Insomnia Train Opener
EXT. SUBURBAN TRAIN STATION- WINTER NIGHT
SCREEN READS: 1:45 AM
An outdoor train station. Quiet, still, dark, empty.
The sound of footsteps. A 45 year old woman- MARGARET O’REILY- enters. She wears a bright dress, stockings, and heels.
Margaret takes a newspaper from a newspaper rack, places it on a bench underneath the overhang, then sits- legs crossed.
Her face in a compact mirror. She fixes her makeup- red lips and freshly curled hair (a 1940s vibe). She smirks then peers down the tracks, as if waiting for a train to work.
INT. CITY TRAIN STATION- NIGHT
An enclosed train station. HOMELESS MAN sleeps on cardboard on the stairs. Shiny shoes skip down, past him.
Following the shoes to the underground…
A 60 year old man- WESLEY JONES- dressed in a beige suit with suspenders, a bowtie, and a fedora stands tall on the edge of the platform. He admires the nonoperating tracks- his kingdom.
He sets his briefcase down, hops onto the tracks, then dusts it off. He strolls down the tracks into a tunnel and hums an upbeat tune.
EXT. TUDOR HOUSE DRIVEWAY- NIGHT
A hand, with funky bright nails, reaches over a side gate, and unlocks the latch.
A car pulls into the driveway. NATALIE CLARK- a 25 year old woman, who appears younger, steps out. She's dressed in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, holding a plastic bag in one hand, her phone in the other. She focuses on the latch left unlocked.
EXT. NATALIE’S BACKYARD- NIGHT
Natalie steps through the side gate. She glances around.
CLAYTON ELLIOT- a 19 year old woman with red hair- peeks out from behind a garage. She sees Natalie and bites her brightly colored nails as she watches her.
Natalie appears to be taking out a ZQuill bottle. She discards the evidence of the plastic bag and receipt into her side yard trash bin.
BEEPING.
Natalie turns. She jumps at the sight of Clayton.
Natalie observes Clayton’s retro, quirky outfit- something about her is of a dream, of a different world.
Clayton presses her watch- the beeping stops. She looks at Natalie, with eyes of curiosity and wonderment then reaches out her hand to her.
A beat.
Natalie grabs Clayton’s hand. They run through the yard.
INT. NATALIE’S TREEHOUSE- NIGHT
AREIAL VIEW OF THE GIRLS RUNNING- SOMEONE IS WATCHING THEM (peering out from the old treehouse).
The silhouettes of the girls disappear into the woods at the edge of the yard.
EXT. CITY TRAIN STATION- NIGHT
A quietly attractive man in his early 30s- TREY FIELDS- saunters down the middle train track, kicking a rock. Run-down trains covered in graffiti sit on the tracks beside him.
Only the sounds of the rock clinking against the track.
He peers ahead. A group of glamorously dressed people, including Wesley, stand not speaking nor looking at one another.
Trey stands next to Wesley, they nod at one another. Everyone stares upward as the wires between telephone poles begin to shake.
TRACKING SHOT OF THE SHAKING WIRES AT SPEED: QUICK PAUSES AT GROUPS OF PEOPLE ON MIDDLE TRACKS, BY RUN-DOWN TRAINS, OR ABANDONED PARTS OF TRACKS
EXT. WOODED TRAIN TRACKS- NIGHT
Clayton and Natalie sit on a small grassy incline above the tracks. Clayton gazes at the shaking wires, Natalie mimics. Clayton closes her eyes and inhales.
A light illuminates the girls. Natalie, wide eyed, basks in the light, mesmerized.
CLAYTON
You coming?
The light dims. Natalie regards Clayton, who is halfway in the door of a run-down train.
EXT. WOODED TRAIL- AFTERNOON
SCREEN READS: 12 HOURS EARLIER
Natalie jogs. Through trees, in the near distance, a train passes. She almost trips over a log, but she leaps over it.
…