Donnie Brasco
CUT TO:
EXT. THE PAST. MOTION LOUNGE
A LION IN WINTER. Lefty in his overcoat, the Lion on its leash. A cold DRIZZLE falls. The Lion stops, sniffs at an AUTOMOBILE. Lifts a leg:
PEES ON THE TIRE
Lefty, embarrassed, looks around. NEIGHBORS watch from windows — some amused, some disapproving. The Lion moves to the next car.
Sniffs. Pees on the tire. And then to the next:
SONNY’S MERCEDES
The Lion sniffs. Lefty tugs on the leash. The Lion resists, sniffs some more. Lefty tugs harder. The Lion lifts its leg… Lefty YANKS on the leash — the Lion ROARS. Lefty DRAGS the Lion into the Motion Lounge.
CUT TO:
INT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE
Donnie takes a football bet on the pay phone.
DONNIE We got the Colts giving two and a- half. Yeah, (writing) nickel on the Colts.
INSIDE
Sonny presides over a BOARD MEETING of the Sonny Black Corporation.
Nicky, Boobie and other WISEGUYS — including BOOTS and LEGS — pore over crumpled scraps of paper. Sonny makes notes in a little spiral NOTEBOOK. Donnie joins them.
BOOBIE We had that load of jeans — remember? Two hundred grand on that…
The Lion shakes its mane, SPRAYS WATER over everyone.
NICKY Va’n’aool’, all over everything! Lefty — how’m I gonna read this?
LEFTY That’ll teach you to improve your penmanship.
Lefty lays a PARKING METER out on a card table. Picks up a SLEDGE HAMMER.
BOOTS There’s that guy that’s making the Quaaludes for us.
DONNIE What’re we selling that for? I know a guy I think I could off them to.
NICKY Sixty cents apiece. I think it’s 60. Is it 60?
BOOTS We’re doing a dime a week.
WHAM!
an echoing CLANGOR as Lefty whacks at the parking meter with the sledge hammer.
SONNY If you’re holding out on me, Boots, I’m gonna chop you up.
BOOTS I ain’t holding out. It’s ten grand a week. That’s it.
SONNY It should be 25. (to Boobie) You ever off that load of sunglasses?
Boobie nods, gives thumbs up.
NICKY Bullshit, Boobie.
BOOBIE I did so, Nicky.
NICKY Who you gonna lay off 18 cases of sunglasses to?
BOOBIE I laid it off… to the same guy I heisted it from. (to Sonny) Twenty-five grand.
Sonny writes in his notebook.
WHAM! Another deafening smash at the parking meter.
SONNY Will you stop it with that?
LEFTY How else’m I gonna open it? Open sesame?
SONNY What are you gonna get out of that, Left? Fifty bucks?
LEFTY Ain’t the question.
SONNY You know, you guys — you don’t fucking think. I’m the skipper now — I gotta answer. Sonny Red’s got 75 million alone just with that trucking company out in Jersey and I got fifty bucks of fucking dimes.
LEFTY A score’s a score.
SONNY You’re like a bunch of fucking niggers on welfare.
DONNIE What about Florida? I know a guy down there, he has some vending machines he’s trying to move.
LEFTY Let him move them to New York.
DONNIE Plus he has a club down there. He’s looking for partners that can give him peace of mind.
SONNY You know this guy?
WHAM! Another bang at the parking meter. Lefty GLOWERS at Donnie. A look that says: SHUT UP.
DONNIE I knew him ten years ago, in Baltimore. He was okay then.
SONNY Where in Florida? The Beach?
DONNIE Tampa.
LEFTY For your information they got their own outfit down there and their own boss.
LEGS Santo Trafficante.
LEFTY Thank you.
NICKY All the economy’s moving down there, Florida, ’cause of the Oil Crisis. I heard it on the news.
BOOBIE The economy gotta be good for there to be good moneymaking for crooks.
LEGS Who can get a fucking thing going in this fucking city? It’s 5000 wiseguys all chasing the same nickel.
NICKY Hey, Sonny, maybe we could do something with Disneyworld down there. Wiseguy Mountain. Wiseguys of the Caribbean. Everybody fucks Minnie Mouse up the ass. Can you imagine? (gestures) You grab her by those big fucking ears —
Uproarious LAUGHTER from the group. Then suddenly —
SONNY EXPLODES
In a RAGE, he stands up, THROWS HIS CHAIR, knocks over the card table.
SONNY You think this is a fucking joke? Hah? One day I’m gonna die, and I’m gonna be in this same fucking room, with these same fucking guys, talking about these same fucking scams that never amount to anything, and that’s how I’ll know I got sent to fucking Hell.
Sonny STORMS out. The guys sit, look at each other. Some dazed.
Some calculating. Boobie picks up the toppled table.
BOOBIE We better start earning or somebody’s gonna get clipped.
Then Sonny RETURNS. Pale and shaken.
SONNY I can’t even imagine it. What kind of people — in broad fucking daylight — what kind of a world —
NICKY What happened?
SONNY They stole the Mercedes.
CUT TO:
EXT. DAY. MOTION LOUNGE
The guys file out. STARE at the EMPTY SPACE where the Mercedes used to be.
CUT TO:
EXT. NIGHT. LAGUARDIA AIRPORT
From the runway, as a JETLINER takes off…
CUT TO:
INT. NIGHT. AIRPLANE
Nicky and Boobie play GIN in the second row of the FIRST CLASS section. Their GIRLFRIENDS sit beside them. Sonny SNOOZES behind them on the shoulder of Judy, the waitress we met at the outset.
Lefty and Donnie sit along the opposite wall, in the smoking section,
LEFTY (sotto) Donnie?
DONNIE What?
LEFTY Why’d you inject that, Donnie, with Florida?
DONNIE I didn’t inject anything, Left.
LEFTY You injected that. Don’t tell me no. I know you, Donnie, you don’t say nothing unless there’s a reason for it.
DONNIE I don’t know, Left. I was just bullshitting around.
LEFTY Listen to me, Donnie. I swear on — I don’t know which to swear on, my dead father, my mother, who I love, my children — I swear to you, something’s going on that you don’t know about.
DONNIE I know.
LEFTY (flaring) That’s the problem is, you don’t know.
DONNIE You don’t explain it to me.
LEFTY You think you can trust Sonny Black? Sonny Black is one big fat fucking snake in the, uh, uh…
