This Is My Suicide Letter, Part 1

THIS IS MY SUICIDE LETTER (2006)
By: Adam Coffman. Shooting Script
FADE IN:
INT. OPENING - N/A
Black screen exposes the title, This Is My Suicide Letter, written three times on the screen.
INT. BLACK SCREEN - N/A
MICAH
(Through Black screen) There are elements of my life that I hate, ie. my sleeping patterns, my lack of motivation, and my ability to see in the dark.
INT. COURTROOM - DAY
Micah lies on a bench outside a courtroom staring at a small hole in the toe of a woman’s pantyhose, this woman is his mothers friend and Micah is lying on her lap. You can here the proceedings of the courtroom going on from the outside. Micah reaches down to the toe and begins fingering the hole in the hose making the hole bigger as the doors of the courtroom bust open and Micah’s father, Jim Courd steps out laughing and joking around with his lawyer. Following are other people, then Micah’s mother (Maxine Mcbain) weeping and holding her head to the floor as she exits without a lawyer from the courtroom.
CUT TO:
EXT. OUTSIDE THE COURTROOM
The party of people are now by the sidewalk outside of the courtroom and Maxine approaches Jim Courd while he is walking to his car.
MAXINE
This isn’t over!
JIM
Judge says it is, so it is.
MAXINE
Your really going to walk out of here after looking at your son, you’re just going to turn your head and go about your worthless life knowing you have a son somewhere growing up without a dad.
JIM
Listen! (Angry, then calms himself) Maxine, this boy is not my child, you need to understand that, why don’t you go and check with any other guys you may have been with.
MAXINE
You are it, I was only with you, you know that, don’t do this. Not to Micah.
Jim looks back at Maxine, then over to Micah who is with Maxine’s friend, and walks away to his car.
FADE OUT.

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD - NIGHT
Camera fades in to a neighborhood at night. There is a large white house and a picket fence around it. This is the kind of house you would see in a Norman Rockwell painting. The house combusts in flames spontaneously and burns to the ground violently.
FADE TO BLACK.
EXT. UNDER A TREE - DAY
Micah writes in his suicide letter.
EXT. CITY STREET (CHRISTMAS) - NIGHT
Camera zooms out to show the teenage (19) face of Micah Mcbain. He is walking down a suburban street passing house after house lit up with Christmas lights and shoveled snow.
MICAH
(Narrated) In my life, I have only known two fears, Nuclear holocaust and airplanes. When I was young, we lived next to a park that I played in everyday. At this park is where I met Tom. Tom was a young man in his early twenties who used to sit in that park and play guitar all day long. (Camera Flash to Tom in the park) Tom was my best friend until I moved again a year later. He was an interesting mammal that had deep and scary visions of the future. It was from Tom that I learned about nuclear holocaust. Tom assured me that the old A-bomb was inevitable. The A-bomb would kill everyone in sight, and they say that Detroit is one of the major targets because of the car companies and nuclear plant, or so Tom said. So I have lived my life in expectation of the coming missile that will end our existence here in Michigan. Tom was a jerk. I was only eight or nine and I was all ready to build a fallout shelter. But today the threat still exists. Airplanes I fear for the obvious reasons. You are stuck in a tin can thousands of feet above any walking individual. You are up there above the clouds and all is well and then turbulence. The wings start shaking and the lights flicker, then you here the captain come on the speakers, "Bing, passengers, please fasten your seat belts because we are about to plummet out of the sky to the ocean and all of us will die, so let us help the rescue guys to find our bodies by fastening ourselves to the floating chairs, thank-you and enjoy your death." These things are the only fears I have had until now. It's really trivial when you think about it. Both fears bring instant death, when I should be fearing the things that bring long term death. The things that you see in an old man's eyes when you make a visit to the nursing home. This is more painful than the act of death itself. I just want to go quickly and without pain.
INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - NIGHT
Micah drops a bottle of booze on the ground. The bottle does not break, but makes a long and annoying bang and rolls to the curb. Micah walks inside of a huge Catholic church and sits inside one of the confessionals. After a couple of seconds, a priest walks in and sits down.
FATHER MCAFFEREY
How can I help you son?
MICAH
Bless me Father for I have sinned and am about to sin. This is my first confession so I do not know really know how it works here, you know what I have to do to be forgiven by God or better yet, what does He have to do to be forgiven by me?
FATHER MCAFFEREY
What’s your name son?
MICAH
Micah Mcbain. I have been to this mass before and have listened to all of your stories of Jesus and God’s love for us and I’m not sure that I agree, I don’t really know what I believe. I guess I’m just searching for some kind of answer, some kind of vengeance. That’s why I am here.
FATHER MCAFFEREY
Vengeance? Against who?
MICAH
I don’t really know, my dad, God, you?
FATHER MCAFFEREY
I don’t really understand.
MICAH
Let me explain. His name was Chris, and he was my best friend. He was like the John Lennon of my neighborhood, he had girls and friends...
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. MICAH’S LIVING ROOM - DAY
Micah (12) and Chris are sitting Indian style on the floor playing Nintendo furiously. The phone rings and Micah pauses the game and answers.
MICAH 12
It’s your mom.
Chris takes the phone and talks to his mother as Micah walks back and cheats on the Nintendo game. Moments later Chris walks back into the room.
CHRIS
I gotta go home my mom and dad want to talk to me I think they found out what happened to the cat. Anyway, come over in like thirty minutes, they can’t kill me with you there.
MICAH 12
Alright sweetie, be there in a minute
Chris leaves the house through the front door and enters his own house.
CUT TO:
INT. CHRIS’S HOUSE - DAY
He enters his house which is a decent size house, not rich, but not poor either. Chris’ mom and dad are sitting across from each other on the couches talking silently when he walks in.
CHRIS’S MOM
Hi sweetie, how was school?
CHRIS
Fine, what’s going on
CHRIS’S MOM
Have a seat.
Chris walks over to the couch and sits down.
CHRIS’S MOM
Honey your father and I have been talking and we have come to some decisions that may change what home is like for you. These decisions we have made are not your fault and have nothing to do with you, you must know that we love you very much and would do anything for you and would never try to hurt you.
Camera closes in on Chris’ blank face.
CHRIS’S DAD
Chris, what your mother is trying to tell you is that I will be leaving here and moving to California to work there. I will not be returning for a very long time. Your mother and I have decided to get a divorce and I will be leaving you with her to take care of the household. You have to be a man here Chris, you need to take care of your mother and not be a baby and cry. You are now a man and I expect that you will act like one. I am leaving tomorrow morning before you get up, so we should talk about this tonight before bed. But I assure you that once I get myself established there, I’ll send for you on holidays and summers.
The room is so silent and tense you could cut it with a knife. Chris sits staring blankly with tears in his eyes silently.
CHRIS’S MOM
Chris don’t you want to talk about this?
Chris gets up and leave the room, he walks past his mother and father and right to the staircase that leads to his bedroom. He climbs the stares to his bedroom and enters.
FADE OUT.
INT. CHRIS’ HOUSE - DAY
Micah approaches Chris’ house and knocks on the door. Chris’ mom answers the door.
MICAH 12
Hi Mrs. Cotter, is Chris in too much trouble for me to come in?
CHRIS’S MOM
No, he is right upstairs, go on up.
Micah enters the house and goes up stairs quickly , excited to found out what happened, he bursts open the door of Chris’ room and stops dead in his tracks. He is speechless, or better yet unable to speak, unable to do anything, what he sees is Chris hanging by his throat from his ceiling fan, eyes wide open. Micah stares horrified, yet curiously at his friend hanging there for a moment. Chris’ mother comes walking up the stares to Chris’ room and walks in. She is also stopped in her tracks and lets out a loud shriek that startles his father and sends him running up the stairs to find the same. The camera pans over to the desk where there is a note that says, I’m sorry on it, written in red marker.
FADE TO BLACK
INT. CATHOLIC CHURCH - NIGHT
MICAH
I went to the library yesterday, to study historical, and efficient ways to end my own life. You really wouldn’t believe the amount of books there are on killing yourself, found them in the life-style section. Funny that one’s death could be a life-style but if you knew me, you would see to be fitting for me.