your mother gives you
          a car when you're too fucking blind
          to drive?

                    O.L.
              (cackling)
          She says 'cause now I can't crack it up.

                    CARLETON
          Hey, O.L., assholes at four o'clock.

O.L. leans out the window, giving dual "birds" to an empty
street.

                    O.L.
          FUCK YOU, ASSHOLES. SUCK MY DICK!

The others laugh.

EXT. DEFUNCT MOTEL -- TWILIGHT

The van stopped in front. All of them out of the car. No
one's around except the noisy CRICKETS. The city kids are
uneasy.

                    CARLETON
          I thought there were people here....

                    DANNY
          I'll go look....

He walks toward the back. Billings decides to go with him.

                    O.L.
          I better stay with the van....

                    CARLETON
          Yeah, you better stay here and guard it.

O.L. gives him the finger. Carleton laughs -- but he stays
back, too.

EXT. REAR OF MOTEL -- TWILIGHT

Danny and Billings see PEOPLE in back. Now NINE YOUNG MEN
and a bulldog come to greet them: survivalists, speed-freaks,
skinheads...and one blank loner (DRAKE) with a blue swastika
tattooed to his lips like a tiny kiss. A case of STEROID
EXCESS fixes his gaze on Danny.

                    DANNY
          We're from New York. Curtis Zampf
          invited us.

                    WHIT
          Who?... Curtis who?

Are they in the wrong place? Then someone laughs, they all
relax, exchange greetings, obscure handshakes. Everyone's
just getting comfortable when, for no apparent reason...

STEROID EXCESS

slugs Danny in the face.

He stumbles backward. The others crowd around, keep him from
falling, also from getting away. Billings starts to help,
but people grab him: this is Danny's problem.

Steroid comes at him.... Danny steps inside the charge and
goes to work on the bigger man's body. We barely see what
happens, but we hear it and feel the crowd's shock. Danny is
stronger than we realized and much more vicious. In seconds,
Steroid sinks to his knees, face bloody. Danny holds up him,
leans close:

                    DANNY
          Enough?

Steroid mumbles in the affirmative. Danny nods -- then hits
him four more shots to the face. Even this crowd winces.
Steroid drops with a wet thud.

As Danny straightens up, wiping the blood off his hands,
people instinctively step back.

                    DANNY
          Which was his room?

                    KYLE
              (ferrety, glasses)
          Number ten.

On the end: has an extra window. Danny walks into the room.
Steroid's stuff starts flying out the door.

EXT. MOTEL PORCH -- NIGHT

Danny on a pay phone.

                    DANNY
          Yeah, I'm trying to reach Carla, is
          she?... Did she get my other
          message?... No, I'll call back....

EXT. MOTEL PORCH -- NIGHT

Danny hangs up the phone, glances into a room where we dimly
glimpse Nazis taking drugs, drinking beer, screaming...

                    VARIOUS VOICES
          Fucking niggers... Fucking niggers?
          Fucking gooks!...

Then incomprehensible shrieking rage, a fight, breaking glass...

Danny sighs, bored. He spots two nerdy Nazis, KYLE and WHIT,
playing some battle re-creation board game and rehashing
WWII....

                    WHIT
          ...Look, if Hitler had knocked out
          the RAF in '39, which he could easily,
          easily have done, he'd have taken
          England, and the U.S. wouldn't have
          had --

                    KYLE
          ...A staging ground for the invasion,
          yeah. But he blew it going after
          civilian targets. Just like he blew
          the Russian front, diverting supplies
          to Auschwitz....

Danny looks up the hill toward a farmhouse perched above
them. One light burns inside.

                    DANNY
          Where's Mrs. Moebius?

                    KYLE
          Her place is down the road. But she
          just comes out for weekends sometimes.

Danny squats to look at the board game.

                    DANNY
          What is this, Stalingrad?

                    WHIT
          Gettysburg. But we're refighting it
          with World War I technology. It's a
          fucking bloodbath.

He grins maniacally. Danny smiles. Kyle is emboldened by
Danny's unexpected friendliness, lowers his voice....

                    KYLE
          That was unbelievable what you did to
          Lucas. The guy's an animal.

                    DANNY
          You could do it.

                    KYLE
          Get out of here....

                    DANNY
          You look right through him. He's
          there, but there's something on the
          other side of him that you want. It's
          all you want. And whatever's in the
          way doesn't matter.... Then it's easy.

As Kyle and Whit contemplate his wisdom...

                    DANNY
          Either of you know anything about
          explosives?

They both look up, very interested.

TWO FAMILIES IN TABLEAU -- WOODEN CUTOUTS -- DAY

Jews: MAN (black hat, beard), WOMAN (sheitl, shawl), BOY
(kippah, twerpy), GIRL (fat, ugly), even a DOG, a Star of
David on its side.

Blacks: MAN (watermelon, pitchfork), WOMAN (fat, fried
chicken), BOY (syringe, 9mm), GIRL (twins, welfare check),
DOG (black).

                    VOICE (O.S.)
          Take a breath, let out a little,
          relax, then squeeze.
              (a RIFLE SHOT;
               nothing's hit)
          Again...

Another SHOT. A bullet hits the Jewish boy in the rear end.
Sunlight streams through the hole. We are:

EXT. REAR OF MOTEL -- DAY

Danny peers down the barrel of an M-16. Kyle squats beside him.

                    KYLE
          Which one were you aiming at?

                    DANNY
          The mother.

Kyle nods, patient, is drawing Danny's attention back to the
target when...

DRAKE

Sets up beside them, begins squeezing off rounds so fast, it
sounds like an automatic weapon.

TARGETS: the bullets chew up and knock over all four Jews.
And selectively: shooting the man's face, the woman's
breasts, the boy and girl in the groin. The dog he merely
flattens.

Drake looks at Danny without expression, drops the clip,
shoves in a fresh one and riddles the black family in
similar fashion.

EXT. MOTEL PORCH -- NIGHT

Danny, pay phone to his ear, flipping through a New York
Times. He throws it aside as a voice comes on the line....

                    DANNY
          Carla?... It's me, Danny...Danny
          Balint...? We met at that...[meeting
          at your house.]

                    CARLA'S VOICE
          Yeah, I remember.... Kill any Jews yet?

                    DANNY
          I didn't realize you cared.

                    CARLA'S VOICE
          I don't. I was just curious how full
          of shit you were.

                    DANNY
          Did you know that there was a New
          York Times reporter there that night?

                    CARLA'S VOICE
          Really, which one? I bet it was the
          guy with the Prada shoes.

                    DANNY
          I didn't notice his shoes.... Did
          your mother know he was there?

                    CARLA'S VOICE
          I doubt it. How did you find out?

                    DANNY
          He called me up. He wanted to talk to
          me about my ideas.

                    CARLA
          I bet. He didn't realize that nobody
          who talks such a good game ever plays
          one.

                    DANNY
          You weren't complaining about my play
          last time.

                    CARLA'S VOICE
          That's a much easier game.

                    DANNY
          Why don't you come visit, we'll have
          a rematch.

                    CARLA
          Too many good players down here. I'm
          with one right now.

                    DANNY
          Oh, really?

                    CARLA
          Bigger and better.

                    DANNY
          Then how come you're talking to me?

                    CARLA'S VOICE
          I'm not.

Click. She's gone. He hangs up, walks straight into...

INT. MOTEL ROOM -- NIGHT

Nazis sprawled about, drinking beer, impassively watching TV.
The bulldog pants on the floor. Carleton calls to it:

                    CARLETON
          Gas Chamber...

It trots over, receives a scrap of food. Everything desultory:

                    DANNY
              (to the whole room)
          When are we going to do something?

People glance up wearily: give us a break....

EXT. TOWN -- DAY

Danny, Billings, O.L., and Drake walk through the town,
looking for trouble. A couple of local TEENAGERS watch them,
impressed by the swastikas, tattoos, swagger.

INT. DELICATESSEN -- DAY

Two WAITERS (Jewish college students, athletic, confident)
watch the Nazis come in. One indicates to the other that
he'll handle this. He brings menus, water; he's carefully
polite.

                    FIRST WAITER
          You know what you want?

                    BILLINGS
          We sure do.

The Waiter ignores the innuendo, readies his order pad.

                    BILLINGS
          Ham and cheese on white.

                    FIRST WAITER
              (forbearance)
          We don't have ham. We don't have cheese.

                    BILLINGS
          What the hell do you have?

                    FIRST WAITER
          That's what the menus are for.

He smiles. Billings glares.

                    O.L.
          Roast beef and Swiss.

                    FIRST WAITER
          I said: no cheese.

                    O.L.
          What's wrong with cheese?

                    FIRST WAITER
          This is a kosher restaurant. We don't
          serve meat with dairy.

                    DANNY
          What about chicken?

                    FIRST WAITER
          That's meat.

                    DANNY
          The Bible only says don't seethe a
          kid in its mother's milk. But
          chickens don't give milk.

                    FIRST WAITER
          Look, you want cheese, go someplace else.

                    DANNY
          But it's stupid, right? You admit
          it's stupid.

                    FIRST WAITER
          No, I don't admit it's stupid.

                    DANNY
          You can have chicken with eggs but
          not with milk. Why is that?

                    FIRST WAITER
          I'm not here to talk about religious
          law, if you don't like --

                    DANNY
          But you already talked about it: you
          said it's not stupid. Why isn't it
          stupid?

                    FIRST WAITER
              (calling the other Waiter)
          Steve...

                    DANNY
          Steve's going to explain it.

Steve approaches, a sawed-off broom handle over his shoulders.

                    STEVE
          We have a problem here?

                    BILLINGS
          We sure fucking do. We don't
          understand why you can't eat chicken
          with milk. It doesn't make sense.

                    STEVE
              (an intellectual)
          Religion isn't about making sense.
          It's about --

                    DANNY
          It's about the incomprehensible,
          Steve, not the idiotic.

                    STEVE
          Fuck you.

                    DANNY
          That explains it! Now we understand!

The Nazis laugh. Steve swings the broom handle at Danny...who
ducks it, grabs it, slams it back at him.... GAVEL RAPS...

INT. COURTROOM -- DAY

A JUDGE (white-haired, red-faced, blue-eyed, well-meaning)
peers down at the four NAZIS, still bruised from the fight.

                    JUDGE
          ...As the altercation appears to have
          been instigated equally on both sides,
          prison terms strike the court as
          excessive.

The Nazis are relieved. Spectators disappointed.

                    JUDGE
          However, the defendants' political
          views suggest that they might profit
          from contact with members of our
          community whose experiences differ
          from their own....

INT. A SOCIAL ROOM -- DAY

NUMBERS TATTOOED ON AN ARM...a thumb steadily smooths the
skin as:

                    RUMANIAN WOMAN (O.S.)
              (Rumanian accent, uninflected)
          ...When I refused to have sex with
          him, the warden had my sister, Esther,
          executed in front of the entire block....

The Nazis, accompanied by a "HATE COUNSELOR" (male) sit in
plastic chairs opposite five elderly JEWS. The speaker is in
her late 60s, still something of a beauty.

                    RUMANIAN WOMAN
          ...Everyone considered it my fault.
          After that, of course, I did anything
          he wanted.

                    BILLINGS
          Why didn't he just rape you?

SNICKERING among the Nazis, a whispered crack:

                    O.L.
          Who'd want to fuck her anyway?

                    HATE COUNSELOR
          I hear one more remark like that, we
          go back to the court for resentencing.

                    RUMANIAN WOMAN
          He was a pig, like you, so perhaps he
          had no taste.

The Nazis laugh. The Jews try to calm the woman, though she
has spoken without any evident emotion. Billings gets up
restless.

                    HATE COUNSELOR
          Sit down, please.
              (as Billings sits)
          Thank you, Mrs. Cohen. Mr Liebowitz,
          you indicated you had a story you
          wanted to tell....

INT. SAME -- LATER

Nazis are dozing, staring out the window. O.L. threads a
piece of dental floss through the zipper pull on his
trousers. Danny is visibly disgusted by the whole business.
Over this we hear:

                    POLISH MAN (O.S.)
          ...The man was afraid to let us hide
          on his farm any longer, but he agreed
          to take us to a more remote place. On
          the way he was stopped at a checkpoint,
          and when the soldiers found us in the
          hay, one of them grabbed my son out
          of my arms. He began to cry, so I
          reached for him, not to take him back,
          simply...

THE MAN: mid-70s, tall, stooped, a crushed spirit.

                    POLISH MAN
          ...simply to assure him I was there.
          But the sergeant became enraged....
          He stuck his bayonet in my son's
          chest, and lifted him up, impaled on
          it. My son was three years old....

Billings is muttering, "What a load of crap..." The Hate
Counselor looks over sharply. The other Nazis are stunned by
the story. Danny can barely contain himself, though we are
not sure why.

                    POLISH MAN
          ...He held him up so that the blood
          spurting out of him feel on my
          face.... The soldiers were laughing.

FLASHCUT: EXT. A COUNTRY ROAD -- DAY

A horse hitched to a hay wagon; FARMER driving. THREE NAZI
SOLDIERS have discovered a Jewish family hiding in the hay.
A sergeant is holding up something unseen on the end of his
rifle.

The Polish man who has been telling the story looks up at
whatever it is. Blood falls on him. The Nazis are laughing.

                    POLISH MAN (O.S.)
          When the blood stopped, the sergeant
          pushed my son off the bayonet and
          said, "There, you can have him now...."

BACK TO SCENE: INT. A SOCIAL ROOM -- DAY

The room is silent. The Nazis faces blank, shaken. Until...

                    DANNY
          And what did you do?

                    HATE COUNSELOR
          What are you trying to say?

                    DANNY
          What did you do while the sergeant
          was killing your son?

                    BILLINGS
          Forget it, Danny, it's all bullshit.

                    HATE COUNSELOR
          Wait a second...

                    DANNY
              (to Billings)
          Shut up.
              (to man, mid-70s)
          What did you do?

                    RUMANIAN WOMAN
          What could he have done?

                    DANNY
          What could he have done?? You fucking
          kikes...

                    HATE COUNSELOR
          You can't say that....

                    DANNY
          The Nazi's killing his kid. He
          could've jumped the guy. He could've
          gouged his eyes out, grabbed the
          bayonet and gutted him.... What would
          you have done if they were killing
          your son?

The counselor is briefly confused....

                    RUMANIAN WOMAN & OTHERS
          ...They'd have shot him on the
          spot.... He would have been dead in
          two seconds.... Who are you judge?

                    HATE COUNSELOR
              (to Danny)
          Please sit down.

                    DANNY
          SO THEY SHOT HIM! SO HE WAS DEAD. SO
          WHAT. HE'S WORSE THAN DEAD NOW. HE'S
          A PIECE OF SHIT...

                    HATE COUNSELOR
          Okay, that's it. You're going back to --

                    DANNY
              (over him, to Polish man)
          What do you think you should have done?

                    POLISH MAN
          And you, you think you know what you
          would have done? You have no idea.
          You can't even imagine what that was
          like. And you never will....

                    BILLINGS
          Don't listen to them, Danny. It's all
          a bunch of crap.

                    ANCIENT JEW
          What is crap?

                    BILLINGS
          The so-called Holocaust. It never
          happened. It's the hoax of the
          twentieth century.

                    DANNY
              (disgusted with this idiocy)
          Oh, please...

                    BILLINGS
          Danny, it's true. There were no six
          million. At most, two hundred
          thousand Jews died in the camps. And
          the majority of them were from
          disease and --

The Jews are shouting about historical records, the
disappearance of families, whole towns.... But Danny is louder:

                    DANNY
          Where did you read this? Robert
          Faurisson?

                    BILLINGS
              (surprised he knew)
          Yeah. He's a respected scholar. Even
          No-am Chomsky says he --

                    DANNY
          Billings, if Hitler didn't kill six
          million, why is he your hero?...
          Concentration camps all over Europe,
          and he only gets rid of a measly two
          hundred thousand.... He's a putz.

Some surprise that a Nazi is arguing against a denier.

                    ANCIENT JEW
          Hitler was not a putz. Hitler was
          real. God created him to punish the
          Jews for abandoning God.

The other survivors are embarrassed by this, but the Ancient
Jew ignores them.

                    ANCIENT JEW
          It is you who are putzes. Little
          pishas with your dreams of hatred and
          killing...

Danny scoffs, gets up to leave.

                    HATE COUNSELOR
          Where do you think you're going?

                    DANNY
          ...We have nothing to learn from
          these people. They should learn from us.

As Danny walks out, the Ancient Jew catches his eye.

                    ANCIENT
          And what should we learn from you,
          Daniel?

Her use of Danny's name feels knowing, slyly invasive. All
SOUND VANISHES for a beat, and Danny barely manages to say:

                    DANNY
          Kill your enemy.

EXT. MOTEL -- DAY

Kyle opens the trunk of his car, shows Danny inside: two
bags of shotgun powder and several lengths of metal piping
with screw-on caps.

                    DANNY
          What is it?

                    KYLE
          Green dot -- shotgun powder. For pipe
          bombs.
              (off Danny's reaction, smiles)
          A guy in a lumberyard gave it to me.
          A donation to the cause.

                    CARLETON (O.S.)
          Hey, Danny.... Guess who's here....
              (as Danny quickly slams
               the trunk)
          Your girlfriend... She's up at the house.

EXT. THE FARMHOUSE -- DAY

In the driveway: Carla's Mercedes, a Triumph motorcycle.
Danny peers in through the windows, goes to the door.

INT. FARMHOUSE, LIVING ROOM -- DAY

Danny sees Carla sitting on a green sofa wearing a white
sundress and leafing through a magazine. Curtis is mixing
drinks. Lina is practicing with her stylus on a new
electronic organizer.

                    LINA
          My L's keep coming out as C's....

                    CURTIS
              (spots Danny)
          The prisoner returns....

Danny greets them all. Carla barely looks up.

                    LINA
          Danny, get a drink and come talk to me.

INT. LIVING ROOM -- A FEW MINUTES LATER

Danny talking with Lina and Curtis but watching Carla.

                    CURTIS
          ...Insulting people who were in the
          camps. ...What's the point?

                    DANNY
          They're liars and cowards.

                    CURTIS
          I'm sure they are. But what do we
          accomplish by pointing it out?

                    DANNY
          It's the truth....

Curtis rolls his eyes. Lina signals him to lay off.

                    LINA MOEBIUS
          Danny, what do you think of our troops?

                    DANNY
              (trying to be diplomatic)
          They have guts. And they know what
          they hate...which is good. But they
          have no idea why; they don't think,
          they don't read.... They're on beer
          and crank half the time....

A phone RINGS in another room.

                    LINA
          The young people in this country...
          They're like pigs; all they want is
          happiness.... But one needs pigs
          sometimes.
              (as it RINGS again; to Carla)
          Liebchen...

Carla puts down her magazine, goes out to the kitchen.
Danny's eyes follow her, and Curtis's follow his.

                    LINA
          Do you feel you're making progress here?

                    DANNY
          You mean Ilio Manzetti?

                    LINA
          Forget Manzetti.... Take on something
          simple. Something you can actually
          accomplish.
              (to Curtis)
          Maybe he'd be more valuable in the city.

                    CURTIS
          An urban type.

Danny is stung. Carla calls from the kitchen.

                    CARLA (O.S.)
          Danny...telephone.

He starts: who could be calling him here? As he goes into
the kitchen to take the phone, Curtis says quietly...

                    CURTIS
          He's mad, Lina, you know that.

She hears him but doesn't respond.

INT. KITCHEN -- DAY

Danny picks up the phone; there's a New York Times beside it.
Carla busies herself about the kitchen.

                    DANNY
          Hello?

                    WOMAN'S VOICE
          You know what today is?

                    DANNY
          Linda... How did you get this number?

                    LINDA'S VOICE
          It's Mom's yartzeit.

Danny starts to hang up, sees Carla watching, turns away
keeping his voice low.

                    DANNY
          How did you get the fucking number?

                    LINDA'S VOICE
          I want you to say kaddish for her.
          It's the only thing she asked from us....

                    DANNY
          I don't do that.

                    LINDA'S VOICE
          You do it on the inside....

                    DANNY
          Don't tell me what I --

                    LINDA'S VOICE
          ...I want you to do it on the outside,
          too.

                    DANNY
          No!

                    LINDA'S VOICE
          Yes!

He hangs up. He grabs the Times, looks through it quickly.

                    CARLA
          Who's Linda?

                    DANNY
              (dropping the Times)
          Why won't you talk to me?

                    CARLA
          I'm talking to you right now. Who's
          Linda?

He tries to kiss her. She pushes him away.

                    DANNY
          When can I see you?

                    CARLA
          You can't.

                    LINA (O.S.)
              (in German)
          Carla, it's time to leave.

                    CARLA
          I have to go visit my father.

                    DANNY
          Your father??

                    CARLA
          He's at a home out here.

She starts to walk past. He grabs her arm.

                    DANNY
          I'm coming to your room tonight.

                    CARLA
          No.

She tries to pull free; he won't let her go.

                    LINA (O.S.)
          Carla!

                    CARLA
          Just after midnight. Five past... But
          don't come through the house, they'll
          hear you. I'm in the back bedroom,
          second floor. Climb onto the kitchen
          roof, I'll leave the window open.

He tries to kiss her, but she ducks away and goes out.

EXT. STREET/INT. O.L.'S VAN -- EVENING

Danny is parked opposite a fortresslike building of soiled
brick. For a long time he cannot bring himself to get out.
Finally he opens the door....

INT. AHAVAT TORAH, FOYER -- EVENING

A LARGE WOMAN, about 40, her body barely contained by a
brilliant magenta dress, greets him with a smile the size of
a wedding cake. She holds out a prayer book stuffed with flyers.

                    LARGE WOMAN
          Shabbat shalom.

She speaks quietly, not wanting to disturb the service, yet
even so her voice is huge, and her flashing eyes clearly
expect some kind of enthusiastic response. Within we hear
the ALENU being chanted.

Danny ignores her and the proffered siddur. A basket of
yarmulkes seems to infuriate him, but he snatches one anyway
and, conveying a helpless disgust, puts it on his head. From
within he hears...

                    CONGREGATION (O.S.)
              (in rough unison)
          Ba-yom, ha-hoo, ba-yom, ha hoo...(etc.)

He stands with his hand on the door, but not opening it.

                    RABBI'S AMPLIFIED VOICE (O.S.)
          On that day, the Eternal shall be One.
          And His Name shall be One....

The organist plays a brief decrescendo....

                    RABBI'S AMPLIFIED VOICE
          The mourner's kaddish can be found on
          page 187....

                    LARGE WOMAN
          Is anything wrong?

                    DANNY
          Shut the fuck up.

She's startled but not intimidated, is about to respond,
when Danny simply turns and walks out of the building.

EXT. AHAVAT TORAH -- EVENING

He stops beneath an open window through which he hears...

                    RABBI'S AMPLIFIED VOICE
          ...Grant us peace, thy most precious
          gift, O Thou Eternal source of peace.
          We recall with loving memory those
          whom Thou hast summoned unto thee.
          And we mention by name...Sophie
          Budnitz...Bernard Schwabb...Milton
          Lifter...Aaron Lustig...Minnie Baum...

Danny closes his eyes, but at the end adds, under her breath:

                    DANNY
          ...Harriet Kantor Balint...

A half dozen VOICES, including Danny's, recite in unison...

                    DANNY & OTHERS
          Yis-ga-dal v'yis-ka-dash sh'may ra-bo...

The body of the congregation joins in on certain phrases,
producing a subtle and solemn music. Danny chants the entire
prayer, and the moment it ends, and the rabbi begins the
benediction....

                    RABBI'S VOICE (AMPLIFIED)
          May the Lord bless you and keep you....

EXT. AHAVAT TORAH/STREET -- EVENING

...he starts toward his car. But the Rabbi's VOICE seems to
follow him, unnaturally loud and clear:

                    RABBI (O.S.)
          May He cause the light of His
          countenance to shine upon you and be
          gracious unto you....

                    DANNY
              (to himself)
          Eat shit....

                    RABBI (O.S.)
          ...May you be blessed in your going
          forth as you were in your coming....

                    DANNY
              (shouting to the empty street)
          EAT SHIT, ASSHOLES....

                    RABBI (O.S.)
          And let us say...

                    RABBI & CONGREGATION
              (with organ; singsong)
          Ah -- ah -- ah....men....

As Danny reaches the van, he sees the LARGE WOMAN silhouetted
in the open doorway....

                    LARGE WOMAN
          YOU EAT SHIT.

Danny realizes he's still wearing the kippah. He throws it
at her, but it only goes a couple of feet. He catches it,
throws harder. This time it floats back toward him, and he
has to jump out the way to keep it from hitting him. He gets
in the car and drives off.

A WRISTWATCH: 12:05. We are:

EXT. FARMHOUSE -- NIGHT

Danny hoists himself onto the kitchen roof. Above him is an
open window, candlelight flickering. He starts into the room,
stops....

INT. BEDROOM -- NIGHT

Carla sits on the bed, straddling Curtis, who lies beneath
her. She is looking right at Danny. Curtis, unaware of him,
keeps thrusting into her from below.

Danny starts to leave, but on second thought stays. Carla
stares expressionless, yet more attentive to him than to
Curtis. Indeed, their eyes never leave each other, so that
when she becomes aroused, we understand that it is Danny she
is responding to, Danny she is really making love to.

Gradually her face loses its aloofness and seems to reach
out to him, to reveal feelings that she can no longer deny.
She holds her gaze until, at the final instant, she shudders
out a series of stifled cries.

When she looks again, the window is empty.

INT. DANNY'S MOTEL ROOM -- DAY

Danny reading. A KNOCK at the door. He looks up, Curtis
comes in. Danny stiffens at the sight of him, but Curtis is
friendly.

                    CURTIS
          What are you reading?

Danny tilts the book to show him: History of Political
Philosophy.

                    CURTIS
          Leo Strauss...
              (nods approvingly)
          I've got to go to Boston. I came to
          say goodbye.

                    DANNY
          What about Mrs. Moebius and...?

                    CURTIS
          They left an hour ago.
              (off Danny's disappointment)
          You mind some personal advice? Forget
          Carla. That's not the side your
          bread's buttered on.
              (off Danny's silence)
          How soon can you get back to the city?

                    DANNY
          A week or so. There's something I
          want to do here first.

                    CURTIS
          What's that?
              (off Danny's silence)
          Okay. Surprise us...

INT. DARKNESS -- NIGHT

The sound of SPLITTING WOOD. Then VOICES in a cavernous space...

                    CHAOS OF VOICES
          Ow, shit... You're stepping on my
          fucking -- ...Get off me...Goddammit...
              (sounds of PUNCHES, a SCUFFLE)
          Stop it!... Where's the light?

One appears, illuminating nothing, dissipating into the
still vaster darkness. A SERIES OF LIGHTS bang on in
ecclesiastical bursts, illuminating: a vaulted ceiling...
stained glass panels... We are:

INT. SYNAGOGUE SANCTUARY -- NIGHT

A dour, ornate place built in the early decades of the
century. The sight of it silences everyone for a moment. Then...

                    CARLETON
          Jew World...!!

Drake, Billings, Carleton, O.L. and Steroid run wild...
kicking over benches...spray-painting swastikas...hurling
prayer books...urinating from the balcony...

...Danny looks around like someone revisiting his childhood
home: slides his hand along a pew back...leafs through a
chumash...gazes up at the eternal lamp behind its red
glass...the gilded doors of the ark... A hint of Kol Nidre
MUSIC haunts him....

                    DANNY
              (to himself, barely a
               whisper)
          Shut up. Fuck you....

                    KYLE (O.S.)
          What...?

Danny turns; Kyle is right behind him.

                    DANNY
          Nothing. Where is it?
              (as Kyle hoists a
               sports bag)
          Okay, let's take one of these panels
          off so we can get under the bema...the
          stage.

As they unscrew a panel, Carleton runs past. A football
flashes overhead. We hear GLASS BREAK...LAUGHTER.

INT. UNDER THE STAGE -- NIGHT

DANNY WATCHES KYLE attach a bomb (four sticks of dynamite
wired to a digital timer) to a 2x4 with a bungee cord. He
hooks the ends, cautiously lets go. The cord springs free.
The bomb falls.

Kyle gasps. Danny catches it.

Frozen, they look at each other. Kyle exhales, takes the
bomb and, with Danny holding it, carefully restrings the
bungee. A MECHANICAL NOISE overhead:

                    STEROID (O.S.)
          Wow, look at this shit....

                    DANNY
          What are they doing?

Kyle has no idea and doesn't care. Danny scrambles out.

INT. SANCTUARY -- NIGHT

Straightening up, Danny is stunned by a vision:

THE OPEN ARK -- THE TORAHS

...their silver crowns and breastplates, velvet robes. And
Steroid Excess, lifting one out. Danny reacts with an
instinctive horror.

                    DANNY
          What are you doing? Put that down!
          ...Put it back in there.

Steroid -- cowed by Danny -- starts to obey, but before he
can...

                    BILLINGS
          What do you care?

                    DANNY
          I don't, but...

                    BILLINGS
              (vaults onto the stage)
          Let's look at the fucking thing.

Each CURSE makes Danny wince, but he just hovers about
nervously as Billings and Steroid try to unwrap the Torah
while others gather, some comically wrapping themselves in
tallises.

                    DANNY
          Put it there, on the...

He indicates the bema, stepping back as if to deny any
involvement, yet at the same time trying to monitor
everything they do.

                    DANNY
              (indicating crowns, the
               yod...)
          Just be careful with the...

                    O.L.
              (puts a crown on his head)
          "If I were king of the forest...not
          Prince, not Duke, not Earl..."

Danny cannot endure this desecration, but everyone else
laughs, so he keeps his mouth shut.

                    KYLE
          Open it up.

                    DANNY
              (impulsively taking over)
          Here...

He shoves his way in and, gripping the handles, unrolls the
Torah. Low MURMURS at the sight of the broad columns, the
mysterious calligraphy, the CRACKLING parchment. Danny
himself is struck by the sudden immediacy of the sacred text.
OVER this...

                    VOICES
          Oooo... Weird... You read it from
          right to left.... The letters look
          like squashed bugs.... What kind of
          paper is that?

                    DANNY
          It's not paper, it's parchment. It's
          made from sheepskin. And all the
          letters are drawn by hand.

                    KYLE
          Neat calligraphy.

Danny nods, then, as if against his will....

                    DANNY
          It's called the flame alphabet. It's
          supposed to be the word of God
          written in fire.

                    BILLINGS
          Fire...

                    DANNY
          The mystics tried to read the white
          spaces around the letters. They
          thought there was a whole alternative
          language hidden there, with secret,
          alternative meanings.

                    KYLE
          Cool.

Danny sees Drake watching him, smirks to express his disgust.

                    BILLINGS
          How come you know all this shit?

                    DANNY
          How come you don't know it?
              (pressing the advantage)
          How can you say you hate the Jews
          when you don't know anything about --

                    BILLINGS
          Fuck you. I hate the Jews at least as
          much as you do.

                    DANNY
          No, you don't.... If you hated them,
          you'd study them, so you'd know why
          you hate them. You know what tefillin
          is? Tsitsis? Shotness? You know the
          kaddish from the kiddush?
              (obviously not)
          Eichmann? He went to Israel. He
          studied the Torah, the Talmud, the
          Mishnah, the whole bit. He hated Jews.

                    CARLETON
          Who's Eichmann?

                    DANNY
          Who's Eichmann?!!?

Danny's incredulous, though it's not clear how many of the
others know why Eichmann was.

                    KYLE
          He was head of the Gestapo's Jewish
          sector. He deported people to the camps.

                    CARLETON
              (reaching toward the parchment)
          Can we touch it?

                    DANNY
          Yeah, but not on the letters.

                    BILLINGS
          Why the fuck not?

                    DANNY
              (warning finger)
          Just don't.

Billings bristles at Danny's authority; Carleton says to him...

                    CARLETON
          Didn't you see Raiders of the Lost Ark?

                    BILLINGS
          What??

                    CARLETON
          That was an ark, man. That was a
          Torah. They fucked around with it,
          and the Torah melted their faces.

                    BILLINGS
          That's a movie, you moron.

                    CARLETON
          Fine, go ahead. Touch the letters.

The others are gathered around, delicately touching the
sheepskin.

                    BILLINGS
          Let me see.

He pushes through, looks at the Torah. He runs his fingers
over the crinkled parchment, the smooth black letters.

                    DANNY
          I said not on the --

Suddenly Billings grabs the parchment in both hands and
tries to tear it. It's tougher than it looks.

                    DANNY
          Stop it! What are you doing?

He tries to stop him, but -- accidentally or not -- Drake
gets in the way, and before Danny can do anything else,
Billings crumples it and finally tears a long gash into the
scroll.

This produces a strange effect on the others. Some (Kyle,
Steroid, Drake) join in. They knock the aitz off the bema,
it rolls out, exposing ten feet of Torah. They stamp on it,
spit on it.... Others (Carleton, O.L.), though less troubled
than Danny, are surprised (and embarrassed) by their own
revulsion at these acts.

Danny watches helplessly, like the survivor who did nothing
as his son was murdered.

Finally the Torah lies torn and soiled on the stage. A
strange silence.

                    KYLE
          Let's get out of here.

...Danny kneels by the Torah. With a tallis, he attempts to
clean the parchment. Carleton and O.L. help him roll it onto
the aitz. [Echo "Christ taken down from cross" with Torah as
Christ.] They replace the cover, the yod, the crowns....

Finally Danny lifts it up, holds it to him as if it were his
dead child. He closes his eyes, murmurs to himself....

                    DANNY
          Shema yisrael adonai elohenu adonai
          echod.

                    CARLETON
          What'd you say?

                    DANNY
          Nothing. Let's go....

He starts to walk out, carrying the Torah.

                    CARLETON
          Why are you taking that?

                    DANNY
          I'm stealing it.

EXT. AHAVAT TORAH -- DAY

A VIDEO IMAGE:

                    NEWSCASTER VOICE (V.O.)
          ...Tragedy was barely averted today
          at Temple Ahavat Torah when a bomb
          planted under the bema failed to
          detonate....

                    KYLE (O.S.)
          Shit!

                    NEWSCASTER VOICE (V.O.)
          ...Authorities say that if it had,
          injuries and loss of life could have
          been in the dozens....

INT. DANNY'S MOTEL ROOM -- DAY

Danny, Kyle and others watching the TV.

                    NEWSCASTER VOICE
          Channel 8's Cindy Pomerantz spoke to
          Rabbi Malcolm Weiss.

ON TV: Cindy (sleek, sexy) and the rabbi (handsome, vain).

                    CINDY (ON TV)
          Rabbi, how is it that disaster and
          tragedy were averted here today at
          Ahavat Torah?

                    RABBI (ON TV)
          Apparently the power cell in the
          timer gave out precisely thirteen
          minutes before the device was set to
          go off. So we can only conclude that
          once again God has intervened to save
          the Jewish people....

                    DANNY
              (giving the finger to
               the TV)
          Oh, fuck you...

                    RABBI (ON TV)
          As you know, Cindy, thirteen is a
          mystical number in the Jewish faith.
          We believe that God has thirteen
          attributes...

Danny is beside himself.

                    RABBI (ON TV)
          ...Of which the highest is ein sof,
          which means "without end," or,
          sometimes, "nothingness without end...."

                    CINDY (ON TV)
          Nothingness without end.... That's
          very interesting.

                    RABBI (ON TV)
          The purest form of spirit...

ON DANNY. Sound fades. He's haunted: "Nothingness without
end" was what he'd told Guy Danielsen the Jews were obsessed
with. He seems to hear the cello playing "Kol Nidre" again.
Then...

                    DANNY
          Okay, everybody out. Get out.

He switches off the TV. Shoves them out the door, slams it.

INT. DANNY'S MOTEL ROOM -- LATER

Alone he sits at the desk, finds himself gazing at the Torah,
standing in a corner of his closet, draped in the tallis.

He slams the closet door, it bounces open. Slams it again,
making sure it latches.

He sits down, looks at the closed door until, in bitter
resignation he gets up and opens it again.

He unrolls the Torah on the bed...Scotch tapes the tear
closed...attempts to clean the stain with a moistened cloth.

INT. DANNY'S MOTEL ROOM -- DAY

Danny is in the bathroom in front of the mirror, holding his
shirt up with his chin as he wraps the tallis around his
torso. When he lowers the shirt, the fringes hang out like
the tsitsis that Orthodox men wear.

He feels a weird loathing for this, but he smooths and
arranges the tsitsis to look just like a Hasid's. He clicks
his heels together and gives a Nazi salute.

                    DANNY
          Alenu l'shab'ach la'adon hacol...

Another Nazi salute. A KNOCK at the door. He hides the
fringes under the shirt, throws a blanket over the Torah.

                    DANNY
          What?

                    STEROID (O.S.)
          Phone, Danny.

EXT. MOTEL -- PAY PHONE -- DAY

                    GUY'S VOICE (PHONE)
          Danny Balint...Guy Danielsen, New
          York Times.

                    DANNY
              (tucks in the tallis
               fringes)
          What do you want? What happened to
          your article?

                    GUY'S VOICE (PHONE)
          I couldn't get my editor to run it,
          but I bet he will now that you've put
          a bomb in a synagogue. That was you,
          wasn't it, Danny?

Danny hangs up. Stands there. A VOICE makes him jump....

                    VOICE (DRAKE)
          Hey, Danny, want to kill a Jew?

Danny turns: it's Drake. These are the first words he's spoken.

EXT. SUBURBAN STREET/INT. CAR -- DAY

Danny and Drake pass a low-slung modern synagogue. A sign
announces: AMBASSADOR ILIO MANZETTI Friday, August 31. Danny
reacts, startled...Drake smiles.

                    DRAKE
          Park up there, we'll walk back.

EXT. CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM -- TWILIGHT

The building is lit. Within we hear an AMPLIFIED VOICE,
presumably Manzetti giving a speech. We can't make out the
words. Danny and Drake are hidden among the rhododendrons
flanking the parking lot. Danny is watching a door in the
side of the building and eating a sandwich as Drake loads a
scoped rifle.

                    DRAKE
          Lie on your stomach and come up on
          your elbows.

                    DANNY
          Why me?

                    DRAKE
          You want to kill a Jew. I already did.

Danny assumes the prone position, Drake sets the rifle in
his hands.

                    DANNY
          Who'd you kill?

                    DRAKE
          Four. But no one this important.

We hear APPLAUSE within as the speech ends.

                    DRAKE
          Okay, it's over. He'll take a couple
          questions, then come out.... Sight
          down the rifle toward the door.

THROUGH RIFLE SCOPE: Danny pans from the side door -- where
TWO MEN are smoking -- to a waiting limousine.

                    DANNY
          How did you know they were Jews?

                    DRAKE
          I can tell....

                    DANNY
          How?

                    DRAKE
          I was a Jew in a previous life.

Before Danny can respond, Drake gestures toward the synagogue.

                    DRAKE
          Here they come.

Danny puts his eye back to the scope.

SCOPE POV: stirring at the door. The men put out their
cigarettes. Three figures emerge: a MAN and a WOMAN on
either side of an older, distinguished-looking man (MANZETTI).
They walk this way.

                    DRAKE (O.S.)
          Shoot him in the head. Always shoot a
          Jew in the head.

                    DANNY
          I'm a bad shot. I don't think I can --

                    DRAKE (O.S.)
          Just get him in the cross-hairs. With
          those shells, anywhere you hit him,
          it'll bounce around, rip his insides
          all up.

SCOPE POV: the TRIO walking this way, cross-hairs on Manzetti.

                    DRAKE (O.S.)
          Right there! Just squeeze he trigger.
          Slow... Do it!

Danny FIRES, misses. Everybody hits the ground.

                    DRAKE
          You missed on purpose.

                    DANNY
          I didn't. I told you, I can't --

                    DRAKE
          What's that?

Danny looks over his shoulder. His shirt has ridden up his
back, revealing the tallis wrapped around his waist.

                    DRAKE
          I knew it.

Drake pulls a .45 from the duffel.... Without thinking,
Danny rolls over, fires the rifle. Drake is blown backward,
dropping the .45.

Danny leaps up.... Drake's on his hands and knees, his
trousers quickly darkening with blood. Danny's upset.

                    DANNY
          Oh, Jesus...Drake, are you okay...?

FOOTSTEPS, coming this way. Danny runs. We hear voices, "Get
down.... Stay down.... He's got a gun...." Drake picks
himself up, stumbles away, bent over....

EXT. QUEENS -- DUSK

Danny parks the van in an abandoned lot near the river.
Quickly wiping down the wheel with his shirt, he tosses out
his duffel bag and the scoped rifle. He climbs out, wipes
down the door, throws the rifle into the water, grabs the
duffel and hurries away.

                    DANNY (V.O.)
          Kyle, it's me Danny. How you doing?...
          I had to come into the city to see
          Mrs. MOEBIUS... No, I gave Drake the
          van, didn't he bring it back?

INT. DANNY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT

Danny's on the phone, whipping through several newspapers.

                    DANNY
          ...Since when?... Really? And he
          didn't call?... No, I don't know...

He finds a tiny item: "Gunfire Reported at Synagogue." He
scans it: no mention of Drake or himself.

                    DANNY
          Sure, come on down.... Can you bring
          my stuff?... Thanks...and if Drake
          shows up, let me know right away....
          Good...

He hangs up. From behind some books, he extracts the small
caliber handgun he found in his father's house earlier.

INT. MRS. MOEBIUS'S APARTMENT -- TWILIGHT

Danny alone, waiting, nervous. He hears FOOTSTEPS approach,
he touches the gun in the back of his trousers. Lina and
Curtis enter.

                    LINA
          How have things been going?

                    DANNY
              (how much do they know?)
          Fine.

                    LINA
              (indicates a chair)
          We want to talk to you about
          something....
              (as they sit, Danny nervous)
          We're about to launch an aboveground,
          intellectually serious fascist movement.

Danny is relieved and intrigued. Lina nods at Curtis to go on.

                    CURTIS
          We want to build bridges to certain
          positions in the political mainstream:
          works like The Bell Curve,
          Sociobiology, anti-Zionism, anti-
          immigration, the com-munitarian
          issue.... We'll hold conferences:
          invite liberals, blacks, Jews.
          Chomsky, Cockburn, Stanley Crouch,
          Shahack....

                    DANNY
          I've been waiting all my life for
          something like this.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          We want you to help run it. Give
          speeches, lead seminars... Handle the
          fund-raising.

                    DANNY
              (slapped in the face)
          Fund-raising??

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          We think you'd be good at it.

OFF-SCREEN we hear the front door. FEET come up the stairs....

                    DANNY
          What about...Manzetti, the synagogues....

                    CURTIS
          That doesn't seem to be happening,
          does it?

                    DANNY
          I've been stuck out in the country
          with those guys who just want to
          paint swastikas and heil Hitler. How
          am I supposed to -- (get anything
          done there?)

He stops short as Carla walks into the room for shopping.
She glances at them, puts down her bags, goes into the
kitchen....

                    CURTIS
          Danny, the night we met, you said the
          name Ilio Manzetti. We were impressed.
          We were excited. But here it is
          September, and Mr. Manzetti is still
          walking around breathing the air.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          We need intellectuals, we have enough
          thugs already.

Danny's watching Carla go down the hall toward the back, can
barely bring his attention back to the conversation at hand.

                    DANNY
          I'm not an intellectual.... I mean, I
          read, but... Fund-raising isn't what I...

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Look, if you want to kill Jews on
          your free time, fine. We need you to
          raise money. Will you do that for us?

He nods but cannot look at her.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Thank you.

He's dismissed. He rises.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Do you have a suit?
              (off Danny; to Curtis)
          Let's get him one.... And a cell
          phone too.
              (as Danny turns to go;
               a joke for her own amusement)
          And if you insist on blowing up a
          synagogue, make it that big one on
          Fifth Avenue, would you?

                    DANNY
          Beth Shalom? It's Reform.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          So what?

                    DANNY
          They're not that Jewish.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          I don't care what they are. I know
          those people, and I don't like them.
          The rest are just a bunch of kikes,
          aren't they?

She smiles. He manages a smile back and hurries away, face
burning with shame.

EXT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT, STREET -- NIGHT

Danny comes out of the building, squats between two parked
cars and vomits, retching spastically until, gasping for
breath...

                    VOICE
          Here...

He turns. Carla walks over to him, wipes his mouth with a
crumpled tissue. When she moves to kiss him, he holds back,
shy about the smell, but she kisses him anyway, on the mouth.

INT. DANNY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT

Carla, naked, browsing the books, sees something in the
closet. It's the Torah Danny took from the synagogue. She
unrolls it on the bed, her gaze moving over the mysterious,
glossy script. Danny, coming out of the bathroom, sees what
she is doing, and stops short.

                    CARLA
          Where'd you get this?

                    DANNY
          I stole it. From a synagogue.

She looks at the broad printed columns....

                    CARLA
          How come there's no punctuation?

                    DANNY
          That was a later invention, it's not
          in the scrolls.... Anyway, the Jews
          know where the sentences end. They
          know the whole thing by heart. Every
          word. Every letter.

                    CARLA
          Do you know it like that? By heart.

                    DANNY
          No.

                    CARLA
          But you can read it, the Hebrew....
          Right?

                    DANNY
          What do you care?

                    CARLA
          'Cause I want to know.... What is
          this word? This one here...

Danny looks at the word, then back at her. He's torn between
competing desires, but finally...

                    DANNY
          Va-yomer... And he said.
              (she moves her finger
               to the left)
          It goes the other way.

                    CARLA
              (she knew that)
          Oh, yeah...
              (moves finger right)

                    DANNY
          Va-yomer adonai el Avram: lech lecha
          mayartzcha oo-mimohlad-tcha oo-m'bayt
          avaycha el ha-ertez asher arecha...

                    CARLA
          What's it mean?

                    DANNY
          And God said to Avram, take yourself
          away from your land and from the
          place you were born and from your
          father's house into the land -- a
          different land -- and I will show you....

Danny remains silent a moment, affected by the passage....

                    CARLA
          I want to learn to read it.

                    DANNY
          Why?

                    CARLA
          Know your enemy.... 'Cause it's a
          basic text of Western culture. I want
          to read it in the original. Okay?

                    DANNY
          Hebrew's very difficult. It would
          take years.

                    CARLA
          I'm good at languages.

He looks at the smooth expanse of her back, the articulations
of her spine. He finds her very beautiful.

                    DANNY
          Put something on. You're not supposed
          to be naked in front of it.

                    CARLA
          Why not?

                    DANNY
          They think it's the word of God, and
          it's holy, and the flesh isn't....

                    CARLA
          That's stupid.

                    DANNY
          Yeah, it's stupid.
              (indicating her T-shirt)
          Put it on, or I won't teach you.

She grudgingly pulls on the shirt as he gets a pencil and paper.

                    DANNY
          See, the Jews love to separate things:
          the holy from the profane, milk from
          meat, wool from linen, the Sabbath
          from the week, the Jew from the
          gentile.... As if one little scrap of
          this was going to completely
          contaminate that.

                    CARLA
          What assholes.

                    DANNY
          You can't curse in front of it either.

He shrugs as if indifferent to these rules, yet compelled to
point them out.

                    CARLA
          Who gets contaminated, the Jews or
          the gentiles?

                    DANNY
          Good question. Both.
              (draws a letter)
          Aleph...

                    CARLA
          It looks a little like a swastika.

                    DANNY
          It's silent. It holds a place, takes
          a vowel. The vowels are little dots
          that go under the letters.

                    CARLA
          Where are they?

                    DANNY
          They don't put them in the Torah.
          I'll get you a chumash, they'll have
          them there...Bet...Gimel...Dalid...Hay...
              (as she repeats the names)
          How come you're here instead of with
          Curtis? Besides the Hebrew lessons...

                    CARLA
          The sex is better.

                    DANNY
          Even though his dick is so big?

                    CARLA
          With you there's a tragic dimension.

                    DANNY
          Vuv...Zayin...Chet...Tet...

He writes each letter as he says it, and she repeats after him.

EXT. WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE -- DAY

Danny and Kyle.

                    KYLE
          This will be a different kind of device.

                    DANNY
          That damn thing. You know how it made
          me look...?

                    KYLE
          I'm sorry, Danny. It won't happen
          again. I'm going to use a brand-new
          power cell. Plus we'll have a back-up
          timer.

                    DANNY
          I've gotta kill some Jews, Kyle. I'm
          serious. I'm always talking about it.
          This time it's gotta happen.

                    KYLE
          It will.

Kyle's confident, and the prospect of this really happening
gives Danny pause. He feels a brief chill, escapes it with...

                    DANNY
          What about Drake, did he ever show up?

                    KYLE
          No, it's weird, man. Nobody knows
          where he went.

Danny nods, gestures for Kyle to split. Kyle looks around,
walks away. Danny waits a moment, then heads in the opposite
direction.

EXT. WILLIAMSBURG -- DAY

Danny walking behind a Hasidic family (MAN, WOMAN, 3-year-
old BOY, STROLLER)...watching them. At a corner, the father
takes the boy's hand, and as they cross the street, the boy
glances back at Danny.

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD -- DAY, 1943

TWO NAZI SOLDIERS have just discovered a JEWISH FAMILY
hiding in the back of a hay wagon. The POLISH MAN is holding
the little boy.

As a soldier tries to take the BOY out of his arms, the
child panics, clings to his father, screaming, "Papa...
Papa..." It is the scene the survivor described in the
meeting with the Nazis. But now the father is DANNY'S
FATHER....

                    FATHER (IN POLISH)
          ...Hush, come on, don't cry.
          Everything will be all right....

A Nazi sergeant comes over, irritated. The sergeant is Danny.

                    DANNY/NAZI SERGEANT
              (in German)
          What's the matter here?

                    FATHER
              (to the Sergeant, in German)
          Excuse me, I'm sorry, just a moment...

The sergeant rips the child out of his arms. The kid becomes
hysterical. The father manages to take the boy's hand.

                    FATHER
              (in Polish)
          Please, sweetheart, you have to go.
          I'll see you soon.

In an access of disgust, the sergeant sticks his bayonet
into the boy -- or rather, into something offscreen. We hear
a terrible sound, the child grunts. The family gasps in horror.

Danny/sergeant lifts the (unseen) child into the air. Its
SHADOW darkens the father's face. Drops of blood run down
his cheeks....

Danny/sergeant stares into the father's face, enraged at the
man's passivity.

                    DANNY/NAZI SERGEANT
          Fucking kike.

EXT. STREET -- DAY

DANNY'S FACE -- sweating, haunted, as if he's just woken
from the previous.

He's still walking down the street, but now, as if to flee
his thoughts, he steps through a door into...

INT. BOOKSTORE -- DAY

A Jewish bookstore. He grabs the first book that comes to
hand, reads for a moment, throws it down in disgust. Picks
it up again, is still reading when...

                    VOICE
          Hey, Danny...Danny...

He looks up at a young man about his own age; wearing a
yarmulke, but otherwise normal, hair clean, beard neatly
trimmed.

                    YOUNG MAN
          It's Stuart. Stuart Schoenbaum.

                    DANNY
          Shlomo?

                    STUART
          Yeah...

Danny puts down the book, trying to conceal that he's been
reading it. He offers a hand. Stuart manages to restrain the
impulse to embrace him, but takes the hand warmly.

                    STUART
          Jeez, it's been since, what, Kenny's
          wedding.

                    DANNY
          Yeah, uh... So how are you? What's
          going on?

                    STUART
          I'm in the rabbinic program at JTS...

                    DANNY
          JTS...?

                    STUART
          What about you? What are you doing?
          Something strange, I bet.

                    DANNY
          I'm in a kind of...underground...thing.

                    STUART
              (impressed, excited)
          Are you an artist?

                    DANNY
          No, no... Not that kind of...
          underground. More a private...
          business. Private.

Meaning he can't talk about it. Stuart nods. Danny notices a
young woman: dark, curly hair, sharp eyes.

                    STUART
          You remember Miriam....

                    DANNY
          Yeah, hey, how're you doing...

                    MIRIAM
          Hey...

An irony to her. They certainly remember each other.

                    STUART
          She's at Yale Law -- interning with
          the district attorney...
              (Miriam makes a face)
          We're getting married next spring. In
          Israel.

                    DANNY
          Wow, that's uh...great...

He glances at Miriam; but she has picked up the book he'd
been reading, is leafing through it. It makes him uneasy.

                    STUART
          It's great seeing you....

                    MIRIAM
          Maybe Danny'd like to come to the
          minyan for the holidays....

Danny gives her a dirty look, but Stuart's thrilled:

                    STUART
          Oh, good idea. We're davening with
          this group from the seminary.
          Interesting people, very open-minded,
          you might like them. And guess who
          comes...Avi! You guys could go at it
          again like the good old days.

As Stuart scribbles an address...

                    STUART
          Danny and Avi used to argue about
          everything. Torah, Talmud, politics,
          girls. It always ended in a fistfight.

                    MIRIAM
          I remember.

                    DANNY
          I always won.

                    MIRIAM
          The arguments, anyway.

                    STUART
              (hands Danny the address)
          It's a K.I. on 101st. In the little
          chapel. Try to make it. It'd be fun.

Danny smiles. He has no intention of going. Once they leave,
he picks up the book and resumes reading.

INT. AN EXECUTIVE SUITE -- DAY

ROGER BRAND, a high-powered CEO, sits behind a big desk,
speed-reading something through half-glasses. He finishes,
removes the glasses. A New York Times is on the desk.

                    BRAND
          You write that?
              (as Danny nods)
          Come work for me. You've got a lot to
          learn; I can teach it to you.

                    DANNY
          I have a job.

                    BRAND
          This? This is a joke.
              (tossing down the pages)
          I'll give your group a thousand bucks.

                    DANNY
          You gave fifty thousand to that
          college magazine.

                    BRAND
          Fifty's an exaggeration. Anyway, that
          was a different moment. Things were
          possible that aren't now.

                    DANNY
          Actually, I think this moment has
          possibilities that --

                    BRAND
          Yeah, I read your piece. It's very
          smart. And very wrong.

Brand's phone beeps, he touches a button, continues.

                    BRAND
          Forget the Jewish stuff. It doesn't
          play anymore.
              (over Danny's)
          There's only the market, now, and it
          doesn't care who you are.

                    DANNY
          People still need values, beliefs....

                    BRAND
          No, they don't. Not the smart ones.
              (because he likes him)
          Look, I'll give you five grand if you
          can document your tax-exempt
          status.... But when you fall off this
          horse, come see me. I can show you
          how to make a lot of money.

                    DANNY
          I don't care about money.

                    BRAND
          You will.

                    DANNY
          You're a Jew. Maybe you don't realize
          it, but you are.

                    BRAND
              (smiles, uninsulted)
          Maybe I am. Maybe we're all Jews now.
          What's the difference?

On Danny, troubled by this.

INT. A SMALL LECTURE HALL -- EVENING

A half-dozen white lumpen sit at desks. Danny writes "ANTI-
SEMITISM" in large letters on a blackboard. He turns....

                    DANNY
          How many of you think of yourselves
          as anti-Semites?
              (All the hands go up.)
          Good. Actually, the term is a bit
          imprecise since technically Jews are
          only one of the Semitic peoples....
          In fact, Arabs are Semites, as are
          the Eritreans, the Ethiopians, and so
          on.... But for our purposes an anti-
          Semite is someone who hates or is
          against Jews.... Now, why do we hate
          them?

He looks around. The room is silent.

                    DANNY
          Let me put it another way. Do we hate
          them because they push their way in
          where they don't belong? Or because
          they're clannish and keep to themselves?

Murmurs of "Yeah. Both." But some are confused by this.

INT. SAME -- ANOTHER DAY

Slightly bigger crowd, a few middle-class-looking people.

                    DANNY
          ...Because they're tight with money,
          or because they flash it around?
          Because they're Bolsheviks or because
          they're capitalists? Because they
          have the highest IQs, or because they
          have the most active sex lives?

The audience, confused...

                    DANNY
          Do you want to know the real reason
          we hate them?...

INT. SAME -- DAY

...More people: white collar workers of both sexes, nurses,
artists. Lapel buttons, bumper stickers, backpacks: "FIGHT
NEW WORLD DISORDER" "STOP THE WTO" "EARTH FIRST!"

                    DANNY
          ...Because we hate them.
              (as people exchange
               puzzled looks)
          Because they exist. Because it is an
          axiom of civilization that just as
          man longs for woman, loves his
          children and fears death, he hates
          the Jews.
              (smiles)
          There is no reason. If there were,
          some smart-ass kike would give us an
          argument, try to prove we were wrong.
          And of course that would only make us
          hate them more. In fact we have all
          the reasons we need in three simple
          letters: J-E-W. Jew. Say it a million
          times. It is the only word that never
          loses its meaning: Jew Jew Jew Jew
          Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew....

EXT. NEW JERSEY MEADOWLANDS -- DAWN

Danny and Kyle sitting in the tall grass across the
marshlands toward the Manhattan skyline shimmering in the
distance.

                    KYLE
              (sings, looking at watch)
          "My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land
          of liberty, Of thee I..."

He points sharply and an explosion occurs thirty yards away.
They run over, pick up the mangled timer. They're pleased.

EXT. JCC (ANSCHE CHESED) -- DAY

A couple of stragglers hurry through the door as we hear...

                    VOICES
          B'Rosh Hashanah yika-teyvun, uv'yom
          tsom kippur yey-chateymun...

INT. SMALL CHAPEL -- DAY

Rosh Hashanah services. A woman is davening....

                    WOMAN
          And it came to pass after these
          things that God tested Abraham...

DANNY...sitting with Stuart and Miriam...

                    WOMAN (O.S.)
          ...And said to him, "Abraham." And he
          said, "Here am I..." And God said,
          "Take your son, your only son, whom
          you love..."

                    DANNY
              (to himself)
          It's not his only son....

                    ANOTHER VOICE
          The only one he loves.

Danny looks at AVI (athletic, smooth-shaven) who grins
sardonically and fakes a punch as...

                    DANNY
          They only kill them when they love them?

                    AVI
              (sliding into a seat
               next to them)
          What are you doing here, I thought
          you were a Nazi.

                    STUART
          Come on, Avi...

                    AVI
          You know what this guy told me once:
          Islam and Judaism both start with
          Abraham murdering his son: first
          sending Ishmael into the desert, then
          sacrificing Isaac....

                    VOICES
          Shhhh... Can you please be quiet?

                    DANNY
          And Christianity's the same, with
          minor variations.

                    AVI
          Ridiculous.
              (to the people around them)
          Folks, don't listen to this guy. He's
          a well-known anti-Semite.

                    MIRIAM
          Avi, please...

                    AVI
              (snatching off Danny's hat)
          ...Look, he's a skinhead.

                    VOICES
          It's just a style, Avi.... There are
          antiracist skins.

                    AVI
              (laughing)
          Believe me, Danny's the racist kind.
          Are you a fascist, Danny? Yes or no.

                    DANNY
          What's a fascist?

                    AVI
          I rest my case. He's a Jewish Nazi.
          He always was.

                    DANNY
          Whereas Avi's a Zionist Nazi.

                    AVI
          The Zionists aren't Nazis.

                    DANNY
          They're racist, they're militaristic,
          they act like bullyboys in the
          territories....

                    AVI
          They don't have extermination camps.

                    DANNY
          They had Sabra and Shattila.

                    MIRIAM
          Do you hate them because they're
          wimps or because they're bullyboys?

Danny's startled by the question, but before he can react...

                    AVI
              (over her, to Danny)
          That was the Lebanese, that wasn't --

                    VOICES (O.S.)
          The Israeli Army knew about the camps.
          Sharon encouraged the falangists to
          go in there and murder all the --

                    AVI
          You don't know that. There's no --

                    DANNY
          Read the early Zionists on European
          Jewry; they sound like Goebbels.

                    AVI
          They sound like you.

                    DANNY
          The Nazis did everything the führer
          told them. You do everything the
          Torah tells you. Or the rebbe.
          Identical slave mentality.

Avi lunges at him. They begin pounding each other. Chaos.

EXT. STREET -- NIGHT

Miriam and Danny walk down West End Avenue together. He's
oddly relaxed with her?

                    MIRIAM
          Why did you come tonight? To see me?

                    DANNY
              (after a beat)
          To hear them read Torah.

                    MIRIAM
          I thought you hated Torah.

                    DANNY
          That doesn't mean I don't like
          hearing it.

                    MIRIAM
          Point out all the lies and fucked-up
          thinking.

She smiles and even he smiles a little. They walk together,
oddly companionable.

                    MIRIAM
          You know the joke: a Jew's shipwrecked
          on a desert island. When they rescue
          him, they see he's built two
          synagogues. They say, for vhat do you
          need two synagogues? He says, vun to
          pray in, and vun I'd never set foot
          in so long as I live, so help me God.
              (he nods, he's heard it)
          You pray in the one you'd never set
          foot in...and vice versa.

                    DANNY
          I can't help what I think.

                    MIRIAM
          This is me.

She stops in front of a nice doorman building. He's impressed.

                    MIRIAM
          Tell me about Lina Moebius.

                    DANNY
              (startled)
          How did you...?

                    MIRIAM
          I work in the DA's office. You go to
          those meetings, half the people there
          are informants.

                    DANNY
          You mean the Times guy?

                    MIRIAM
          Which Times guy?

                    DANNY
          With the shoes... There was more than
          one?

In an excess of paranoia, he walks away. She calls after him....

                    MIRIAM
          Danny...Danny...
              (he doesn't look back)
          Shit...

INT. DANNY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT

Sweltering heat. A fan ruffles Carla's hair as she lies on
the futon going back and forth between Hebrew/English Torah
and a Hebrew grammar. Danny is on the floor lifting weights.

                    CARLA
              (slowly, laboriously)
          Payn tash-chiton v'ashiytem...

                    DANNY
              (correcting her)
          V'asitem...

                    CARLA
          V'asitem lechem pessel to-monat. And
          make no graven image of the Lord, or
          the form of any figure, or of man or
          woman, or beast or fowl or fish or
          anything that looks like anything.
          Because He's not like anything. Not
          only can't you see Him or hear Him,
          you can't even think about Him. I
          mean, what's the difference between
          that and Him not existing?

                    DANNY
              (still exercising)
          No difference.

                    CARLA
          Christianity's silly, but at least
          there's something to believe in. Or
          not believe. Judaism there's nothing.

                    DANNY
              (to himself)
          Nothing but nothingness...Judaism's
          not about belief.

                    CARLA
          What's it about?

                    DANNY
          About doing things. You light candles,
          say prayers, keep the Sabbath, visit
          the sick....

                    CARLA
          And belief follows?

                    DANNY
          No. Nothing follows. You don't do it
          because it's smart or stupid or it
          saves your soul. You're not saved.
          Nobody's saved. You do it because the
          Torah tells you do. You submit to the
          Torah.

                    CARLA
          Fuck that.

                    DANNY
          Don't curse in front of it.

                    CARLA
              (flips the book closed)
          Why should I submit?

                    DANNY
          You shouldn't.

                    CARLA
          You think I should just because
          there's no reason?

He looks at her without answering.

                    DANNY
          No, I think you shouldn't.

                    CARLA
          Judaism doesn't even need God. You
          have the Torah, the law. That's your
          fucking God....
              (anticipating his objections)
          The book's closed.

In an access of something, she bites his arm, hard. He
winces, pushes her away. She kisses the place she bit. He
starts to play with her hair....

                    DANNY
          You're learning the Hebrew really fast.

                    CARLA
          I told you, I'm good at this.

                    DANNY
          Plus you have nothing else to do all day.

                    CARLA
          Oh, am I learning it faster than you
          did? Maybe I'm smarter.

He laughs, likes her arrogance. But she misunderstands:

                    CARLA
          Is that funny? You think Jews are the
          only smart ones?

As they make out, grow aroused...

                    DANNY
          What...? You think I'm Jewish?

                    CARLA
          It's all you talk about. Jewish,
          Jewish, Jewish. Nobody talks about it
          that much except the Jews.

Danny's taken aback by the simple logic.

                    DANNY
          Nazis talk about it all the time.

                    CARLA
          Do they?

And, of course, she has grown up among Nazis.

                    DANNY
          The real Nazis. Hitler, Goebbels,
          they talked about Jews incessantly....
          You ever read their diaries?...

                    CARLA
          Is that why you became a Nazi? So you
          could talk about Jews incessantly?

                    DANNY
          Believe me, Adolf Hitler couldn't
          possibly have hated the Jews as much
          as I do. Not in a billion years. You
          know why?

                    CARLA
          'Cause he wasn't a rabbi.

                    DANNY
          You want a punch in the mouth?

                    CARLA
          Okay...
              (he doesn't hit her)
          Why don't we light candles on Friday?
          Let's light candles.... And say the
          kaddish.

                    DANNY
          Kaddish is the prayer for the dead.

                    CARLA
          I mean kiddush. Let's say kiddush.
          And shave my head, fuck through a
          sheet, all that stuff...
              (as he walks away)
          Come on, just for fun. To see what
          it's like...

INT. SMALL LECTURE HALL -- NIGHT

Packed with a well-dressed crowd, very different from the
crowds we've seen here before.

DOWN IN FRONT: Mrs. Moebius and Danny talk in low tones.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Half the right-wing money in New York
          is here tonight. They came to see you.
          If you impress them, if you do what I
          know you can, this movement will be
          up and running by tomorrow. And on
          the front page of the New York Times
          in six months.

She straightens his tie, directs him toward the lectern. He
hesitates....

                    DANNY
          We tested the new bomb.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          What?

                    DANNY
          We redesigned the timing mechanism.
          It can't possibly malfunction.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Danny, please. Just give your
          speech.... And nothing about Jews, okay?

She walks away.

INT. SMALL LECTURE HALL -- STAGE -- NIGHT

Danny steps to the lectern. The CROWD QUIETS. He stands
silent for a long moment, then closes his eyes and chants
with feeling:

                    DANNY
          Shema yisroel adonai elohenu adonai
          echod.

General confusion. Mrs. Moebius and Curtis exchange wary
glances.

                    DANNY
          Who knows what that is?

                    VOICE
          A Jewish prayer.

                    DANNY
          Can anybody imagine why I would say a
          Jewish prayer?

                    ANOTHER VOICE
          Because you're a Jew.

Nervous laughter. Danny laughs with them.

                    DANNY
          That could be one reason. What's
          another?
              (no response)
          Let me put it this way...who here
          would like to destroy the Jews?
              (murmurs of approval)
          Who wants to grind their bones into
          the dust?

A scattering of applause, growing more sustained...

                    DANNY
          And who wants to see them rise again,
          wealthier, more successful, powerful,
          cultured and intelligent than ever?

Silence. No one wants that.

                    DANNY
          Then you know what you have to do?...
          You have to love them.

Puzzled mutterings: "What?... What's he talking about?..."

                    DANNY
          Did he say love them? Love the Jews?
          It sounds strange, I know, but with
          these people nothing is simple. The
          Jew says that all he wants is to be
          left alone to study his Torah, do a
          little business and fornicate with
          his over-sexed wife.... But it isn't
          true. He wants to be hated. He longs
          for our scorn. He clings to it as if
          it were the very core and mystery of
          his being. If Hitler had not existed,
          the Jews would have invented him. For
          without such hatred, the so-called
          Chosen People would vanish from the
          earth....

People react with confusion, uncertainty, suspicion.

                    DANNY
          ...And this reveals a terrible truth,
          the crux of our problem as Nazis: the
          worse the Jews are treated, the
          stronger they become. Egyptian
          slavery made them a nation; the
          pogroms hardened them, Auschwitz gave
          birth to the State of Israel.
          Suffering, it seems, is the very
          crucible of their genius. If the Jews
          are, as one of their own has said, a
          people who will not take yes for an
          answer, then let us say yes to them.
          If they thrive on opposition, let us
          cease to oppose them. The way to
          annihilate them, utterly and
          completely, is to open our arms, take
          them into our homes and embrace them.
          Only then will they vanish into
          assimilation, dilution...and love.
              (a warning finger)
          But we cannot pretend. The Jew is
          nothing if not clever. He will see
          through condescension and hypocrisy.
          To destroy him, we will have to love
          him sincerely.

ON THE AUDIENCE, befuddled. A HAND goes up. Danny nods to it.
The man steps forward, and we see that it's Guy Danielsen of
the Times. Danny is shaken....

                    GUY
          But if the Jews are strengthened by
          hate, wouldn't this "destruction" you
          speak of -- by love or by any other
          means -- in fact make them more
          powerful than they are already?

                    DANNY
              (after a beat)
          Yes. Infinitely more. They would
          become as God.

Murmurs of confusion, outrage... "God??!!!" Danny notices
the TALLIS crawling out from under his shirt, stuffs it back in.

                    DANNY
          It is the Jews' destiny to the
          annihilated so that they can be
          deified....
              (the murmurs swell)
          Jesus understood this perfectly. And
          look what was accomplished there with
          the death of just one enlightened Jew.
          Imagine what would happen if we
          killed them all!!
              (over the rising outrage)
          So, let us say together... Shema
          yisroel...

One or two voices respond, but must people shout him down.
Mrs. Moebius is outraged. People are throwing things,
shouting. The meeting degenerates into chaos.

INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- DAY

Danny talks to Mrs. Moebius. Offscreen we hear a TV.

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Are you out of your mind?!

                    DANNY
          I was just trying to make a point. If --

                    CARLA (O.S.)
          Oh, my God...
              (calling)
          Lina...

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          I'm relieving you of all duties. I
          don't want you working for us anymore....

                    DANNY
          You can't. Do you know how many
          people I've brought into...the
          movement...?

                    CARLA (O.S.)
          Lina, come here!

INT. KITCHEN -- DAY

Carla watching a small TV on the kitchen counter. Danny
arrives, followed by Lina and Curtis as we hear...

                    REPORTER (O.S.)
          According to police, he had just left
          the restaurant and was walking the
          block and a half back to his office,
          when the gunman stepped out of this
          doorway, fired seven times at point-
          blank range...then fled on foot.

                    DANNY
              (a terrible premonition)
          Who was it?

Mrs. Moebius impatiently signals him to silence.

                    REPORTER (O.S.)
          ...Paramedics arrived within ninety
          seconds, but Mr. Manzetti was
          declared dead at the scene.

At the mention of Manzetti's name, Danny goes white.

                    ANCHOR'S VOICE
          Ilio Manzetti was one of the
          respected and influential men in New
          York. As an investment banker,
          diplomat, adviser to presidents and
          mayors, he helped shape public policy
          and private finance for more than
          three decades. He'll be missed, Phil.
          This is Michael Port with New York 1.

Danny's knees are weak, his hands cold, his stomach rises....
He becomes aware of the others, staring at him in amazement.

                    DANNY
              (stunned)
          Do you think I...

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Danny, please, we don't want to know.

She and Curtis walk out of the room. Stunned, shaken, Danny
leaves in a different direction. The TV plays to an empty
room...

                    ANCHOR'S VOICE
          The assailant is described as a white
          male in his late 20s....

EXT. MOEBIUS BUILDING/STREET -- DAY

Danny wanders out the door in a daze. His cell phone RINGING.
He has to search his pockets, then fumbles to turn it on....

                    KYLE'S VOICE (PHONE)
          You finally killed a Jew, man. How's
          it feel?

                    DANNY
          Kyle...I can't talk right now....

He hears a CAMERA SHUTTER and MOTOR DRIVE. He turns....

EXT. ACROSS THE STREET -- DAY

GUY DANIELSEN & A PHOTOGRAPHER.

They're coming toward him.

                    GUY
          Did you kill Ilio Manzetti?

                    DANNY
          No.

Suddenly Danny runs after the photographer, they struggle....

                    PHOTOGRAPHER
          Not the camera, don't hurt the camera...

Danny opens the camera, rips out the film, exposing it.

                    GUY
          Did you kill him?

Danny glares at him without answering, walks away. Guy
hurries after him....

                    GUY
          Two days ago you addressed a Nazi
          rally. Last week you went to a Torah
          study group.

                    DANNY
          What were you, following me?

                    GUY
          How do you reconcile the two?

                    DANNY
          I don't. Look, stay out of what you
          don't understand.

                    GUY
          Explain it so I can.

                    DANNY
          You work for the New York Times. Your
          whole job in life is not to understand
          things like me.

                    GUY
          I don't think you know what you are.

                    DANNY
              (walking on, fast)
          Yeah, and what are you? A Times man?
          A Presbyterian? Impotent? A prick?

                    GUY
          Who killed Manzetti?

                    DANNY
          If I tell you, will you pull the
          story? Not write about me?

                    GUY
          It's too late.... If I didn't,
          somebody else would.
              (as Danny just snorts)
          Yom Kippur starts at sundown. Will
          you go to synagogue?

                    DANNY
              (turns on him, threatening)
          Get the fuck away from me.

Guy backs off. Danny crosses the street.

                    VOICE
          Hey, Danny, just one more!

He glances back. It's the PHOTOGRAPHER who has reloaded and
now SNAPS a shot AS DANNY TURNS AWAY and keeps going....

EXT. LOWER MANHATTAN -- DAY

Danny and Miriam walking together among the trees.

                    MIRIAM
          You're telling me you killed him? You?
          Killed him? Bullshit. What kind of
          gun did you use?

                    DANNY
              (guessing)
          A forty-five.

                    MIRIAM
          It was a nine millimeter.

                    DANNY
          You're lying.

                    MIRIAM
          So are you... But they'll believe
          you....
              (as they walk)
          Lina Moebius is saying the whole
          thing was your idea. That you
          proposed it in a meeting at her house.
              (when he doesn't deny it)
          Ah, Jesus, Danny... What were you
          thinking? Are you glad Manzetti's
          dead? Do you really want to kill Jews?
          You want to kill me?

                    DANNY
          I was just talking. I -- look, I
          can't help what I think.

He doesn't know how to answer, walks away from her to the
railing overlooking the water. He stares into the current
flowing past. Finally Miriam joins him....

                    MIRIAM
          All right, what if all along you were
          actually infiltrating the Nazis -- to
          expose them....

                    DANNY
          But I wasn't.

                    MIRIAM
          And only talked about killing
          Manzetti to convince them you were an
          anti-Semite. If you'd had any idea
          somebody would take it seriously, you
          never would have said it.

                    DANNY
          I can't say that.

                    MIRIAM
          Think about your father. Your sister.

                    DANNY
          The truth doesn't mean anything to
          you, does it?

                    MIRIAM
          Danny, I'm trying to -- save you.

                    DANNY
              (over her)
          Fucking kike.

Miriam is stung. She can't believe he said that. Still, she
gets a small tape recorder out of her purse, hands it to him.

                    MIRIAM
          Try to get Lina Moebius on tape,
          telling you to do something.
          Something violent... That's right, I
          don't care about truth. I care about
          you.
              (looks at her watch)
          Kol Nidre's at six-thirty. I've got
          to meet Stuart. We'll be at the
          minyan tonight and tomorrow. If you
          need me, come there....

Danny watches her walk away, then turns to the railing.
Ideally a FERRY is pulling away from its slip and heading
out across the harbor. He watches it, then looks down at the
current moving past. He reaches a decision, throws the tape
recorder into the water, turns and walks away....

INT. DANNY'S APARTMENT -- LATE AFTERNOON

Danny stops just inside the door. The place is spotless. The
desk has been pulled out from the wall, covered with a snowy
cloth and set for a Sabbath meal: brass candelabrum, challah
under a satin cover...and two place settings.

Carla is pouring wine into the kiddush cup. She's wearing a
modest dress, her hair is pinned up with a piece of lace.

                    DANNY
          What's going on?

She turns, startled; she hadn't heard him come in.

                    CARLA
          It's erev Yom Kippur.... We'll have
          dinner, then go to shul. Atone for
          our sins.

He grabs a couple of olives off the table, eats them as he
goes through his closet, stuffing a couple things in a bag....

                    CARLA
          Come on, we can be like Eichmann. He
          studied Torah. He hated Jews.

                    DANNY
              (in the closet, looking)
          Is it like Eichmann? Are we goofing?

                    CARLA
          I don't know. I just want to try it.

                    DANNY
          Shit...
              (looking in other places)
          Did you talk to your mother today?

                    CARLA
          No. What are you looking for?

                    DANNY
          Nothing.
              (indicates table as he
               keeps looking)
          Why are you doing this?
              (back to the closet)
          I thought God didn't exist.

                    CARLA
          He commands it whether He exists or
          not...
              (off his silence; with
               difficulty)
          Look, we can fight him and be crushed.
          Or we can submit.

                    DANNY
              (from the closet)
          And be crushed.

                    CARLA
          Yeah, okay. But what if...what if...
          submitting...being crushed, being
          nothing, not mattering, what if
          that's the best feeling we can have?

He finds it (a kittel), stuffs it in the bag.

                    CARLA
          Look, just light the candles with me.
          Then we'll eat. You have to eat.

                    DANNY
          You eat first, then you light.
              (exasperated, he has to
               explain)
          Once you light, it's Yom Kippur,
          which means you're fasting, so you
          can't...eat.

He trails off, looks at her. She's everything he ever wanted,
and he's already lost her.

                    DANNY
          A woman of valor, who can find her?
          Her price is above rubies....

He walks out, leaving the door open. Carla starts to call
after him, but then doesn't. She turns back, lights the
candles and awkwardly reads the prayers....

EXT. STREET/PAY PHONE -- SUNDOWN APPROACHING

Danny on a phone. Behind him, Jews hurry home for the
holiday. He hears a BEEP...

                    DANNY
          Miriam, it's me, Danny.... Come on,
          the holiday hasn't started, pick up
          the --
              (as someone does)
          ...Is Stuart davening Ne'ilah
          tomorrow at the minyan... 'Cause he
          always does... Tell him I'm doing it
          instead....

She argues (we hear her VOICE not her words)...Danny cuts
her off.

                    DANNY
          Miriam, I'm davening.... He gives me
          any trouble, I'll beat the shit out
          of him right there in the room. I'm
          serious....

She's still talking when he hangs up and walks away.

INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- NIGHT

Lina and Curtis with Billings and Drake, who looks bad...

                    LINA
          Why didn't you tell us?

                    DRAKE
              (never considered it)
          I was hurt. I just...

                    BILLINGS
          He went to his friends' place and I
          laid up there 'til he was better.
          Then he called me.

                    CURTIS
          You should've gone to the police.

                    LINA
          I don't think Drake wants to talk to
          the police. Do you?

                    DRAKE
          I'll take care of him myself.

The phone RINGS. Curtis answers, listens, covers the mouthpiece.

                    CURTIS
          Daniel Balint.

She takes it with a dramatic gesture.

                    LINA
              (takes the phone)
          Hello...?

INTERCUT WITH:

EXT. PAY PHONE, 65TH STREET -- NIGHT

                    DANNY
          Lina... It's happening. Tonight.

                    LINA
          What is happening?

                    DANNY
          Beth Shalom. Like you wanted.

                    LINA
          Beth Shalom? What are you talking
          about? Who is this...?

                    DANNY
          Lina, you said if I was going to
          plant a bomb, I should --

A CLICK as she hangs up. He's pleased. He steps away from
the phone. He's carrying a grease-stained bag and is across
from...

TEMPLE EMANU-EL...KOL NIDRE being sung by a soprano within;
and ORGAN accompanying her.

EXT. 5TH AVENUE AND 65TH STREET -- NIGHT

In the synagogue across the street we hear KOL NIDRE being
sung by a soprano; an ORGAN accompanying her. Danny looks up
at the temple.

FLASHCUT: EXT. FOREST ROAD -- DAY, 1943

Looking up as the Nazi sergeant holds the boy on the bayonet
over the father's head. But now Danny is the father, and the
father is the sergeant.

He lunges at the Nazi, knocking him down, tearing at this
throat. The sergeant screams....

                    NAZI SOLDIER
              (in German, to his fellows)
          Kill him!

Danny bites through the Nazi's jugular as bullets rip into him.

INT. FIFTH AVENUE AT 65TH/INT. KYLE'S CAR -- NIGHT

Kyle's car is parked on the Central Park side of
Fifth....Danny gets in the passenger side. Kyle is behind
the wheel, wiring an explosive device. Danny hands him the
grease-stained bag.

                    DANNY
          How're we doing?

Kyle holds up a solitary pipe bomb.

                    KYLE
          That's all we've got left.

                    DANNY
          It'll be enough if we use it right.
              (checks his watch)
          Okay, the service'll go about another
          hour. Say an hour for the janitors,
          then one more just to be safe...
          We'll go in at midnight.

Kyle has extracted a cheeseburger and shake from the bag. As
he starts in on them, he realizes Danny isn't eating.

                    KYLE
          Didn't you get anything?

                    DANNY
          I'm not hungry.... Come on, let's
          drive around.... We don't want to be
          spotted here.

Eating, Kyle starts the car, pulls away....

INT. MOEBIUS APARTMENT -- SAME TIME

                    LINA
              (white with fury)
          He is trying to set us up.

Curtis picks up a cell phone and dials.

                    LINA
              (to Drake and Billings)
          I want him dead by tomorrow night.
          That lies within your capacities,
          correct?

Billings nods. Drake unconsciously licks the center of his
lower lip. As they leave, we see that he limps horribly.
When they're gone...

                    CURTIS
              (into phone)
          Yes, I believe that a bomb is going
          to be planted tonight at Temple
          Emanu-el on 65th Street.... By the
          same man who killed Ilio Manzetti...
          His name is Daniel Balint....

EXT. FIFTH AVENUE/INT. KYLE'S CAR -- DRIVING -- NIGHT

POV inside van. Fifth is quiet. Temple Emanu-el again,
straight ahead. But now we see SECURITY GUARDS near the door.

                    KYLE (V.O.)
          Oh, what is this shit?

                    DANNY (V.O.)
          Keep driving. Don't slow down.

                    KYLE (V.O.)
          Christ...

POV speeds up, whips past the synagogue.

                    DANNY (V.O.)
          Not too fast.

                    KYLE (V.O.)
          You said they didn't have night guards.

                    DANNY (V.O.)
          They don't. I checked twenty times....
          Somebody must have talked.

                    KYLE (V.O.)
          Who even knew?

                    DANNY (V.O.)
          Mrs. Moebius.

                    KYLE (V.O.)
          Why? Why would she?

                    DANNY (V.O.)
          The Manzetti thing must have scared
          her. She thinks she'll get implicated.

                    KYLE (V.O.)
          So what do we do with the device?

The Plaza straight ahead...

                    DANNY (V.O.)
          Take a right on 59th...
              (as the car turns)
          We'll put it someplace else.

                    KYLE (V.O.)
          Where?

ON DANNY'S FACE

                    DANNY
          I have an idea....

INT. A DARKENED BLDG (JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER) -- NIGHT

A pencil-beam flashlight moves through the darkness. We
follow it. The light enters a space where SOUND ECHOES....

                    DANNY (V.O.)
          Over here.

INT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER ROOM -- NIGHT

A PENCIL BEAM shows Kyle on his back attaching the bomb to
some kind of wooden floor cupboard. He's worried about the
paltry amount of explosives.

                    KYLE
          It's all reinforced in here. It's not
          going to blow out the way we want it....

Danny is too preoccupied flipping through a machzor to answer.

                    KYLE
          If I went back to the lumberyard, the
          guy'd give me all the dynamite I
          wanted. Untraceable, you wouldn't --
          need to...

                    DANNY
          No, it has to be tomorrow. You won't
          get this many of them in here for
          another year. It'll be fine.

                    KYLE
          It's not going to be fine. It's --

                    DANNY
          Just do it.

Kyle sighs, goes about doing it, he HEARS SOMETHING and freezes.

                    KYLE
          What's that?

Danny clicks off the light. A SILHOUETTE on the windows...

                    DANNY
          It's just somebody on the street.

Light on. Relieved, Kyle turns his attention back to the bomb.

                    KYLE
          When do you want it to go off?

                    DANNY
          Seven-thirty tomorrow evening.

                    KYLE
          So that's what? Nineteen thirty
          minutes...what time is it now...

Kyle checks his wristwatch, sets the timer to eighteen hours
eighteen minutes. It begins counting down.

EXT. SYNAGOGUE -- NIGHT

Kyle and Danny come around the corner, get in Kyle's car
parked near the side door.

EXT. EIGHTH AVENUE NEWSSTAND -- NIGHT

A stack of papers, the early edition of the Times. As Danny
grabs one, he notices a stack of tabloids....

FRONT PAGE: The Manzetti crime scene with screaming headline:
"MANZETTI SLAYER JEWISH NAZI." Next to this another tab:
"JEW KILLS JEW?"

Danny grabs a Times, flips it over... We see only his face:
registering this, unsurprised. He opens the paper....

INSERT: TWO PHOTOGRAPHS

The sweet-faced bar mitzvah boy we saw at his father's
house... And a BLURRY PHOTO of Danny walking away from Guy
Danielsen and the photographer outside Mrs. Moebius's house.
Danny's face is not clearly seen.

TILT UP TO DANNY

Calm. He tucks the paper under his arm beside the machzor
and crosses Eighth Avenue toward a cheap hotel....

CHEAP HOTEL -- NIGHT

Carrying the papers, Danny goes through the door.

INT. HOTEL ROOM -- EARLY MORNING

Danny at the window, staring out. The TV plays behind him.

On TV -- A REPORTER INTERVIEWING MRS. MOEBIUS

                    REPORTER
          ...You're saying that when he first
          appeared at your house, you had no
          idea he was Jewish....

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          None whatsoever. But I have to admit,
          I'm not terribly surprised.

                    REPORTER
          What do you mean?

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          I think anti-semitism today is
          largely a Jewish phenomenon. Wouldn't
          you agree?

Danny can't help smiling at her audacity.

                    REPORTER
          In the Third Reich, weren't a number
          of high-ranking Nazis of Jewish origin?

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
          Yes, and they were said to be the
          most virulent proponents of the Final
          Solution. Really, who but a Jew would
          want to kill Ilio Manzetti simply
          because he was Jewish? Who thinks
          about such things?

                    REPORTER
          The papers are going to report
          tomorrow that your colleague, Curtis
          Zampf, has been a federal informant
          for the past two years. Do you
          believe that?

                    MRS. MOEBIUS
              (enigmatic smile)
          Curtis is always more complicated
          than he seems. Even now.

                    REPORTER
              (to the camera)
          And so, on this, the most solemn day
          of the Jewish year, a former yeshiva
          student is being sought in connection
          with a monstrous hate crime that --

The set is CLICKED OFF with the remote. In the darkened
screen, we see Danny take his bag off the bed and go out the
door.

EXT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER -- LATE AFTERNOON

As Danny approaches, a STOCKY YOUNG MAN on a folding chair
outside the front door checks him out.

                    DANNY
          Gamar tov.

The Stocky Young Man beckons him on. As he passes, Danny
spots a gun and shoulder holster inside the man's zippered
jacket.

INT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER -- DAY

Several Yom Kippur services are going on in different rooms.
And we hear different groups of VOICES. And one reading...

                    VOICE
          ...They cast lots, and the lot fell
          on Jonah...

Danny puts on his kittel -- a white prayer coat.

INT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, 2ND FLOOR/INT. SMALL
AUDITORIUM -- DAY

About forty WORSHIPPERS, most in their 20s and 30s. Danny
slips into the back, spots Carla up front with Miriam and
Stuart. He's shocked, appalled....

CARLA -- trying to follow along the prayer book, suddenly
Danny is leaning over her shoulder from the row behind.

                    DANNY
              (desperate whisper)
          What are you doing here?

People sitting nearby HUSH him; he ignores them.

                    CARLA
          Miriam called, looking for you. She
          said you might come, so I...

                    DANNY
          You gotta get out of here.

                    CARLA
          You don't own this place.

                    STUART
          Listen, Danny, you can't just barge
          in and --

                    DANNY
          Shut up...

                    MIRIAM
          You shut up. Who do you think you are?

                    DANNY
              (to Carla, low, urgent)
          There's a bomb here. It's going to go
          off at seven-thirty.

                    CARLA
          Oh, please...

The SHUSHING becomes louder.... She turns away.

                    VOICES
          It's Yom Kippur.... People are
          davening.... Can you take it
          outside.... You have some nerve....

Danny looks around at the scolding, angry, pious faces....
He hates them. He sits back and closes his eyes.

EXT. FOREST ROAD -- DAY, 1943

The Jewish father (played by Danny's father) is ripping open
the Sergeant's jugular as the soldiers shoot him. One of the
soldiers (who is now Danny) says:

                    DANNY/NAZI SOLDIER
          Kill them. Kill them all.

The soldiers begin firing.... But now, three Israeli
commandos appear, Danny, Avi and the security guard we saw
outside. They fire Uzis at the Nazis, who fire back.

Danny the Nazi soldier and Danny the Israeli commando fire
at each other at point-blank range. The SOUND fades and we
hear SCRAPING CHAIRS, MURMURS, VOICES....

INT. SMALL AUDITORIUM -- SUNDOWN

Danny wakes with a start. People are about to resume after a
break, but there's some confusion. People are talking to
Stuart, who keeps glancing toward Danny....Danny finds his
machzor and gets up...as he approaches the bema, Stuart
comes to meet him.

                    STUART
          Danny, listen, people expect me to
          daven; they don't want someone they
          don't know -- leading their prayers.

                    DANNY
          Get out of my way.

Stuart backs down. Danny steps onto the bema, opens the machzor.

                    MURMURING VOICES
          What's going on?... Who is this?...I
          thought Stuart was davening....

                    DANNY
              (to the room)
          Page 766.

He glances at a clock at the back of the room: 6:14.

                    DANNY
          Yis-gadal, v'yis-kadash sh'mey raba...

People join in, but one man, in back, is outraged.

                    ENRAGED MAN
          Jesus Christ, you know who that is?...
          You see the paper?

                    MALE VOICE (O.S.)
              (gently teasing)
          You're reading the paper on Yom
          Kippur, Barry?

Chuckles.

                    ENRAGED WIFE
          I saw the paper. That's not him, that
          guy was darker.... This is somebody else.

                    VOICE (O.S.)
          That guy wouldn't go to shul, Barry...

                    ENRAGED MAN
          You want to bet? I'll bet you
          anything...
              (he's SHUSHED, "Could
               you, please...")
          Let's go, we're leaving....

                    ENRAGED WIFE
          Oh, for God's sake, you leave.

                    ENRAGED MAN
          I'm going to get a cop.

He stalks to the door but doesn't leave, turns back as if
compelled to watch this outrage...as....

                    DANNY
          Da-amiran b'alma, v'imru amen...

He begins the silent amidah, taking three steps backward,
then three forward, bowing as he prays so that he sees the
watch on the lectern.... It says: 6:16....

                                            DISSOLVE TO:

INT. A ROOM -- SUNDOWN

Kyle on hands and knees, gasping for breath, his face bloody.
DRAKE sits in a chair, injecting methamphetamine into the
vein of his forearm. Billings comes through the door with a
newspaper.

                    BILLINGS
          I got one....

He squats beside Kyle, shows him the Times story about Danny.

                    KYLE
          Are you kidding me??

                    BILLINGS
          Now do you know where he is?

Kyle thinks, glances at a watch: 6:47.

                    KYLE
          Yeah, I bet I do.

INT. SMALL AUDITORIUM -- TWILIGHT

The windows have darkened. The congregation is on its feet
chanting the AVINU MALKENU, the climactic prayer of the day.

Danny, leading the prayers, looks up at Carla, Stuart,
Miriam...near the front, chanting with him. He looks at the
clock: 7:21.

Suddenly it seems impossible to go through with this. He
stops praying, but no one notices....

EXT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER -- TWILIGHT

As Kyle, Drake and Billings approach, the place seems to
glow with an inner radiance. Drake and Billings hold weapons
at their sides.

The stocky security guard sees them coming and gets up,
reaching for his gun. Billings and Drake stop. Kyle wishes
he weren't here.

Everything suspends for a moment as, within the building,
three distinct GROUPS OF VOICES can be heard, each chanting
the AVINU MALKENU at a slightly different point in the prayer.

Drake raises his gun and fires.

INT. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER -- SMALL AUDITORIUM -- TWILIGHT

People are chanting AVINU MALKENU so fervently that the
GUNFIRE outside seems only a faint POPPING. No one
particularly notices. Danny, freaking, doesn't hear the
gunshots. He tries to address the people in the front rows....

                    DANNY
          Wait a minute...

But the praying is too loud, too strong. No one stops or
listens. He steps down off the bema....

                    DANNY
          Stop praying. You've got to get out
          of here.... All of you...

A few people in front are puzzled by his strange behavior,
but the rest keep chanting. Stuart comes up to Danny....

                    STUART
          You wanted to daven. Now daven....

Danny glances over people's heads at the clock: 7:25. He
doesn't notice...

THE DOOR

BANGS open. DRAKE stands there, .357, bleeding profusely
from the head, the swastika on his lips. At first, only a
few people notice, they stop praying.

                    PEOPLE
              (panic, confusion)
          Who's that?... What is he...oh, my God...

Avi is the first one out of his chair, walks right at Drake.

                    AVI
              (calm, forceful)
          Put down the weapon. Put it down....

Drake shoots him. Avi goes down, writhing in pain. Screams,
panic. People come at Drake, but he grabs an 11-year-old
girl, puts the gun to her head.

                    DANNY
          Drake! Up here...

Everyone turns, including Drake -- who's blinded by the
blood in his eyes, but recognizes the voice.

                    ENRAGED MAN
          See, he knows him. The Nazi bastard...

Drake moves unsteadily toward the front, pulling the girl
with him. A WOMAN (a doctor) goes to tend Avi, who is still
conscious. People begin to slip out the back, taking
children. Others stay, looking to jump Drake, but he keeps
the .357 on the little girl.

                    DANNY
              (to Carla, Miriam, Stuart)
          Get everybody out of here. Fast.

He steps back onto the bema, separating himself from the
others and drawing Drake's attention. The clock reads 7:28.
Outside we begin to hear SIRENS....

                    DANNY
          Drake...

Drake refocuses, pulls the girl on.... From the hall, we
hear OTHER GROUPS in the building, chanting....

                    VOICES
          Avinu malkenu, choney-nu v'aneyenu...
          Avinu malkenu, choney-nu v'aneyenu,
          ki eyn banu ma-asim...
          (Our father, out king, graciously
          answer us though we are undeserving...)
          -- nu va-aneynu...

At the front, Drake wobbles. People start forward. He cocks
the gun against the little girl's head. She's weeping silently.

                    DANNY
          Drake, I'm right here....

Drake looks. Danny reaches out a hand. Drake points the .357
at him and FIRES, missing. A HAND grabs the little girl,
pulls her to safety.

The room is nearly empty now, save Miriam, Carla, Stuart, a
few others. The AVINU MALKENU can still be heard from the
hall....

                    ENRAGED MAN
              (from the door)
          Let them kill each other. They're
          animals.

                    ENRAGED WIFE
          Barry, for God's sake...

Drake wobbles from loss of blood. Nearly drops the .357.

Danny glances at the clock: 7:30. What is it, another dud??

Drake FIRES again, hits Danny in the shoulder....

                    CARLA
          Danny!

She runs forward. The shoulder hurts; he calls to the others....

                    DANNY
          GET HER OUT OF HERE!

Miriam, others, grab Carla, pull Carla toward the door.

Drake comes toward Danny, trying to lift the .357 for the kill.

                    VOICES
          Cha'nainu v'anainu, ki ain baw-nu
          ma'ah-seem...

Danny grabs Drake's gun hand, forces it up in the air. The
gun goes off. Plaster rains down on them.

Drake dies. Danny catches him under the arms.

He looks at the watch: 7:32. He relaxes.

                    VOICES
              (fervent)
          ...Asey imanu tz'dakah va'chesed...
          Asey imanu tz'dakah va'chesd, v'ho-
          shi --

The instant before the prayer ends...it's cut off by a
sudden silence. Then a FLASH of light...

The SCREEN GOES WHITE...

                    CARLA'S VOICE
          Danny, no...

INT. STAIRCASE, YESHIVA -- DAY

Where we saw Danny leave the school as a 12-year-old. Now
LOOKING DOWN, we see Danny as an adult, coming up them two
at a time.

FOLLOWING DANNY as he races up. His old teacher, RAV
ZINGESSER, appears on a landing above....

                    RAV ZINGESSER
          Danny, good to see you...I wanted to
          take up that discussion we were
          having...
              (as Danny hurries past)
          ...about Abraham and Isaac.

                    DANNY
          I can't right now....

But as he nears the NEXT LANDING, there is Zingesser waiting
for him again...

                    ZINGESSER
          You remember what you said, that
          Isaac actually died on Mt. Moriah?
          I've been thinking maybe you're
          right... Died yet was reborn in olam
          ha-bah....

Danny goes past once more....

But now, LOOKING DOWN at Zingesser as he appears above Danny
yet again. As Danny nears the landing...

                    ZINGESSER
          Danny, stop...
              (as Danny goes by,
              calling after him)
          ...Where are you going?... Don't you
          know, there's nobody up there?

As Danny passes the camera we PAN to watch him still racing
upward. beyond us into the darkness....



                           THE END