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Romeo + Juliet (1996)

by William Shakespeare.
Adapted for the screen by Craig Pearce and Baz Luhrmann.
Final shooting script. October 6, 1995.

More info about this movie on IMDb.com


FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY


EXT.  HIGHWAY.  AFTERNOON.

A ribbon of freeway stretching into a blue and pink late
afternoon sky. A huge dark sedan, windows tinted gold,
headlights blazing, powers directly for us.

CUT TO: A heavy, low-slung, pickup truck traveling toward
the sedan.

WIDE SHOT: Sky, freeway, the cars closing.

TIGHT ON: The sedan.

TIGHT ON: The pickup.

Like thunderous, jousting opponents, the cars pass in a
deafening cacophony of noise.

INT.  TRUCK.  AFTERNOON.

TIGHT ON: The fat face of GREGORY, yelling at the
disappearing sedan.

			GREGORY
	A dog of the house of Capulet moves
	me!

He and the pimply-faced front-seat passenger, SAMPSON,
explode with laughter.

The red-haired driver BENVOLIO, keeps his eyes on the road.

EXT.  EXIT RAMP.  AFTERNOON.

The truck spirals down an exit ramp and screeches into busy
driveway of a large gas station.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

Attendants immediately run to the truck.  Two clean
windshields and duco, the third fills the gas tank.

INT.  TRUCK.  AFTERNOON.

Gregory in the back seat is boasting outrageously.

			GREGORY
	A dog of that house shall move me
	to stand.  I will take the wall of
	any man or maid of Capulets.

Sampson, sarcastically.

			SAMPSON
	That shows thee a weak slave.  For
	the weakest goes to the wall.

			GREGORY
	'Tis true; and therefore women,
	being the weaker vessels, are ever
	thrust to the wall.  Therefore, I
	will push Capulet's men from the
	wall, and thrust his maids to the
	wall.

Benvolio, disgusted, gets out of the car.

			BENVOLIO
	The quarrel is between our masters...

			GREGORY
		(yelling after him)
	...and us their men.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

FOLLOW: Benvolio as he heads for the bathroom.

PICK UP: A mother wrangling three little boys out of a
station wagon - the smallest kid carries a toy pistol.

SUPER FAST SCAN TRACK: Past the mother to - the huge black
sedan pulling up outside the gas station mini-mart.

The front door of the sedan opens.  Shiny black boots -
decorated with tiny, silver, cat-shaped spurs - plant
themselves on the ground.  The boots are joined by two other
pairs of well-shod feet.

HOLD: The spurred boots move out of frame.

CRANE UP: The other feet belong to a tough-looking Latin
youth ABRA - and his goateed side-kick PETRUCHIO.

Abra and Petruchio enter the mini-mart, as four white-clad
girls exit.

FOLLOW: The girls as they head for their car.

SUPER FAST SCAN TRACK: Past the girls to:

INT.  TRUCK.  AFTERNOON.

Sampson is trying to out boast Gregory.

			SAMPSON
	I will show myself a tyrant.  When
	I have fought with the men I will
	be civil with the maids, I will cut
	off their heads.

Gregory; mock outrage.

			GREGORY
	The heads of the maids?

Sampson leers lecherously at the girls.

			SAMPSON
	Ay, the heads of the maids, or
	their maiden heads, take it in what
	sense thou wilt.

			GREGORY
	They must take it in sense that
	feel it.

Gregory and Sampson pump up the song on the sound system and
sing out at the girls.

			GREGORY/SAMPSON
		(singing)
	I am a pretty piece of flesh!
	I am a pretty piece of flesh!
	Me, they shall feel while I am able
	to stand;
	I am a pretty piece of flesh!

The girls, pretending not to notice, get into the car.

EXT.  GAS STATION - MINIMART.  AFTERNOON.

GREGORY'S P.O.V.: The car pulls away revealing... Abra and
Petruchio exiting the mini-mart.

INT.  TRUCK.  AFTERNOON.

CLOSE ON: Gregory.

CLOSE ON: Sampson - Their singing abruptly halts.

			SAMPSON
	Here comes of the House of Capulet.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

Abra and Petruchio stare coldly toward the boys.

INT.  TRUCK.  AFTERNOON.

CLOSE ON: Sampson swallowing hard.

CLOSE ON: Gregory; eyes locked to the Capulets. With fake
bravado he nudges Sampson.

			GREGORY
	Quarrel I will back thee.

CLOSE ON: Sampson trying to quell his rising panic.

			SAMPSON
	Let us take the law of our sides.
	Let them begin.

SUDDENLY: BANG! Gregory and Sampson jump.

WHIP PAN: It was the garage attendant slamming the hood.

Gregory and Sampson are mortally embarrassed.

EXT.  MINI-MART.  AFTERNOON.

Abra and Petruchio laugh contemptuously and move to their
car:

FOLLOW: The mother and kids exiting the mini-mart.

SUPER FAST SCAN TRACK: To...

INT.  TRUCK.  AFTERNOON.

Sampson furiously tries to save face.

			SAMPSON
	I will bite my thumb at them; which
	is a disgrace to them if they bear
	it.

Sampson quickly bites his thumb toward Abra's back as he
gets into the sedan.

INT.  SEDAN.  AFTERNOON.

Abra's eyes flick to the rear view mirror.

E.C.U.: The rear view mirror; Sampson biting his thumb.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

Suddenly, a blood curdling screech of tires - the sedan,
rubber burning, reverses full speed toward Sampson and
Gregory.

The mother in the station wagon brakes to avoid collision -
a sports car shunts into her vehicle.  Mother and children
scream.

Attendants scatter.

The Capulet car shudders to a halt inches from the truck,
blocking its path.

INT.  BLACK SEDAN.  AFTERNOON.

CLOSE ON: A scurry of limbs scrabbling across seats and
reaching for door handles;

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

Abra hauls Sampson from the truck. Gregory leaps out,
Petruchio covers him. Abra slams Sampson against the side of
the vehicle - then, goading him to go for his gun, screams:

			ABRA
	Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

Sampson's shaking hand hovers - ready to draw.

			SAMPSON
	I do bite my thumb, sir.

INT.  STATION WAGON.  AFTERNOON.

CUT TO: The panicked mother in the station wagon.  She
motions her children to the floor.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

Customers run for cover.

CLOSE ON: Abra: An hysterical rage; he shrieks:

			ABRA
	Do you bite you thumb at us, sir?

			SAMPSON
		(sweating, murmurs to Gregory)
	Is the law on our side if I say "Ay"?

			GREGORY
	No.

INT.  BATHROOM.  AFTERNOON.

CLOSE ON: The black cowboy boots, trousers down around them.
The sound of a toilet flushing.

PAN TO: The next cubicle, the door opens revealing Benvolio.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

CLOSE ON: Sampson, still sweating.

			SAMPSON
	No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at
	you, sir - but I do bite my thumb,
	sir!

CUT TO: Gregory; a ridiculous inquiry.

			GREGORY
	Do you quarrel, sir?

CUT TO: Abra; a dangerous smile.

			ABRA
	Quarrel sir, no sir.

CLOSE ON: Sampson; unconvincing bravado...

			SAMPSON
	But if you do, sir, I am for you. I
	serve as good a man as you.

CLOSE ON: Abra; a lethal question.

			ABRA
	No better?

CLOSE ON: Sampson, trapped.

			SAMPSON
	Well sir...

INT.  STATION WAGON.  AFTERNOON.

CUT TO: Inside the station wagon.  The mother does not
notice her five year old aiming a toy gun toward the boys.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

CUT TO: Gregory's P.O.V.: Benvolio emerging from the
bathroom - he whispers maniacally.

			GREGORY
	Here comes our kinsman. Say better!

EXTREME CLOSE UP: Sampson; he screams:

			SAMPSON
	YES SIR, BETTER!

EXTREME CLOSE UP: Abra demonically roars:

			ABRA
	THOU LIEST!

CUT TO: Benvolio. Terror stricken, he sees the boys.

DISTORTED OUT OF CONTROL CLOSE UP: Abra shrieks:

			ABRA
	DRAW IF YOU BE MEN!

LIGHTNING CUT: Four hands reaching for guns.

SLAM ZOOM: To Benvolio - weapon outstretched he screams:

			BENVOLIO
	Part, fools! You know not what you
	do!

MUSIC STING; A SUPER MARCO SLAM ZOOM along the barrel of
Benvolio's gun; the engraved gun type reads:

'Sword 9mm series S'

CUT TO: Benvolio. He screams in desperation:

			BENVOLIO
	Put up your swords!

Gregory, Sampson, Abra, and Petruchio freeze.  A moment -
then from behind, the unmistakable sound of a gun being
cocked.

EXTREME CLOSE UP: The black cowboy boots.

CRANE UP: To find the dark cold eyes and feline smile, of
the wearer of the boots. His name is TYBALT; a cigarette is
clenched between his teeth and his gun is aimed at Benvolio's
head.

			TYBALT
	What, art thou drawn amoung these
	heartless hinds?
	Turn thee Benvolio.

Benvolio, a choked explanation:

			BENVOLIO
	I do but keep the peace.

A mocking smile.

			TYBALT
	Peace? I hate the word
	As I hate hell, all Montagues, and...

EXTREME CLOSE UP: Tybalt's finger squeezing the trigger...

Suddenly we hear firing from Tybalt's blind side.

Tybalt redirects his weapon, cracking off a single shot at
the surprise attacker.

EXT./INT.  MINIMART.  AFTERNOON.

It is the five year old from the station wagon. The bullet
smacks the toy gun from the child's hand, shattering the
wagon's window.

Mother and children scream.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

A panicked Benvolio falls back, accidentally his gun fires -
the bullet whistles past Tybalt's head.

Tybalt combat rolls, and using a screaming car load of girls
as cover, returns two quick shots, narrowly missing Benvolio.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

The gas station attendant hits a button and heavy metal
screens slam down.

EXT.  GAS STATION.  AFTERNOON.

CUT TO: Gregory firing - a bullet rips through Abra's arm.

Petruchio dives for cover; Gregory and Sampson leap into
Benvolio's truck.  Rubber burns as they smash past the
Capulet vehicle.

CLOSE ON: Tybalt taking aim.

EXT.  HIGHWAY - SUPERMARKET.  AFTERNOON.

His first shot plugs the fuel tank, the second a tire.  Out
of control and spewing gasoline the Montague truck careens
across the highway and through the glass front of a
supermarket.

Gregory and Sampson throw themselves from the truck moments
before...

EXT.  SUPERMARKET.  AFTERNOON.

CLOSE ON: The gas tank erupts into an almighty fireball.

The screen fills with flame: the following images combust in
front of us:

EXT.  HIGHWAY - SUPERMARKET - FROM AIR.  AFTERNOON.

NEWS CHOPPER P.O.V.: Citizens run in the streets.

Looters raid shops near the supermarket - security guards
return fire.

INT.  RESTAURANT.  NIGHT.

A table of dark suited men and their wives.

CLOSE ON: The powerful 60 year old face of FULGENCIO CAPULET.
Seated next to him is his much younger wife GLORIA.

SUDDENLY: Windows explode in a tidal wave of glass.  Diners
take cover.

Capulet moves fearlessly toward the window.

			CAPULET
		(to a waiter)
	Give me my long sword!

EXT.  STREET.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: The word MONTAGUE fills the screen.

PULL BACK: We see the word is the number plate of a large
black limousine.

The limousine is stuck in the traffic snarl - bullets bounce
off its bullet proof windshield.

INT.  MONTAGUE'S LIMOUSINE.  NIGHT.

TED MONTAGUE, a 60 year old red-faced bulldog of a man,
bursts from the back of the limousine.

			MONTAGUE
	What noise is this!

As Ted draws an enormous pearl handed revolver, CAROLINE,
his conservatively dressed wife, tries to restrain him.

			CAROLINE
	Thou shalt not stir one foot to
	seek a foe!

			MONTAGUE
		(shrugging her off)
	Hold me not, let me go!

EXT.  STREET.  NIGHT.

Crouched behind a truck, Benvolio shakily tries to re-load.

CLOSE ON: The barrel of Tybalt's gun enters frame and
presses into Benvolio's forehead.  Tybalt whispers sweetly.

			TYBALT
	Look upon thy death, Benvolio.

CLOSE ON: Tybalt's finger on the trigger.  Benvolio screams
a scream of mortal horror.

SUDDENLY Tybalt is blinded by a burning shaft of light.  A
magnificently powerful helicopter gunship hovers above him.
A command booms from the chopper's public address system.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
		(over PA)
	Rebellious subjects, enemies to
	peace,
	Throw your mistempered weapons to
	the ground.

INT.  CHOPPER.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: The steely gray eyes of CAPTAIN PRINCE, chief of
the Verona Beach Police Department. He lifts the microphone
and repeats the command.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Throw your mistempered weapons to
	the ground!

EXT.  VERONA BEACH.  NIGHT.

Tybalt looks up to the chopper.  Patrol cars screech to a
halt.

An almighty orchestral chord.

EXT.  VERONA BEACH - MATTE SHOT.  NIGHT.

SUPER WIDE SHOT: A trail of devastation winds up through
grid-locked traffic to the burning supermarket.

In the distance looms an enormous statue of Christ flanked
by two glass towers.  We push toward the towers.  One is
neon-crowned MONTAGUE, the other, CAPULET.

We hear:

			VOICE OVER
	Two households, both alike in
	dignity.
	In fair Verona, where we lay our
	scene
	From ancient grudge break to new
	mutiny,
	Where civil blood makes civil hands
	unclean.
	From forth the fatal loins of these
	two foes
	A pair of star crossed lovers take
	their life.
	Whose misadventured piteous
	overthrows
	Doth with their death bury their
	parents strife.

A dark chord.

EXT.  VERONA BEACH SKYLINE.  NIGHT.

A swarm of helicopters thunder into frame.  We see
compressed, time-lapsed, images of their journey.

SLAM INTO: A coat of arms that labels a large tower - the
emblem reads; "Verona Beach Police Department: In God We
Trust".

HOLD:

INT.  CAPTAIN PRINCE'S PRECINCT OFFICE.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: Captain Prince's grim features.  He eyes Capulet
and Montague.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Three civil brawls, bred of an airy
	word
	By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
	Have thrice disturbed the quiet of
	our streets.

Capulet's lawyer tries to intervene.

			LAWYER
	My noble Prince I can...

Captain Prince overriding, slams the desk.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	If ever you disturb our streets
	again,
	Your lives shall pay the forfeit of
	the peace.

Hold on Captain Prince's determined gaze.

EXT.  VERONA STREET.  DAWN.

A majestic sunrise; Ted Montague's limousine sulks through
deserted streets.  In the distance, Jesus looks out over the
now peaceful city.

INT.  MONTAGUE'S LIMOUSINE.  DAWN.

Ted Montague, his wife Caroline, and nephew Benvolio ride in
uncomfortable silence.

Caroline finally speaks her anger.

			CAROLINE
	O where is Romeo?  Saw you him
	today?
		(pointedly to Montague)
	Right glad I am he was not at this
	fray.

Montague snorts derisively and stares out the window.
Embarrassed, Benvolio tries to be of assistance.

			BENVOLIO
	Madam, underneath The Grove of
	Sycamore
	So early walking did I see your son.

Ted Montague speaks with contempt.

			MONTAGUE
	Many a morning hath he there been
	seen
	With tears augmenting the fresh
	morning's dew.

Caroline struggles to contain her emotion.

			CAROLINE
	Away from light steals home my
	heavy son
	And private in his chamber pens
	himself,
	Shuts up his windows, locks fair
	daylight out
	And makes himself an artificial
	night.

Montague barks into the car intercom.

			MONTAGUE
	Westward from this city side.

EXT.  STREET.  DAWN.

The limousine U-turns heading west.

EXT.  BEACH.  DAWN.

To the melancholic strains of Mozart's "Serenade for Winds",
we see a blond nineteen year old boy sitting alone on an
empty beach.

CLOSE ON: The boy, ROMEO.  Looking out over the ocean he
sucks on the last of a cigarette and then writes intensely
in a small worn note book.

We hear his voice over.

			ROMEO (V/O)
	Love is a smoke made with the fume
	of sighs;
	Being purged, a fire sparkling in
	lovers' eyes;
	Being vexed, a sea nourished with
	lovers' tears.
	What is it else?  A madness most
	discreet,
	A choking gall and a preserving
	sweet.

INT.  MONTAGUE'S LIMOUSINE.  DAWN.

The limo is parked in a cross street that runs down to the
beach.

Opposite the limo, young diehard clubbers, faded drag queens
and street people, hang outside a dilapidated nightclub.  A
broken neon sign reads: "The Grove of Sick Amore."

Ted, Caroline and Benvolio sit watching the silhouette of
Romeo on the beach.

			MONTAGUE
	Black and portentous must this
	humour prove
	Unless good counsel may the cause
	remove.

EXT.  BEACH.  DAWN.

P.O.V.: From the limousine.  Romeo rises and listlessly
makes his way up the beach - seeing his father's car he
turns and heads for the path that hugs the beach front.

INT.  MONTAGUE'S LIMOUSINE.  DAWN.

			BENVOLIO
	So please you step aside.
	I'll know his grievance or be much
	denied.

Benvolio clambers out of the limo.

CLOSE ON: Montague, an encouraging smile.

			MONTAGUE
	Come Madam.  Let's away.

EXT.  STREET.  DAWN.

The limousine pulls away and Benvolio heads after Romeo.  He
pauses.  A deck at the rear of "Sick Amore" sprawls onto the
beach.  At the base of the deck, Benvolio can see Romeo
squatting in discussion with an old drunk.  Benvolio
approaches with a not very convincing casualness.

			BENVOLIO
	Good morrow, cousin.

Romeo turns.  Sore, red, unfriendly eyes squint back at
Benvolio.

			ROMEO
	Is the day so young?

			BENVOLIO
	But new struck, Coz.

Romeo rises, Benvolio follows.

			ROMEO
	Ay me!  Sad hours seem long.

Romeo stops as if taking in Benvolio for the first time.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Was that my father that went hence
	so fast?

			BENVOLIO
		(guilty)
	It was.

Benvolio chases Romeo down the path which divides the beach
from a string of cheap souvenir shops and sleazy bars.

			BENVOLIO
	What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?

			ROMEO
	Not having that which having makes
	them short.

			BENVOLIO
	In love?

			ROMEO
	Out.

			BENVOLIO
	Of love?

			ROMEO
	Out of her favor where I am in love.

			BENVOLIO
	Alas that love, so gentle in his
	view,
	Should be so tyrannical and rough
	in proof!

			ROMEO
	Alas that love, whose view...

Romeo is halted by the sight of last night's disturbance
displayed on a small TV screen in an outdoor bar.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	What fray was here?

Benvolio starts to reply.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
		(angrily)
	Yet tell me not, for I have heard
	it all.
	Here's much to do with hate, but
	more with love.

Romeo turns the corner away from the beach.  He strides
along the sidewalk raging.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Why then, O brawling love, O loving
	hate,
	O anything, of nothing first
	create!
	O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
	Misshapen chaos of well-seeming
	forms,
	Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold
	fire, sick health,
	Still-waking sleep, that is not
	what it is!

Romeo screams at a huge bouncer who lounges in the doorway
of a sex club.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	This love feel I, that feel no love
	in this!

The bouncer's hand moves to his gun.  Romeo, ignoring him,
turns on Benvolio.  A mocking laughter through tears:

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Dost thou not laugh?

Benvolio, nervously eyeing the bouncer, shepherds Romeo out
of danger.

			BENVOLIO
	No, coz, I rather weep.

Romeo smiles.

			ROMEO
	Farewell, my coz.

Romeo, breaking into a jog, leaves Benvolio behind.  Benvolio
pursues him down the street.

EXT.  ROMEO'S CAR.  DAY.

CLOSE ON: The sleeping face of a fourteen year old boy -
BALTHASAR.

PULL BACK: Balthasar sleeps on the hood of a magnificent
silver car.

Three or four kids doze on the sidewalk.  As Romeo
approaches, they jump up and begin vigorously polishing the
already gleaming car.

Balthasar wakes.  He springs off the hood, chases the kids
away, then, producing a huge bunch of keys, opens the car
door for Romeo.

Benvolio intercepts Romeo at the car.

			BENVOLIO
	Tell me in sadness, who is it that
	you love.

			ROMEO
	In sadness, cousin, I do love...a
	woman.

			BENVOLIO
	I aimed so near when I supposed you
	loved.

Romeo leans against the car.

			ROMEO
	A right good marksman; and she's
	fair I love.

Romeo pulls his shirt down to reveal a small shoulder tattoo.

CLOSE ON:  The tattooed word; ROSALINE.

			BENVOLIO
	Rosaline!
		(he is impressed)
	A right fair mark, fair coz, is
	soonest hit.

			ROMEO
	She'll not be hit with Cupid's
	arrow.
	She hath Dian's wit,
	And in strong proof of chastity
	lives well armed.

Benvolio can't believe it.

			BENVOLIO
	Then she hath sworn that she will
	still live chaste?

			ROMEO
	She hath; and in that sparing makes
	huge waste.

Benvolio - a plan.
.			BENVOLIO
	Be ruled by me; forget to think of
	her.

			ROMEO
	O, teach me how I should forget to
	think!

Benvolio indicates one of the working girls already strutting
the foot path.

			BENVOLIO
	By giving liberty unto thine eyes.
	Examine other beauties.

Romeo laughs dismissively.  He throws the kids a few coins
and slides into the drivers seat.  Balthasar jumps in back.

			ROMEO
	Farewell.  Thou canst not teach me
	to forget.

			BENVOLIO
	I'll pay that doctrine, or else die
	in debt.

Benvolio leaps into the passenger seat of the moving vehicle.

INT.  CAPULET OFFICE.  DAY.

An orchestral fanfare.  TRACK DOWN: Past monstrous letters
that read CAPULET and in through a window to discover
Fulgencio Capulet.  He stares out the window toward the
other tallest building in Verona; the one crested with the
word MONTAGUE.

			CAPULET
	But Montague is bound as well as I,
	In penalty alike;

Capulet turns: on the other side of his desk sits DAVID
PARIS; a square-jawed young man in a red cashmere sweater.
Tea has been served from an exquisite silver tea service.

			CAPULET (CONT.)
	And 'tis not hard, I think, for me
	so old as we to keep the peace.

Dave smiles obligingly.

			DAVE
	Of honorable reckoning are you
	both,
	And pity 'tis you lived at odds so
	long.

An awkward pause: Dave sips tea, then, with a deep breath...

			DAVE (CONT.)
	But now, my lord, what say you to
	my suit?

Capulet considers the framed photograph on his desk.

			CAPULET
	But saying o'er what I have said
	before;
	My child is yet a stranger in the
	world;
	Let two more summers wither in
	their pride,
	Ere we may think her ripe to be a
	bride.

Dave is politely insistent.

			DAVE
	Younger than she are happy mothers
	made.

			CAPULET
		(checking him hard)
	And too soon marred are those so
	early made.
	Earth hath swallowed all my hopes
	but she;
	She is the hopeful lady of my earth.

Capulet rounds the desk and places a fatherly hand on Dave's
shoulder.

			CAPULET (CONT.)
	But woo her, gentle Paris, get her
	heart.
	My will to her consent is but a
	part,
	And she agreed, within her scope of
	choice
	Lies my consent and fair according
	voice.
	This night I hold an old Accustomed
	feast.

Capulet leans close.

			CAPULET (CONT.)
	At my poor house, look to behold
	this night,
	Fresh female buds that make dark
	heaven light.
	Hear all; all see,
	And like her most whose merit most
	shall be.

Capulet smiles knowingly.  Dave seems encouraged.

			CAPULET (CONT.)
		(a hearty slap)
	Come go with me!

Capulet excitedly ushers Dave from the office.

INT.  POOL HALL.  DAY.

Dim, smoke filled.  Benvolio and Romeo play pool.

			BENVOLIO
		(chalking his cue)
	Take thou some new infection to thy
	eye.

He lines up the six ball top pocket.

			BENVOLIO (CONT.)
	And the rank poison of the old will
	die.

A hopeless shot that slams the eight ball toward the side
pocket.  Romeo stops it with his hand and hurls it against
the other balls.

			BENVOLIO
	Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

Romeo sinks the other balls with his hands.

			ROMEO
	Not mad, but bound more than a
	madman is;
	Shut up in prison, kept without my
	food,

Romeo stalks away from the table.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Whipped and tormented.

He stops at the gun check, rummaging in his pocket.

			ROMEO
	Good day, good fellow.

A crusty old man looks up from the small television.  His
entire face a tattooed shooting target, the bullseye between
his eyes.

The old man points to the sign that reads: "No ticket no
gun."  Romeo finally produces a ticket.  Crusty the Target
goes out back.  Romeo's attention is caught by the television.

INT.  T.V.  STUDIO SET.  DAY

CUT TO: TELEVISION.

An ostentatious woman and her over groomed partner Rich,
hosts what looks to be a kind of Entertainment Tonight show.
The graphic behind them reads "Solemnity Nights" with Susan
Santandiago and Rich Ranchidis.

Susan speaks conspiratorially to camera.

			SUSAN
	Now I'll tell you without asking.
	The great
	Rich Capulet, holds an old
	accustomed feast;

Rich chimes in:

			RICH
	A fair Assembly.

			SUSAN
	I Pray you sir can you read?

A list of names begins to scroll across the screen.  Rich
reads them off.

			RICH
	Signor Placentio and his wife and
	daughters,
	Signor Martino, the Lady Widow
	Of Utruvio and her lovely nieces,
	Rosaline and Livia...

INT.  POOL HALL.  DAY.

CUT TO: Benvolio, he leans into Romeo.

			BENVOLIO
	At this same ancient feast of
	Capulet's
	Sups the fair Rosaline; whom thou
	so loves,
	With all the admired beauties of
	Verona.
	Go thither, and with unattained eye
	Compare her face with some that I
	shall show,
	And I will make thee think thy swan
	a crow.

			ROMEO
	One fairer than my love?

Crusty returns.  He hands the boys their guns.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	The all-seeing sun Ne'er saw her
	match since first the world begun.

CUT TO: TELEVISION.

			SUSAN
	If you be not of the house of
	Montagues,
	Come and crush a cup of wine!

			RICH
	Rest you merry!

CUT TO: Romeo, he considers.

			ROMEO
	I'll go along, no such sight to be
	shown.
	But to rejoice in splendour of mine
	own.

The boys move off.

PUSH IN ON: THE TELEVISION.

EXT.  CAPULET STATE.  DAY.

An aerial shot of a magnificent island estate.  An Italianate
wonder of Florentine architecture.  Armed guards patrol the
grounds.  The telecaption reads "Capulet Mansion."

The file tape loses its television quality.  We sweep down
through manicured gardens, where workers prepare decorations
for tonight's celebrations, and into the house.  The music
darkens and we hear the desperate calling of a girl's name.

			VOICE OVER
	J U L I E T !

INT.  CAPULET MANSION - CORRIDOR.  DAY.

CUT TO: A long deserted corridor.

			VOICE OVER
	J U L I E T !

INT.  CAPULET MANSION - DRAWING ROOM.  DAY.

CUT TO: An echoey Chinoiserie style drawing room.

			VOICE OVER
	J U L I E T !

INT.  BATHROOM.  DAY.

CLOSE ON: The still, serene, submerged features of a
beautiful young girl.  Dark floating hair gently frames the
face.  Heavy liquid eyes stare up through the water.

We hear, though faintly, the calling:

			VOICE OVER
	J U L I E T !

With a rush JULIET surfaces.  As she gulps air, we realise
that she is in fact, in a bath.

We hear the calling loudly again.

			VOICE OVER
	J U L I E T !

Juliet listens.  For a moment she is very still, then she
closes her eyes and slides back beneath the surface of the
water.

INT.  ENTRANCE HALL CAPULET MANSION.  DAY.

A Gothic, unfriendly environment heavy with religious
iconography.  The entrance hall is crowded with workers and
servants preparing for tonight's party.

Gloria Capulet fiddles with a short black wig in the hallway
mirror.  She is attired in full Cleopatra costume.

Dissatisfied with the wig, she rips it from her head and
calls maniacally.

			GLORIA
	J U L I E T !

Gloria is met by the NURSE, a fat, grandmotherly Hispanic
woman.

			GLORIA (CONT.)
	Nurse, where's my daughter?  Call
	her forth to me.

			NURSE
	I bade her come.  God forbid!
	Where's this girl?
	Juliet!

CUT TO: The top of the stairs.  As if from nowhere, Juliet
has appeared.  She wears a bathrobe and her hair is wet.

			JULIET
		(coolly)
	Madam, I am here.  What is you will.

Gloria, startled, sweeps up the stairs and shuffles her
daughter toward a doorway.

			GLORIA
	Nurse, give leave awhile, we must
	talk in secret.

INT.  GLORIA'S DRESSING ROOM.  DAY.

Gloria shepherds Juliet into her opulent dressing room and
closes the door.  She circles with nervous vexation searching
for words, stops, then suddenly opens the door and yells out
to the Nurse.

			GLORIA (CONT.)
	Nurse, come back again.
	I have remembered me, thou's hear
	our counsel.

The Nurse enters.  Gloria, still refusing eye contact,
checks her appearance once more in the mirror.  She takes a
hairbrush and, feigning pleasantness, intensely brushes her
hair.

			GLORIA (CONT.)
	Nurse, thou knowest my daughter's
	of a pretty age.

			NURSE
		(to Juliet)
	Thou wast the prettiest babe that
	e'er I nursed.

The hair brush clatters onto the dresser.  A moment of tense
silence.  Gloria grips herself and pours a sherry.

Back still turned, she speaks to her daughter.

			GLORIA
	By my count, I was your mother much
	upon these years
	That you are now a maid.

A nembutal twists like a pin in the corner of Gloria's mouth.
She slugs it down with the sherry and turns abruptly to face
Juliet.

			GLORIA (CONT.)
	Thus then in brief, the valiant
	Paris seeks you for his love.

CUT TO: Juliet; an uncomprehending stare.

The Nurse, caught off guard, tries to buoy the situation.

			NURSE
	A man, young lady!  Lady, such a
	man
	As all the world - why, he's a man
	of wax.

The medication takes immediate effect upon Gloria.  She
joins Juliet on the couch and coos in Paris's favour.

			GLORIA
	Verona's summer hath not such a
	flower.

			NURSE
	Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a
	very flower.

			GLORIA
	This night you shall behold him at
	our feast;
	Read o'er the volume of young
	Paris' face
	And find delight writ there with
	beauty's pen.
	This precious book of love, this
	unbound lover,
	To beautify him only lacks a cover.
	So shall you share all that he doth
	possess,
	By having him, making yourself no
	less.

Gloria probes Juliet's thoughts.

			GLORIA
	Can you like of Paris' love?

Juliet, adept at negotiating her mother's strange moods,
chooses her words precisely.

			JULIET
	I'll look to like, if looking
	liking move,
	But no more deep will I endart mine
	eye,
	Than your consent gives strength to
	make it fly.

PETER the chauffeur enters.

			PETER
	Madam.  The guests are come.

			GLORIA
		(checks the mirror)
	We follow thee.

She exits, Nurse in tow.

CLOSE ON: Juliet stares out the windows and across the water.

Suddenly the Nurse's face leers into shot.  She whispers
enthusiastically into Juliet's ear.

			NURSE
	Go girl, seek happy nights to happy
	days.

CLOSE ON: Juliet's face.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION.  DAY/NIGHT.

JUMP CUT: Aerial shot of Capulet Mansion.  We time lapse
from late afternoon to night; fairy lights illuminate,
guests appear, music swells, and a single incandescent
flare, explodes pink against the inky sky.

EXT.  BEACH.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: Romeo: his face glows pink.  He is sitting on the
grubby shoreline of Verona Bay dressed as a boy King Arthur,
with fake chain mail and sword.

Romeo watches the dying flare sink into the bay.  The sound
of the party drifts across the water.  Balthasar, dressed as
Frankenstein's monster, touches a lighter to a large bong
and Romeo inhales smoke.

Behind them, Benvolio, drunk and dressed as a pizza, is
yelling at Gregory, who, dressed as a Viking, is trying to
cut slices off his pizza costume.  Sampson, also dressed as
a Viking, sits in the back of a car.  One arm is bandaged
and he swigs from a bottle.

Suddenly the darkness is slashed by headlights.  A reckless
sports car speeds toward the boys.  Stereo screaming, the
car skids to a halt.

CLOSE ON: Music blares from the sound system.  A silver
stilettoed foot emerges from the car and plants itself
firmly in the dirt.

CUT TO: The boys, eyes wide with amazement.

CUT TO: Another stiletto follows the first.  Guitar groans.

PAN: Slowly up a shapely pair of black stockinged legs, past
a hint of garter belt to a black sequined mini-skirt and up
over a muscular dark skinned stomach and tiny sequined bra
top, to discover: the 21 year old male, African American
face of MERCUTIO.

CUT TO: The boys.  Recovering from the initial shock, they
laugh and cat-call raucously.

CUT TO: Mercutio.  He roughly jams a short black wig onto
his head and yells above the music.

			MERCUTIO
	Strike drum!

Mercutio magically produces invitations from somewhere
within his mini-skirt and dances down the beach to the boys.

Aggressively bumping and grinding, Mercutio distributes the
invitations.  Reaching Romeo, he declares:

			MERCUTIO
	We'll on without apology.

Romeo lets the invitation fall to the sand.

			ROMEO
	I am not for this ambling.
	Being but heavy, I will bear the
	light.

Romeo pulls on the bong once more.

Suddenly, Mercutio is upon Romeo.  Hauling him to his feet,
he waltzes him through the sand.

			MERCUTIO
	Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you
	dance.

Romeo pushes Mercutio away.

			ROMEO
	Not I, believe me.  You have
	dancing shoes
	With nimble soles.  I have a soul
	of lead.

Mercutio in mock sympathy.

			MERCUTIO
	Too great oppression for a tender
	thing.

			ROMEO
	Is love a tender thing?  It is too
	rough, too rude, too boisterous,
	and it pricks like thorn.

Romeo lies staring up at the stars.

			MERCUTIO
	If love be rough with you, be rough
	with love.

Mercutio jumps on Romeo.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Prick love for pricking, and you
	beat love down.

Romeo fights Mercutio off.

			ROMEO
	Under love's heavy burden do I sink!

CUT TO: Benvolio, impatiently honking the horn.

			BENVOLIO
	Every man betake him to his legs!

Mercutio heads Romeo toward the car.

			MERCUTIO
	Come, we burn daylight, ho!

Romeo pulls away.

			ROMEO
	But 'tis no wit to go.

Mercutio turns, exasperated.

			MERCUTIO
	Why, may one ask?

			ROMEO
	I dreamt a dream tonight.

			MERCUTIO
	And so did I.

			ROMEO
	Well, what was yours?

			MERCUTIO
	That dreamers often lie.

			ROMEO
	In bed asleep, while they do dream
	things true.

Mercutio produces a tiny gold pill case.

			MERCUTIO
	O, then I see Queen Mab hath been
	with you.
	She is the fairies' midwife, and
	she comes
	In shape no bigger than an agate
	stone
	On the forefinger of an alderman,
	Drawn with a team of little atomies
	Over men's noses as they lie asleep.

Tantalisingly, he passes the case beneath Romeo's nose.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,
	Her wagoner a small gray-coated gnat.

With a conjurer's dexterity Mercutio extracts a small, gray
pill.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	And in this state she gallops night
	by night
	Through lovers' brains, and then
	they dream of love;

He palms the pills.  It reappears from behind Romeo's ear.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	O'er lawyers' fingers who straight
	dream on fees;
	O'er ladies' lips, who straight on
	kisses dream,
	Which oft the angry Mab with
	blisters plagues.
	Because their breaths with
	sweetmeats tainted are.

The pill box glints in the moonlight.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Sometime she driveth o'er a
	soldier's neck;
	And then dreams he of cutting
	foreign throats.
	And being thus frighted, swears a
	prayer or two
	And sleeps again.

Mercutio now intensely angry:

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	This is that very Mab
	That plaits the manes of horses in
	the night
	And bakes the elf-locks in foul
	sluttish hairs

He screams into the night.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	This is the hag, when maids lie on
	their backs,
	That presses them and learns them
	first to bear,
	Making them women of good carriage.
	This is she, this is she...

CLOSE ON: Mercutio.  He breaks off.  There is a strange
stillness amongst the group.  Romeo goes to his friend.

			ROMEO
	Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace.
	Thou talkest of nothing.

Mercutio meets Romeo's gaze.

			MERCUTIO
	True, I talk of dreams;
	Which are the children of an idle
	brain,
	Begot of nothing but vain fantasy.
	Which is as thin of substance as
	the air
	And more inconstant than the wind,
	who woos
	Even now the frozen bosom of the
	north
	And, being angered, puffs away from
	thence
	Turning his attention to the dew-
	dropping south.

CUT TO: Benvolio in the car.  The alcohol has caught up with
him and he looks a little queasy.

			BENVOLIO
	This wind you talk of blows us from
	ourselves:
	Supper is done and we shall come
	too late.

Romeo looks toward the distant city.

			ROMEO
	I fear, too early, for my mind
	misgives
	Some consequence yet hanging in the
	stars
	Shall bitterly begin his fearful
	date
	With this night's revels, and
	expire the term
	Of a despised life closed in my
	breast,
	By some vile forfeit of untimely
	death.

PAUSE: The water turns golden as fireworks explode across
the bay.  Romeo smiles.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	But he that hath the steerage of my
	course
	Direct my sail!

He takes the pill and drops it into his mouth.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	On, lusty gentlemen!

With the rush of a mind altering cocktail, we ZOOM IN on
Romeo's eyes; they shimmer with the shooting star reflection
of exploding fireworks - a bending Eastern chord, we launch
into Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love', sung by the vocalist from
Soundgarden with orchestration by 'Deconstruction' and sitar
by Ravi Shankar.

EXT.  MERCUTIO'S CAR - ON FREEWAY.  NIGHT.

PULL OUT: From Romeo's eyes.  He is lying in the passenger
seat of Mercutio's convertible as it rockets along the
freeway.  The camera is directly above Romeo.  He stares up
at the fireworks that reflect in the windshield.  The car
and freeway begin to rotate and the camera follows.  We feel
that the car is now travelling upside-down.  The camera
sways through a brilliant explosion of fireworks that fill
the screen with a zillion pixilating, colored dots of fire.

INT.  CAPULET'S MANSION - BALLROOM.  NIGHT.

PULL OUT: To discover the glittering dots of fire refracting
from the sparkling domed roof of the magnificently ornate
Capulet Ballroom.  The camera swoops down over bizarrely
costumed revellers cavorting to a driving Latin big band.
The camera partners with a drugged Mercutio and Benvolio who
shamelessly caper with each other in a mock antic adagio.

CUT TO: Romeo gazing blankly at the dance floor.

CUT TO: Mercutio.  He sweeps up a thirty-something
sophisticate and twirls her in Romeo's direction.

			MERCUTIO
	Everyman betake him to his legs!

Romeo moves off through the crowd.

CUT TO: ROMEO'S P.O.V.: Contorted images of costumed guests
eat, drink and laugh in a grotesque collision of Yves Saint
Laurent cocktail party and Bacchanalian romp.

Suddenly a large arm coils around Romeo's neck.

DISTORTED EXTREME CLOSE UP: A seriously intoxicated Fulgencio
Capulet; his puffy red face squeezes against Romeo's.

			CAPULET
	Ah, I have seen the day that I
	could
	Tell a whispering tale in a fair
	ladies ear.
	Such as would please.

Capulet screams above the music:

			CAPULET (CONT.)
	Come musicians play!

Blood drums in Romeo's ears.  Breaking free from Capulet's
grasp as he pushes through the crowd toward the bathroom.

INT.  BATHROOM.  NIGHT.

Silent, underwater shot.  Romeo's tranquil features submerged
in a basin of water.

BEAT.

With a gasp, Romeo rises.  A moment.  His breathing calms.
Then, smoothing water into his hair, he gazes into the
bathroom mirror.  He turns:

The entire wall opposite the mirror, is a magnificent salt-
water fish tank.

Romeo, drawn by it's submarine beauty, leans against the
fish tank.  Applause echoes faintly through the bathroom
speakers.

INT.  BALLROOM.  NIGHT.

As the applause dies, a dark-haired Latina Diva takes the
spotlight.  The band ease into the opening bars of a love
ballad.

INT.  BATHROOM.  NIGHT.

As the music swells, Romeo watches a moustached catfish
glide past a medieval castle.

Suddenly, Romeo pulls away.  Peering back at him through the
castle is a pair of exquisitely beautiful angelic eyes.

The Diva's first pure, achingly beautiful notes soar.

Confused, Romeo looks again.  There is no mistake - it is a
girl.  Through a shimmering curtain of ribbon weed, two dark
wide eyes, a childish nose and sumptuous full lips.

Romeo pushes his face closer to the glass.  The other face
snaps abruptly away.

INT.  POWDER ROOM.  NIGHT.

CUT TO: Juliet, dressed as an angel, on the other side of
the tank.  We now realise that the girls' powder room and
the boys' bathroom are divided by this watery wonder world.

Juliet warily moves closer to the glass.

INT.  BATHROOM.  NIGHT.

Romeo leans his face against the glass.  The love ballad
builds.

SLOW TRACK: From Romeo's profile, in through the water, and...

INT.  POWDER ROOM.  NIGHT.

...out the other side, to find Juliet in profile, peering
into the tank.

INT.  BATHROOM.  NIGHT.

Romeo presses his nose lightly against the glass.

INT.  POWDER ROOM.  NIGHT.

Juliet; a tiny smile.

Suddenly, CRASH!  The door slams open.  Juliet turns,
startled.  It is the Nurse.

			NURSE
	Juliet, your mother calls.

The Nurse bustles Juliet out the door.  Juliet looks over
her shoulder at the mystery boy.

INT.  BALLROOM.  NIGHT.

Romeo, now without his mask, slams out of the bathroom -
Juliet and the Nurse have disappeared into the crowd.

CUT TO: Juliet being dragged along by the Nurse.  She
glances back toward the mystery boy, but he is gone.

Juliet and the Nurse rejoin Dave Paris, who is dressed as an
astronaut, and Gloria, at the side of the dance floor.

Dave, irresistible smile, extends his hand to Juliet.

			DAVE
	Will you now deny to dance?

Juliet looks to Dave, desperately searching for a reason to
decline.  Gloria, brushing aside her silly daughter's
protests, slugs the last of her champagne and corrals them
onto the dance floor.

			GLORIA
		(whispering to Juliet)
	A man, young lady, such a man.

As Juliet is dragged onto the floor her eyes furtively
search for the boy.

CUT TO: Romeo in the crowd.  Desperate to find the girl, he
roughly shunts aside a reveller dressed as Lucifer, Prince
of Darkness.

HOLD ON: Lucifer.  He removes his mask: it is Tybalt.  He
turns to Abra, who's dressed as a demon.

			TYBALT
	What, dares the slave come hither
	to fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
	Now by the stock and honor of my
	kin
	To strike him dead I hold it not a
	sin.

Tybalt moves off aggressively, but is halted as Capulet
slams a hand into his chest.

			CAPULET
	Why how now kinsman, wherefore
	storm you so?

			TYBALT
	Uncle, this is that villain Romeo.
	A Montague, our foe.

Capulet peers across the ballroom.

			CAPULET
	Young Romeo is it?

			TYBALT
	'Tis he.

			CAPULET
	Content thee gentle coz, let him
	alone.
	I would not for the wealth of all
	this town
	Here in my house do him
	disparagement.
	Therefore be patient; take no note
	of him.

Tybalt can't believe it.

			TYBALT
	I'll not endure him.

CLOSE ON: Capulet, exploding with rage.
.			CAPULET
	He shall be endured!
		(slapping Tybalt viciously)
	What, goodman boy!  I say he shall!
	Go to.

Capulet violently shoves Tybalt to the ground.

			CAPULET
	You'll make a mutiny among my guests!

A middle aged couple look on shocked - Capulet waves to them
festively:

			CAPULET
	What?  Cheerly my hearts!

Capulet snorts at Tybalt in disgust.

			CAPULET
	You'll not endure him!  Am I the
	master here or you?  Go to.

Smoothing his hair into place, Capulet turns back into the
ballroom.

CLOSE ON: Tybalt choking back tears of rage.

CUT TO: Romeo moving through the crowd.  For a moment the
crush clears and he spies the Angel on the dance floor.

CLOSE ON: Romeo whispers:

			ROMEO
	Did my heart love till now?
	Forswear it, sight.
	For I ne'er saw true beauty till
	this night.

Romeo begins to circumnavigate the dance floor in an attempt
to get closer to Juliet.

CUT TO: Dave slow dancing with Juliet.

Juliet's eyes search the room for the boy.

CLOSE ON: Romeo.

CLOSE ON: Juliet.

Their eyes connect.

Juliet looks quickly back to Dave who, oblivious, returns
his most devastating smile.

CUT TO: The songstress, her voice soars.

CUT TO: Juliet.  Unable to look away from the boy, she
stares over Dave's shoulder.

CUT TO: Romeo.  Ignoring the danger, he continues to move
toward the Angel.

With the Diva's spiralling final notes, the ballad concludes.

A complete black out.  As the crowd break into wild applause,
Juliet's eyes search the darkness, but the boy is gone.

The crowd cheers and screams its applause.  An avalanche of
balloons, tinsel and confetti rains down from the roof;
swathes of red silk drop from the ceiling and the space is
transformed.

CLOSE ON: Juliet, searching for the boy.

Suddenly: A gasp, Juliet's eyes widen, shocked.

In the dark, a hand has shot out from the drape curtaining
off the stage and clasped hers.  Juliet barely dares breathe.

She glances furtively to Dave Paris - he watches the stage.

Slowly Juliet turns toward the hand; there through a break
in the curtain she can see eye, cheek and lips of the
mystery boy.  As the Diva reprises the chorus, Romeo gently
pulls Juliet behind the curtain.

INT.  BEHIND CURTAIN.  NIGHT.

Concealed from the party by the red velvet drape, hands
still clasped, the teenagers are so close their bodies
almost touch.

			ROMEO
	If I profane with my unworthiest
	hand
	This holy shrine, the gentle sin is
	this.
	My lips, two blushing pilgrims,
	ready stand
	To smooth that rough touch with a
	tender kiss.

Romeo moves his lips toward Juliet's.  She stops him.

			JULIET
	Good pilgrim, you do wrong your
	hand too much,
	Which mannerly devotion shows in
	this.
	For saints have hands that pilgrim's
	hands do touch,
	And palm to palm is holy palmers'
	kiss.

			ROMEO
	Have not saints lips, and holy
	palmers too?

			JULIET
		(a gentle scolding)
	Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must
	use in prayer.

			ROMEO
	O, then, dear saint, let lips do
	what hands do,
	They pray: grant thou, lest faith
	turn to despair.

			JULIET
	Saints do not move, though grant
	for prayer's sake.

			ROMEO
	Then move not while my prayer's
	effect I take.

He kisses her.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Thus from my lips, by thine my sin
	is purged.

			JULIET
	Then have my lips the sin that they
	have took.

			ROMEO
	Sin from my lips?  O trespass
	sweetly urged!
	Give me my sin again.

He kisses her.

			JULIET
	You kiss by th' book.

They kiss again.

Suddenly a harsh light falls across the entwined couple.
They break apart - Nurse has pulled open the curtain and
stands eyeing them severely.

			NURSE
	Madam, your mother craves a word
	with you.

We see that the party is breaking up.  But for groups of
die-hard revellers, the room is nearly empty.

			NURSE (CONT.)
	Come, let's away.

She takes firm control of her charge.

Juliet furtively motions for the startled Romeo not to
follow as he trails them across the room.

CUT TO: ROMEO'S P.O.V.: The Nurse and Juliet reach the door,
but instead of leaving, they turn and ascend the staircase
that arcs around to the mezzanine level.  They join a vexed
Gloria Capulet who clings to a patient Dave Paris.

Inaudible words are exchanged.  Juliet flickers her eyes
nervously to Romeo.

CUT TO: Romeo.  He halts at the foot of the stairs unsure.

CUT TO: Gloria.  Catching Juliet's interest in the boy, she
indicates to her daughter to 'COME ALONG'.

CUT TO: Romeo; a dawning realisation.

			ROMEO
		(under his breath)
	Is she a Capulet?

CUT TO: Juliet.  She stops and turns back.

CUT TO: Romeo, comprehending the reality of who she is.

CUT TO: Juliet.  The Nurse whispers in her ear.

			NURSE
	His name is Romeo, and a Montague,
	The only son of your great enemy.

An orchestral treatment of Joy Division's "Love will tear us
Apart" swells;

HOLD ON: Juliet.  Like a cloud passing across the sun, a
dark coldness descends upon her.

CUT TO: Mercutio.  He throws himself upon the shell shocked
Romeo.

			MERCUTIO
	Away, begone, the sport is at its
	best.

Mercutio shuttles Romeo toward the door.

			ROMEO
	Ay so I fear,

A covert glance over his shoulder.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	The more is my unrest.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION.  NIGHT.

Mercutio bundles Romeo through the front door and down the
stairs to the waiting getaway car.

INT.  CAPULET MANSION - STAIRS ALCOVE WINDOW - NIGHT.

CUT TO: Juliet.  Manoeuvred by the Nurse up the stairs, she
breaks away and rushes to a tiny, windowed alcove.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION - MAIN ENTRANCE.  NIGHT.

CUT TO: Mercutio's convertible and its noisy confederacy
joining the line of departing limos.

A huge sign combusts into blinding fireworks that write in
giant words "CAPULET."

As the convertible passes beneath the blazing words, Romeo
turns.  Through a deluge of falling sparks, he glimpses the
mystery girl high up in the tower.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION - WINDOW.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: Juliet leaning out of the tower window.  Brilliant
sparkles light in her eyes.

PUSH IN: We hear her secret whisper:

			JULIET
	My only love, sprung from my only
	hate.
	Too early seen unknown, and known
	too late.
	Prodigious birth of love it is to me

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION - MAIN ENTRANCE DRIVE.  NIGHT.

CUT TO: JULIET'S P.O.V.: In slow motion Romeo, through the
falling curtain of fiery embers.

			JULIET (CONT.)(V/O)
	That I must love a loathed enemy.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION - WINDOW.  NIGHT.

Warm wind blows the smoke from the expended fireworks.
Juliet closes the window and leans against the glass.

CRANE DOWN: The side of the building past revellers who
don't know when to leave.  Standing in the front doorway is
someone else who cannot take their eyes off the departing
Romeo.  It is Tybalt.  The music darkens as we push through
the smoky wind.

			TYBALT
	I will withdraw.  But this intrusion
	shall,
	Now seeming sweet, convert to
	bitterest gall.

INT.  MERCUTIO'S CAR.  NIGHT.

Caught in the jam of departing vehicles, Mercutio's car
crawls along the bridge that links Capulet island with the
mainland.  The boys sing along raucously with the radio.

			BOYS
	"I am a pretty piece of flesh,
	I am a pretty piece of flesh..."

PUSH IN: On Romeo, he whispers:

			ROMEO
	Can I go forward when my heart is
	here?
	Turn back, dull earth, and find thy
	centre out.

Romeo leaps from the car.  Benvolio yells after him.

			BENVOLIO
	Romeo!  Cousin Romeo!  Romeo!

EXT.  CAPULET BRIDGE.  NIGHT.

Romeo runs back along the bridge toward the estate.  At the
gates, armed guards supervise the exodus of vehicles.  Romeo
uses the traffic to shield himself from view.

Romeo leaps from the bridge and into the shadows at the base
of the high stone wall that borders the compound.

EXT.  CAPULET BRIDGE.  NIGHT.

Mercutio's car prowls back along the bridge.  The last
guests have departed and the gates are swinging shut.  The
convertible halts in front of them.

			BENVOLIO
	He ran this way.  Call, good
	Mercutio.

			MERCUTIO
	Nay, I'll conjure too.

Mercutio leaps from the car.  He postures like a magician in
a low-budget variety special.  The boys cheer him on.

			MERCUTIO
	Romeo!  Humours!  Madman!  Passion!
	Lover!
	I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright
	eyes,
	By her high forehead and her
	scarlet lip,
	By her fine foot, straight leg, and
	quivering thigh.
	And the demesnes that there adjacent
	lie,
	That in thy likeness thou appear to
	us!

EXT.  CAPULET WALL.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: Romeo's fake chain mail shirt tangled in the
barbed wire at the top of the wall.

PAN DOWN: Romeo, now on the other side of the wall, pulls up
his undershirt and gingerly inspects the cuts inflicted by
the wire.

Mercutio's cavorting echoes from the bridge.  Romeo smiles
ironically.

			ROMEO
	He jests at scars that never felt a
	wound.

Romeo moves off through the darkened grounds of Capulet
estate.

EXT.  CAPULET BRIDGE.  NIGHT.

The boys laugh hysterically as Mercutio staggers around the
bridge in imitation of a love sick fool.

			MERCUTIO
	O Romeo, that she were, O that she
	were
	An open-arse and thou a poperin pear!

The hilarity is abruptly arrested as a security spotlight
blazes to life, pinning Mercutio in its beam.  The sound of
automatic weapons cocking pierces the night.

CLOSE ON: Mercutio.  He's brave but not stupid.  He gets
back into the car.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Come, shall we go?

EXT.  THE BACK OF CAPULET MANSION.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: A pair of stone cherubs on top of the retaining
wall of a terraced garden.  Romeo's face appears between them.

Romeo hauls himself up onto the wall.  Below is a Greco-
Roman style pool area.  To the right the darkened rear wing
of Capulet Mansion.  Suddenly the back of the house explodes
with light.  Romeo takes cover.

			ROMEO
	But soft, what light through yonder
	window breaks?

Romeo's question is answered as out onto the verandah comes
Juliet.  She is still clad in her angel robe, but without
the halo and wings.  She slowly descends to pool level.

			ROMEO
	It is the East, and Juliet is the
	sun!
	Arise, fair sun, and kill the
	envious moon,
	Who is already sick and pale with
	grief
	That thou her maid art far more
	fair than she.
	Be not her maid, since she is
	envious.
	Her vestal livery is but sick and
	green,
	And none but fools do wear it.
.Juliet stands on the top step of the pool stairs.  She is
directly below Romeo as he whispers.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Cast it off!

Juliet sits on the edge of the pool, her legs dangle in the
water.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	It is my lady.  O, it is my love!
	O that she knew she were!

Juliet sighs.

			JULIET
	Ay me!

			ROMEO
		(whispers)
	She speaks.
	O, speak again, bright angel!

Juliet looks longingly toward the stars.

			JULIET
	O Romeo, Romeo! - Whyfore art thou
	Romeo?
	Deny thy father and refuse thy
	name.
	Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn
	my love,
	And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

CLOSE ON: Romeo.  Incredulous.

			ROMEO
	Shall I hear more, or shall I speak
	at this?

			JULIET
	'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
	Thou are thyself, though not a
	Montague.
	What's Montague?  It is not hand
	nor foot
	Nor arm nor face nor any other part
	Belonging to a man.  O, be some
	other name!
	What's in a name?
	That which we call a rose
	By any other word would smell as
	sweet.
	So Romeo would, were he not Romeo
	called,
	Retain that dear perfection which
	he owes
	Without that title.  Romeo, doff
	thy name,
	And for thy name, which is no part
	of thee,
	Take all myself.

Romeo wildly calls:

			ROMEO
	I take thee at thy word!
	Call me but love, and I'll be new
	baptised.
	Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

Romeo jumps down from the wall.  Juliet screams, and turns,
toppling backwards.  Romeo grabs her hand but her momentum
overbalances him and they both plunge headlong into the pool.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION - POOL - UNDERWATER.  NIGHT.

Underwater shot:  A slow motion phosphorescent tangle of
arms, legs and bodies.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION - BACK GARDEN.  NIGHT.

CUT TO: A security guard.  Alerted by the noise he moves
toward the pool area.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION - POOL GARDEN - NIGHT.

CUT TO: Above water, real time: Romeo and Juliet surface
spluttering.  Juliet thrashes the water in an attempt to get
distance from her attacker.

			JULIET
	What man art thou that, thus
	bescreened in night,
	So stumblest on my counsel?

Romeo: A calming gesture as he tries to tread water.

			ROMEO
	By a name I know not how to tell
	thee who I am:
	My name, dear saint, is hateful to
	myself
	Because it is an enemy to thee.
.The ferocious barking of a guard dog arrests the teenagers
attention.  A moment, then they slide beneath the water.

CUT TO: The security guard and dog appearing above the pool
area.

GUARD'S P.O.V.: The rippling surface of the water.

CUT TO - UNDERWATER SHOT: Romeo and Juliet submerged, hair
streaming, stare at each other like two beautiful fish.

CUT TO: The guard.  He can see noisy caterers cleaning up
around the other side of the house.  Frowning, he returns
the way he came.

CUT TO: Romeo and Juliet.  Gasping for air, they cautiously
surface.  A moment - then Juliet, a small smile.

			JULIET
	Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

			ROMEO
	Neither, fair maid, if either thee
	dislike.

Juliet looks nervously toward the house.  She drags Romeo
toward a small grotto at the end of the pool.

			JULIET
	How cam'st thou hither, tell me,
	and whyfore?
	The garden walls are high and hard
	to climb,
	And the place death, considering
	who thou art.

			ROMEO
		(with splashy bravado)
	With love's light wings did I o'er
	perch these walls.
	For stony limits cannot hold love
	out,
	And what love can do, that dares
	love attempt.
	Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop
	to me.

Juliet drags Romeo firmly into the grotto.

			JULIET
		(a real fear)
	If they do see thee, they will
	murder thee.

Romeo slowly pulls Juliet toward him.

			ROMEO
	I have night's cloak to hide me
	from their eyes.
	And but thou love me, let them find
	me here.
	My life were better ended by their
	hate
	Than death prorogued, wanting of
	thy love.

The lovers kiss long and deep.  Then Juliet, suddenly
fearful, pushes Romeo away.

			JULIET
	Thou knowest the mask of night is
	on my face,
	Else would a maiden blush bepaint
	my cheek,
	For that which thou hast heard me
	speak tonight.
	Fain would I dwell on form - fain,
	fain deny
	What I have spoke.  But farewell
	compliment!
	Dost thou love me?

Romeo tries to speak, Juliet silences him.

			JULIET (CONT.)
	I know thou wilt say 'Ay', and I
	will take thy word.  Yet, if thou
	swearest,
	Thou mayst prove false.  O gentle
	Romeo,
	If thou dost love, pronounce it
	faithfully.
	Or if thou think'st I am too
	quickly won,
	I'll frown, and be perverse, and
	say thee nay,
	So thou wilt woo.  But else, not
	for the world.
	In truth, fair Montague, I am too
	fond,
	And therefore thou mayst think my
	'haviour light.
	But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove
	more true
	Than those that have more cunning
	to be strange.

			ROMEO
	Lady, by yonder blessed moon I vow,
	That tips with silver all these
	fruit-tree tops -

			JULIET
	O, swear not by the moon, th'
	inconstant moon,
	That monthly changes in her circled
	orb,
	Lest that thy love prove likewise
	variable.

			ROMEO
	What shall I swear by?

			JULIET
	Do not swear at all.
	Or if thou wilt, swear by thy
	gracious self,
	Which is the god of my idolatry,
	And I'll believe thee.

She touches his cheek.  Romeo moves his lips close.

			ROMEO
	If my heart's dear love -

Confused, Juliet breaks away.

			JULIET
	Well, do not swear.  Although I joy
	in thee,
	I have no joy of this contract
	tonight.
	It is too rash, too unadvised, too
	sudden;
	Too like the lightning, which doth
	cease to be
	Ere one can say 'it lightens.'
	Sweet, good night.
	This bud of love, by summer's
	ripening breath,
	May prove a beauteous flower when
	next we meet.
	Good night, good night.  As sweet
	repose and rest
	Come to thy heart as that within my
	breast.

She rushes up the stairs - Romeo follows desperately.

			ROMEO
	O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

Juliet - a shocked look.

			JULIET
	What satisfaction canst thou have
	tonight?

CLOSE ON: Romeo.

			ROMEO
	The exchange of thy love's faithful
	vow for mine.

CLOSE ON: Juliet.  She runs joyously to Romeo.

			JULIET
	I gave thee mind before thou didst
	request it!

Kissing him passionately.

			JULIET (CONT.)
	And yet I would it were to give
	again.

			ROMEO
	Wouldst thou withdraw it?  For what
	purpose love?

			JULIET
	But to be frank and give it thee
	again.

They kiss again.  The Nurse calls from inside.

			NURSE (O/S)
	Juliet!

Juliet looks to the house.

			JULIET
		(breathlessly)
	Three words, dear Romeo, and good
	night indeed.
	If that thy bent of love be
	honourable.
	Thy purpose marriage, send me word
	tomorrow,
	By one that I'll procure to come to
	thee,
	Where and what time thou wilt
	perform the rite,
	And all my fortunes at thy foot
	I'll lay
	And follow thee my lord throughout
	the world.

			NURSE (O/S)
	Madam!

			JULIET
	I come, anon - But if thou meanest
	not well,
	I do beseech thee...

			NURSE (O/S)
	Madam!

			JULIET
		(to Nurse)
	By and by I come!
	To cease thy strife and leave me to
	my grief.
	Tomorrow will I send.

Romeo holds Juliet's gaze.

			ROMEO
	So thrive my soul.

			NURSE (O/S)
	Madam!

Juliet breaks away.

			JULIET
	A thousand times good night!

With a final kiss, Juliet runs inside.

			ROMEO
	A thousand times the worse, to want
	thy light.
	Love goes toward love as schoolboys
	from their books;
	But love from love, toward school
	with heavy looks.

Juliet re-appears at the upper balcony.

			JULIET
	Romeo!  What o'clock tomorrow
	Shall I send to thee?

			ROMEO
	By the hour of nine.

Juliet unclasps a delicate silver necklace from around her
neck.

			JULIET
	I will not fail. 'Tis twenty year
	till then.
	Goodnight, goodnight!  Parting is
	such sweet sorrow.
	That I shall say goodnight till it
	be morrow.

She lets the necklace fall from her hand.  Romeo catches it
and she is gone.

			ROMEO
	Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace
	in thy breast,
	Would I were sleep and peace, so
	sweet to rest.

INT.  GREENHOUSE.  DAWN.

Morning sunlight filters through the lush foliage of a
tropical rainforest.

PAN DOWN: As we hear:

			FATHER LAURENCE (O/S)
	O mickle is the powerful grace that
	lies
	In plants, herbs, stones, and their
	true qualities.

We discover the intensely concentrating features of FATHER
LAURENCE.  Fifties, wiry and wearing a priest's collar,
Laurence delicately makes an incision in the bulb of a small
purple flowered plant.

A pair of fresh faced ten year old boys look on in wonderment
as a vivid blue sap oozes from the incision.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	Within the infant rind of this weak
	flower
	Poison hath residence, and medicine
	power.

PULL BACK: The Priest carefully gathers the sap into a
beaker.  We discover that we are in a small tropical
greenhouse.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
		(to the boys)
	For this, being smelt, with that
	part cheers each part;
	Being tasted, stays all senses with
	the heart.
.The boys follow the Father as he moves out of the greenhouse
and into an adjoining work area.  The walls are lined with
bottles of herbs and dried plants and a television flickers
in the corner.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	For naught so vile on the earth
	doth live,
	But to the earth some special good
	doth give;

With the precision of a chemist, Father Laurence funnels the
sap into a small bottle and places it in the refrigerator.
From out of the refrigerator he produces a large jar of
candy.  He eyes the boys sternly.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	Nor aught so good but, strained
	from that fair use,
	Revolts from true birth, stumbling
	on abuse.

The boys take their candy and scram.

CUT TO: The muted television.  A morning news program shows
footage of a murder scene cordoned off with police tape.  A
distraught mother is being restrained.

CLOSE ON: The priest contemplating the television.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Two such opposed kings encamp them
	still
	In man as well as herbs: grace and
	rude will;
	And where the worser is predominant,
	Full soon the canker death eats up
	that plant.

A feverish knocking breaks the priest's reverie.

			ROMEO (O/S)
	Good morrow, father!

Father Laurence snaps off the television and exits the
workroom.

EXT.  WALL.  DAWN.

Romeo, dressed in last night's chain mail, pounds desperately
on a wooden door set into a high stone wall.

			ROMEO
	Good morrow, father!

EXT.  COURTYARD.  DAWN.

From the workroom, Father Laurence enters a courtyard which
encloses a tranquil tropical garden.  He opens a door in the
wall of the courtyard and smiles as the costumed Romeo
bursts in.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Benedicite!
	What early tongue so sweet saluteth
	me?

Without pausing, the priest continues through the courtyard
and toward the church.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	Young son, it argues a distempered
	head
	So soon to bid good morrow to thy
	bed.
	Or if not so, then here I hit it
	right -
	Our Romeo hath not been in bed
	tonight.

The priest enters the back of the church.

INT.  SACRISTY.  DAWN.

Romeo, on fire to tell of his experience, follows the priest
into the sacristy.

			ROMEO
	The last is true.  The sweeter rest
	was mine.

			FATHER LAURENCE
		(he stops)
	God pardon sin!  Wast thou with
	Rosaline?

			ROMEO
	With Rosaline, my ghostly father?
	No.
	I have forgot that name and that
	name's woe.

The Father lays out the cut glass bottles and communion tray
for mass.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	That's my good son!  But where hast
	thou been then?

Unconsciously, Romeo helps the priest prepare.  It is clear
he knows the routine by heart.

			ROMEO
	I have been feasting with mine
	enemy,
	Where on a sudden one hath wounded
	me.
	That's by me wounded.  Both our
	remedies
	Within they help and holy physic
	lies.

			FATHER LAURENCE
		(buttoning a long
		black cassock)
	Be plain, good son, and homely in
	thy drift.
	Riddling confession finds but
	riddling shrift.

			ROMEO
	Then plainly know my heart's dear
	love is set,
	On the fair daughter of rich
	Capulet.
	We met, we wooed, and made exchange
	of vow,
	I'll tell thee as we pass.  But
	this I pray,
	That thou consent to marry us today.

CUT TO: The Priest, thunderstruck.  The two kids, now
dressed in red altar-boy robes, enter.

			ALTAR BOYS
	Good morrow, Romeo.

The apoplectic priest waves the boys away.  They get the
message and bolt.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Holy Saint Francis!  What a change
	is here!
	Is Rosaline, that thou didst love
	so dear,
	So soon foresaken?  Young men's
	love then lies
	Not truly in their hearts, but in
	their eyes.

			ROMEO
	Thou chid'st me oft for loving
	Rosaline.

			FATHER LAURENCE
		(very angry)
	For doting, not for loving, pupil
	mine.

			ROMEO
	I pray thee chide me not.  Her I
	love now
	Doth grace for grace and love for
	love allow.
	The other did not so.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	O, she knew well
	Thy love did read by rote, that
	could not spell.

The Father falls into a chair and considers.  He looks
through the sacristy door to where a small children's choir
has assembled.  Their angelic voices soar into the purest of
hymns.

			CHOIR
	How can you just leave me standing
	Alone in a world so cold,
	Maybe I'm just too demanding,
	Maybe I'm just like my father, too
	bold,
	Maybe you're just like my mother,
	She's never satisfied.
	Why do we scream at each other?
	This is what it sounds like when
	doves cry...

We recognise the hymn as "When Doves Cry" by Prince.

PUSH IN: On the Priest; moved, he looks to Romeo.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	But come, young waverer, come, go
	with me.
	In one respect I'll thy assistant
	be.
	For this alliance may so happy
	prove
	To turn your households' rancor to
	pure love.

Romeo hurriedly assists the priest with his vestments.

			ROMEO
	O, let us hence!  I stand on sudden
	haste.

Father Laurence holds Romeo in his powerful gaze.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Wisely and slow.  They stumble that
	run fast.

The procession is joined by the two little altar boys and
the mass begins.

EXT.  VERONA BEACH.  DAY.

As the Angelic voices of the choir soar, we see a pay phone
etched with hyper-real starkness against the white sand,
green sea and blue sky.

A single leaning palm tree frames the image like a ridiculous
tourist postcard.

Benvolio speaks on the pay phone.  Mercutio, torso naked but
for his holstered Sports Rapier 9mm, drums his fingers on
the side of the booth.

			MERCUTIO
	Where the devil should this Romeo
	be?
	Came he not home tonight?

			BENVOLIO
		(slamming down the phone)
	Not to his father's.  I spoke with
	his man.

Mercutio storms off down the beach.

			MERCUTIO
	Why, that same pale hard-hearted
	wench, that Rosaline,
	Torments him so that he will sure
	run mad.

			BENVOLIO
		(running to keep up)
	Tybalt hath sent a letter to his
	father's house.

			MERCUTIO
		(halts abruptly)
	A challenge, on my life.

CLOSE ON: Benvolio, unsure.

			BENVOLIO
	Romeo will answer it?

			MERCUTIO
	Any man that can write may answer a
	letter.

			BENVOLIO
	Nay, he will answer the letter's
	master, how he dares, being dared.

Mercutio clamps Benvolio into a headlock.

			MERCUTIO
	Alas, poor Romeo, he is already
	dead!
	Stabbed with a white wench's black
	eye,

He whispers into Benvolio's ear:

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Run through the ear with a love
	song.
		(in disgust)
	And is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

			BENVOLIO
		(struggling to break free)
	Why, what is Tybalt?

			MERCUTIO
		(releasing him)
	More than Prince of Cats, I can
	tell you.
	O, he's the courageous captain of
	compliments.
	The very butcher of a silk button.

Lightening fast, Mercutio draws his gun.  He twirls it in an
impressive display of gunmanship which ends with the barrel
between the startled Benvolio's eyes.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	A duellist, a duellist.

Romeo's car pulls into the beach side parking lot.  Benvolio
heads toward it.

			BENVOLIO
	Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo!

EXT.  BEACH - PARKING LOT.  DAY.

Romeo alights from his car and throws his keys to Balthasar
who lounges outside the beach side hang.  Mercutio saunters
up the beach with mock nonchalance.

			MERCUTIO
	Signor Romeo, Bonjour.  There's a
	French salutation to your French
	slop.  You gave us the counterfeit
	fairly last night.

			ROMEO
	Good morrow to you both.  What
	counterfeit did I give you?

			MERCUTIO
	The slip, sir, the slip.  Can you
	not conceive?

Romeo smiles smugly.

			ROMEO
	Pardon, good Mercutio.  My business
	was great, and in such a case as
	mine a man may strain courtesy.

			MERCUTIO
		(sarcastically)
	A most courteous exposition.

			ROMEO
	Nay I am the very pink of courtesy.

			MERCUTIO
		(camply)
	Pink for flower?

The boys laugh.  Romeo feigns anger.

			ROMEO
	I will bite thee on the ear for
	that jest!

Mercutio, goading Romeo to follow, backs off down the beach.

			MERCUTIO
	Come between us, good Benvolio!  My
	wits faint.

Mercutio flicks sand at Romeo, then sprints off down the
beach.  Romeo, laughing, gives chase.

			ROMEO
	Switch and spurs, switch and spurs,
	or I'll cry a match.

EXT.  BEACH - SHORELINE.  DAY.

Romeo is gaining on Mercutio, who runs headlong into the sea.
With a yell, Romeo dives in after him.

EXT.  BEACH - AT SEA.  DAY.

Mercutio splashes the laughing Romeo.

			MERCUTIO
	Why, is not this better now than
	groaning for love?

Romeo tries to dunk Mercutio.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Now art thou sociable.

Mercutio, evading, heads for shore.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Now art thou Romeo.  Now art thou...

EXT.  BEACH - SHORELINE.  DAY.

Romeo tackles Mercutio on the wet sand.  Mercutio falls
suddenly serious.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
		(quietly)
	What thou art, by art as well as by
	nature.

A moment between the boys.  A shadow falls across them.
Romeo looks up.

			ROMEO
	Here's goodly gear.

Standing above the boys is the Nurse.  She wears a
ridiculous, all red, "Jackie O" style disguise of sunglasses,
scarf and parasol.

			MERCUTIO
		(bemused)
	God ye good e'en fair gentlewoman.

The nurse, ignoring Mercutio, speaks dramatically to Romeo.

			NURSE
	I desire some confidence with you.

She turns and walks back to the parking lot where Peter the
chauffer waits beside the limousine.

Benvolio and the other boys look on curiously.

			MERCUTIO
	A bawd, a bawd, a bawd!  So ho!

But Romeo rises and to the amazement of Mercutio actually
follows this woman.  Mercutio looks questioningly to
Benvolio, who shrugs.

			BENVOLIO
	She will endite him to some supper?

Even more strangely, Romeo gets into the limousine.

			MERCUTIO
		(taken by surprise)
	Romeo, will you come to your
	father's?
	We'll to dinner thither.

			ROMEO
		(as he closes the door)
	I will follow you.

			MERCUTIO
	Farewell, ancient lady.  Farewell.

The car pulls away.

EXT.  STREET.  DAY.

The limousine drives through Verona Beach.

INT.  MOVING LIMOUSINE.  DAY.

CLOSE ON: Romeo jammed into the corner of the seat.  The
Nurse's face is pressed alarmingly close to his.  She speaks
in cold deadly earnest.

			NURSE
	If ye should lead her in a fool's
	paradise, as they say, it were a
	very gross kind of behavior, as
	they say.  For the gentlewoman is
	young; and therefore, if you should
	deal double with her, truly it were
	an ill thing and very weak dealing.

BEAT: Romeo chooses his words carefully.

			ROMEO
	Bid her to come to confession this
	afternoon,
	And there she shall at Friar
	Laurence's cell
	Be shrived and
		(PUSH IN ON: Romeo)
	married.

INT.  JULIET'S BEDROOM.  DAY.

CLOSE ON: Juliet's face peering out her bedroom window.

			JULIET
	O God she comes!

EXT.  CAPULETS MANSION - DRIVEWAY.  DAY.

PULL BACK: JULIET'S P.O.V.: The limousine pulls up at the
front door, the Nurse alights.

Juliet bolts from the room.

INT.  LANDING.  DAY.

Juliet hurries down the stairs - the Nurse, a way ahead,
disappears into a doorway.

INT.  STAIRWAY.  DAY.

Juliet races down a dark stairwell that leads to the bowels
of the house.

INT.  KITCHEN.  DAY.

The kitchen, obviously the Nurse's domain, is decorated with
a mixture of religious iconography and travel posters.  Most
of the posters depict a strange city of decadent, decaying,
beauty.

Juliet bursts breathlessly into the room.

			JULIET
	O honey nurse, what news?

The Nurse, buried up to her ample hips inside the
refrigerator, does not turn around.

Juliet cries impatiently.

			JULIET
	Nurse!

The nurse emerges from the ice box laden with food.  Moving
to the counter she starts to make a sandwich.

			NURSE
	I am aweary, give me leave awhile.
	Fie, how my bones ache.  What a
	jaunce have I.

Juliet under her breath.

			JULIET
	I would thou hadst my bones and I
	thy news.

Juliet goes to the nurse.

			JULIET
	Nay come, I pray thee, speak: good;
	good
	Nurse, speak.

Sandwich made, the nurse shuffles over to a corner couch.

			NURSE
	Jesu, what haste.  Can you not stay
	awhile?
	Can you not see I am out of breath?

Juliet cannot stand the suspense any longer.

			JULIET
	How art thou out of breath when
	thou hast breath
	To say to me that thou art out of
	breath!
	Is the news good or bad?  Answer to
	that.

The Nurse takes a big bite from her sandwich and answers
through thoughtful chews.

			NURSE
	Well, you have made a simple
	choice.
	You know not how to choose a man.
	Romeo?  No, not he.
	Though his face be better than any
	man's, yet his leg excels all men's
	and for a hand and a foot and a
	body, though they be not to be
	talked on, yet they are past
	compare.
	He's not the flower of courtesy,
	but I'll warrant him as gentle as a
	lamb.  Go thy ways, wench, serve
	God.  What, have you dined at home?

Juliet is flabbergasted.

			JULIET
	No, no.  But all this I did know
	before.  What says he of our
	marriage?  What of that

			NURSE
	Lord how my head aches!  What a
	head have I:
	My back -

This is a game that Juliet knows well.  She moves behind the
Nurse and begins massaging her back.

			NURSE (CONT.)
	o' t'other side - ah, my back!
	Beshrew your heart for sending me
	about
	To catch my death with jauncing up
	and down.

With sublime self control, Juliet coo's sweetly.

			JULIET
	I'faith I am sorry that thou art
	not well.
	Sweet, sweet, sweet Nurse, tell me,
	what says my love?

			NURSE
	Your love says like an honest
	gentleman,
	And a courteous, and a kind, and a
	handsome,
	And I warrant a virtuous - Where is
	your mother?

Juliet cracks.

			JULIET
	Where is my mother?  How oddly thou
	repliest!
	'Your love says, like an honest
	gentleman, "Where is your mother"'!

The nurse sulks.

			NURSE
	O God's lady dear are you so hot?
	Henceforth do your messages yourself.

Juliet's frustration explodes.

			JULIET
	Here's such a coil!  COME WHAT SAYS
	ROMEO?

PAUSE: The Nurse considers Juliet.

			NURSE
	Have you got leave to go to
	confession today?

			JULIET
	I have.

			NURSE
	Then hie you hence to Father
	Laurence cell.
	There stays a husband to make you a
	wife!

Juliet, with a scream of joy, hugs the Nurse to her.

HOLD ON: Juliet's ecstatic features.

INT.  CHURCH.  DAY.

TIGHT ON: FATHER LAURENCE:

			FATHER LAURENCE
	These violent delights have violent
	ends!

PULL BACK: Father Laurence is preaching energetically from
the pulpit.  Hidden from the congregation, Romeo waits in a
small alcove chapel at the side of the altar.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	The sweetest honey
	Is loathsome in its own
	deliciousness,
	Therefore love moderately.

The Father glances toward Romeo.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	Long love doth so.
	Too swift arrives as tardy as too
	slow.
.Juliet pushes through the double doors at the far end of the
church.

Father Laurence motions to the middle-aged choir master who
leads the choir into a choral version of Led Zeppelin's "A
Whole Lot of Love" with Latin lyrics.

Father Laurence hurries from the altar over to Romeo.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	Here comes the lady.

Juliet bursts into the tiny chapel.  Trying to observe a
vestige of decorum, she greets Father Laurence.

			JULIET
	Good afternoon to my ghostly
	confessor.

But before the priest can reply, the two lovers embrace,
kissing passionately.

			FATHER LAURENCE
		(dryly)
	Romeo shall thank thee, daughter,
	for us both.

The choir completes the hymn and the priest, realising it is
his cue, rushes back to the altar.  He quickly delivers a
prayer to the congregation while eyeing the increasingly
amorous smooching of the young couple.

The choir launch into a joyous chorus and the priest returns
to Romeo and Juliet.  He delicately parts the couple.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	Come, come, and we will make short
	work.
	For, by your leaves, you shall not
	stay alone
	Till Holy Church incorporate two in
	one.

A young boy with a voice like Jamiroquai steps forward.  He
launches into a wailing solo.

MACRO CLOSE UP: A simple silver ring.  Engraved on the
inside of the band are the words 'I love thee.'

PULL BACK: Romeo slips the ring onto Juliet's finger as the
priest executes the formal sacrament of marriage.
.INT./EXT.  CHURCH.  DAY.

CRANE UP: Through the majestic patterning of stained glass,
and out of the church to find Peter, the chauffeur, cradling
a small camera as he waits nervously beside the limo.

EXT.  CHURCH.  DAY.

The music swells in celebration.  Romeo and Juliet, now
newly-wed, rush from the side door of the church.  The
priest follows, throwing handfuls of rice.  Peter studiously
takes a snap as the bride and groom kiss.

Peter holds the door of the limousine open.  Reluctantly
Juliet gets into the car.

As the car pulls out of the driveway, Romeo runs alongside.

HOLD: On Romeo as he watches the big black car speed away.

EXT.  UNDERWATER.  DAY.

FISH-EYE VIEW: From the bottom of the ocean; Mercutio's
distorted features.  Gun aimed, he stares intently into the
water.

A muffled BANG! and a bullet whizzes past the camera.

EXT.  VERONA BEACH.  DAY.

We see that Mercutio - wading in knee deep water close to
the beach - is hunting fish.

Benvolio shelters in the shade of an unmanned life guard
tower.

A shimmering heat haze blankets the deserted beach and the
horizon is stacked with purple storm clouds.

			BENVOLIO
	I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's
	retire.
	The day is hot,

Mercutio, ignoring him, plugs away at another fish.  Benvolio
nervously looks to see if there is any reaction to the sound
of the shot.

			BENVOLIO (CONT.)
	The Capels are abroad.  And if we
	meet we shall not 'scape a brawl.

Mercutio strides out of the water.

			MERCUTIO
	Thou art like one of these fellows
	that, when he enters the confines
	of a tavern, claps me his sword
	upon the table and says 'God send
	me no need of thee!'
		(he hands Benvolio
		his gun)
	and by the operation of the second
	cup draws him on the drawer, when
	indeed there is no need.

Another incredible sleight of hand routine and Mercutio has
managed to draw Benvolio's pistol, retrieve his own gun, and
trap Benvolio with a barrel at each temple.

The joke has worn thin for Benvolio; he pushes past Mercutio
toward where Balthasar, Sampson and Gregory lounge in the
shade of the beach-side hang.

Suddenly he stops dead - a monstrous black sedan prowls into
the beach side parking lot.

			BENVOLIO
	By my head, here comes the Capulets.

			MERCUTIO
	By my heel, I care not.

EXT.  BEACH - PARKING LOT.  DAY.

The sedan mounts the curb and slides to a halt only metres
from Benvolio and Mercutio.

Tybalt, Abra and Petruchio alight from the sedan and walk
menacingly toward Mercutio and Benvolio.

			TYBALT
	Gentlemen, good day.  A word with
	one of you.

The boys from the hang, drawn the Capulet car, converge -
eyes dart nervously, hands stray towards guns.

Mercutio smiles mockingly.

			MERCUTIO
	And but one word with one of us?
	Couple it with something.  Make it
	a word and a...

Leaning close to Tybalt, he camps the implication.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	...blow.

Mercutio scores.  The boys laugh.

			TYBALT
		(furious)
	You shall find me apt enough to
	that, sir,
		(clutching at his
		side arm)
	And you will give me occasion.

CLOSE ON: Mercutio.  He stops, eyeing the hand on the gun.
No one moves.

			MERCUTIO
		(a breathy, coquettish
		voice)
	Could you not take some occasion
	without giving?

The boys fall about again.  Tybalt cracks.

			TYBALT
	Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo.

The accusation stings - Mercutio's anger flares.

			MERCUTIO
	Consort?  What, dost thou make us
	minstrels?  And thou make minstrels
	of us look to hear nothing but
	discords.  Here's my fiddlestick.

Indicating his holstered gun.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Here's that shall make you dance.
		(barking at Tybalt)
	Zounds,
		(goading him to go
		for his gun)
	consort!

CLOSE ON: Tybalt.

CLOSE ON: Mercutio.  He will not back down.  Benvolio tries
to diffuse things.

			BENVOLIO
	Either withdraw unto some private
	place.
	Or reason coldly of your grievances.
	Here all eyes gaze on us.

			MERCUTIO
	Men's eyes were made to look, and
	let them gaze.
	I will not budge for no man's
	pleasure, I.

At that moment, Romeo's car pulls into the lot.  Tybalt
smiles.

			TYBALT
	Well sir, here comes my man.

Tybalt moves toward Romeo who bounds from his car full of
happy news.

			TYBALT
	Romeo, the love I bear thee can
	afford
	No better term than this:

CLOSE ON: Tybalt.  He clears his jacket from his side arm
and issues the challenge.

			TYBALT (CONT.)
	Thou art a villain!

CLOSE ON: Mercutio.

CLOSE ON: Benvolio.

All eyes are on Romeo.

Romeo calmly approaches his now cousin.

			ROMEO
	Tybalt, the reason that I have to
	love thee
	Doth much excuse the appertaining
	rage
	To such a greeting: villain am I
	none,
	Therefore farewell.  I see thou
	knowest me not.

Romeo turns, and to the amazement of all, walks back to his
car.  Tybalt, unable to shoot him in the back, is confused.
He hurls himself into his sedan.

Kicking it into a sand spraying U-turn, he careens the short
distance to Romeo's car.  Slamming into the back of it he
blocks Romeo in.

Tybalt leaps out, maniacally kicking at bumper, door and
headlights.  Romeo flicks the locks down.  Tybalt shatters
the side window and hauls Romeo through the door, slamming
him against the savaged fuselage.

			TYBALT
	Boy, this shall not excuse the
	injuries
	That thou hast done me!

He smashes Romeo across the face, Romeo crashes to the
roadway.

			TYBALT
		(yelling)
	Turn and draw.

A cut has opened in the side of Romeo's mouth.  He unsteadily
lifts himself up, and meeting Tybalt's gaze, speaks through
bloodied teeth.

			ROMEO
	I never injured thee,
	And so, good Capulet, which name I
	tender
	As dearly as mine own...

Romeo cautiously extracts his gun...

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	...be satisfied.

...and throws it at Tybalt's feet.

Storm clouds obscure the sun as Romeo turns and walks from
the parking lot.

Mercutio, Benvolio and the others cannot believe their eyes.

			MERCUTIO
	O calm, dishonourable, vile
	submission!

EXT.  BEACH - VACANT LOT.  DAY.

Tybalt's anger must be answered.  He ceremoniously disarms,
gives his weapon to Abra, and sprints after Romeo who is now
passing a beach side lot that houses an abandoned grand
hotel.  A bone-cracking kick sends Romeo crumbling into the
vacant lot.  The boys swarm toward the fray.
.Romeo, still refusing the fight, scrambles up the stairs of
the deserted hotel.  Tybalt trips him and Romeo careens into
an ornamental wooden railing, smashing it to pieces.

Tybalt kicks savagely at the helpless Romeo.

Suddenly, Mercutio appears running full tilt down the
concrete terrace.  He plucks up one of the splintered wooden
palings and yells...

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Tybalt, you ratcatcher,

...as he bludgeons him across the face.  Tybalt goes down.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Will you walk?

Tybalt leaps to his feet grabbing a lump of wood.

			TYBALT
	What wouldst thou have with me?

He swipes at Mercutio.

			MERCUTIO
		(avoiding)
	Good King of Cats, nothing but one
	of your nine lives.

Mercutio jabs, Tybalt sidesteps.

			TYBALT
	I am for you.

Tybalt aims a double-handed blow to Mercutio's head.
Mercutio blocks, hooking Tybalt's stick away.

Unarmed, Tybalt throws his full body weight upon Mercutio,
slamming him against a window that shatters in a storm of
glass.

Lightning fast, Mercutio jackknifes to his feet.  He raises
his weapon to deliver a skull-crushing final blow to the
trapped Tybalt.  Romeo rushes between them.

			ROMEO
	Forbear this outrage, good Mercutio!

Seizing the opportunity, Tybalt lunges at Romeo with a
lethal triangle of broken glass.  He misses, gouging instead
a slash of flesh from Mercutio's stomach.
.A scream of excruciating pain as Mercutio grabs at his
bloodied side.  Everyone is still.  In the abrupt silence,
sirens are heard closing in the distance.  Abra tugs at
Tybalt.

			ABRA
	Away Tybalt!

They bolt for their vehicle.

Benvolio goes to Mercutio.

			BENVOLIO
	Art thou hurt?

But Mercutio, covering his wound with his hand, laughs.

			MERCUTIO
	Ay, ay, a scratch.

He turns to his assembled fans at the bottom of the stairs.
With outrageous bravado he plays at being Caesar the
conqueror.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	A scratch!

The boys cheer their conquering hero.  Romeo helps Mercutio
down the stairs.

			ROMEO
	Courage, man.  The hurt cannot be
	much.

Mercutio holding his bleeding side, jokes through the pain.

			MERCUTIO
	'Twill serve.  Ask for me tomorrow
	and you shall find me a grave man.

He turns the next thought to the assembled audience.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
		(through crazy laughter)
	A plague o' both your houses!

Mercutio turns from the cheering boys to Romeo who is
struggling to support his weight.

Mercutio - through weak and desperate breathing.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
	Why the devil came you between us?
	I was hurt under your arm.
.Romeo starts to register the panic in Mercutio's eyes.

			ROMEO
	I thought all for the best.

Like an animal trying to break free from a mortal trap,
Mercutio pushes Romeo away.  He screams in horror, as if
falling in the dark:

			MERCUTIO
	A plague o' both your houses!
	They have made worms' meat of me.

Mercutio staggers down the stairs and collapses in the dirt.
Romeo is there instantly, cradling his friend's head out of
the dust.  The dying boy stares back at Romeo, smiling
through the chilling cold.

			MERCUTIO (CONT.)
		(a silent whisper)
	Your houses!

Everything stands still, everything is quiet.  The storm
finally breaks.

EXT.  BEACH - RAIN.  DAY.

Tiny drops of water fall from the sky and bespeckle
Mercutio's lifeless body.  The droplets grow to a heavy rain.
Romeo can hear the faint sound a thousand miles away of
Benvolio whispering:

			BENVOLIO
	Mercutio is dead!

Tears streak Romeo's face.  He cries out.

			ROMEO
	Oh sweet Juliet,
	Thy beauty hath made me effeminate
	And in my temper softened valor's
	steel!

The sound of Tybalt's vehicle starting brings back cold
reality.  Romeo's sorrow turns to uncontrollable rage.

Shrugging aside Benvolio's attempts to restrain him, Romeo
runs to his car.

EXT.  BEACH - PARKING LOT.  DAY.

Up ahead Tybalt's sedan screeches into a fishtailing U-turn
and powers away.
.Romeo jumps into his vehicle.  In an effort to head Tybalt
off, he guns his damaged machine down a one way street.

The rain is now blinding.  Romeo stops for nothing;
pedestrians flee, cars spin out of control.

EXT.  VERONA BEACH STREETS - FROM AIR.  DAY.

AERIAL SHOT: The two cars speed along parallel roads toward
Plaza Jesu.  Romeo is gaining.

EXT.  VERONA STREET - CHRIST ROUNDABOUT.  DAY.

CUT TO: Tybalt's car negotiating the immense roundabout at
the foot of the statue of Jesus.

EXT.  CHRIST ROUNDABOUT.  DAY.

CUT TO: Romeo's car firing out of the one way street and
slamming into Tybalt's car.  Tybalt's car careens out of
control up the stairs of the statue, clips the fountain,
flips, and slides upside down onto the roadway.

CUT TO: Tybalt scrambling from his upturned vehicle.

CUT TO: Romeo running toward him.

SUDDENLY Romeo is halted by Tybalt's drawn gun.  Fearlessly
marching toward it, he screams through tears.

			ROMEO
	Mercutio's soul
	Is but a little way above our heads,

Romeo grabs the barrel of the gun; forcing it between his
own eyes, he growls insanely at Tybalt.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Staying for thine to keep him
	company.

Tybalt, unnerved, tries to back off.

			TYBALT
	Thou, wretched boy, shalt with him
	hence.

Romeo, refusing to let go of the gun, forces Tybalt backward
through the torrential rain.

			ROMEO
		(with frightening intensity)
	Either thou or I, or both, must go
	with him.

Cars swerve, Romeo is relentless.  He grips Tybalt's hand
trying to force him to shoot.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Either thou or I, or both, must go
	with him.

Panicked, Tybalt wrenches free and lurches onto the roadway.
Blinded by the headlights of an oncoming car he thuds onto
its hood as it skids to a halt.  The impact catapults his
gun high into the air.

Romeo coldly follows its slow motion, spinning trajectory.

Real time stretches as the gun dances high above his head.
Police sirens, cars swerving, people screaming, and the
yelling of panicked commands fade to a nothingness.

Romeo stands calmly considering the gun in the air.  A
harrowing symphonic tone and the echo of Mercutio's voice
can be heard.

			MERCUTIO (V/O)
	Why the devil came you between us?

CUT TO: Patrol cars sliding to a halt.

CUT TO: The spinning gun slowly falling to earth.

CUT TO: Tybalt rising from the ground.

CUT TO: Cops leaping from their cars.

CUT TO: The gun landing in Romeo's hand.  His eyes full of
rage.

CUT TO: Cops levelling their revolvers.

			COP
		(Romeo in his sights)
	Put up thy weapon.

CUT TO: Real time - Romeo fires three deliberate shots.
Tybalt's body convulses backwards against the car, hitting
it with a thud, bloodying the shattered windscreen.

The cop fires.  A bullet grazes Romeo's arm - his gun drops
as he screams.

			ROMEO
	O, I am fortune's fool!

At that moment a roaring hurricane wind hits; blinding police.

CLOSE ON: The scaffolding surrounding the Jesus statue.
Part of it's canvas covering rips away.  Scaffold rains down
as the insanely flapping material tries to smash free from
it's moorings.

Through the mayhem, a rusty Ford driven by Balthasar, slides
to a halt.

Balthasar screams out at Romeo.

			BALTHASAR
	Romeo, away be gone!  Stand not
	amazed!

Romeo collapses into the front seat.

The cops open fire as Balthasar speeds off into the storm.

INT.  BALTHASAR'S CAR.  AFTERNOON.

Romeo is bleeding from the bullet graze.

EXT.  CAUSEWAY.  AFTERNOON.

The gale-force winds throw waves across the causeway as the
fugitives disappear into the black afternoon.

CRANE UP: In the distance we see Montague and Capulet towers.
Divided by the statue of Christ, they suffer the storm's rage.

EXT.  MONUMENT.  AFTERNOON.

Away, below the outstretched arms of Christ, lights from
emergency vehicles pulse red through the downpour.

THE CAMERA: Falls through heavy rain toward a woman crouched
over the lifeless body of Tybalt.

She cries:

			GLORIA
	Tybalt!

Cops nervously eye Fulgencio Capulet and Ted Montague, who,
both flanked by body guards, face each other across the
crime scene.  Medics stand by helplessly as Gloria clings to
Tybalt's body.  A handcuffed Benvolio looks on.

			GLORIA (CONT.)
	Tybalt, my cousin, O my brother's
	child!
	O, the blood is spilled of my dear
	kinsman.

Police lines part as Captain Prince arrives.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Where are the vile beginners of
	this fray?

Benvolio struggles forward.

			BENVOLIO
	O noble Prince I can discover all
	The unlucky manage of this fatal
	brawl.

Gloria appeals hysterically:

			GLORIA
	Prince as thou art true,
	For blood of ours shed blood of
	Montague!

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

			BENVOLIO
		(pointing to Tybalt's corpse)
	There lies the man, slain by young
	Romeo,
	That slew thy kinsman brave Mercutio.

Gloria interjects savagely.

			GLORIA
	He speaks not true!  Affection
	makes him false!

			BENVOLIO
	Romeo, that spoke him fair, could
	not take
	Truce with the unruly spleen of
	Tybalt
	Deaf to peace!

			GLORIA
	He is a kinsman to the Montague!
	I beg for justice which thou Prince
	must give.
	Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not
	live!

Captain Prince turns to Gloria.
.			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio.
	Who now the price of his dear blood
	doth owe?

Ted Montague pleads:

			MONTAGUE
	Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio's
	friend; His fault concludes but
	what the law should end,
	The life of Tybalt.

Captain Prince eyes Montague coldly.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	And for that offence
	Immediately we do exile him.

Montague, body guards in tow, surges forward.

			MONTAGUE
	Noble Prince...?

Prince silences him.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	I will be deaf to pleading and
	excuses;
	Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase
	out abuses.
	Therefore use none.

The Captain turns and addresses his assembled officers.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE (CONT.)
	Let Romeo hence in haste,
	Else, when he is found that hour is
	his last.

CLOSE ON: Captain Prince.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE (CONT.)
	Bear hence this body and attend our
	will.
	Mercy but murders, pardoning those
	that kill.

INT.  JULIET'S BEDROOM.  AFTERNOON.

An acoustic guitar version of Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear
Us Apart.' Juliet traces the path of a raindrop on the
window pane as she speaks her thoughts to the storm.

			JULIET
	Come gentle night, coming loving
	black browed night,
	Give me my Romeo.  And when I shall
	die,
	Take him and cut him out in little
	stars,
	And he will make the face of heaven
	so fine
	That all the world will be in love
	with night,
	And pay no worship to the garish
	sun.
	O, I have bought the mansion of a
	love
	But not possessed it, and though I
	am sold,
	Not yet enjoyed.  So tedious is
	this day
	As is the night before some festival
	To an impatient child that hath new
	robes
	And may not wear them.

EXT.  CAPULET'S MANSION - DRIVEWAY.  AFTERNOON.

Juliet's P.O.V.: The limousine pulls into the driveway.

PULL OUT: Of the window and CRANE DOWN: Juliet runs from the
room.

EXT.  CAPULET MANSION.  AFTERNOON.

Through the open doorway we see an excited Juliet meet the
Nurse at the bottom of the stairs.

The music surges.

TRACK IN: The Nurse's words are lost in the storm.

Juliet buckles.

INT.  CAPULET MANSION.  AFTERNOON.

We are close enough now to hear Juliet's words.

			JULIET
	Oh God!  Did Romeo's hand shed
	Tybalt's blood?

			NURSE
	It did, it did!  Alas the day, it
	did!

			JULIET
	Oh serpent heart, hid with a
	flowering face.
	Was ever book containing such vile
	matter
	So fairly bound?  O, that deceit
	should dwell
	In such a gorgeous palace!

			NURSE
	There's no trust, No faith, no
	honesty in men.  All perjured,
	All forsworn, all naught, all
	dissemblers.
	Shame come to Romeo.

			JULIET
	Blistered be thy tongue
	For such a wish!  He was not born
	to shame.  Upon his brow shame is
	ashamed to sit.

			NURSE
	Will you speak well of him that
	killed your cousin?

			JULIET
	Shall I speak ill of him that is my
	husband?
	Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall
	smooth thy name
	When I, thy three-hours wife have
	mangled it?
	But whyfore, villain, didst thou
	kill my cousin?
	That villain cousin would have
	killed my husband.
	All this is comfort, wherefore weep
	I then?
	Some word there was worser than
	Tybalt's death:
	I would forget it fain - exiled.
	Tybalt is dead, and Romeo exiled.
	To speak that word is father,
	mother,
	Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, all slain,
	All dead.

Juliet sinks to the floor, overwhelmed by tears.

			JULIET (CONT.)
	Nurse, I'll to my wedding bed,
	And death, not Romeo, take my
	maidenhead.

Nurse looks down at Juliet.  She goes and comforts her.

			NURSE
	Hie to your chamber.  I'll find
	Romeo
	To comfort you.  I know well where
	he is.
	Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at
	night.

Juliet looks up through tears.

			JULIET
	O find him, give this ring to my
	true knight,
	And bid him come to take his last
	farewell.

SLAM MACRO ZOOM: Into the ring.  The screen fills with the
words 'I love thee'.

INT.  PRESBYTERY BEDROOM.  NIGHT.

Romeo lies on the bed shirtless and crying.  His wound has
been bandaged and Balthasar crouches frightened in the corner.

The priest leads the Nurse into the room.

Romeo looks up.

			ROMEO
	Nurse!

She goes to him.

			NURSE
	Ah sir!  Ah sir!  Death's the end
	of all.

			ROMEO
	Speakest thou of Juliet?
	Where is she?  And how doth she?
	And what says
	My concealed lady to our cancelled
	love?

			NURSE
	O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps
	and weeps,
	And then on Romeo cries, and then
	falls down again.

Romeo is wailing inconsolably.
.			ROMEO
	As if that name,
	Shot from the deadly level of a
	gun,
	Did murder her, as that name's
	cursed hand murdered her kinsman!

Father Laurence shakes the hysterical boy.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	I thought thy disposition better
	tempered!
	Thy Juliet is alive, There art thou
	happy.
	The law that threatened death
	becomes thy friend
	And turns it to exile.  There art
	thou happy.
	A pack of blessings light upon thy
	back.

Romeo calms.  The Nurse gives him the ring.

			NURSE
	Here sir, a ring my lady bid me
	give you.

Romeo enfolds the ring in his hand.

			ROMEO
	How well my comfort is revived by
	this.

The priest goes to his wardrobe, removes a clean white shirt
and helps Romeo put it on.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Go, get thee to thy love, as was
	decreed.
	Ascend her chamber.  Hence and
	comfort her.
	But look thou stay not till the
	Watch be set,
	For then thou canst not pass to
	Mantua where thou shalt live till
	we can find a time
	To blaze your marriage, reconcile
	your friends,
	Beg pardon of the Prince and call
	thee back,
	With twenty hundred thousand times
	more joy
	Than thou wentst forth in
	lamentation.

Father Laurence ushers Romeo from the room.

INT.  HALLWAY.  NIGHT.

They hurry down the hallway.

The priest opens the front door.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Go hence.  Be gone by the break of
	day
	Sojourn in Mantua.  Give me thy hand.

Romeo embraces him.

			ROMEO
	Farewell.

The priest and Balthasar watch as Romeo and the Nurse sprint
for the car.

INT.  CAPULET MANSION.  NIGHT.

Sobs echo through the house.

Dave Paris stands in the entrance hallway clutching a huge
bunch of flowers.

Fulgencio Capulet stands beside him, whisky glass in hand.

CUT TO: Gloria on the upper landing.  There is a strange
faraway quality about her as she descends to Dave and Capulet.

			GLORIA
	She'll not come down tonight.

Dave, an understanding smile.

			DAVE
	These times of woe afford no times
	to woo.

Capulet guides Dave into the house.

			CAPULET
	Look you, she loved her kinsman
	Tybalt dearly.

			GLORIA
		(joining)
	And so did I.

			CAPULET
		(a cold glance at Gloria)
	Well, we were born to die.

Capulet takes a large slug of whisky.  Gloria leans close to
Dave.

			GLORIA
	I'll know her mind early tomorrow.
	Tonight she's mewed up to her
	heaviness.

As Gloria, Dave and Capulet exit down the hallway we CRANE
UP: toward Juliet's bedroom door.

INT.  JULIET'S BEDROOM.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: Juliet's face.  Tears stream onto the pillow.
Without warning a hand lightly touches her cheek.  Juliet's
eyes dart up to discover Romeo standing above her.

A still moment of disbelief.  Leaning down, Roemo kisses
away the tears that fall from her dark, wide eyes.

Juliet's lips find Romeo's and they gently sink back onto
the bed.

INT.  SITTING ROOM.  NIGHT.

Capulet sits in an armchair drinking.  Dave and Gloria sit
opposite as Capulet whips himself into a frenzy of drunken
excitement.

			CAPULET
	We'll keep no great ado - a friend
	or two.
	For, hark you, Tybalt being slain
	so late,
	It may be thought we held him
	carelessly,
	Being our kinsman if we revel
	much -
	But soft what day is this?

			DAVE
	Monday my lord.

			CAPULET
	Well Wednesday is too soon - what
	say you to Thursday?

Gloria looks up alarmed; Dave is stunned.

			DAVE
	My lord I...

			CAPULET
		(leaning close)
	I will make a desperate tender of
	my child's love.
		(a drunken good humour)
	I think she will be ruled in all
	respects by me;
		(exploding with
		hearty laughter)
	Nay, more, I doubt it not!

CUT TO: Gloria, her face hardens.

			CAPULET
		(to Dave)
	But what say you to Thursday?

Dave is trying to catch up.

			DAVE
	My lord I...

CUT TO: Capulet he eyes Dave intently.

			DAVE (CONT.)
	I would that Thursday were tomorrow.

Delighted, Capulet jumps to his feet.

			CAPULET
	A Thursday let it be then!

Capulet holds out his glass in toast.  Dave and Gloria rise.

			CAPULET
	Wife, go you to Juliet ere you go
	to bed.
	Tell her, a Thursday she shall be
	married
	To this noble sir!

CLOSE ON: The glasses clink.

EXT.  CAPULET ESTATE.  DAWN.

A pink and gold dawn breaks over Capulet Mansion.

INT.  JULIET'S BEDROOM.  DAWN.

A tangle of young limbs.

Romeo and Juliet blissfully asleep.  The dawn light creeps
into the room.

EXT.  CAPULET ESTATE.  DAWN.

Balthasar's car covertly pulls into a side road near the
estate.

INT.  JULIET'S BEDROOM.  DAWN.

Romeo and Juliet still asleep.

CRANE DOWN: Toward the sleeping innocence of the faces.

HOLD: A shadow of fear passes across Romeo's features.

With a cry of panic, he sits bolt upright.

Wide awake, but disorientated, Romeo stares around the
room - as Juliet stirs, he remembers where he is.

Slipping quietly from the bed, Romeo begins to dress.

CLOSE ON: Romeo.  A pair of lips enter frame and find his
neck.  It is Juliet.  She hugs herself to him.

			JULIET
	Wilt thou be gone?  It is not yet
	near day.

Romeo turns - softly he strokes her cheek.

			ROMEO
	I must be gone and live, or stay
	and die.

Juliet kisses his finger-tips.

			JULIET
	Yond light is not daylight,

And then his cheek...

			JULIET (CONT.)
	I know it, I
	It is some meteor that the sun
	exhales
	To light thee on thy way to Mantua.
	Therefore stay yet.  Thou needest
	not to be gone.

Romeo, feverishly returning the kisses, throws himself on
Juliet.

			ROMEO
	Let me be taken, let me be put to
	death.
	I have more care to stay than will
	to go.
	Come, death, and welcome!  Juliet
	wills it so.

Juliet is suddenly still.  Romeo kisses her gently.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	How is't, my soul?  Let's talk.  It
	is not day.

Juliet pulls Romeo to his feet.

			JULIET
	It is, it is!  Hie hence, be gone,
	away!
	O, now be gone!  More light and
	light it grows.

Frantically she helps him into his clothes.

			ROMEO
	More light and light: more dark and
	dark our woes.

There is an urgent knocking on the door.  They freeze.

			NURSE (O/S)
	Madam!

			JULIET
	Nurse!

			NURSE (O/S)
	Your lady mother is coming to your
	chamber.

			JULIET
	Then, window, let day in, and let
	life out.

Desperately Juliet pulls Romeo out onto the balcony.

EXT.  BALCONY.  DAWN.

The storm, now past, has left a morning achingly pure.

			ROMEO
	Farewell, farewell.  One kiss, and
	I'll descend.
.Romeo climbs down from the balcony and into the shadows.

			JULIET
	O, think'st thou we shall ever meet
	again?

Romeo smiles up at her.

			ROMEO
	I doubt it not;

Juliet's face darkens.

			JULIET
	O God, I have an ill-divining soul.
	Methinks I see thee, now thou art
	so low,
	As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.

Romeo scrambles back up to the balcony.

			ROMEO
	Trust me, love, all these woes
	shall serve
	For sweet discourses in our times
	to come.

From Juliet's bedroom comes the brittle sound of Gloria
Capulet's voice.

			GLORIA
	Ho daughter!  Are you up?

Juliet spins around.  Gloria has parted the curtains and is
staring directly at her daughter.

			GLORIA
	Well, well.

CUT TO: Romeo sheltered just below the lip of the balcony.

FOLLOW: His hand, as it slowly reaches up and touches
Juliet's fingers hidden behind her back.

Gloria returns to the room.  Juliet steals a glance toward
Romeo as he silently mouths:

			ROMEO
	Adieu, adieu!

As Romeo's face disappears into the shadows Juliet whispers
a little prayer to herself.

			JULIET
	O Fortune, Fortune!  Be fickle,
	Fortune,
	Fo then I hope thou wilt not keep
	him long
	But send him back.

INT.  JULIET'S BEDROOM.  DAWN.

Juliet is trying not to cry as she goes in to her mother.
Gloria turns to her.

			GLORIA
	Thou hast a careful father, child:
	One who, to put thee from thy
	heaviness,
	Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy
	That thou expects not nor I looked
	not for.

Juliet plays along.

			JULIET
	Madam, in happy time.  What day is
	that?

Gloria takes a deep breath.

			GLORIA
	Marry, my child, early next Thursday
	morn
	The gallant, young, and noble
	gentleman,
	Sir Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
	Shall happily make thee there a
	joyful bride.

CLOSE ON: Juliet.  She can barely speak.

			JULIET
	Now by Saint Peter's Church, and
	Peter too,
	He shall not make me there a joyful
	bride!

Fear passes across Gloria's face.

			GLORIA
	Here comes your father.  Tell him
	so yourself.

Capulet - whisky glass in hand - ebulliently bursts into the
room.

			CAPULET
	How now, wife?
	Have you delivered to her our decree?

			GLORIA
	Ay, sir.  But she will none, she
	gives you thanks.
	I would the fool were married to
	her grave!

Capulet - a dangerous calm.

			CAPULET
	How?  Will she none?
	Is she not proud?  Doth she not
	count her blest,
	Unworthy as she is, that we have
	wrought
	So worthy a gentleman to be her
	bride?

			JULIET
	Not proud you have, but thankful
	that you have.
	Proud can I never be of what I hate.

PAUSE: Capulet considers his daughter, then -

BAM!  He hurls his glass against the wall, shattering it
into a thousand pieces.

			CAPULET
	Thank me no thankings, nor proud me
	no prouds,
	But fettle your fine joints 'gainst
	Thursday next ...

Capulet advances.  Juliet, terrified, retreats into the
hallway.

			JULIET
	Hear me with patience but to speak
	a word...

INT.  LANDING.  DAY.

The Nurse appears as Capulet picks his daughter up and
shakes her like a rag doll.

			CAPULET
	Speak not, reply not, do not answer
	me!

He throws her to the floor.  His fist thuds as it slams into
her face.

			GLORIA
		(screaming)
	Fie, fie!  What are you mad?

Gloria tries to restrain Capulet.  He back-hands her,
sending her flying against the wall - bellowing insanely, he
advances on his cowering daughter.

			CAPULET
	Hang thee, young baggage!
	Disobedient wretch.

The Nurse throws herself between Capulet and Juliet.

			NURSE
	God in heaven bless her!
	You are to blame, my lord, to rate
	her so.

Furious, Capulet shunts her aside.

			CAPULET
	Peace, you mumbling fool!

Capulet yanks his daughter's face close to his.

			CAPULET (CONT.)
	I tell thee what - get thee to
	church a Thursday
	Or never after look me in the face.
	And you be mine, I'll give you to
	my friend.
	And you be not, hang, beg, starve,
	die in the streets,
	Trust to it.  Bethink you.  I'll
	not be forsworn.

Capulet storms off down the hall.

CLOSE ON: Juliet.  She huddles, shaking at the top of the
stairs.

			JULIET
	O sweet my mother, cast me not
	away!
	Delay this marriage for a month, a
	week.
	Or if you do not, make the bridal
	bed
	In that dim monument where Tybalt
	lies.

A trickle of blood issues from Gloria's cut lip.  She checks
her appearance in the hall mirror.

			GLORIA
	Talk not to me, for I'll not speak
	a word.
	Do as thou wilt, for I have done
	with thee.

Gloria leaves.

			JULIET
	O God! - O Nurse, how shall this be
	prevented?

The Nurse doesn't reply.

			JULIET (CONT.)
	What sayest thou?  Hast thou not a
	word of joy?
	Some comfort, Nurse.

A heavy silence.

The Nurse goes to Juliet.

			NURSE
	Faith, here it is.
	I think it best you married with
	this Paris.
	O, he's a lovely gentleman!
	I think you are happy in this
	second match,
	For it excels your first; or if it
	did not,
	Your first is dead - or 'twere as
	good he were
	As living here and you no use of him.

Juliet is very still.

			JULIET
	Speakest thou from thy heart?

			NURSE
	And from my soul too.  Else beshrew
	them both.

			JULIET
	Amen.

			NURSE
		(unsure)
	What?

Juliet is matter of fact.

			JULIET
	Well, thou hast comforted me
	marvellous much.
	Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,
	Having displeased my father, to
	Friar Laurence,
	To make confession and to be
	absolved.

The old woman nods.  She strokes Juliet's hair.

			NURSE
	This is wisely done.

Juliet does not look up.

A disturbing choral chant:

					DISSOLVE TO:

INT.  CHURCH.  DAY.

Sunlight pierces stained glass - the chant a sinister
underscoring.  We hear Dave Paris' voice:

			DAVE (O/S)
	Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's
	death...

CRANE DOWN: Father Laurence and Dave Paris stand at the
front of the church.

			DAVE (CONT.)
	...Now, sir, her father counts it
	dangerous
	That she doth give her sorrow so
	much sway,
	And in his wisdom hastes our
	marriage
	To stop the inundation of her
	tears...

Father Laurence turns.  Juliet stands framed in the white
glare of the doorway.

Dave smiles.

			DAVE
	Happily met, my lady and my wife.

CLOSE ON: Juliet's hand concealed beneath her coat - we can
just see the handle of a gun.

Juliet advances slowly, an icy calm:

			JULIET
	That may be, sir, when I may be a
	wife.

			DAVE
	That 'may be', must be, love, on
	Thursday next.

Juliet stares past Dave.

			JULIET
	What must be, shall be.

Father Laurence, a forced cheerfulness.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	That's a certain text.

			DAVE
	Come you to make confession?

Juliet forces a smile.

			JULIET
	Are you at leisure, holy father,
	now?
	Or shall I come to you at evening
	mass?

			FATHER LAURENCE
	My leisure serves me, pensive
	daughter, now.
		(to Dave)
	We must entreat the time alone.

			DAVE
	God shield I should disturb
	devotion! - Juliet, on Thursday
	early will I rouse ye;

Dave bends.

CLOSE ON: Juliet; she stares stonily ahead as Dave kisses
her cheek.

			DAVE (CONT.)
	Till then, adieu, and keep this
	holy kiss.

Dave leaves.

TRACK WITH: Juliet; she runs for the sacristy.

The priest follows.

INT.  SACRISTY.  DAY.

Juliet, shaking with sobs takes refuge in the shadows of the
small room.

The priest goes to her.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	O Juliet, I already know thy grief.

Juliet pulls away.

			JULIET
	Tell me not, Father, that thou
	hearest of this,
	Unless thou tell me how I may
	prevent it.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	It strains me past the compass of
	my wits.

			JULIET
		(desperately)
	If in thy wisdom thou canst give no
	help
	Do thou but call my resolution
	wise,
	And with this I'll help it presently!

She pulls the gun, pointing it towards herself.

Horrified, Father Laurence moves to her.

Juliet, panicked, levels the gun at him.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Hold daughter!

			JULIET
		(through tears)
	Be not so long to speak.  I lone to
	die!

Father Laurence holds out a soothing hand.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	I do spy a kind of hope,
	Which craves as desperate an
	execution
	As that is desperate which we would
	prevent.
	If, rather than marry Paris,
	Thou hast the strength of will to
	slay thyself,
	Then it is likely thou wilt
	undertake
	A thing like death...

We hear the distended chords of Fauré's Requiem.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	to chide away this shame...

It continues throughout as;

The entire screen fills with a glinting tear drop of blue
liquid.

Reflected in the fluid's convex surface, the face of Father
Laurence.

The face disappears as the tear drop falls and splashes into
a clear water solution.

Like a comet in slow motion, the drop stains the water a
cobalt hue.

INT.  GREENHOUSE WORKROOM.  DAY.

PULL BACK: The blue liquid fills a tiny glass vial held by
Father Laurence.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	No warmth, no breath shall testify
	thou livest.
	Each part, deprived of supple
	government,
	Shall stiff and stark and cold
	appear, like death.
	Now when the bridegroom in the
	morning
	Comes to rouse thee from thy bed,
	there art thou, dead.
	Thou shalt be borne to that same
	ancient vault
	Where all the kindred of the
	Capulets lie.
	In the meantime, against thou shalt
	awake,
	Shall Romeo by my letters know our
	drift,
	And hither shall he come.
	And that very
	Night shall Romeo bear thee hence
	to Mantua.

The priest cautiously hands Juliet the vial.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	Take thou this vial, being then in
	bed,
	And this distilling liquor drink
	thou off.
	I'll send my letters to thy lord
	with speed to Mantua.

EXT.  CHURCH.  DAY.

As Father Laurence speaks, the screen fills with an express
envelope addressed "Romeo - Mantua." The envelope pulls away
from the camera and falls into a canvas bag brimming with
hundreds of like envelopes.

TRACK: With the canvas bag.  It continues its journey into
the back of an express delivery van.

Heavy double doors slam shut, filling the screen with the
slogan 'Speed Express.'

The van pulls away.

					DISSOLVE TO:

EXT.  MANTUA.  DAY.

A burning red sun is setting over an endless vista of ragged
wasteland.

CRANE DOWN: A weathered sign reads - Mantua: Behind it a
vast colony of permanent trailer homes stretches into the
distance.

The rap, rap, rap of knocking echoes through the park...

CUT TO: The source of the knocking.  An express delivery
man, envelope in hand, raps vigorously on the door of an
unremarkable trailer.

INT.  TRAILER.  DAY.

TOPOGRAPHICAL SHOT: Romeo lies flat on a single bed in the
crampled trailer.

The rap, rap, rap is very loud now.  We move toward Romeo
and realise he cannot hear the knocking because he has
Walkman headphones on.

EXT.  TRAILER.  DAY.

Unsuccessful, the delivery man is filling out a "WE CALLED"
card.  He pushes it under the door.

					DISSOLVE TO:

INT.  CAPULET MANSION.  NIGHT.

The heraldic 'Wedding Chimes' by JS Bach.  Juliet stands
resplendent in a radiant bridal gown.  The image floats
ethereally in a towering slab of mirror.

PULL OUT: From the mirror.  The wedding dress is in fact
being held in front of Juliet by two members of the house
staff.  Juliet is dressed in her night gown.  The Nurse
suggests various pairs of shoes.

			JULIET
		(disinterested)
	Ay, these attires are best.

The fuss dispensed with, the staff leave.

			JULIET
	But, gentle Nurse,
	I pray thee leave me to myself
	tonight.

			NURSE
	Why Bride?

Juliet navigates the Nurse toward the door.

			JULIET
		(almost in tears)
	To move the heavens to smile upon
	my state,
	Which, well thou knowest, is cross
	and full of sin.

Juliet holds the Nurse in a pleading stare.  She leaves.

Alone now, Juliet hurries to her bedside drawer.  She
cautiously removes a rolled piece of cloth from which she
produces the glass vial.

			JULIET
		(whispers)
	What if this mixture do not work at
	all?
	Shall I be married then tomorrow
	morning?

She cautiously begins to unscrew the tiny black lid.
Suddenly, a knock at her door.  Palming the vial, Juliet
swings around to meet the arrival of her mother.  Gloria
probes her daughter's uneasiness.

			GLORIA
	What, are you busy, ho?  Need you
	my help?

			JULIET
		(makes light of it)
	No, madam.  We have culled such
	necessaries
	As are behoveful for our state
	tomorrow.
	So please you, let me now be left
	alone,
	And let the Nurse this night sit up
	with you.

Juliet begins to pull down the covers on her bed.

			JULIET (CONT.)
	For I am sure you have your hands
	full all
	In this so sudden business.

Gloria, sensing Juliet's distress, moves cautiously toward
her.  Taking hold of the bed covers she helps her daughter
into bed.

			GLORIA
	Good night.

Juliet slides into bed.  Gloria covers her with the blanket.

			GLORIA (CONT.)
	Get thee to bed, and rest, for thou
	hast need.

A brief moment between mother and daughter.  Gloria, unable
to cross that final barrier, moves to the door; but she is
stopped by the urgency in Juliet's voice.

			JULIET
	Farewell!

Gloria turns to Juliet.

			JULIET (CONT.)
	God knows when we shall meet again.

CLOSE ON: Gloria.  A faint perplexity, and then with an
almost warm smile she turns out the light and leaves.

The room is in darkness but for patterns of moonlight
through windows.

TRACK: Toward Juliet.  The sombre tones of Fauré's Requiem
seep into our consciousness.

			JULIET
	I have a faint cold fear thrills
	through my veins
	That almost freezes up the heat of
	life.

She brings the vial her mouth.

			JULIET (CONT.)
	Come, vial.  Romeo, I drink to thee.

Juliet drinks, a sudden violent convulsion, her face contorts
in fear.

					DISSOLVE TO:

EXT.  CAPULET ESTATE.  DAY.

The sky is filled with green and grey clouds.  A gusty rain
blows the flower arrangements across the lawn.  Large white
wedding marquees flap in the wind.

Through blurring rain, we see ambulances and police vehicles,
lights flashing.  Father Laurence, accompanied by a dour
looking man in black, alights from his car.  We follow their
P.O.V.: We hear snatches of radio calls.

			MEDIC ONE (OVER RADIO)
	Mortal drugs?

			MEDIC TWO (OVER RADIO)
	Of lethal quantity as 'twould
	render death.

INT.  CAPULET MANSION - DINING ROOM.  DAY.

They enter the house and pass the vast dining room, bedecked
with wedding decorations.

Capulet sits at the large mahogany table.  In the background
Gloria stares vacantly.

Moving swiftly toward a doorway, the music builds.

INT.  CAPULET MANSION - JULIET'S BEDROOM.  DAY.

The door opens.  On the bed Juliet's still body.  Father
Laurence closes the door.  The priest kneels and hastily
examines Juliet's pupils.  He looks to the man in black who
retrieves the glass vial from the floor and pockets it.

			FATHER LAURENCE
		(to the man in black)
	As the custom is,
	In all her best array bear her to
	church.

When the man in black allows two other dark suited men into
the room, it becomes clear he is the undertaker.

			UNDERTAKER
	She shall be borne to that same
	ancient vault
	Where all the kindred of the
	Capulets lie.

INT.  MAUSOLEUM.  DAY.

A thousand voices proclaim the 'Song of Ascension.'

PAN DOWN: From the vaulting glass ceiling of the Capulet
mausoleum.

On view, enshrined in literally thousands of lit candles, is
Juliet's peaceful body.

We move through lines of Capulet mourners.  In the shadows
of the front door a young man hides.

CLOSE ON: The young man.  We recognise the distressed face
of Balthasar.

PUSH IN: Balthasar rushes from the Mausoleum.

EXT.  MANTUA.  DAY.

We are high above Mantua.  Beyond the trailer park stretches
a long ribbon of black highway.

As a Speed Express van turns off the highway and into the
park, we hear Romeo's voice over:

			ROMEO (V/O)
	If I may trust the flattering truth
	of sleep
	My dreams presage some joyful news
	at hand...

CRANE DOWN: The Express van pulls up at the front office.
The driver alights and goes inside.

INT.  TRAILER.  DAY.

Romeo sits at the trailer's small kitchen table smoking and
writing in his notebook.  The "WE CALLED" card lies next to
an overflowing ashtray.

His voice over continues.

			ROMEO (V/O)
	And all this day an unaccustomed
	spirit
	Lifts me above the ground with
	cheerful thoughts.
	I dreamt my lady came and found me
	dead
	And breathed such life with kisses
	in my lips
	That I revived and was an emperor.
	Ah me, how sweet is love itself
	possessed
	When but love's shadows are so rich
	in joy.

Stubbing out his cigarette, Romeo gazes through the trailer
window to see Balthasar's speeding car turn off the highway
and into the trailer park.

			ROMEO
	News from Verona!

An excited Romeo rushes from the trailer.

EXT.  TRAILER PARK.  DAY.

CRANE HIGH: Romeo sprints across open ground to intercept
Balthasar's car.  We see, but Romeo cannot, the Express van
approaching from the office.  The car slews to a halt and
Balthasar jumps out.

Romeo yells joyously.

			ROMEO
	How now, Balthasar?

Bathlasar cannot speak.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Dost thou not bring me letters from
	the Priest?
	How doth my lady?  Is my father
	well?
	How doth my lady Juliet?  That I
	ask again,
	For nothing can be ill if she be
	well.

Balthasar does not know how to say what he has come to tell.
He looks away.

			BALTHASAR
	Then she is well and nothing can be
	ill.
	Her body sleeps in Capels' monument,
	And her immortal part with angels
	lives.
	I saw her laid low in her kindred's
	vault.

For a long moment Romeo is profoundly still.  When he
speaks, it is with a chilling calm.

			ROMEO
	Is it e'en so?

Balthasar nods.

Romeo turns and stares into the distant wasteland.

CLOSE ON: He speaks with bitter determination.

			ROMEO
	Then I defy you stars.

Romeo moves to the car.

			ROMEO
	I will hence tonight.

Balthasar tries to restrain him.

			BALTHASAR
	Have patience...

Exploding with fury, Romeo throws Balthasar against the
vehicle.

			ROMEO
	Leave me!

CUT TO: The Speed Express messenger.  Returning to his
truck, the priest's undelivered envelope in his hand, the
messenger looks toward the two boys.

CUT TO: The boys.  Balthasar pleads with Romeo.

			BALTHASAR
	Your looks are pale and wild and do
	import
	Some misadventure.

			ROMEO
		(with cold serenity)
	Tush, thou art deceived.
		(a niggling thought)
	Hast thou no letters to me from the
	Priest?

Balthasar shakes his head.

Romeo smiles.

			ROMEO
	No matter - I will hence tonight.

Romeo climbs into the passenger seat of the car.  Balthasar
reluctantly gets behind the wheel.

As silent tears begin to flow, Romeo turns his face to the
setting sun.

PUSH IN: As he whispers:

			ROMEO
	Well Juliet, I will lie with thee
	tonight.

Balthasar's car roars out of the park.

CUT TO: The delivery man.  He looks to the envelope in his
hand, then gets back into his truck.

EXT.  HIGHWAY.  NIGHT.

Balthasar's car speeds along the night-time highway.

CRANE UP: In the distance the glow of city lights.

EXT.  ALLEYWAY.  NIGHT.

Balthasar's car pulls into an alley and stops outside a
decrepity apartment block.
.INT.  APARTMENT BLOCK.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: A bespectacled eye peers through the crack of a
partly open doorway.  Below the face, the barrel of a
shotgun protrudes menacingly.

CUT TO: Romeo in the dark, paint peeling hallway.

			ROMEO
	Let me have
	A dram of poison, such soon-
	speeding gear
	As will disperse itself through all
	the veins
	That the life-weary taker may fall
	dead.

The eye considers, a voice rasps back.

			APOTHECARY
	Such mortal drugs I have, but
	Verona's law
	Is death to any he that utters them.

Romeo speaks with fury.

			ROMEO
	The world is not thy friend, nor
	the world's law.
	Then be not poor, but break it and
	take this.

Romeo shoves a wad of money at THE APOTHECARY'S face.

BEAT.  The rattle of a latch chain and the door swings open.

Standing in the doorway is The Apothecary.  Sixty something,
he has a face scarred with age and abuse.

			APOTHECARY
	My poverty, but not my will consents.

CLOSE ON: Romeo.

			ROMEO
	I pay thy poverty and not thy will.

INT.  PRESBYTERY.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: Father Laurence.  He speaks into the telephone
with concern.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Who bore my letter then to Romeo?

INT.  SPEED EXPRESS DEPOT.  NIGHT.

A bored clerk is on the other end of the line.  The priest's
letter is on the counter beside him.

			CLERK
	I could not sent it - here it is
	again.

INT.  PRESBYTERY.  NIGHT.

Father Laurence is worried.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	By my brotherhood, unhappy fortune!
	The letter was of dear import.
		(PAUSE: the priest listens)
	Adieu.

He hangs up the receiver and looks at the wall clock.

			FATHER LAURENCE (CONT.)
	Now must I to the monument alone.
	Within this hour will fair Juliet
	awake.

DISSOLVE FROM: The clock to...

INT.  APOTHECARY'S APARTMENT.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: A cat skitters across a stained formica table.

PULL BACK: The Apothecary's apartment is filled with cats.
Dozens of feline eyes glow in the dim room.  Romeo stands
nervously.  The Apothecary extracts a small chemist's vial
from inside a 'Statue of Our Lady' table lamp - he now
speaks with cool professionalism.

			APOTHECARY
	Drink it off and if you had the
	strength of twenty men it would
	dispatch you straight.

Romeo takes the vial and hands over the money.

			ROMEO
	There is my gold - worse poison to
	men's souls
	Than these poor compounds that thou
	mayst not sell.

INT.  BALTHASAR'S CAR.  NIGHT.

Motor running, Balthasar waits in the alley outside the
apartment building.  He checks the rear view mirror and
freezes.  At the end of the alleyway a police car crawls to
a halt.

EXT.  ALLEYWAY.  NIGHT.

Romeo exits the building, and as he does so, the streetlight
catches his face.  The Cop's and Romeo's eyes meet.

INT.  POLICE CAR.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: The cop.

			COP
	This is that banished haughty
	Montague.

INT.  BALTHASAR'S CAR.

Balthasar cracks; he guns the engine and the car lurches
forward.

EXT.  ALLEYWAY.  NIGHT.

Tires screech as Romeo dives into the passenger seat of
Balthasar's moving vehicle.

Siren blaring, the police car gives chase.

AERIAL SHOT.  NIGHT.

Balthasar's car winds through traffic - the patrol car
gaining.

EXT.  ANOTHER PART OF TOWN.  NIGHT.

A police car U-turns over a median strip.

EXT.  BALTHASAR'S CAR.  NIGHT.

TIGHT ON: A rusted brown hood.

The tortured engine screams as Balthasar negotiates the
speeding car through city traffic.

CRANE UP: Red and blue police light approach fast.

INT.  PRECINCT OFFICE.  NIGHT.

Captain Prince barrels through the corridors of police
headquarters pulling on his flying jacket.

EXT.  STREET.  NIGHT.

TIGHT ON: A smoking tire as it lays rubber to the asphalt.

Balthasar grits his teeth as he weaves the car through the
impossibly tight space between a container truck and a bus.

WHIP PAN: The patrol car is almost upon them when... in a
seemingly suicidal manoeuvre Balthasar throws his car into a
right-angle turn across four lanes of oncoming traffic.
Horns blare.

CUT TO: A skidding, squealing, out of control sedan, braking
to avoid collision.

Miraculously, Balthasar's vehicle shoots out of it its path
and onto the other side of the roadway.

The sedan slams into the following patrol car.

EXT.  DRIVEWAY.  NIGHT.

Balthasar's car speeds into the driveway of the Verona Beach
Eternal Rest Cemetery.

INT.  CHOPPER.  NIGHT.

Captain Prince scans the night time city below.  He speaks
to the pilot and the chopper banks sharply.

EXT.  CEMETERY.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: A stone angel etched against the night sky.

PAN DOWN: Romeo pulls a crowbar from the trunk of the parked
car.  Police sirens sound in the distance.

Romeo eyes Balthasar intently.

			ROMEO
	Upon thy life, whatever thou
	hearest
	Or seest, stand all aloof.  Give me
	the light -

Balthasar stands motionless - Romeo rips the torch from his
hands and strides into the cemetery.  Balthasar follows.

			BALTHASAR
	I do beseech you...

Romeo turns, punching Balthasar hard; he goes down, blood
spurting from his nose.

			ROMEO
	Do not interrupt me in my course or
	By heaven I will tear thee joint by
	joint
	And strew this hungry churchyard
	with thy limbs!

Balthasar slowly rises.  Both boys are trying hard not to cry.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	The time and my intents are savage
	wild,
	More fierce and more inexorable far
	Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

			BALTHASAR
	I will be gone and not trouble ye.

Romeo smiles.

			ROMEO
	So shalt thou show me friendship.

They embrace as Romeo whispers.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Live, and be prosperous; and
	farewell, good fellow.

EXT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: A crowbar wrenches at ornate glass and iron doors.

PULL BACK: The Gothic structure of the mausoleum rears
against the night sky.  Romeo frenziedly attacks the gates
of the small side chapel.

			ROMEO
	Thou detestable maw, thou womb of
	death,
	Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to
	open.

With a final heave the doors scrape open.

Silence.

ROMEO'S P.O.V.: An endless marble corridor lit by hundreds
of tiny flickering eternal flames.

CLOSE ON: Romeo.  He murmurs:
.			ROMEO
	In despite I'll cram thee with more
	food.

Suddenly a hurricane wind and whirr of machinery: like a
huge black insect, Captain Prince's chopper swoops down over
the mausoleum.

Romeo is caught in the glare of the chopper's burning arc
light.  Sirens scream, police units race through the cemetery.
Blinded, Romeo fires wildly toward the chopper.

The police cars screech to a halt.

CLOSE ON: A police marksman in the chopper.  His finger
squeezes the rifle trigger.

BANG!  A bullet slams into Romeo's shoulder.  The other cops
open fire and Romeo is sent reeling backwards into the
mausoleum in a fusillade of bullets.

INT.  CHOPPER.  NIGHT.

An angry Captain Prince bellows into the radio.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Hold!  Hold!

The police hold their fire.

INT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

Bleeding from the shoulder wound, Romeo drags shut the heavy
double doors of the chapel.  He bangs off three shots
through a pane of broken glass and screams at the police.

			ROMEO
	Stand all aloof!

EXT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

Outside the chopper hovers.  Police take up siege positions.
Captain Prince's voice echoes through the bullhorn.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Romeo, come forth, come forth.

INT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

Romeo uses the crowbar to wedge the doors shut.  He bangs
off another shot as he yells out at the Police.

			ROMEO
	Tempt not a desperate man!

Romeo waits.  There is no response from the cops.

INT.  CHOPPER.  NIGHT.

As the chopper settles to earth, Captain Prince speaks into
the radio.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Bring forth these enemies Montague
	and Capulet.

INT.  PRIEST'S CAR.  NIGHT.

Orange rescue lights reflect through the windshield of the
priest's car as it crawls past the crashed sedan and police
vehicle.

Father Laurence thumps the steering wheel in frustration.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Saint Francis be my speed tonight!

Across the road Police swarm around the entrance to the
cemetery.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Fear comes upon me.
	O, much I fear some ill unthrifty
	thing.

HOLD ON: The green glow of the car clock as the seconds
pulse away.

INT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

TRACK: Down the marble corridor lit by the eternal flames.

DISCOVER: Romeo.  He weakly stands at the entrance to the
viewing chapel.

The chapel is dark.

As Romeo's eyes adjust he can just see, picked out by a
shaft of blue moonlight, the glowing figure of a sleeping
girl.  He moves down the aisle past the tombs of long-dead
Capulets.

Romeo is close now.  He halts as if in the presence of an
unbelievable vision.  He lights a match and the room glows
gold.  The warm light reveals a Juliet even more beautiful
in seeming death.

Romeo lights some of the hundreds of candles that surround
her.

			ROMEO
	O my love, my wife,
	Death, that hath sucked the honey
	of thy breath,
	Hath had no power yet upon thy
	beauty,
	Thou art not conquered.  Beauty's
	ensign yet
	Is crimson in thy lips and in thy
	cheeks,
	And death's pale flag is not
	advanced there.

Romeo kneels close, as if not wanting to wake a sleeping
child.  Unconscious tears fall from his eyes as he whispers.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Ah, dear Juliet, why art thou yet
	so fair?
	Shall I believe that unsubstantial
	death
	Is amorous and keeps thee here in
	dark
	To be his paramour?  For fear of
	that
	I still will stay with thee.  Here,
	oh here
	Will I set up my everlasting rest
	And shake the yoke of inauspicious
	stars
	From this world-wearied flesh.

He lays himself close.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	Eyes, look your last.
	Arms, take your last embrace.  And,
	lips, O you
	The doors of breath, seal with a
	righteous kiss...

Gently Romeo kisses Juliet's lips.  Ever so slightly,
Juliet's hand moves - Romeo does not notice.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
	A dateless bargain to engrossing
	death.

Romeo drinks from the vial; the power of the compound is
immediate.  He convulses and falls, his head resting on
Juliet.

			ROMEO (CONT.)
		(fighting for breath)
	O true apothecary, thy drugs are
	quick.

Behind Romeo's head we can see Juliet's eyes opening.  Romeo
sucks the last few breaths of life into his lungs.  Through
a blurry consciousness Juliet becomes aware of Romeo.

			JULIET
	Oh Romeo, what's here?

Forcing herself up, she cradles his head in her arms.
Romeo's clear wide eyes stare back, he is completely still
but for the sound of weak breaths desperately drawn across
motionless lips.

Juliet finds the vial clenched in Romeo's hand.  Tears slip
from her eyes.

			JULIET (CONT.)
	Drunk all, and left
	No friendly drop to help me after.
	I will kiss thy lips.
	Haply some poison yet doth hang on
	them
	To make me die with a restorative.

She delicately kisses Romeo's lips.

			JULIET (CONT.)
		(a heart-broken whisper)
	Thy lips are warm.

Desperately the lovers cling to each other.  With all his
desire to stay alive, Romeo whispers:

			ROMEO
	Thus with a kiss I die.

There is no breath.  He is still.  Silence.  Sobbing, Juliet
hugs the lifeless Romeo to her.

			JULIET
	Romeo.  O' my true love Romeo.

She looks to the gun in his hand.

EXT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

TRACK: Quickly past Captain Prince and the Capulets taking
cover behind a patrol car.

Two police officers urgently convey Montague and his wife
toward them.

Discover Father Laurence arriving.

CUT TO: Father Laurence's P.O.V.: Patrol cars, lights
flashing, surround the mausoleum.

He sees, through the open door of a police car, a hand-
cuffed youth.  It is Balthasar.  Father Laurence hurries to
him.

It is dawning on Father Laurence.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Balthasar?

			BALTHASAR
		(desperately)
	I brought news of Juliet's death...
	And then in post came Romeo from
	Mantua
	To this same place... to this same
	monument.

CLOSE ON: Father Laurence.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	How long hath he been there?

			BALTHASAR
	Full half an hour.

Father Laurence turns towards the mausoleum.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	Romeo.
		(a shock of realisation)
	The lady stirs...

INT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

TRACK SLOW TOWARD: Juliet: Sobbing uncontrollably she prises
the gun from Romeo's hand.

EXT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

Father Laurence, desperate, breaks through the police line
and runs toward the mausoleum.

CUT TO: The parents and Captain Prince.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	Hold!  Go not forth!

INT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

Juliet turns the gun on herself.

EXT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

CLOSE ON: Father Laurence, he screams as he mounts the
mausoleum stairs.

			FATHER LAURENCE
	The lady stirs!

CRACK!  The sound of a single gun shot rips through the night.

CUT TO: Captain Prince.

CUT TO: The parents, a look of cold shock.

CUT TO: The priest - his cry echoes through the night.

INT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

Juliet lies peacefully on Romeo's chest.  Her eyes awake.  A
wash of deep red blood floods across them both.  As we move
away from the forms of the two young lovers lit by a ring of
candles, the police burst in, guns ready to resolve what has
already been resolved.  Continuing up, we pass through the
glass dome of the viewing chapel, and over the building.

EXT.  MAUSOLEUM.  NIGHT.

There, huddled at the base of the Mausoleum steps, are the
Montague and Capulet parents and Father Laurence.

From high up we see Captain Prince emerge from the Mausoleum
and speak to the group.  A moment, then their cries float
gently up.

EXT.  SKY.  NIGHT.

We are travelling high into the sky now.  The cries of the
parents and the buzz of radio calls fade to nothing.

EXT.  VERONA BEACH STREET - CHRIST ROUNDABOUT-FROM AIR.  DAWN.

As the sun struggled to rise, we push toward the figure of
Jesus silently surveying the city.

EXT.  VERONA BEACH - CHRIST ROUNDABOUT.  DAWN.

As Jesus' face fills the screen, droplets of water begin to
streak his cheeks.

HOLD: Music swells; the droplets grow to a torrent, and a
heavy rain begins to fall.

For a long beat, we stay with this image.

CRANE DOWN: From the Jesus.  A sea of black umbrellas
stretches back from the steps of Freedom Tower.

EXT.  FREEDOM TOWER.  DAY.

At the top of the steps are a pair of flower strewn caskets.
Before the caskets stand Fulgencia and Gloria Capulet, and
Ted and Caroline Montague.  They stare with blank,
uncomprehending sorrow.

Among the crowd we see the distraught faces of Benvolio,
Balthasar, Father Laurence and the Nurse.

The caskets are gently slid into a pair of long black cars.
Montague and Capulet descend the stairs.  Captain Prince
blocks their path.  He holds them in his gaze.

			CAPTAIN PRINCE
	See what a scourge is laid upon
	your hate,
	That heaven finds means to kill
	your joys with love;
	And I, for winking at your discords
	too,
	Have lost a brace of kinsmen.  All
	are punished.

The Prince steps aside.  The procession moves off.  Montague
and Capulet look to one another, a moment, and then the two
adversaries together follow the bodies of their dead children.

AERIAL SHOT: The rain falls.  Two black cars lead the people
of Verona Beach in a sorrowful parade.

As the cars pass beneath the towering effigy of Jesus, the
image pixilates into a television picture.

PULL OUT: A TV anchor woman watches the image on a studio
monitor.

She turns:

			ANCHOR WOMAN
		(to camera)
	A glooming peace this morning with
	it brings:
	The sun for sorrow will not show
	his head.
	Go hence, to have more talk of
	these sad things.
	Some shall be pardoned, and some
	punished,
	For never was a story of more woe
	Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

The anchor woman changes beat to the next story; but her
dialogue fades, and her image gets smaller as the television
recedes into a black distance.

The music that reminds us most of these two lost lives
swells.  When the television is very small it is switched off.

BLACK SCREEN.  HOLD A BEAT.

			END CREDITS
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