Art Imitating Life

Hey there, crime kids. Happy Thursday. It's time once again to take a trip to the dark side, where your most violent fantasies become sins of the flesh, right here, where the hardboiled action is non-stop, at the coolest crime joint in cyberspace ... at That Killing Feeling.

In Chapter 7 of EXIT, the hostage situation takes a strange turn when Oscar-winning screenwriter Casey Montana carefully asks fugitive Danny Peel what crime he committed (thinking it might make a great story for her next movie), and just as he starts to tell her, gunman Vin Vargas 'accidentally' blows gay drug dealer Mickey Mertz's head off ...


INT. THE EXIT ROOM - MAIN LOUNGE - EARLY MORNING
Danny sits at the bar nursing a cocktail.
One of his shirt sleeves has been cut off.

The gunshot wound on his arm
has been dressed and bandaged.

Vin sits in a booth with his
bloody pants leg sticking out,
pointing his gun at Mickey.

MICKEY
Cutting your jeans would be stupid.

VIN
I’m not taking them off.
You cut Danny’s shirt,
you can cut my pants.

MIKEY
But it’s different.
Danny can put a jacket on,
but it’s gonna look really stupid
with one long leg and one short.

VIN
I could give a rat’s ass.
(aims his gun)
Cut the fucking pants. NOW.

MICKEY
Okay, okay.
Stop pointing that thing at me.

VIN
Shut the fuck up and
CUT MY FUCKING PANTS.

MICKEY
Okay. Calm down.
(beat)
Would you mind standing up?
I can’t get to them
with you lying down like that.

VIN
Alright.
But if you touch my junk,
you’re a dead man, got it?

AT THE BAR
Danny sits at the far end.

Looks at Sky, Easy and Angel
at the other end.

Mia looks down.
Like she’s going to cry.

DANNY
(to Mia)
Why so glum, gorgeous?
Play your cards right and
you’ll get out of this alive.

MIA
My mother had a stroke.
I need to go the hospital and see her.
If you let me go,
I promise I won’t say anything.

DANNY
Sorry, doll.
Ain’t gonna happen.

Casey comes over.
Plops in a stool.
Looks at Mia.

CASEY
Can I get a drink?
I’m starting to sober up.

DANNY
How’s she doing?

CASEY
She’s breathing.
But I really think she
should go to the hospital.
She could die.

DANNY
Yeah, but then her record sales
would go through the roof.

Mia hands Casey her drink.
She takes a sip.

CASEY
So what did you guys do?
Rob a bank?

DANNY
Nah. Don’t do banks.
(beat)
Why do you wanna know?
Think it would make a good movie?

CASEY
Maybe.

DANNY
You wrote ‘Wilshire Boulevard.’

CASEY
Yeah.

DANNY
Great fucking movie.

CASEY
Thanks.

DANNY
I love the part where
the intruder rapes the rich bitch,
but turns out to be the guy
she’s having an affair with.

CASEY
She was based on my boss’s wife
at my last job.

DANNY
(smiles)
What’s that expression?
Art imitating life?

CASEY
Very good.

Pause.

DANNY
It was a home invasion.
We ripped off a
dirty cop up in the hills.
Thought it’d be a cinch,
two against one,
but he was in bed with some slut,
and trigger-happy over there --

BANG.

Everyone JUMPS.
Turns and looks at --

MICKEY
Lying on the floor.
Half his face, gone.

DANNY
RACES over.

DANNY
What the FUCK, Vin?
What the fucking fuck did you DO?

Vin stands next to Mickey’s body
in his tighty-whiteys holding his gun,
lower lip quivering.

VIN
He -- made fun of my underwear.

DANNY
I thought he was gonna cut your pants.

VINCE
Changed my mind.
Gay guy with scissors
anywhere near my crotch?
No fucking way, Jose.