ROW 17, SEAT B - SHORT FILM by Nathan Illsley

nillsley@comcast.net 508-269-4607

FADE IN: INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL - DAY WALTER HARRIS sits in a busy airport terminal and reads a copy of the New Yorker. He is wearing reading glasses and has his legs crossed over each other. He takes a break from reading his magazine every few seconds and surveys the rest of the terminal, always focusing his eyes on someone of an ethnic background. JESS (on intercom) Flight 511, Boston to Chicago will begin boarding immediately. Will First Class passengers sitting in rows 20-30 please make their way to the gate. Walter closes his magazine and places it the side pocket of his leather satchel. A Middle Eastern man approaches and sits in the empty seat next to Walter. He is wearing a very baggy shirt. Walter pauses for a moment, closes his satchel, stands up, and moves to another empty seat. Th Middle Eastern man stares at Walter for several seconds before looking away. Walter reaches into the inner pocket of his sports coat and removes his ticket. The ticket reads "Row 17, Seat B." JESS (on intercom) Will First Class passengers in rows 10-19 on flight 511, Boston to Chicago please make their way to the gate. Walter stands up, looks at the Middle Eastern man one last time, and walks in line. Several passengers go through the line and hand their tickets to JESS, a stewardess in her mid twenties. JESS How are you today sir?

2. WALTER I've been better. He hands her his ticket. JESS Well hopefully you can relax on the flight then. She scans his ticket and hands it back to him. JESS Have a great fli... Walter walks away before she can finish. WALTER You try and relax with a goddamn towel-head on your flight. Walter storms his way towards the plane. INT. AIRPLANE - DAY Walter walks through the aisles and looks at several numbers before getting to Row 17. Seat B is the aisle seat and seat A is the window seat. He opens the overhead compartment and places his satchel inside. He sits in his seat and removes the safety instructions. He looks at them for a few seconds, no more than a cursory glance, and replaces the pamphlet in the seat pouch. He leans over the edge and looks back towards the coach section. People filter in. Another man, MICHAEL JEUDY approaches row 17. MICHAEL How's it going boss. Can I squeeze past you for a second there? WALTER What? MICHAEL I'm in seat A. Can I get past real quick?

3. WALTER Oh, right. Of course. Sorry. Walter stands up and allows Michael to move in. Michael plops down loudly in the seat and lets out a huge sign. MICHAEL I'm Michael Jeudy. He extends his hand to Walter. Walter looks at the hand, pauses, then extends his as well. WALTER Walter Harris. Walter immediately removes his phone from his pocket and starts playing with it without looking up. MICHAEL So Walt, what's taking you to Chicago? WALTER Business. MICHAEL Oh, nice. What kind of business are you in? WALTER Finance. MICHAEL That's great man. That's great. Me, I do a little of everything. Don't really have a place to hang my hat right now but I'll tell you this, not planning on coming back this way. Walter looks back to coach again and sees the Middle Eastern man walk onto the plane. They make eye contact for a brief second. MICHAEL You alright Walt? Looking a little nervous there. Walter turns back around.

4. WALTER No, you know what, I'm not alright. I'm not alright at all. MICHAEL No? What's got you flustered boss? WALTER The people they let on these goddamn flights. There's a guy back there that I've been watching and he's a middle easterner and he's been acting weird this whole time and there should be some sort of screening process to watch for this and I'm sick of it. MICHAEL Well he had to go through security. They would have caught anything bad. WALTER Oh that's bull and you know it. I don't trust security any more than I trust that guy back there. The terrorists on September 11'th got through. The underwear bomber got through. Excuse me if I have no faith in airport security. MICHAEL Walt, I mean, things have changed since then. WALTER You know what, you're absolutely right. Airport workers are too afraid of being accused of racism now that they refuse to do any kind of profiling. You can spot a mile away who should have to go through extra security but nowadays they let them go easier than everyone else because they're afraid of being labeled a racist. MICHAEL So you think there's a specific profile that a terrorist embodies?

5. WALTER Oh come on. You know there is. When was the last time you saw a white terrorist? MICHAEL I don't know. The Unabomber? WALTER Exactly. MICHAEL Okay but what makes this guy so suspicious? WALTER Besides his entire being? MICHAEL Besides that. WALTER By himself, no luggage, baggy jacket. MICHAEL You just basically described me. WALTER Let's be honest, I'm not worried about you. Walter looks back to his phone. MICHAEL Maybe you should be. He looks back up. WALTER Come again? MICHAEL I said, maybe you should be. WALTER That's real funny Michael. Just my type of humor. From this point forward Michael changes his carefree voice to a much more stern and serious tone.

6. MICHAEL I'm not joking. A beat. WALTER What the hell are you trying to do right now? MICHAEL I may be saving your life. WALTER Alright what... MICHAEL (interrupts) Shut up and listen. You're pathetic. You think that just because he's ethnic and doesn't have a carry on he's a bad guy? Let me tell you something, you couldn't read who the bad guy was if your fucking life depended on it. You're blind. Walter unbuckles his seatbelt and begins standing up. Michael pulls him back down to the seat and opens his jacket revealing a handgun. MICHAEL I really would not make a fucking scene if I were you. WALTER (frantic) What are you doing? Are you... MICHAEL (interrupts) Shut up Walt. I'm serious if you cause a scene, you're the first one to go. You got that? Walt stops squirming and clamps his mouth closed. MICHAEL Do you get that? WALTER (quietly) Yes.

7. MICHAEL Good. So here's what's going to happen. I don't care about you at all. You're a worthless, racist sack of shit, and I honestly could care less if you live or die. I'm going to do what I'm going to do and what happens to you is of no consequence to me. Whether you get through this is your choice. You wanna live, don't you Walt? Walter shakes his head. MICHAEL That's what I figured. So let's be completely straight right now, I have all the power. You are completely at my mercy. Now like I said, you're a coward, so I know you'd do just about anything you could to live through this, right? Walter shakes his head. MICHAEL Perfect! Here's the plan: you're going to stand up in about two minutes and walk off this plane. I don't care what you tell the stewardess at the gate. Tell her you're sick, tell her you're afraid of flying, tell her you forgot your carry on at the gate, I don't care. Just stand up, and get off the plane. Walter seemingly holds back tears. WALTER Okay. MICHAEL That's literally it. You stand up and leave and guess what? You live to fight another day. But let me make one thing clear. I am fucking watching you and if you make any kind of indication that something is wrong I will get up and shoot you where you stand. You got that?

8. Walter nods his head. Michael laughs. MICHAEL God you're pathetic. You're willing to let all of these people die to save your own life. Jesus I can't even believe you. You're not even worth the bullet. WALTER Why are you letting me go? MICHAEL Call it a social experiment. You came on this flight so fucking paranoid about the guy who's a little dark that you ignored everyone else. I have proved that no matter what kind of screwed up mindset you have, there's always the possibility of being wrong. And you, my friend, could not have been any worse. Look at me, I'm a white collar Caucasian guy in a first class seat. And your life is teetering in my hands. Not the hands of some fucking Middle Easterner who's never done so much as get a parking ticket. Shit, you're truly disgusting. I may be the one with the gun, but at least I know how the world works. Good fucking luck to you. You're really willing to let these people suffer so you can get out aren't you? Walter doesn't answer. MICHAEL That wasn't fucking rhetorical. You're willing to do that aren't you? Walter closes his eyes tightly. Michael grabs him by the shoulder and shakes him. MICHAEL Aren't you!?

9. Walter nods his head slightly. Michael scoffs. MICHAEL I thought so. Fucking pathetic. Alright get out of here. Walter frantically unbuttons his seatbelt. MICHAEL Go! Walter hastily stands up and rushes out of the airplane. Michael scoots over a seat and looks behind him to watch Walter leave. He faces forward again and talks to the camera, breaking the fourth wall. At this point he resumes his casual, friendly tone of voice. MICHAEL Holy shit, what an asshole! He was so focused on that one ethnic dude. See that's what's wrong with the world today. People have tunnel vision on the one thing that doesn't fit their cookie cutter lifestyle. Why couldn't it be the white guy who has something disastrous planned? I mean, don't get me wrong, 99.999999% of the time there is nothing planned. All I'm saying is that that asshole had it in for someone who didn't do anything wrong. Michael looks away and shakes his head for a moment. MICHAEL Oh shit, I should probably tell you that I'm not a bad guy either. I'm a Federal Air Marshal. That's why I have the gun. I'm required to. You really think I'd get a side arm past security? Let me tell you, Walt was both ignorant and stupid. I have not bad intentions for this flight. I'm just sick of seeing assholes who assume that everyone who isn't a white upper class male has something up their sleeve. After sitting next to people like him for six years I just decided, you (MORE)

10. MICHAEL (cont'd) know, I just decided to have some fun with them. I know it's probably not ethical, but neither is being a racist douche bag. I could get in trouble but realistically what's the worst that happens? He accuses me of being a terrorist and the police laugh their asses off at him once they see my record. It's worth it to me. Hopefully he had some big business meeting that he misses or something. That'd be funny. People like him need to be brought down. Not as in they need to be killed, they just need to have someone make them realize they're not as perfect and infallible as they think. They think they have everything figured out but they don't. That's why they're s fun to mess with. They never expect it. Everyone gets what's coming to them... I guess it just helps me sleep a little better when I'm the one who brings it. Walter puts a neck pillow behind him, places headphones over his ears, and closes his eyes. FADE OUT.