FADE IN:

EXT. BEACH AT BETHANY, DELAWARE - LATE AFTERNOON

SUPER: "Beach at Bethany, Delaware".
CHARLES POWERS, 30, beach clothes, is doing a so far
unsuccessful beach cruise. So is SHANNON DEMPSEY, 17,
pert, freckle-faced girl athlete type, outgoing but
not that pretty, also dressed for a cruise.
They meet. Instant recognition of similar purpose,
whatever. In time, because storm clouds are near.
CHARLES
Hi. I'm Charles Powers. Are
you new here, like me?
SHANNON
Wouldn't that be admitting too
much too soon, but anyway, I'm
Shannon Dempsey.
They shake hands, communicating without words.
CHARLES
Admitting, too. I'm doing this for
a very good reason.
SHANNON
Aren't we all, Charles, so let's
compare made-up stories and see
who's best at inventing.
CHARLES
First and absolutely, how old
are you?
From offshore, storm clouds move in. Shannon both lies
and smiles convincingly.
SHANNON
Celebrated my eighteenth,
which makes me legal, consensual,
and very interesting.
2.
CHARLES
Then do your thing first.
SHANNON
My father is Michael Dempsey,
Attorney General of the
United States.
CHARLES
Not guilty. Do my own income
tax returns on time and honestly.
SHANNON
Daddy and our first lady
President, Verna Hamilton, went
through Harvard Law School
together.
CHARLES
Harvard is where my wife, Dr.
Geneva Delaney, is a full
Professor of Anthropology.
SHANNON
The study of--?
CHARLES
Which King is really the father
of which Queen's daughter?
SHANNON
I'm an unashamed romantic, but
did Fate really bring us here?
The Harvard connection?
(enjoying herself)
Because Aunt Verna's husband--
I can call her that because
she is my Godmother--and Uncle
Tony is a retired U. S. Navy
Captain.
CHARLES
Once a sure bet for Admiral, but
retired to be Verna's campaign
manager, and they won.

3.
SHANNON
Their oldest son Scott wants
to follow his father into the
Naval Academy. Wants me to go
there with him. But I get
seasick. Even in a canoe.
CHARLES
Putting two and two together,
to make four, five, and six,
Scott is your first boy friend,
and you're having as much fun
as a White House girl intern.
First few big drops of rain.
SHANNON
I love Navy guys, but I've always
planned to follow Daddy to Harvard.
CHARLES
Absence makes the hot grow fonder.
SHANNON
Now you know why I am walking
the beach. Your turn. Thrill me.
CHARLES
My wonderful grandfather Horace,
with all the world to live for,
is a victim of Alzheimer's
disease.
SHANNON
Oh, dear, not nice. I hate to
admit my ignorance, but I don't
know that much about it.
CHARLES
Neither do most of the victim's
loved ones until the disease
hits hard.
SHANNON
Can you inherit it?
4.
CHARLES
What a smart and sweet little
girl you are. Doctors believe,
only a few unlucky families.
Why I am here. Worried about
myself and my growing daughter.
SHANNON
With odds in your favor?
CHARLES
What most people don't know.
President Ronald Reagan is
the most famous victim of that
disease. But so were his
mother and a brother.
SHANNON
Oh, my God, I didn't know that.
First drops of rain keep falling. Charles has been
carrying an umbrella and he opens it for both of them.
CHARLES
I'm renting a condo with a
fully-stocked kitchen.
SHANNON
You must have been a Boy Scout.
"Be Prepared!"
They kiss under the umbrella, and not briefly.
CHARLES
For whatever.
SHANNON
What did you have in mind?
CHARLES
Where did you get that lovely
name that fits you so well,
Shannon?
SHANNON
Parents missed their flight at
Shannon Airport...oops! Before
they had my blue pill.
5.
EXT. HEADQUARTERS, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY - DAY
SUPER: HEADQUARTERS
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
LANGLEY, VA.
Aerial view of the Headquarters complex of the CIA in
nearby Washington, D. C.
INT. OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE CIA - DAY
In an office featuring several television screens are
VERNA HAMILTON, woman President of the United States,
and DR. ALEX STEINBERG, Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency.
STEINBERG
Madame President, prepare yourself
for another of my lectures at
Harvard Law. Where no classmate
can ever forget you.
(pause)
When you appointed me as your
Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, you told
me that my mission was to
anticipate and prepare for
any threats to the security
of the United States, however
unimaginable.
(pause)
Like the three we have already
survived.
Steinberg touches a keyboard.
STEINBERG
The first was the Japanese
surprise attack at--at--
Steinberg has a word block. Verna supplies it.
VERNA
Pearl Harbor.

6.
STEINBERG
Killing twenty-four hundred
American servicemen and some
civilians. Caught Naval
Intelligence playing with words.
A television screen replays the attack of Dec. 7, 1941.

STEINBERG
Only three years later it was
Army Intelligence that was caught
off guard. The wholly unexpected
late World War II German attack
called "The Battle of the Bulge."
Sixty-nine thousand American
casualties, nineteen thousand dead.
Television screen display shows weary GIs fighting
both the enemy and the bad weather.
VERNA
And then, the unforgettable,
unprecedented event of September
Eleven?
STEINBERG
To prevent any more disasters
of faulty intelligence, we had
created the Central Intelligence
Agency. Yet it had no clue
about what would happen that
day.
On another screen, a hijacked commercial airliner
crashes into a skyscraper at the World Trade Center
in New York.
STEINBERG
The incredibly successful
coordinated terrorist attacks
by three planes killed three
thousand at four locations,
of fifty different nationalities.
VERNA
And now you are anticipating
still another, yet equally
indefensible disaster?
7.
STEINBERG
Just as unimaginable. A wholly
different kind of enemy. Not
human. Nature gone wild. It
is called Alzheimer's disease.
VERNA
You astonish me. Aren't you
aware that the previous
administration left me a legacy,
a Plan that they declared would
wipe out Alzheimer's by the
Year 2025?
STEINBERG
Fully aware, Dear. And also
aware that by the Year 2025,
twelve years to go, the
optimistic creators of that
Plan will be long since gone.
VERNA
Then go back to where I came in.
You began by claiming that
Alzheimer's disease is indeed
a threat to the national
security--
STEINBERG
Start by recognizing that any
victim of Alzheimer's disease
has been given a life sentence
without parole. That disease
is always terminal. How much--
ah, what, how much--
(groping)
What do you know about it?
VERNA
My own fault, for not asking
for a report from those
assigned to monitor Plan 2025.
STEINBERG
Alzheimer's is a disease that is
totally unlike any other. The
(MORE)
8.
STEINBERG (CONT.)
victim will slowly lose all of
his or her mental and physical
capabilities, to revert back
to the status of a helpless
infant, requiring full-time
care thereafter, usually
for many years.
(pause)
While five million diagnosed
cases slowly crept up on us.
Thirty million world-wide.

VERNA
Five million! That's an epidemic!
STEINBERG
If it is an epidemic, it follows
a totally different set of
rules from other historic
epidemics. That is why
Alzheimer's is so mystifying--
VERNA
If not terrifying!

STEINBERG
In the 1918 flu epidemic, a unique
virus strain circled the world
three times, killing as many as died
in World War I. No virus has ever
been found to explain Alzheimer's.
VERNA
Other possible causes?
STEINBERG
No verifiable examples yet.
Is it inherited? We don't know.
Since the disease wasn't even
named until 1906, we sorely
lack family histories.
VERNA
You have now added another to my
long list of priority problems.
9.
STEINBERG
Expect half a million new cases
this year. Of which I am not one.
But Verna, darling, I, too, have
just been diagnosed. Though not
with Alzheimer's--
VERNA
Oh, thank God, thank God!
STEINBERG
A real, uncontrolled, emotional
outburst? Unlike you, Dear!
VERNA
Because I was sure you were
preparing me! No other reason
for a terribly detailed, and
ominous description!
STEINBERG
For a rare, uncontrolled
reaction, from the Queen of the
Campus, now a woman who always
has everything she ever wanted?
VERNA
For a man I intimately knew
and loved, to lose it all--
slowly--a whole man's body,
and a brilliant mind?
STEINBERG
Defying that student-professor
rule, to start your own
personal revolution?
Their embrace is simultaneous.
VERNA
Would anyone have predicted,
not that long ago, that today,
as many as twenty percent of
young couples choose to live
together, before they get
married? Or otherwise?
10.
STEINBERG
Were we the leaders of our
own generation, or only
following the lead of a
newly coed college?
VERNA
In his eighties, Supreme
Court Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes said it for you.
"Oh, to be seventy again!"

EXT. LAW OFFICE - DAY
SUPER: BOSTON, MASS.
Plaque on door of a law office identifies:
Harrison Chandler, Esq.
Attorney at Law.
Charles Powers walks in wearing sports clothes.
Waiting for him is Professor GENEVA DELANEY, stylish
mid-30s. Lawyer HARRISON CHANDLER, 40s, wears bowtie.

HARRISON
Come in, Charles. Your wife,
Dr. Geneva Delaney. will represent
Harvard University.
(to Geneva)
And how is your charming
daughter at 13?

GENEVA
Daytona, thank you, is now a
pixilated and impatient 12,
going on 16.
HARRISON
Charles, for many years I was
honored to be the personal
lawyer of your late grandfather
Horace. I am now the executor
of his Will.
(MORE)
11.
HARRISON (CONT.)
His wife Vivian, your grandmother,
went first. Breast cancer.
Doctors could not save her.
Horace was deeply affected.
Then Alzheimer's took its time
for him.
GENEVA
While he generously paid for my
degree. Anthropology. Harvard.
CHARLES
Though he never stayed around
Harvard long enough to get his own.
Dropped out to make money. In
the expansion of television.
The start of cable.
Harrison gets attention as he starts to read the Will.
HARRISON
This Will concerns my grandson,
Charles Powers, whose sometime
brilliance helped to make my
fortune...
CHARLES
Grow and grow. Thank you,
Grandfather.
HARRISON
Not yet. You may not still be
thanking him, when I finish
reading this Will to you.
Harrison continues to read.
HARRISON
You helped me get rich with our
documentary about conquering
polio. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt was its most famous
victim. You researched a great
uplifting story.
12.

CHARLES
(to Geneva)
Roosevelt couldn't walk but got
himself elected president four times.
(to Harrison)
Grandfather's point, Counselor?
Harrison reads from the will again.
HARRISON
When I got the first diagnosis
of Alzheimer's disease, I
asked the doctor, what is that?
I've never heard of it--

CHARLES
True! Five million diagnosed
victims in the United States
alone, 30 million world-wide.
And most of us, including me,
knew nothing about it, unless
we were personally affected.
HARRISON
(reading)
The doctor explained the
disease to me, how over time
it will completely capture
the mind and body, until you
require total care, like an
infant.
GENEVA
Not only is there no cure, and
none in sight, but after a
century, medicine also has no
clue about its cause.
HARRISON
Charles, now for some unpleasant
news. An accusation.
(reading)
Yet I remain chagrined, if not
betrayed, that later, Charles
would abandon his beloved golf game,
to walk on a beach, cruising for
buxom beach delights!
13.
Charles explodes angrily.
CHARLES
Not true. For good reason!
Only once. And it was
raining, too!

Harrison gets back to the Will.
HARRISON
Grandson, you can still win
my entire estate, if you can
earn a Master's degree from
my own alma mater, Harvard
University, under Dr. Geneva
Delaney, professor of anthropology.
The professor is wearing a coed miniskirt.
HARRISON
To explain the cause of
Alzheimer's disease, where
medicine can't. You have one
full year to do this.
This time Charles controls himself.
CHARLES
One year? Don't you ever read
the newspapers? A previous
administration--not President
Hamilton's--has already put a
Plan into the works, that they
said would wipe out Alzheimer's
disease by the Year 2025!
(voice rising)
They're giving themselves twelve
years. Not the one that you're
allowing me!
HARRISON
Easy now, son. Not my doing--
your grandfather's. But by
the Year 2025 whoever wrote
that Plan won't be around to
have to explain why it didn't
work.
14.
CHARLES
And what are you trying to
tell me?
HARRISON
That a year from now you will
still be around to explain to
Probate Court why you should or
should not be awarded the
Horace Powers estate.
GENEVA
That's like taking a final
exam before you've sat in on
the lectures.
Behind Harrison, the pendulum of a classic grandfather's
clock marks the passage of time.
HARRISON
Your choices. Option One of
this Will allows you to bow out.
With twenty percent of the estate.
The rest to Harvard. Except his
historic car fleet. For Geneva!
(to Geneva)
Under Option Two, if Charles
thinks he's smart enough, if he
can find the answer he gets the
entire fortune. Otherwise,
Harvard's obscene endowment fund
gets that much richer...ours?
(wistfully)
I'm Yale, Class of '85.
(back to Charles)
You get his golf clubs.
CHARLES
Tell me about it.
INT. CHINESE RESTAURANT - EVENING
A young Chinese waitress, MEI LING, 22, smiles at
Charles, seats him, Geneva, and DAYTONA, hands out
menus, finds a child's paper menu for Daytona, with
puzzles to work, then leaves.
15.
Daytona already knows what she wants to order.
DAYTONA
Egg drop soup, Chinese spare
ribs, Mongolian beef, chicken
fried rice, and green tea. And
extra fortune cookies.
GENEVA
Charles, did you know what would
be in the Will?
CHARLES
Complete shock to me.
GENEVA
You must have been thinking about
it when you walked that beach.
CHARLES
No better way to clear the
mind, and not for what somebody
lied to Grandfather about!
(earnestly)
If Alzheimer's is a genetic
disease, are Daytona and I
at risk?
(pause)
Did get a partially reassuring
answer out of Google, after
asking persistently.
GENEVA
Then flunk me for misjudging
you, and what have you learned?
CHARLES
No more than a small percentage
of families carry a gene that
could be responsible. Luckily,
no other cases in both of my own
grandparent families.
Daytona is ready to connect the dots.
DAYTONA
I need a pencil.
16.
CHARLES
First symptoms don't appear until
late in life. Has the true
prevalence been masked, until
recently, by the much lower
lifespans of past centuries?
GENEVA
With medicine and sanitation the
unwitting accessories, raising
the lifespan to permit a truer,
increasing number of cases?
Geneva gives Daytona a pencil.
CHARLES
I walked off that beach with a
Five-Step Plan.
GENEVA
While you were gone, Google
found something for me. For
your Step One. A historic
literature reference.
Geneva takes a memo out of her purse.
GENEVA
Did Shakespeare witness a case?
From As You Like It.
(quoting)
All's the world's a stage, and all
the men and women merely players,
And each one in his time plays
many parts--
Last scene of all, that ends this
strange eventful history,
In second childishness and mere
oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste,
sans everything.
CHARLES
Professor, you are amazing.
GENEVA
So was Shakespeare.
17.

Daytona is skillfully connecting the dots on the
child's play napkin.
GENEVA
Thank you for the compliment, but
let's think about Harrison's
two options.
CHARLIE
The first I knew that anything
like that would be in the Will.
GENEVA
Medicine has wasted a century, so
how many wrong answers do we
already have to explain Alzheimer's
disease?
CHARLES
I have the complete list. For
Step Two, what is it?

Charles takes a thick volume out of his briefcase.
CHARLES
This is a 92-page assessment of
everything conjectured about it,
researched by the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine.
Geneva thumbs through the volume.
GENEVA
With nothing to show for it?
CHARLES
Wrong. I know everything they
tried, that I don't have to repeat.
GENEVA
That they haven't thought of?
CHARLES
Because I am going for Option Two.
All the marbles.
18.

Mei Ling returns, singing.
MEI LING
On the road to Manda-lay-ay...
GENEVA
The order for my daughter. Egg
drop soup, Chinese spare ribs,
Mongolian beef, chicken fried
rice, and green tea. We'll
order when you bring hers.
Mei Ling writes the order, leaves.

CHARLES
Step Three will be a wake-up
call. The same way that Race
For The Cure is doing it for
breast cancer.
DAYTONA
Are they wearing pink underwear,
too?

Daytona laughs at her own joke, as Charles and Geneva
admire her paper butterfly.
CHARLES
The secret of research is money.
They got theirs while we were
asleep.

GENEVA
Noah built the ark before the
floods came. Since you're going
for it, start now.
DAYTONA
The ark smelled. No toilets.
GENEVA
Dear, people smell. The ark
stank. Charles, does that
assessment say anything about
Darwin's Theory of Evolution?
It could give you overlooked
ideas to explore, as your Step Four.
19.
CHARLES
Did you know that whales carry
leg bones? Were they once land
animals?
DAYTONA
My Earth Science teacher says
that birds came from dinosaurs.
The pterodactyl got feathers!
GENEVA
Darwin's ideas have survived
for a hundred and fifty years.
(as the professor)
Genetic mutations form the
basis of his ideas, and they
may be the key to Alzheimer's,
too. And Darwin made wonderful
guesses in the dark ages of
today's science.
CHARLES
Piece by piece, over time,
great geniuses find great
answers to great problems.
DAYTONA
Like the flush toilet.
CHARLES
Or designing the Titanic's
stateroom mattresses to
double as waterproof
life rafts.
Mei Ling brings Daytona's dinner.
GENEVA
The same for us, but make
my soup hot and sour. With
iced tea.
Daytona jumps ahead to read a fortune cookie message.
20.
DAYTONA
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
Do you have to eat a fortune
cookie to make it come true?
Samples the cookie, too.
DAYTONA
For when I become thirteen. For
my first grownup beach party.
GENEVA
Even if Step Four fails, how
could a Step Five do it?
CHARLES
Needs extraordinary circumstances.
It would call for presidential
intervention, like Roosevelt's
atomic bomb, Kennedy's man
on the moon.
GENEVA
If you're not dreaming. With
all the other demands on the
President, what could possibly
persuade her to help us?

INT. PET SHOP - DAY
Charles finds the proprietor of a Boston pet shop,
SINGH, who wears a traditional turban.
CHARLES
I'm Charles Powers, doing a
Master's degree at Harvard,
to explain Alzheimer's disease.
I need a unique living symbol
to capture public attention.
Singh leads Charles to a small covered aquarium tank
with a dry sand bottom.
SINGH
A breeder in Sri Lanka has
mastered the art of raising
mature praying mantises.
21.
Inside the tank is a large specimen, a voracious green
female. Singh traps a cricket from another cage and
drops it into the tank. Instantly the mantis seizes
its prey and begins to eat it alive, starting with the
head. Charles is fascinated.
SINGH
Biological name, Mantis Religiosa.
After mating, eats the male, as
nourishment for her coming babies.
Inside a huge egg case.
CHARLES
Fantastic, but not what I want.
For medical research.

SINGH
Then not a baby alligator, so
what did you have in mind?
CHARLES
A laboratory animal. The
way we will beat this disease.
Now show me a white mouse.
INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING
Prof. Geneva Delaney hands out bound copies of her own
Ph. D. dissertation as she greets her new class of
graduate students. Harrison sits in to scout talent.
Doesn't miss Mei Ling.
GENEVA
You will each write a compelling
Master's thesis, something highly
controversial, but also socially
redeeming, like my own Ph. D.
thesis that I am giving you.
(elaborating)
The case for common law marriage.
Live together, as many already do.
Enjoy. Then go legal by telling,
or else good-bye, no regrets, no
divorce, girl keeps the ring!
CLOSEUP of Geneva's left hand. No rings.
22.
GENEVA
Each of you will face the gauntlet
as you try to explain to the class
the importance of your thesis.
The first volunteer is Charles
Powers.

Charles raises his hand to identify himself.
CHARLES
I'm Charles Powers. My late
grandfather was a victim of
Alzheimer's disease. But have
you heard the bad news from
the White House?
A coed, BIMINI, lets everyone know about it.
BIMINI
We're in a state of shock.
Came over the late news last
night. The President's husband,
Tony Hamilton, has just been
diagnosed with early onset
Alzheimer's disease!
GENEVA
And if the class will bear
with me this morning, what
all of you may not know yet,
is that I am all too familiar
with Alzheimer's.
CHARLES
And by helping me see my
grandfather through it, and
propping me up, too.
Bimini is eager to offer more complications.
BIMINI
Does this mean that we will lose
our first lady president, too?
The way Supreme Court Justice
O'Connor decided to retire,
when her husband was diagnosed?
23.
GENEVA
Born with a silver spoon in
her mouth, since her great-
grandfather discovered that
great silver mother lode in
Nevada? She won't resign.
Another student, BRYAN, adds more.
BRYAN
And blessed with everything
else. Beauty, brains, personality,
and luck.
BIMINI
Remember her famous announcement
when her wealthy parents took
her to the White House Easter
egg roll, as a precocious child?
FLASHBACK
EXT. WHITE HOUSE LAWN - EASTER
A very pretty six-year old girl has collected more
Easter eggs than any boy. A television channel camera
focuses on her.
COMMENTATOR
Hello there, young lady. Will
you tell us your name?
VERNA
Sure. I'm Minerva Pomerantz,
and when I grow up, I will be
a White House girl intern, and
I will live right here in the
White House.

COMMENTATOR
And I will read your book about it,
Minerva!
END FLASHBACK
24.
INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING
The class recalls much more about Tony Hamilton's
famously uninhibited wife.
CHARLES
If a child knows that much, what
does the public think a White
House intern really does there?
VOICE
Tidies up the Marilyn Monroe
bedroom!
GENEVA
I knew somebody would say that.
BIMINI
She feeds the White House cat?
CHARLES
The White House always has
a dog, not a cat.
BRYAN
Cleans the President's dirty
laundry?
GENEVA
All of this President's male
predecessors had a valet.
BRYAN
Not what I meant, Professor.
GENEVA
I know what you meant, and
this is a family show.
BIMINI
When the First Lady is away,
visiting jet set friends on
the Riviera, the White House
intern is the fourth for bridge.
CHARLES
Presidents play poker.
25.
BRYAN
They play roulette.
CHARLES
Prediction for the Presidency.
Her campaign replays it every
time she runs, and she hasn't
lost an election yet.
GENEVA
Oh, was she smart. She found
a way not to have to choose
sides in the abortion debate,
that nobody can win.
CHARLES
By finding an original subject
that she couldn't lose. Secret
adoptions.
FLASHBACK
INT. DEBATE AUDITORIUM - NIGHT
A smiling Congresswoman Verna Hamilton stands between
two male CANDIDATES in a televised debate.
VERNA
Because politicians like you
prefer to walk the safe course,
thousands of our citizens are
permanently deprived of
something everyone else
takes for granted.
FIRST CANDIDATE
We have all heard this speech
many times before.
VERNA
Their own priceless heritage.
SECOND CANDIDATE
For good reasons!
VERNA
That are no longer valid!
26.
FIRST CANDIDATE
Here we go, audience.
Audience LAUGHS. Verna has already won the debate.
VERNA
Ages ago, in many societies,
the unacceptable act was to
have a baby out of wedlock.

SECOND CANDIDATE
And for most societies today,
that stigma still holds.
VERNA
Not true! Have you looked at
the statistics?
FIRST CANDIDATE
Figures lie, and liars figure.
VERNA
The ancient laws still hold
in most of our States. Fatherless
infants are still placed in
secret adoptions with sealed
papers. A child then grows up,
never knowing who he or she is.
And most judges simply refuse.
SECOND CANDIDATE
And you want to upset tradition.

VERNA
Because I am now telling the
public the real reason. Those
secret adoptions are a cash
cow for the lawyers and the
adoption agencies. I have
already shamed several States
into changing their laws!
FIRST CANDIDATE
Let's talk about health care--

VERNA
I'm not finished, Andy.
(MORE)
27.
VERNA (CONT.)
A married couple can't have
a baby because the husband
is not fertile.
FIRST CANDIDATE
And by your standards, secret
adoptions are out?
VERNA
Absolutely. But doctors will
recommend "artificial insemination."
A cash cow, for them.
SECOND CANDIDATE
Legal, ethical, and proven.

VERNA
By sperm from an anonymous
medical student? To create
another child who can't know
his full heritage?

FIRST CANDIDATE
And of course you have a
better way?

VERNA
In today's bold new world, that
couple can select a family
friend whose genes match.
Then you ask him. Most men
will say yes. While both
the original husband and the
friend's wife approve. And
a childless couple will have
their baby.

SECOND CANDIDATE
Plus a lot of fun for everybody.

VERNA
Oh, my, Governor, did you
forget that this debate is a
family show?

28.
FIRST CANDIDATE
And who fathered your own
children, Madame Congresswoman?
VERNA
Our own genes were a beautiful
match, and there you go again!
END FLASHBACK

INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING
Bryan brings up the inevitable subject.
BRYAN
And of course, the original
wardrobe malfunction.
BIMINI
And who on this planet has
never seen it?
FLASHBACK
INT. SWIMMING POOL - DAY
A very photogenic Verna is showing off everything
for the camera as she campaigns in a two-piece bathing
suit.
VERNA
We can't afford to overlook
the importance of physical
education classes in the public
schools.
(treading water)
The secondary benefit is that
it teaches good habits for later
life. For example, studies
show that regular exercise reduces
your chances of contracting
Alzheimer's by thirty percent--
No one hears the rest, because Verna's new swimsuit
chooses that moment to pop the bra.

29.
Camera keeps rolling on a bare-chested Verna. She
gropes fruitlessly for the errant bra, then slowly
submerges as someone tosses in a convenient towel.

END FLASHBACK
INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING
Students buzz about the wardrobe malfunction ploy.
BRYAN
That one has won more votes
than a gift of lower taxes.
BIMINI
I'm not the only one who
wonders why a convenient
towel was right there.
CHARLES
Do keep wondering, Bimini, but
the best is yet to come.
GENEVA
Her famous, or perhaps infamous,
Harvard graduation speech.
CHARLES
First step to the presidency.
FLASHBACK
INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY
Alex Steinberg is introducing the featured speaker
at the Harvard graduation ceremony.

STEINBERG
It is now my honor and privilege,
to introduce your graduation
speaker, a former law school
student of mine, and I will
guarantee that none of you
will fall asleep, whatever she
has to say. Congresswoman
Verna Hamilton.
30.
Standing APPLAUSE as Verna takes over.

VERNA
First, congratulations to each
of you, for earning a degree
from Harvard.
(pause)
The theme of my brief speech is,
"How the world has changed."
(pause)
The first example is all of you.
Harvard was founded as a school
for men only. Today, women
outnumber men on American
college campuses.
(pause)
Let's go back twenty-five
hundred years to the Greek
philosopher Plato. He invented
the education system you know
today.
(pause)
Plato was a tutor for rich men's
sons. Then he realized he could
earn much more by teaching more
than one at a time. Thereby was
born the idea of a classroom,
one teacher, many students.
VOICE
But who taught rich men's daughters?

VERNA
But Plato is most remembered for
adding a word to the vocabulary.
"Platonic." It describes a
relationship between men and women
like you, that the dictionary
says, "Transcending physical
desire and tending towards the
purely spiritual or ideal."

Everybody waits for Verna's bombshell to explode.
It happens quickly.

31.
VERNA
Knowing how you graduates
have known each other intimately
since you were freshmen here,
I will predict that the word
"platonic" will soon disappear
from the vocabulary.
END FLASHBACK
INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING
Geneva adds more.

GENEVA
Two women had already run as
Vice Presidential candidates.
And Hillary Clinton made a
strong bid for the Presidential
nomination. And don't forget
England's Margaret Thatcher.
BRYAN
Can't stop here, guys. Maybe
there's another side to this
story. A Navy man, away from
home, for too long?
BIMINI
No secret. Tony Hamilton's
record as a Navy flier made
him a hero to every girl
campaign worker, ambitious to
know him personally as a
White House intern.
BRYAN
For a maximum of temptation and
a window of opportunity?
GENEVA
Stop it right there! Apparently,
some of you have had no personal
acquaintance with the terrible
tragedy of Alzheimer's disease.
32.
CHARLES
And I know too much about what's
ahead for the President's family.
GENEVA
A life sentence without parole,
ending in solitary confinement,
imprisoned in your own mind.
Bimini and Bryan now listen intently.

GENEVA
Charles, bring the class in for
a soft landing, and tell us
about your thesis.
CHARLES
Research to learn the cause of
Alzheimer's disease. Since its
naming in 1906, doctors have
added almost nothing. What
causes it. Who gets it. How
to slow it down or cure it.
Bimini gleefully sees another opportunity.
BIMINI
Dr. Delaney, you invited us to
criticize each other?
GENEVA
Harvard doesn't quickly award
graduate degrees, yes.
BIMINI
Then Charles, isn't the Government
already doing the same thing?
CHARLES
Are they?
BIMINI
Because I remember reading
something about a long-range
Plan--
33.
CHARLES
Bequeathed to us by President
Hamilton's predecessor.
Bryan also recalls it.
BRYAN
I remember it, too. They said
that by the Year--
CHARLES
Twenty twenty-five. Also the
Chinese Year of the Goat.
BRYAN
That we would have Alzheimer's
licked.
CHARLES
Two years into their timetable,
what "Breaking News" have you
heard so far?
No one has heard anything.
GENEVA
But couldn't the priorities
change rapidly, with the
President's own husband now
diagnosed?
CHARLES
I would certainly hope so,
but my thesis doesn't stop.
So this is my plan.
Class listens politely, some take notes.
CHARLES
I have already begun my research
on the Internet. Next is a new
Web page for ideas from the public.
Then my own outrageous publicity,
because the successes of Race
For the Cure haven't escaped me.
34.
Mei Ling's contours have not escaped Harrison.
CHARLES
My recognized color, white.
Symbol, the laboratory mouse.
Then an ongoing search for
a new winning slogan.
Charles looks up at a clock.
CHARLES
I am buying a former honeymoon
resort in nearby Virginia, to
convert into a research center.
Includes a garden pool with
waterfall, and a beautiful Par 3
pitch-and-putt golf course.
(to Harrison)
You found it for me as a real
estate bargain.
BIMINI
Isn't that the one with the famous
Boy Scout waterfall? Be prepared!
INT. LAW OFFICE - DAY
Charles is back alone for a private talk with Harrison.

CHARLES
Who wrote the Will?
HARRISON
I did, at his direction. You
can't break it.
CHARLES
How did you know so much about
Shannon Dempsey?

HARRISON
She is considered to be a member
of the President's family, and
the Secret Service is now silently
covering both of you since
Bethany Beach. Shannon is seventeen.
35.
EXT. STOREFRONT WINDOW OF A MAGIC SHOP - DAY
INSIDE, in a tattoo parlor, Shannon steps out of shirt
and trousers. Wears bikini underneath.
INT. THE DEMPSEY HOME - EVENING
Shannon's mother DONNA is in heated discussion with
her. Shannon's young brother MICHAEL, JR., enjoys
predicament, but knows enough to keep quiet.

SHANNON
Mother, you're the one who
told me to do something
different.
DONNA
To get accepted by Harvard!
Your father's here.
MICHAEL DEMPSEY comes home, puts down his briefcase,
and expertly takes in the situation.
DEMPSEY
Good evening, one and all.
Am I suspecting that there is
another philosophical disagreement
between my loving wife and
my darling daughter?
DONNA
It's not philosophical.
DEMPSEY
Then who won?
MICHAEL, JR.
We're still in overtime!
DONNA
Michael, Shannon has a tattoo.
DEMPSEY
We bought a five hundred
dollar prom gown.
36.
SHANNON
Daddy, you only see it when I
wear a bikini. And it's a
beautiful white laboratory mouse,
to show sympathy for Uncle Tony.
DEMPSEY
I know, I know.
(to Donna)
There's a brilliant young man
named Charles Powers. Grandfather
was an Alzheimer's victim, too.
Powers is running his own
medical research operation.
His logo, Shannon's tattoo.
And these days, kids do tattoos!
INT. KITCHEN - LATER
Donna is beginning to waver.
DONNA
The only girl in the world who
could get away with it is
Shannon.
DEMPSEY
Look, there can be a lot more
good things involved here than
you considered. The Hamilton
family is treating Shannon as
a White House intern, and they
now can't wait to see her in
a bikini.
DONNA
So you think this could help
to cheer them up?
DEMPSEY
There's been a love affair
between Tony and Shannon since
she was a baby, and this new
family image could answer
some of those rotten rumors
about Tony. That the White
House is his private fief.
37.
INT. THE PRESIDENT'S BEDROOM - EVENING
The door opens. Verna and Alex Steinberg come in.
Verna sits on the edge of her bed. Alex finds an easy
chair close by.
VERNA
The news of your diagnosis
woke me up in several ways.
How long can you stay on
at the CIA?
STEINBERG
I have asked my own staff to
tell me when to submit my
resignation.
VERNA
Were all questions that easy.
You will notice my new computer.
Steinberg admires it.
VERNA
Because there is one question
about Alzheimer's that my
doctors didn't want to hear.
STEINBERG
That you think I might be
able to answer?
VERNA
Even before the diagnosis,
Tony was becoming, well,
more distant. Of course he
doesn't know that I'm the
one who called in the doctors.
STEINBERG
"More distant" means you are
still the same law school
student who seduced me.
VERNA
I could argue that it was
mutual, but no matter.
38.
STEINBERG
Whatever your question, why
don't you just give Google
the key words, and let your
new computer find the answer?
VERNA
Been there. Done that. Got
nothing from a machine. Why
you are here. A human.
STEINBERG
Your puzzle?
VERNA
How did your new problem
affect your sex relationship
with your wife?
STEINBERG
Some years ago my wife had to
undergo hysterectomy.
Afterwards, she declared she
was no long a woman, and
that ended it.
VERNA
Did you try elsewhere?
STEINBERG
No.
VERNA
I could be "elsewhere."
STEINBERG
Why would "Yes," "No," or
"Maybe" tell you anything?
VERNA
Coincidence? For women,
Alzheimer's respects
menopause. For men, a
question that has never
been investigated. Who
can reject any new route
for research?

39.
STEINBERG
Let me confess. I have still
not lost the vicarious pleasure
of an attractive woman. Ages
thirteen and up.
Verna gets off the bed to hold his hands.
VERNA
Back then, all it took was
a one-minute total tongue
kiss.
STEINBERG
"Elsewhere" beats Viagra.
They kiss. After a while, they break.
STEINBERG
Why don't you get a second
set of data from Tony?
VERNA
Darling, we haven't finished.
They start to undress each other.

EXT. RESEARCH CENTER - DAY
Neat bushes surround the grounds of a former vacation
resort, now turned into Charles' research and treatment
center and Washington area headquarters. View of its
enticing Par 3 golf course.
A sign proclaims:
Horace Powers Memorial
Research and Treatment
Center
For Alzheimer's Disease
Visitors Welcome.
Charles and Geneva drive up with Daytona as passenger
in a gleaming vintage Studebaker. They park, get out,
and admire the impressive surroundings.
40.
GENEVA
(to Daytona)
While your father and I talk
inside, you can look at the
garden pool and the waterfall.
INT. CHARLES' OFFICE - DAY
From inside Charles' office, a picture window offers a
view of the spacious resort grounds, the garden,its
pool with a recirculating waterfall, and the Par 3 golf
course.
A portrait of HORACE POWERS in cowboy hat hangs on the
wall between priceless Georgia O'Keeffe oil paintings of
flowers.
GENEVA
You didn't find your own private
golf course by accident.
CHARLES
Original owner went under water.
A secret tenant for a while,
then cleared out. Used to be
a honeymoon resort, and more.
Everything I needed, in one
place.
GENEVA
And now I'll know where you are,
Tiger.
Geneva surveys the waterfall through the picture window.

GENEVA
Honeymoon? Explains the waterfall.
Everybody knows the legend. Having
sex under a waterfall will make
a girl pregnant.
CHARLES
Wonderful inspiration, because my
research patients are elderly,
bedridden, and dysfunctional.
41.
GENEVA
But just right for your
research?

CHARLES
Not just yet, because I have to
go back to Darwin's Theory of
Evolution, where the modern
science of genetics began. Still
unchallenged after one hundred
and fifty years.
GENEVA
Challenge it. Right now.
CHARLES
On what basis?
GENEVA
No quicker way to get attention,
when Darwin left himself wide open.
(lecturing)
When he wrote that a favorable
genetic mutation will give one
individual member of a species
an advantage that in time will
replace all other members of
that species--
CHARLES
You've been doing my homework
for me!
GENEVA
Honey, count on your fingers.
How can one single member of
a large species, even with
progeny, replace uncountable
others, scattered all over
place and time?
CHARLES
Are you saying that Darwin's
Theory is as obsolete as Edison's
tungsten filament light bulb?
42.
GENEVA
In his day you had to be very
cautious about playing God.
CHARLES
Not only then. The Scopes trial?
GENEVA
Did he know more that he couldn't
say? Leaving the rest to you!
Through the picture window they watch Daytona, chasing
swallowtail butterflies at the garden pool.
CHARLES
Now that you've warned me,
there's nothing much at stake
now, except my inheritance.
GENEVA
A year is a terribly short
time, with Harrison counting
every swing of his pendulum.
CHARLES
Look!
They catch Daytona wading into the pool, knee-high,
and then scrambling out, laughing.

GENEVA
Wonderful. Is that a hint to do
a beach party, right here, and how
much does she know?

INT. THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - AFTERNOON
Shannon is having afternoon tea with Verna, with fortune
cookies.
VERNA
Scott is really pumped up
about taking you to the
Sidwell Friends senior prom.

43.
SHANNON
No more than I am, and my
Daddy bought me a five hundred
dollar prom gown.

VERNA
Then be prepared for carping from
the media that won't be good.
SHANNON
But everybody goes to the senior
prom.
VERNA
But not in a Secret Service
limousine.

SHANNON
What's wrong with that?
VERNA
Absolutely nothing. It is the
duty of the Secret Service to
protect all of the President's
family. That includes Scott.
SHANNON
He's complained about losing
his freedom, but I said, I'd
rather have you not dead.
VERNA
Those same journalists have
been comparing me to Paris
Hilton, too.
SHANNON
Is that good or bad?

VERNA
For bringing her sexual revolution
to the White House. But Paris
didn't start it. She was just
open and honest enough to
recognize sea changes in
American attitudes, and a
new Hollywood underground!
44.
SHANNON
Then who did start it?
VERNA
All of us, dear. Things seem
natural to you because you're
not old enough to know how
it used to be. How the world
is changing itself.
SHANNON
Some examples?
VERNA
Today, twenty percent of young
couples live together, usually
with parents' knowledge, to
make sure they want to be
married. And girls have learned
how to protect themselves, so
the rate of unwanted teen
babies is dropping. Blue pills!
SHANNON
Fortune cookie time.
They each select and open a fortune cookie. Verna
reads hers first.
VERNA
"'Do it now', says Hollywood. Any
publicity is good publicity!"

Shannon reads hers.

SHANNON
"Girls, if you really want to
turn boys' heads, stop wearing
their trousers, and go back to
dresses and skirts!"
INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING
Geneva turns the class over to Bryan. Harrison wears
a Sorbonne sweatshirt, a different bowtie. He
checks out the girls in the class.

45.
GENEVA
One of Charles Powers' classmates
wants to offer him some ideas
for his thesis.
BRYAN
I'm a Mormon, and listening to
Charles, I think there are
some very good ideas in our
Faith that could help him
with his remarkable project.
CHARLES
Thanks. Spread the word, and
we'll get good ideas from
everywhere.
BRYAN
To cure Alzheimer's disease.
No cure in sight here on Earth.
But we may have a connection
Upstairs.
CHARLES
I took your tour in Salt Lake City.
Your young missionaries educated me.
BRYAN
The Book of Mormon, a third
testament unique to the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, documents the visit of
Jesus, after the crucifixion,
to heal the sick among the
Anasazi Indians of our desert
Southwest.
Classmate shows a photograph of rock writings.

BRYAN
In the novel, Ben Hur, Jesus
cured lepers! And who did
those rock writings?
CHARLES
To let us know about his
visit?
46.
BRYAN
Or their own family histories?
If you could decipher--
CHARLES
The disease wasn't even named
until 1906, and who was your
great-grandfather? We would
have to go much further back,
and where are the records?
BRYAN
That they exist surprises everybody.
(triumphantly)
A core tenet of the Mormon
Faith is that the dead can be
baptized into the Faith after
passage. For this reason, the
Church maintains the world's
finest collection of genealogical
records, freely accessible to
the public as well.
EXT. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE - DAY
Sign on a tiny lawn in downtown Washington, D. C.:
HEADQUARTERS
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.
INT. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE - DAY
Sign on a paneled door announces:
The Attorney General.
Charles walks in. Michael Dempsey rises to greet him,
motions both to a working table where a computer
is running.
DEMPSEY
Mr. Powers, let me offer my
condolences on the death of
your grandfather.
47.
CHARLES
Thank you, sir.
DEMPSEY
When will there be help, and
hope, for others?
CHARLES
For thirty million cases all over
the world, and five million in
the United States alone--
DEMPSEY
This won't turn into another
terrible epidemic, like the
flu of 1918?
CHARLES
Not the same in any way.
Alzheimer's is not contagious,
thank God, and research is
intensifying everywhere.

DEMPSEY
I remember your documentary
about the conquest of polio.
And don't forget that the
world wiped out smallpox
many years ago. Now tell me
about embryonic stem cells.
CHARLES
These amazing cells are created
at the time of conception, to
become every other tissue found
in the human body. Their
potential for research is
unlimited.
DEMPSEY
One of the reasons I asked you
to come here.

CHARLES
Then explain something to me
about Federal grants policy.
48.
DEMPSEY
A prior administration
exercised its right to withhold
Federal research funds for
embryonic stem cells.
CHARLES
As a good example of how to
shoot yourself in the foot.
DEMPSEY
As a private citizen, Charles,
do something I can't. Solicit
other sources to make up those
missing Federal funds. Now
you have to see a clandestine
video.
Dempsey brings up a video on his computer.

DEMPSEY
In the feudal custom, Le Droit
de Seigneur, the Lord of the
Manor had the right to deflower
every virginal bride-to-be in
his domain.
CHARLES
Heard about it. Missed it.

They watch.
DEMPSEY
Cyber experts have co-starred
my daughter Shannon with the
President's husband and your
mentor, Dr. Delaney.
Hack artists have morphed in the faces of Tony, Shannon,
and Geneva on the bodies of porn actors.
A Lady of the Court (Geneva) ushers in an excited and
willing peasant girl (Shannon's face on a porno
girl) to the eager Lord's (Tony's) bedchamber. Tony
is delighted, and Shannon claps her hands in
anticipation. As "Shannon" begins to undress, Dempsey
turns off the video.
49.
CHARLES
Who do you think had a reason
to make that video?
DEMPSEY
The other side couldn't beat
her in the election, so now
they see the opportunity.
CHARLES
And they had to sink down
into the porn level to get
voters' attention?
DEMPSEY
Not long ago, a rich young
woman taught us how to compel
the world's attention with a
bad movie leaked to the
Internet. Lesson learned!
CHARLES
And professionally copied.
INT. THE UNIVERSE TELEVISION CHANNEL STUDIO - DAY
DR. EARL ARNOLD begins his weekly feature program.
ARNOLD
I'm Dr. Earl Arnold, host of
the Universe Television Channel.
Of the ten leading causes of
death today in the United States,
there is only one for which
there is still no explanation,
no treatment, no cure, and no
survival.
Arnold's screen now shows former President Ronald
Reagan.
ARNOLD
A generation past, our beloved
former president, Ronald Reagan,
died from Alzheimer's disease.
(MORE)
50.
ARNOLD (CONT.)
The rest of this broadcast is
intended to surprise you, shock
you, scare you. You have now
been warned.
Tables of statistics float across the screen.
ARNOLD
In the United States today there
are five million diagnosed cases.
Ten times as many as breast cancer.
Screen now shows a video of The Race For the Cure.
ARNOLD
Time for advocates of Alzheimer's
research to do the same. What
happened to Federal research funds
badly needed for the promise
held by embryonic stem cells?
Shift to video of Charles and Shannon on the beach.
ARNOLD
Meet Charles Powers and Shannon
Dempsey. No longer at play.
Charles' grandfather died an
Alzheimer's patient, and Charles
has begun a private investigation
of the disease. Now soliciting
needed research funds. See me
on stage at his recent press
conference, and you will know why.
INT. LARGE THEATER - DAY
A podium is set up on the stage of a large theater. On
an overhead screen are portraits of Ronald Reagan,
Sargent Shriver, Charlton Heston, and Tony Hamilton.
CHARLES
On the overhead screen are some
famous victims of Alzheimer's
disease. Five million cases.
Breast cancer, half a million.
51.
Geneva walks on stage carrying a filled pail.
CHARLES
My mentor at Harvard University,
Dr. Geneva Delaney. Professor,
what's in that pail?
GENEVA
Twenty-six golf balls, each with
a letter of the alphabet. Plus
one blank.
CHARLES
(to the audience)
Dr. Earl Arnold, guru of the
Universe Channel, welcome.
Obligingly, Arnold joins Charles and Geneva on stage.
GENEVA
Dr. Arnold, please randomly take
three golf balls. Letters?
Arnold selects three, rejects the blank, reads letters.
ARNOLD
M, S, and A.
CHARLES
Will those of you in the
audience whose last names
begin with any of those
letters, please hold up
your right hand?
Many hands go up, including Arnold's.
CHARLES
By this impromptu, quasi-random
demo, you now represent about
one-eighth of Americans.
(consulting a document)
According to statistics published
by the Alzheimer Association, by
age 65, all of you in this sample
will be patients. By age 85,
half of you still living will be.
52.
ARNOLD
I'm no statistician, but do
those numbers tell me that a
deadly epidemic is building?
CHARLES
Not in those words. Very strong
evidence now suggests that
whatever genes are responsible
for Alzheimer's, are tied to
some sort of body clock. The
threshhold is about sixty.
(solemnly)
Until recently, few people lived
that long. The disease may have
been with us since time
immemorial, but few cases
were actually ever seen. Today
those Alzheimer's Association
predictions can be coming
true.
INT. THE UNIVERSE TELEVISION CHANNEL STUDIO - DAY
Arnold resumes his regular broadcast.
ARNOLD
This strange and terrible
disease gradually returns its
adult victims to a second
babyhood. For the normal
babyhood, their own parents
changed their diapers.
(concerned)
But for the second, the victims'
own children will now do it
all over again for them.
Noblesse oblige!
Screen shows a laboratory with test tubes and white-
coated scientists.

ARNOLD
For whom does the bell toll?
It tolls for thee. Alzheimer's
hit the White House again. The
father of First Lady Laura Bush.
53.
INT. THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - MORNING
A handsome young Secret Service AGENT escorts Charles
and Geneva into the office of President Verna Hamilton.
She still looks much younger than her age and that was
always an asset in her political rise.
VERNA
Dr. Delaney, Mr, Powers, you
are well aware that my brilliant
and wonderful husband was just
diagnosed with early onset
Alzheimer's disease.
(to Charles)
Responsible for the deaths
of your own grandfather
and President Ronald Reagan.
(to both)
The White House doctor and
his consultants tell me
that not only no cure, but
also no cause, are known.
Charles and Geneva nod silent agreement.
VERNA
They say that my husband can
live many more years, slowly
losing all of his mental and
physical capabilities, to
revert back to the status
of a helpless infant. Why
is it that someone like me
knew absolutely nothing
about this disease?
CHARLES
Ma'am, it's regrettably true.
You are not alone. Most of
us knew nothing about Alzheimer's
until it hit home.
VERNA
Let's get down to the
nitty-gritty.
(MORE)

54.

VERNA (CONT.)
You must be aware that two years
ago my predecessor offered a
long-range Plan that in his own
words, would wipe out Alzheimer's
disease by the Year 2025.

CHARLES
Yes, we are.
VERNA
Then why are you so publicly
and independently carrying
out your own investigation?
CHARLES
When that Plan was announced,
my grandfather was already an
Alzheimer's victim, and I had
already been researching the
disease. I was surprised,
if not dismayed, to discover
that the Government's Plan
offered nothing original or
inspiring, that had not been
tried, and failed, earlier.
GENEvA
The last ten field tests of
new drugs failed.
VERNA
Oh, my God, you're not saying
that a cure is hopeless?
CHARLES
Not at all. Maybe the next one
will do it. But until then,
why aren't they researching
all other possibilities? The
use of embryonic stem cells?
Or exploding the study of
genetics? Or going back to
Charles Darwin?
55.
GENEVA
Most of what that Plan has done
is to funnel more grant dollars
to the usual suspects.
VERNA
Not any more. Any new award
will need my personal approval.
Charles, are you eligible to
apply?
CHARLES
As a layman, I won't meet the
old established criteria, but
it doesn't matter. I started
with my own money and more has
been coming in to my Web site.
(earnestly)
Instead of funds, what would
help me most is Presidential
publicity. I will be fighting
the clever head start of "Race
For the Cure" with a documentary
to tell it all for Alzheimer's.
VERNA
That you will be getting, if
you will star my son Scott and
my goddaughter Shannon Dempsey,
in your documentary.
INT. SENIOR PROM - NIGHT
SCOTT has taken Shannon to the Sidwell Friends senior
prom. At intermission they hold hands and kiss, with
a SECOND Secret Service agent six feet away.

SCOTT
Why do parents want to think
a senior prom is for dancing?
SHANNON
Vicarious thoughts, to imagine
that we're doing these days
what they wanted to and didn't.

56.
TRUDY, a high school classmate of Shannon's and Scott's,
trailed by eager boys, finds them.

TRUDY
Shannon, old girl, the private
motel rooms are rented, as usual,
with supplies from these jocks.

SHANNON
Get mine from my Fairy Godmother.
TRUDY
Oh, did she give you her popping
bra, too, when we all jump into
a swimming pool at four a. m.?
SHANNON
Careful what you say, or she
will turn you back into a
lizard.
TRUDY
Honey, those freckles and a
belly-button tattoo don't turn
you into a Cinderella, either.
But every girl knows that a girl
who wasn't born pretty can
always find another way home.
INT. SHANNON'S BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING
Shannon, still in prom gown, tosses her crumpled orchid
onto the dresser top. Marks her calendar with a C.
Turns on her computer. Finds what she wanted.

Charles is broadcasting over his new Web page.
CHARLES
My name is Charles Powers.
I need your help to make an
amazing documentary about the
disappearance of five million
older neighbors of yours.
(MORE)
57.
CHARLES (CONT.)
You no longer greet them in
the grocery store, walking a
dog, or attending a concert.
Who are they? The five million
living, hidden victims of
Alzheimer's disease!
EXT. DEPARTMENT STORE - DAY
Shannon is artfully smoking a cigarette as she waits
outside a department store at Tyson's Corners Mall.
A light blue prewar Lincoln Continental convertible
pulls up at the curb. Shannon stomps out her cigarette.
Geneva is driving with Daytona as passenger.
GENEVA
Shannon Dempsey?
SHANNON
That's me. Parents missed their
flight at Shannon Airport.
GENEVA
Geneva Delaney, and mine opened
a geography book. Isn't your
father the Attorney General?
SHANNON
How did you know?
GENEVA
You're famous, Powers liked your
reasons, and we are going to the
new Horace Powers Research Center.

Shannon gets in the car.
GENEVA
This is my daughter Daytona.
SHANNON
Hi. Two reasons.
Daytona teases an older girl.
58.
DAYTONA
Cigarettes! It's not the cough
that carries you off, it's the
coffin they carry you off in.
Shannon shows them a praying mantis egg case.
SHANNON
Look what I found on a bush here.
A praying mantis egg case. With
a hundred baby insects inside.
DAYTONA
Can I have one if you hatch them?
SHANNON
Sorry, but Harvard has to do
that. With my application. My
father got in with a cryptogram.
GENEVA
Beats a white mouse, too.
SHANNON
My boy friend Scott is very
depressed about his father.
Maybe seeing me in the new film
documentary will arouse him again.
DAYTONA
Oh, didn't you know? Mother
says that where we're going
has a garden pool with a
magic waterfall. Making a
wish together under the
waterfall always comes true.
Try it!
EXT. GOLF COURSE - EARLY MORNING
Charles and Verna reach the first tee of the Research
Center's "Pitch-and-putt" Par 3 golf course.
Verna wears the blouse and skirt of a professional
lady golfer, making her look twenty years younger.
Scott uses a range finder, keeps score.
59.
A THIRD and FOURTH handsome young Secret Service
agents, wearing their standard dark suits, are the
caddies for Verna and Charles.
CHARLES
Geneva is bringing Shannon
here to make the documentary,
but we've got plenty of time
to do all nine holes.
VERNA
And what an absolutely
marvelous setting this
old resort makes for a
research center.
CHARLES
Whenever things get too hectic
I can always disappear out here
to relax for an hour.
VERNA
How did you manage to staff
it so quickly?
CHARLES
The average lifespan in 1900
was 47. When it jumped to
78 today, Alzheimer's created
a whole new world of experienced
doctors, nurses, and caregivers
to be hired.
VERNA
And scientific expertise to
guide the research?
CHARLES
No less than Dr. Earl Arnold,
guru of the Science Television
Channel, himself a Nobel
Laureate in neuroscience.
Verna remembers she is playing golf.
VERNA
What club do you use here?

60.
CHARLES
First hole, one hundred and
thirty yards. Six iron.
Caddies give each the club. Verna swings first.
Ball lands on the first green.
Charles follows with a good shot of his own. Caddies
take the clubs back as all walk to the green.
At the green, Verna is away. She putts first and
sinks a long one.
VERNA
(excited)
I haven't lost a thing. Birdie!
Charles has been enjoying more than her good putt.
CHARLES
You sure haven't.
Charles putts, misses, settles for a par.
At the second tee, they stop to talk.
VERNA
I was the girl who got
everything she ever wanted,
all her life, sometimes
without even trying hard.
Until Nature ended all that
with her Equalizer.
CHARLES
Not you personally, but
someone you dearly love.
VERNA
Go back through history and
you will find that every
President had a confidant
to lean on. Somebody
selfless, close, personal,
mature, understanding.
(MORE)


61.
Often the wife. Laura Bush for
George Bush, Lady Bird Johnson
for Lyndon Johnson.
CHARLES
Fifty years later, John Kennedy's
former intern published her own
story, a secret until today.

VERNA
Haven't read her book, but the
reviews say it wasn't exactly the
epitome of a selfless confidant!
CHARLES
This hole has sand traps, so
be accurate.
Verna, as last winner, swings first. Ball nestles into
white sand.
VERNA
I knew it when I hit it.
CHARLES
Oh, now you have a great chance
to do an up and down.
At the second hole, Verna blasts her way out of the
trap. Sand flies, but so does the ball, landing softly
near the flag.
SCOTT
Teach me everything, too!
They both settle for pars, then continue to talk as
they walk to the next tee.
VERNA
Took me a while to admit that
I am not going to do it alone.
CHARLES
Run through your list of
backups for Tony.
62.
VERNA
First, believe it or not,
would be Alex Steinberg, my
Harvard Law professor. But
Nature got there first. My
first acquaintance with
his problem.
CHARLES
Shouldn't affect his work.
VERNA
Only those commercials
bombard you about it, but
we both agreed to rule him
out in Tony's role.
CHARLES
Next?
VERNA
My Harvard Law classmate,
Michael Dempsey. Who has
a brilliant wife Donna and
a lovely daughter Shannon.
They will support me best
where they are.
CHARLES
Third hole is a tricky water
hazard. The pond with the
waterfall.
VERNA
Oh, I'll find it.
Verna still tees off first. She was right. Plop!
CHARLES
Penalty one stroke. You drop
at the green.
At the green, Verna finishes for bogey, while Charles
holes another par.
CHARLES
Who's left, Madame President?
63.
VERNA
When I find someone like you.
CHARLES
Flattered, but you can't be
serious.
VERNA
Honey, you underestimated me.
CHARLES
Where, when, and how?
VERNA
Now back in a prominent place
in the White House offices is
that stack of resumes that
always comes in with each new
President.
CHARLES
And which particular stack?
VERNA
White House intern. Didn't
have to say a word. As soon
as Tony was diagnosed, my
faithful staff immediately
went back to work.
CHARLES
Do you really think that some
volunteer intern can fill the
vacuum that Tony will leave?
VERNA
Normally, almost impossible.
This time, yes, and very
successfully. Because I have
a specific model to compare
every candidate against.
(studying the next hole)
You. Geneva will make the
selection. Can't miss.
64.
EXT. RESEARCH CENTER - MORNING
As Geneva's car approaches the Research Center, they
pass a departing Secret Service black limousine.
SHANNON
That's a Secret Service car.
Then they brought Scott here
to help make the documentary.
DAYTONA
I'd like to meet him, too.
SHANNON
I've often thought that if he
became a Navy officer, like his
father, and I married him, then
I'd be a Navy wife, too, like
the President was.
GENEVA
They don't seem to have any
trouble adjusting to absence.
SHANNON
They find something to do when
the husband has sea duty. Do
you know what the President did?
GENEVA
Something ingenious, like her.
SHANNON
Took Scott with her to visit some
of our National Parks.
DAYTONA
Mother, when can we?
SHANNON
She had another purpose. To meet
all the local politicians who
could get her nominated.
GENEVA
And maybe today, know somebody
who could fill the vacuum
Tony has left?
65.
INT. WAITING ROOM - DAY
Geneva comes in with Shannon and Daytona. Bimini and
Mei Ling, in flowered nurses' uniforms, have been
expecting their arrival.
GENEVA
Bimini, Mei Ling, this is Shannon
Dempsey, to make the documentary.
Mei Ling takes them to the dressing room. Surprises
Shannon by finding a uniform for her.
MEI LING
Shannon, please undress to put
on this nurse's uniform.
Mei Ling gives Shannon a uniform. As Shannon is
undressing, glimpse of belly tattoo. Scott comes in.
SCOTT
Did anybody do a patient count?
I think somebody's missing.
MEI LING
Look for Elsie again!
SCOTT
(to Geneva and Shannon)
You just missed the President.
Played golf with Mr. Powers.
Scott leaves. Mei Ling takes the group into a
demonstration room where Charles is waiting with camera.
He gives Geneva the camera to start photographing.

MEI LING
Charles Powers, may I present
Shannon Dempsey?
SHANNON
Hello, again, Charles.
CHARLES
In our outdoors garden pool
we offer something that any
girl can take with her. A
wistful wishing waterfall.
66.
SHANNON
Oh, when can I invite Scott
to try it with me?
Scott rushes in, followed by Harrison and Daytona.
SCOTT
Elsie has escaped again!
CHARLES
To the ambulance.
(to Shannon)
Elsie is a wanderer. We should
have been watching closer.
They all go out. An ambulance is parked, ready to go
again. Charles takes the wheel.
INT. THE DEMPSEY HOME - DAY
Donna is calling her husband on her cell phone.
DONNA
Shannon has disappeared and she
has turned off her cell phone.
She was talking about meeting
your Mr. Powers personally, for
Tony, but I would have let her
if she had asked.
INT. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE - DAY
Dempsey is answering.
DEMPSEY
She can't disappear. I put a
GPS on her cell phone that I
can access from mine. Hold.
INTERCUT BETWEEN DEMPSEY AND DONNA AS NEEDED
DEMPSEY
Shannon is now safely inside the
new Horace Powers Research Center
in Middleburg, Virginia.
(MORE)
67.
DEMPSEY (CONT.)
I've met Charles Powers and I
am impressed with his dedication,
but here comes a text message.
DONNA
That name, Middleburg, bells are
ringing. Did it recently make news
as a clandestine movie studio?
CLOSEUP of Shannon's text message on cell phone:
FOUND GREAT IDEA HERE FOR BEST-
SELLING CHILDREN'S BOOK FOR MOTHER.
AN ENCHANTED WATERFALL.
EXT. LOCAL STREET - DAY
Rescue ambulance drives down a local street. Just
ahead is ELSIE, the wanderer, elderly, barefooted, and
in night clothes. Mei Ling gets out of the ambulance
with blanket and walks up to her.
MEI LING
Elsie, they miss you at the
hotel. Wear this warm blanket
and come back with us.
Mei Ling escorts Elsie into ambulance. Sings.
MEI LING
And the dawn comes up like thunder,
Over China, 'cross the bay!
HARRISON
(later, to Mae Ling)
You have a lovely voice.
Do you have an agent?

MEI LING
What did you have in mind?
INT. DEMONSTRATION ROOM - DAY
The production company is back at the starting point.

68.
CHARLES
Now comes what people don't like
to talk about. Alzheimer's
brings incontinence even while
victims are still lucid. Come
with me.
INT. WAKING PATIENT'S ROOM - DAY
Another elderly WOMAN is still in her bed in her night
clothes but is awake and conversational.
CHARLES
The patient's protective garments
now have to be changed like a
baby. There's a huge bonus here.
Adult throwaway garments only add
to the huge volume of baby diapers
already clogging our landfills.
(pause)
Progress? There was much to be
said for that old-fashioned
home diaper service.

SHANNON
(to woman)
Good morning. And did you have a
pleasant sleep?
The patient understands, nods, and smiles sweetly.
SHANNON
And it just came. The slogan.
Put their faces on the Internet!
Faces For The Cure!
CHARLES
Honey, you are just brilliant.
Charles impulsively kisses her.
INT. SMALL DINING ROOM - DAY
An elderly female PATIENT is seated in a wheelchair at
a small dining table. A CAREGIVER feeds her.
69.
CHARLES
Shannon, later, as the disease
progresses, patients are no longer
able to feed themselves. So
caregivers feed them like babies.
SHANNON
Years go I did feed my young
brat brother, but not for long.
DAYTONA
Oh, how old is your brother?
GENEVA
Charles, could that be a clue
for research? For infants,
swallowing is the first reflex.
For patients, is it the last
one Alzheimer's removes?
Camera finds a friendly house beagle, sneaking in to
look for fallen food scraps.
INT. SHOWER ROOM - DAY
Charles gives Shannon a raincoat.
CHARLES
All patients get bed cleaned
every day, and either a full
bath or a shower weekly. This
will be a shower for an
85-year old man.
SHANNON
Give me a break!
CHARLES
Same care for everybody.
Bimini and Mei Ling, in yellow raincoats, wheel in the
patient, still in night clothes. Shannon adjusts the
shower, sees Harrison making eye contact.
HARRISON
You could be a star in China.
70.
INT. ACTIVITY ROOM - DAY
Several patients in wheelchairs face a broadcasting
television set but don't seem to be paying attention.
CHARLES
Sad, but after a while Alzheimer's
patients lose the ability to talk.
But we're convinced they can still
understand us, like a baby can
understand before learning to
talk back. Amazing what our
research is discovering here.
Talk to this one patient?
An older man in a wheelchair, holding a stuffed puppy.
Aside, Mei Ling is catching Harrison's attention.
SHANNON
Sure.
(to patient)
My name is Shannon Dempsey.
And what is your name?
Patient tries, but can only mumble a reply.
SHANNON
Did I speak clearly enough?
MEI LING
(to Harrison)
Sign me!
MAN
Yes!
SHANNON
Did you try to tell me your name?
CHARLES
He did say one word, Yes, so he
understood you. They hear us.
INT. THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - DAY
Verna, Charles, Geneva and Shannon are preparing to
watch a playback of the new documentary.
71.
CHARLES
Madame President, before we
watch the playback of our
unreleased documentary, you
have to know about a real
breakthrough in medicine.
Charles finds a clipping in his briefcase and gives it
to Verna. She reads the headline.
VERNA
(reading)
Embryonic stem cells appear
to restore sight.
(pause)
But aren't we still prohibited
from using Federal funds for
research with embryonic stem
cells?
GENEVA
It was more difficult, Ma'am,
but they found private sources.
CHARLES
This is the first successful new
use for stem cell technology.
Doctors were able to stop the
progress of an incurable disease.
Macular degeneration of the retina.
VERNA
How does this achievement apply
to Alzheimer's disease?
CHARLES
Both have something in common.
This experiment was able to
slow and reverse Nature's plan
for an incurable disease.
VERNA
Can we approach the Alzheimer's
problem the same way?
CHARLES
What size headlines are you
willing to read?
72.
VERNA
It's a shame that this country
is divided into Red states and
Blue states over an issue like
this. But fools rush in where
angels fear to tread, and my
answer has to be, No.
CHARLES
Thank you, and let's run the
documentary.
They watch it start.
VERNA
(to Shannon)
I was named Minerva, but when
I went into politics, you and
Scott said it was too
old-maidish.
(to Geneva)
They came up with Verna, from
the vernal equinox, the start
of spring, the Song of Solomon.
SHANNON
(to Charles)
Do you think I could be an
actress in a real movie?
CHARLES
Rise up, my love, my fair
one, and come away. Never
met a neophyte so natural
as you, in all the films I
helped Grandfather make.
SHANNON
Mr. Chandler said I could be
a hit in China.
CHARLES
(astonished)
He said what? Where? When?
SHANNON
When we were making the
documentary.
73.
CHARLES
How did he get your number?
SHANNON
He asked for it. Recorded all!
Verna's phone rings. She answers the call.
VERNA
This is the President...of the
United States!
Listens, gives phone to Charles.
VERNA
For you? Emergency?
Charles listens, explains.
CHARLES
Police want to talk to me
at the Research Center.
EXT. GARDEN OF THE RESEARCH CENTER - TWILIGHT
Charles and Geneva stand in beach sand at the edge of
the garden pool. They wear white robes and sandals.
They watch the legendary cascading waterfall at the
end of the pool.
GENEVA
Thank you for inviting me to
take a break from reading an
endless pile of resumes.

CHARLES
That will solve Verna's problem
as well as my own.

GENEVA
They called it "The Last Resort,"
for good reason. Or did anyone
ever prove the legend? And
what did you have in mind?

74.
CHARLES
Want to do our experiment and
find out?
GENEVA
Oh, fuck the torpedoes, and
full speed ahead!

CHARLES
Because you always wanted a
little boy, didn't you?
INT. LAW OFFICE - AFTERNOON
Harrison is fantasizing over his copy of the famous
swimming pool photo of a bare-chested Verna. CLOSEUP.
He slips photo into desk drawer as Charles enters.
HARRISON
What did the police want, I
hope not?
CHARLES
Didn't see my license. It was
locked in the safe.
HARRISON
You got away with statutory rape.
CHARLES
With the perfect defense,
Counselor.
HARRISON
Beaches are slicker, but golf is
much quicker, right, Tiger?
Harrison gives Charles a package of golf balls.

CHARLES
Shannon was smarter than both
of us. Chose the right time to
go cruising so no accidents
could happen.
75.

EXT. GARDEN POOL OF THE RESEARCH CENTER - TWILIGHT
Shannon is breathtaking in yellow bikini and white
tattoo, freckles or not. Scott wears trunks. Both are
barefooted in the sand at the edge of the pool.
SHANNON
Just couldn't not try it myself.
So tell me about Trudy, my
lizard. Was she nice to you?
SCOTT
You always were my first and
only teacher.
SHANNON
Do you know why they call them
eager beavers?
SCOTT
No, but have you seen Trudy's tattoo?
SHANNON
Because beavers like to do it under
water. Fast. So they don't drown.
SCOTT
They say Trudy has an arrow tattoo
from her navel all the way down.
SHANNON
Let her show that one to a beach
crowd. So let's talk about your
mother's nomination privilege
that gets us both into Harvard.
SCOTT
Baby, I have to honor my father
at the Naval Academy. So sail
along with me, Midshipman!
SHANNON
First one to the enchanted
waterfall gets to make a wish.
They splash into the pool together. They embrace
under the waterfall. A tie.
76.
EXT. NORTHERN LIGHTS - NIGHT
A rare aurora borealis lights up the night sky,
catching members of Geneva's class getting acquainted
better on blankets in friendly deep grass on a hill.

GENEVA
Years ago people thought that
cosmic rays were responsible
for birth defects. Wrong!

CHARLES
Because?
GENEVA
Cosmic rays are unpredictable,
yet the same birth defects get
repeated identically, year after
year, at the same rate--
CHARLES
(very excited)
Oh, my God, did you find it?
Darwin's big mistake! The missing
connection. Evolution, and birth
defects, are two sides of the coin.
Student heads pop up to listen, too.

CHARLES
What Darwin didn't imagine is that
not just one "metamorphosis," but
a great many repeated, identical,
favorable genetic mutations,
explain evolution! The same actions,
for an unfavorable, but not fatal,
mutation, explain birth defects!
INT. LARGE THEATER - NIGHT
Daytona has made it into a nationally televised
spelling bee. She is the next contestant.

MODERATOR
Daytona Powers, your word is
"rapprochement."
77.
DAYTONA
Definition, please?
MODERATOR
The act of bringing reluctant
parties together enjoyably.
DAYTONA
(as light dawns)
Oh, like after a senior prom?
INT. DEMPSEY MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT
The Dempseys are in bed, his arm exploring as she talks.
DONNA
Why does Shannon let me see
code marks on her calendar?
S has to be Scott, but
who is C?
DEMPSEY
To pique your Curiosity.
Nobody. Shannon is telling
us that she was Careful.
DONNA
Was she? Suppose C means
Caught, like we were at
Shannon Airport, without
Condoms?
INT. THE DEMPSEY HOME - LATE AFTERNOON
Shannon is dressed to go out. Donna reports the arrival
of a black sedan outside.
DONNA
Shannon, your Secret Service car
has arrived. Isn't it early?
SHANNON
No, Mother. I'm invited for
dinner with the President's
family at the White House.
(MORE)
78.
SHANNON (CONT.)
Then Scott and I will join
Aunt Verna and Uncle Tony
for the opera at the Kennedy
Center. Verdi's Aida.
DONNA
Then you'll be home late, and
have a good time.
SHANNON
Thank you, but they do have
guest rooms at the White House.
DONNA
But no bag? For an overnight?
KNOCK at door. Dempsey opens it. FIFTH agent waits.
SHANNON
Oh, Aunt Verna takes care of
everything I need. In my own
bedroom. Good night.
Shannon leaves with escort.
DONNA
Tony Hamilton keeps taking over
this writer's mind, and it's
not good.
DEMPSEY
Run it by me.
DONNA
If I were elected President,
would you shoot yourself?
DEMPSEY
Do you know what you've just
said?
DONNA
Came off the top of my curly
brain. Why?
79.
DEMPSEY
Because if ever a woman
could share another man
for sometime support both
in business and in bed,
that is President Verna
Hamilton today, with her
own husband disabled.
DONNA
To become the undeniable and
perfect solution, for her?
And how "platonic" were you
two in law school?


INT. SCOTT'S WHITE HOUSE BEDROOM - NIGHT
Scott bounces a soccer ball to Shannon.
SCOTT
One more try, honey. What you
would add to our girls' soccer
team. Class! And what else can
Harvard offer that we can't?
SHANNON
Conjugal visits!
Shannon kisses Scott warmly.
SCOTT
We cross the Equator!
SHANNON
Because we've solved the greatest
problem vexing our generation.
(still kissing)
And I dreamed that we would go
off to Boston together and it
would never stop. Then I thought
that you had divorced me, by
going off to the Naval Academy
by yourself.
KNOCK on door. Scott opens door for his parents. Tony
carries a large official envelope, gives it to Shannon.
80.
TONY
Your own honorary appointment
to the United States Naval
Academy.
VERNA
Shannon, were you crying?
SHANNON
Not any more, ever.
VERNA
Girl talk, then.
SHANNON
Regular again. Whenever
waiting, I swung back and forth
between joy and ecstasy.
VERNA
Honey, you and I can talk about
life in a way even your mother
won't want to.
SHANNON
Afterwards, Scott wanted to quit,
but I said no, if it happens, a
grandchild would be wonderful
therapy for your father, to
imagine she was his own!
VERNA
As you two have been supportive
and inspirational for each other.
I see changes in maturity that
are truly wonderful.
(delighted)
And can only get better, because
the distance between Boston and
Annapolis isn't that great.
SHANNON
On my new fast motorcycle, but
let Scott tell you the plan.
Scott and Tony get back into the conversation.
81.
SCOTT
I'm going to Annapolis like a
sailor. With a tattoo, a white
lab mouse. After graduation,
to medical school. To join Shannon
there. To both become Navy
doctors.
Tony rolls up a sleeve to display his own tattoo to
Shannon. The little mermaid in Copenhagen harbor.
VERNA
Beautiful. Admiral, you can show
that to all visitors, high and low,
24/7, and forever.
INT. THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - MORNING
In the President's office, waiting, are Verna, Tony, and
Scott; Michael Dempsey, Donna, and Shannon; Dr. Earl
Arnold and Alex Steinberg. A SIXTH Secret Service
agent escorts Charles and Geneva into the office,
then leaves.

VERNA
Good morning. All of the committee
are here except Mr. Chandler. Coffee?
GENEVA
Yes, thank you. Black.
VERNA
Please help yourself.
Agent now escorts in Harrison Chandler.

HARRISON
My apologies, Madame President,
I couldn't believe Washington
traffic. I'll catch up with
whatever I've missed.
CHARLES
You are in time to hear how I
am complying with the terms
of my grandfather's Will.
82.
HARRISON
Then you must have found something
or I would still be back in Boston.
Clue me, if it was worth this trip.
CHARLES
The cause of Alzheimer's disease.

VERNA
Mr. Powers, start talking, and
don't stop until I permit you to.
Tension is broken, as everyone laughs.
CHARLES
Turn the clock back one hundred
and fifty years, to my namesake,
Charles Darwin. He was obsessed
to learn why there are so many
different plants and animals on
the Earth.
(pause)
His answer was his book, On the
Origin of Species, published
in 1859.

ARNOLD
What earned Darwin's place in
history was his discovery of
the basic mechanism of evolution.
How species advance. He named
it a metamorphosis.
Verna is next to pour herself more coffee.

ARNOLD
Today, with the knowledge of
DNA that Darwin did not have,
we call the same idea a random
genetic mutation.
CHARLES
What makes this even more
amazing is that in 1859,
Darwin anticipated scientific
knowledge that was not known
until 1964! Listen to the
key direct quote.
83.
Charles reads it from the plan.
CHARLES
The metamorphoses of many
organs show what wonderful
changes in function are at
least possible.
HARRISON
Lost me. How, what, and when
are metamorphoses?
GENEVA
At the instant of conception,
genes from the female ovum and
the male sperm interchange
themselves to create a brand
new individual.
ARNOLD
The interchange isn't always
perfect, with 22,000 human genes
at play. Mixups are now what
we call genetic mutations...once
we thought it was cosmic rays!
CHARLES
Darwin was a true genius, but he
was so single-minded to learn how
species advance, that he made
mistakes as well.
GENEVA
That in the century and a half
that followed, nobody except
Charles has recognized.

CHARLES
First, Darwin said that a
single successful metamorphosis
would advance a species.
A stronger beak for a bird,
better arm flaps for a flying
squirrel. One Japanese child,
four inches taller than his
father?
84.
GENEVA
I still remember when Charles
asked me, how could a single
metamorphosis advance an
entire species?
CHARLES
It couldn't. But Darwin could
not know that all members of
a species have essentially
the same genes. This permitted
repeated, identical, favorable
mutations. Then there would
be enough newly advantaged
members to replace all the
old...evolution!
GENEVA
(to Verna)
His concept of a metamorphosis
was right--as far as he could
go, in his time.
VERNA
I can believe it. People
do that, too. Often voting
right. For the wrong reasons!
CHARLES
The second mistake is amazing.
A metamorphosis can have other
important outcomes besides
evolution. First, nothing
happens!

GENEVA
Second, it can be destructive,
and the unlucky owner dies.
ARNOLD
Third, instead of advancing
the species, the metamorphosis
degrades it, but the owner
survives. This outcome is
often recognized as a birth
defect. Realizing this was
a significant cornerstone of
our analysis.
85.
VERNA
Then Tony's problem is the
result of Darwin's metamorphosis?
CHARLES
That would have been too easy
a solution. It wasn't.

VERNA
Now I'm lost.
HARRISON
You forgot to lock the barn door,
and the horse got away.
CHARLES
Statistics don't lie and we
hard to start all over.

GENEVA
Beginning with about four million
American births each year.
ARNOLD
would anyone have believed that
the data on birth defects became
the missing link to the solution?
GENEVA
As well as strong proof of Darwin's
concept of evolution itself?
VERNA
That could have been me, because
how are birth defects related to
Alzheimer's disease?
CHARLES
So far, medicine has missed it,
too, but we found the connection,
or we wouldn't all be here today.
VERNA
I'll shut up, so please go on.
86.
CHARLES
The same thirty-odd birth defects
are repeated every year. No better
proof of the idea of identical
genetic mutations.
GENEVA
Averaging a few thousand cases
each out of the four million
births.
CHARLES
But today, we are seeing half a
million new diagnoses of Alzheimer's
disease each year, compared to
so few cases of any given birth
defect.

ARNOLD
Which could not possibly have
been the result of half a million
random genetic mutations in a
single year! Cannot be the cause.
VERNA
I just christened a new ship and
watched it turn turtle and sink.
CHARLES
So did we, until serendipity
saved us.

HARRISON
Pardon me for not owning a liberal
arts degree, but what in the hell
is serendipity?
VERNA
An accidental case of unexpected
good luck that some people think
you didn't deserve. Like drawing
four aces in a poker game?
STEINBERG
A more appropriate scientific
example, Madame President, is
the accidental discovery of
penicillin.
87.
CHARLES
Then one of us remembered that
years ago, several researchers
were looking for another answer.
When did the first modern
humans appear?
GENEVA
They had reprinted a scientific
article in Reader's Digest, which
I normally read only in doctor's
offices. For a second opinion.
STEINBERG
If his office plants are dying.

CHARLES
Three different investigators
had traced DNA mutations back
to try to find the first humans.
They found three different
answers. All say, "Recently!"
Shannon breaks in.
SHANNON
Oh, was the answer what they
called Eve, the Mother of
the human race?
CHARLES
And there had to be a truly
fantastic mutation that made
Eve so different. With
greatly improved vocal cords
for the power of speech, and
an expanded brain.
VERNA
Wonderful. But how did Eve
find her Adam to mate with?
CHARLES
Brilliant question, Madame
President. Familiar answer!
(MORE)
88.
CHARLES (CONT.)
Darwin's first error again.
There had to be many repeated
identical mutations.
To create enough Eves and
Adams to begin the new human
species.
Scott's turn.

SCOTT
And wipe out the Neanderthals,
or whatever. Ugh!
VERNA
But you still haven't explained
where Alzheimer's came from.
Tell me, before the enemy
missiles come in.

CHARLES
We have already ruled out all
other possibilities. The seeds
of Alzheimer's disease had to
come in with the Eve mutation.
And have been with us ever since.
Harrison's turn.
HARRISON
Stop. Then we would have
seen lots of cases throughout
history, and we haven't!
CHARLES
Waiting for you, sir! Nature
chose to put a time delay on
Alzheimer's. With a threshold
well above human lifespans,
until very recently!
VERNA
Are you now saying that Alzheimer's
is inherent in all of us?
CHARLES
No other explanation fits the
facts and statistics.
89.
VERNA
But not everyone becomes a case.
Who gets it, who doesn't, and
why? And why, my husband?
ARNOLD
Sigmund Freud might say, an
an external stress, guilt, or
a shock, perceived by a future
victim's subconscious as
unbearable, could wake up the
sleeping giant--
TONY
Anywhere he wants to!

CHARLES
Some researchers thought stress
could be the cause itself, but
we see it as a possible trigger.
VERNA
Far too many people overcrowding
a once-pleasant planet? Or the
the shock of endless wars, no
longer with patriotic meaning?
Like the next one coming down
the pike?
CHARLES
Or an overlooked risk factor.
The shock that can come after
retirement from work. The
burst of the happy bubble,
only to create new problems.
Insufficient funds--
VERNA
Tony's retirement from the
Navy came with full honors.
Were we fortunate, with none
of everybody else's problems?
CHARLES
Did you have one that was more
subtle? After Tony worked
so hard to get you elected?
90.
GENEVA
What was in it for him? The
First Husband? Honor, or
exile?
Verna tries not to cry. Donna looks at her own husband.
He nods silent agreement.
VERNA
Oh, my God, Tony, what did my
own ambitions do to you?
Tony goes to his wife to comfort her. They hold hands
briefly.
CHARLES
Do you want to continue this?
VERNA
Yes. Settle back, everyone.
Lunch may be a little late.

CHARLES
Madame President, we will now
go on the record with a finding
that the seeds of Alzheimer's
disease are probably present in
all of us, from birth.
GENEVA
And that it waits for the next
victim to pass the threshold age
of the sixties to strike.
DONNA
What pulls the trigger?
ARNOLD
Freud might have said that some
outside stimulus--your stress?--
persuaded the subconscious mind
to return to the simple world of
babyhood. And sometimes, we
speculate, Alzheimer's obliged.
91.
CHARLES
By offering an involuntary,
painless, exquisite form of
escape from an intolerable
situation? And in a way that
the victim will never hurt.
VERNA
Only the loved ones! But I
have to admire your work and
your courage. Despite the help
of Dr. Arnold, Charles, the
academic establishment will always
see you as an amateur!
ARNOLD
Edison was thrown out of college.
A lesson for haughty scientists.
But fortunately, the only way the
establishment can contradict our
findings, is to replace our
work with something better!
CHARLES
We took you through the down
side. Now listen to the up side.
VERNA
Of everything I've heard today,
can you believe what I will
take to bed tonight? Darwin
was right-for the wrong reasons!
CHARLES
Then wait for morning to accept
this. Right now medicine and
the drug companies are deep in
an unprecedented research effort--
VERNA
Mr. Powers, Dr. Delaney, Dr. Arnold,
you are proposing that for the
third time in American history,
the President of the United States
will organize all of our resources
to achieve a national goal.

92.
CHARLES
Reasons: humanitarian, scientific,
financial, and us. Competition!
GENEVA
Hope springs eternal, that after
ten failures, the next one might
work?
ARNOLD
And doctors have already used
embryonic stem cells to reverse
an incurable disease. Could
stem cells be trained to
overcome the plaques and
tangles that mark Alzheimer's?
GENEVA
If they can, we will be the
first to applaud the next
Nobel Prize winner, pack up
our things, and go home.
SCOTT
Mother, light at the end of the
tunnel is blinking in Navy
semaphore code.
VERNA
Any other unfinished business?
CHARLES
Always. Embryonic stem cells.
VERNA
And the presidential ban on the
use of Federal funds? Where do
we stand today?
GENEVA
Still trapped in the political
dark ages. For votes.
VERNA
Light at the end of the tunnel!
(MORE)
93.
VERNA (CONT.)
After lunch I shall reverse
the ban. And fuck the
torpedoes--
SHANNON and SCOTT
Full speed ahead!
VERNA
Lunch!
Verna signals to the agent. He opens the office door.
A military band can be heard playing Anchors Aweigh.
TONY
When in danger, or in doubt,
Run in circles, scream, and shout.
Shannon grabs Tony's arm. No one says anything as all
begin to walk out of the office.

GENEVA
(to Charles)
Tiffany's, here we come.
INT. WHITE HOUSE PRIVATE DINING ROOM - NOON
While the others are chatting over fried shrimp and
shoestrings, Charles and Geneva are comparing notes.
GENEVA
I selected a name from the stack
of resumes the President gave us.
To work closely with her as her
own personal project director.

CHARLES
Describe him.
GENEVA
Not him. A her. No more surprises.
INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING
The class is waiting as Geneva comes in.
94.
GENEVA
Class, pay attention!
In a moment the door opens and Verna comes in alone.
GENEVA
The President of the United
States!
Students rise with a standing ovation.
VERNA
Thank you, thank you. Please
be seated.
(to Geneva)
Thank you for letting me use
your class for this purpose.
GENEVA
My privilege, Madame President.
Verna wastes no time beginning.
VERNA
Tomorrow I will hold a press
conference at the White House,
and I am testing you to rehearse
what I will be saying.
Students wait in anticipation.

VERNA
When I took office I knew
almost nothing about
Alzheimer's disease. I
routinely accepted my
predecessor's Year 2025 Plan
to handle that problem.
(pause)
Overnight, things changed,
when my dear husband Tony
was diagnosed. As quickly
as possible, several friends
made me knowledgeable.
(pause)
Enabling me to properly
revise the Plan.
95.
Enthusiastic applause from the class.
VERNA
So this will be my own
Year 2025 Plan. First, we
will accelerate research
into Darwin's Theory of
Evolution and genetics,
where the answers we want
may lie.
(pause)
Second, although all tests
of new drugs have failed,
we must continue to respect
any new approaches.
(pause)
Third, with Federal funds now
available, and let the chips
fall where they may, we are
placing great emphasis on
the possibilities of embryonic
stem cells. My well-meaning
opponents cannot deny that
scientists have achieved the
first success there!
Students interrupt with applause.
VERNA
Fourth, finding a cure will
be extremely difficult, so
we are opening a new concept.
Prevention! Doctors now
prescribe a daily low dose of
aspirin to prevent cardiac
problems, and it works.
(pause)
And we still can't cure
polio, but we prevent it.
So, on a very valid
presumption that some
personal shock or stress
can activate Alzheimer's,
we will begin a radically
new program to test daily
low doses of tranquilizers
on the target population.
96.
Students acknowledge a remarkable new idea with even
more applause.
VERNA
Fifth, scientists use the white
mouse for experimentation
because it is cheap. But
the mouse is not a good model
for humans. Too many
experiments that work on mice
don't repeat on humans.
(pause)
We have always known of a
much better, much more expensive
model. Forget cost! The Year
2025 Plan will now do all its
work on that model. The pig!

Some laughter, then more applause.
VERNA
Finally, I am designating a
Project Director for the
Plan, who will work with
me daily.
Door opens.
VERNA
Your own classmate, Charles
Powers.
Charles enters to a standing ovation.
CHARLES
Thank you, Madame President,
and members of the class.
Sometimes I have felt like the
Roman gladiator who lost, flat
on his back in the Coliseum,
waiting for the bloodthirsty
crowd to do a thumbs up or a
thumbs down.
VERNA
Charles, we won.
97.
CHARLES
When this journey began, I
wanted only to find the hidden
cause of my grandfather's
disease. Then the journey
itself led me to the monumental
work of Charles Darwin.
More APPLAUSE.
CHARLES
In his lifetime, he never dared
to believe what I can tell
you today.
Another bombshell coming?
CHARLES
Because even the great genius
that he was could make one
little mistake, that would need
a century and a half to correct.
(pause)
Darwin must have suspected that
it would take far too much time
to wait for the future offspring
and progeny, of one single
advantaged member, to replace
uncounted numbers of all others.
That worry has been the basis
of deadly attacks by his critics.
VERNA
Thumbs up, or down, for Darwin, too?
CHARLES
What he never lived to know
was that, instead, evolution
does occur almost at once!
(winning)
Because not one, but the necessary
great many more, identical and
desirable genetic mutations,
continue to occur to other
members of that species in a
short time! To strengthen
Darwin's ideas, beyond attack.
98.
VERNA
And to make your work the
new truth of science.
CHARLES
I was hoping that someone else
would say that, not me.
Everyone in the room does a "thumbs up".
INT. THE PRESIDENT'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
Verna is in nightgown and robe while studying resumes at
her bedroom desk. KNOCK on door.
VERNA
Come in, please.
Tony comes in wearing pajamas and bathrobe.
VERNA
Tony, you're still up?
TONY
The delegation from the
Pentagon were here. To
award me my Admiral's
commission. The dream of
every Annapolis plebe.
VERNA
Congratulations, but I
didn't see them. Did you
see the doctor tonight?
TONY
Why? I'm not sick.
VERNA
Maybe you should have talked
to him.
TONY
How do you like my new
Admiral's uniform?
99.
VERNA
On you, a truck driver's
uniform would turn girls'
heads.
TONY
Did you know that President
Kennedy was a Naval officer
like me?
VERNA
Yes, and it's nice that you
can still remember things.
TONY
Did you catch the story about
President John Kennedy on TV?
VERNA
Missed it. Busy. Embryonic
stem cells are good news now.
TONY
A woman who was his White
House intern just wrote a
book about it. He loved her.
When I get to be President,
I have already picked out
my own girl intern.
VERNA
Another university coed, like
President Kennedy's?
TONY
Shannon Dempsey.
VERNA
"Early to bed,
With all her good luck,
Then a girl intern,
Is no sitting duck."
TONY
"Early to bed,
And early to rise,
Makes a girl intern,
Both willing and wise!"
100.
VERNA
Yes, interns are nice, except.
Verna's finger is poised above a button but she
still hesitates to push it.
VERNA
Dear, Shannon is our goddaughter,
and she is just getting ready to
become a Harvard coed.
TONY
When she was a baby, I held
her on my shoulder, patted
her bottom, and called her
my lump.
Now Verna pushes the button. Waits briefly. A Secret
Service AGENT responds quickly. One of the caddies!
AGENT
Yes, Ma'am?
VERNA
Admiral Hamilton needs a
good night's sleep. Please
help him to his room.
TONY
Shannon was good company
when you and Scott were away
campaigning.
Agent escorts Tony to the door.
TONY
Get an intern for yourself.
They leave. Verna picks up telephone.
VERNA
Please send the White House
doctor to Mr. Hamilton's room.
Verna puts down phone, looks at herself in see-through
in front of mirror, approves. Three KNOCKS on door.
101.
VERNA
Come in.
Charles opens the door and comes in.
CHARLES
You are the first to hear
the happy news.
They embrace.
CHARLES
Geneva is pregnant.
FADE OUT: