Dead Weight

EXT.COUNTRY ROAD - DAY

A car pulls up to a seemingly abandoned beach, surrounded by marshy land. The car comes to a stop and the engine is switched off.

Two men get out of the car, the driver being older and the
passenger being younger.

DARREN
This better not stink, I forgot my
gloves.

CLIVE
He’s only been there for three
hours, it takes longer than that to
build up a stink.

DARREN
Still, if it smells I’m not going
near the thing.

The two men go to the boot. CLIVE pauses before he opens it.
In the boot lies what we assume is a dead body, wrapped in a
bloody white blanket.

DARREN
Christ! They didn’t just kill him
did they? Blew the poor fucker to
bits.

CLIVE
I’m not even sure who it is, Frank
told me nothing.

DARREN
You must still be in his bad books
after what happened in Dublin if
he’s got you doing a shite job like
this.

CLIVE
Would you shut up and help me get
this fella out.

DARREN
Alright but you grab his top half,
I’m not getting brains on my
trackies.

CLIVE puts his hands into the boot and grabs the body around
the shoulder. DARREN grabs him by his legs and they pull him
out.

(CONTINUED)

                                                                                             CONTINUED: 2.
DARREN
His runners are pretty nice
actually, do ya think Frank would
mind if I took em’?

CLIVE
Don’t touch them, the feet of the
dead are not to be messed with.

DARREN
Ugh, sure what good are they to
him? Only being wasted on his feet
they are.

CLIVE
I’m serious, leave the fuckin’
things alone.

DARREN
Alright, have it your way sure.

the two men stand up and look at the blanket covered corpse
on the ground.

DARREN
What did happen in Dublin anyways?
Heard you made some mess of a job,
pissed off the wrong people is what
I’ve heard.

CLIVE
Yeah, well .... you do this job for
long enough and you make mistakes.

DARREN looks at CLIVE curiously, unsure what to make of what
he said.

CLIVE (CONT.)
Grab the gloves and we’ll get rid
of this poor soul.

DARREN goes to the boot and pulls out two pairs of gloves.
He hands one to CLIVE and they walk over to the body and
begin to drag it along into the woodland.

EXT.WOODLAND - DAY

The two men have dragged the body into an opening in the
trees. CLIVE stands up and pulls out a pair of rosary beads.

(CONTINUED)

                                                                                CONTINUED: 3.
DARREN
What are you doing?

CLIVE
It’s a prayer for the dead, we
can’t send him off without it.

DARREN
You have to be the softest hitman
I’ve ever heard of.

CLIVE
Shush now boy!

Clive grips his rosary beads and begins his prayer

CLIVE(CONT.)
God our Father, Your power brings us to birth, Your
providence guides our lives, and by Your command we return
to dust.
Lord, those who die still live in Your presence, their lives
change but do not end. I pray in hope for my family,
relatives and friends, and for all the dead known to You
alone.
In company with Christ, Who died
and now lives, may they rejoice in
Your kingdom, where all our tears
are wiped away. Unite us together
again in one family, to sing Your
praise forever and ever.
Amen.

DARREN watches the entirety of this prayer. He reaches into
the back of his waistband as CLIVE recites the prayer and
subtly pulls out a handgun.

As CLIVE finishes up his prayer, he cocks the gun and keeps
it hidden behind his back.

DARREN
I suppose you must know that that
was a prayer for two, given you did
drag on a bit.

CLIVE
I know, I figured you wouldn’t be
in much of a hurry. First times
always the hardest. I’m guessing
this was Frank’s idea?

(CONTINUED)

                                                                                       CONTINUED: 4.
DARREN
You shouldn’t have fucked up in
Dublin man, that was real bloody
mess altogether.

CLIVE
You may as well get this done now.
Prayers are said and all.

DARREN
Agreed, good luck man.

DARREN points his gun and shoots CLIVE twice in the chest.
CLIVE keels over and falls on the corpse. They both lie
there dead.

DARREN walks over to the two and looks once again at the
corpses shoes. He considers taking them but then makes up
his mind by saying ...

DARREN (CONT.)
Fuck it!

DARREN walks back to his car, gets in and drives away.

THE END

The Rover: Film Review

The Rover starts ten years after 'the collapse', a fall which we can only assume started out economically given the situation that we find in the film. The film begins as it means to go on, we first see Eric (Guy Pearce) get out of his car and walk into a bar. While Eric is drinking, a car crash occurs outside and his vehicle is stolen. When Eric realizes whats happened he sets off in pursuit of those that have stolen from him. This all occurs in the first twenty minutes of the film, in almost complete silence.

Director David Michod makes it very clear that The Rover is a very different beast to his 2010 brilliant family crime- drama Animal Kingdom. Whereas that film was multi-layered and filled with questions about morality, The Rover is anything but, It's a stripped back, raw, compelling feature. Michod takes the Australia we've seen in films like Mad Max and has given it a social-realist edge that heightens the drama to magnificent levels.

Where Animal Kingdom was undoubtedly an ensemble picture, The Rover is a two-hander. First we have Pearces' Eric, a virtually silent loner who will stop at nothing to get his car back. Not much later we are introduced to Robert Pattinsons' Rey, a injured, erratic young man who appears to be mentally limited sometimes and shockingly cunning at others. Rey is the younger brother of one of the men who stole Eric's car, so Eric practically takes Rey hostage in order to find the location of his brother and thus they set out on their journey.

The film is shot fantastically by Natasha Braier, who manages to capture the intense beauty and brutally harsh power of the seemingly unending desert which covers the film. The music is also worthy of note, with loud distorted sounds throughout the film, giving a constant sense of impending doom. Michod brings back an element from Animal Kingdom by having an anachronistic pop song play over images of intense weirdness.

The acting in the film cannot go unnoticed, with both Pearce and Pattinson delivering the best performances of their careers. Pearce has always been impressively consistent in his career but Pattinson is the real revelation here. He delivers a performance that can be in just the space of a scene, strangely chilling and yet eerily childlike. Pearces' portrayal of Eric is superb in it's understated quality, with only two scenes in the film giving us any explanation as to why Eric is as quick to violence as he is and why he so desperately wants his car back. 

Michod made the interesting choice of having a simpler, smaller movie as his follow-up. By choosing to make a film that is immediate and uncomplicated he manages to avoid poor second film syndrome and establishes himself as a director with original and worthwhile vision. After this one-two punch, I'll be looking forward to whatever project he chooses next.