Crack? Wanna touch the sky?
Yeah, man. Right.
Here you go.
Hey, hey, you dealing?
No, Einstein, I'm getting a tan.
This dude's looking to score, man.
Gave me five bucks to make a connection.
Yeah? Where's he at?
In a white limo.
He's parked down there.
Where the hell is he?
Hey, I don't know man.
He was right up there.
Hey, if you're jerking me around, Luis.
Hey!
Hey, you looking to get...
MAN: People, people,
may I have your attention, please?
As the owner of Books and Books,
it is with considerable pleasure
that I introduce a distinguished director and filmmaker,
an artist who has expanded the boundaries of the medium
while challenging our sensibilities and our consciences.
Winner of the Academy Award, the Golden Palm and many others,
Robert Phelps.
Thank you, book lovers.
The camera is a gun. You load it, you aim it, you shoot it.
You take life.
I've been a shooter for a few years,
but I only make movies.
Jake Manning has pulled the trigger on real guns.
Yes, damn it. He has killed, he has run drugs,
but we must remember that Jake
has transformed himself
into an artist, in his books.
He has illuminated the darkest regions of human existence
so that we can pass safely.
I am proud to be his partner and I love him.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
Thank you.
MANNING: Robert Phelps and his films,
you've probably seen a lot of them.
I'm a little nervous.
His genius really saved me from being consumed by my own madness.
Lockdown in C Block was like
looking into the mirror of my own soul.
After seeing it, I wrote him a long...
A long, rambling, kind of incoherent letter.
Page after page of just madness.
Somehow, he had reached into my chaos
and contacted my innermost self.
And...
Molded it,
until it finally became the book that you see here now.
So in many ways,
I owe what I am to him.
Thanks.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
Would you like to sign one? Thank you very much. Thank you.
You came. I'm glad.
(LAUGHS) Congratulations, Manny.
Thank you.
You know, it isn't every day that somebody that I bust
gets on the bestseller list.
Well, let me sign your book, huh?
All right.
Rico, that's Spanish for "rich".
Hey, wishful thinking on my mother's part.
I really thought a lot about you in the joint.
Yeah, I bet you did.
No, not that. Not anymore.
Oh, I... I hated you at first.
I mean, you put me in hell, you know.
But I had to go through hell to find myself.
Without you, I'd have none of this.
I learned... I learned so much.
I have so much to talk to you about.
Please come over to dinner tomorrow night.
Yeah, might be cool.
Great. Thanks. All right.
Take care. Thank you.
Yeah, likewise. I'll see you then.
You're really going to have dinner with that guy?
Yeah.
He's reformed himself, Sonny.
How often do we see a guy like that in this business, huh?
Oh, about every time the parole board has a hearing.
You laugh, but, man, I've been reading his book, okay?
The dude is smart. You gotta give him that much.
He put his time behind bars to good use. Educated himself.
Time to read, think, write a book.
Damn, Rico. Maybe we could use some time in the hole.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, not to mention the publishing deals,
the movie deals these guys come out with.
No question about it, buddy. We're on the wrong end of the stick.
Look, aren't you supposed to be on vacation with your kid?
Yes, I'm out of here.
I'll see you, partner. All right.
Enjoy yourself.
Thanks.
Lieutenant, thanks a lot for that fishing rod.
Billy's going to love it.
Have a safe trip.
Thanks.
Rico,
Jake Manning was a violent man when you put him away.
Linked to two homicides.
Several more that were never proven.
He threatened your life.
Yeah.
Look, I met with him, Lieutenant.
You know, I read his book
and he's changed.
I really believe that.
Go armed.
I plan to.
MAN: Mr. Tubbs?
Yeah.
I'm Mr. Manning's assistant.
I'm gonna take you to the house.
You know, you look very familiar.
What's your name?
Barry. Barry Gay.
Battling Barry Gay? Yup.
Hey, man, I saw you take on Frank...
Frank... Bastone. Bastone.
Bastone, yeah. Animal.
Yeah, animal.
At the sports arena, about eight or nine years ago.
It was ten, Mr. Tubbs.
That long, huh? Yeah.
Well, for whatever it's worth, man, I think you won the fight.
Yeah, well, the judges thought different.
Come on, I'll take you out there.
All right. This is nice.
Beautiful night, man.
Yeah, beautiful night.
So, Barry, how long you been working for Manning?
Seven years.
That's a long time, man.
Yeah. Cell mates in prison.
Sorry to hear that. Don't be.
If I hadn't gone to prison, I never would have met Mr. Manning.
He's been good to me, made me his personal assistant.
And we've got his book now, a movie deal with Phelps.
The man constantly amazes me.
Rico, so nice of you to come.
Hey, my pleasure.
Man, this is some crib.
Only in the U.S.A., huh?
Thank you so much for coming.
Hey, I'm glad to be here. Thank you.
That will be all, Barry, thank you.
Barry's a beautiful guy, but he took one left hook too many. Please.
Prison was a dank, dirty hole,
but it was only there that I was finally able to read the great works.
Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky,
Gerard Manley Hopkins, the great poet priest.
From them, and others like...
Like St. John of the Cross, I learned
that everyone has a dark night of the soul, not just us criminals,
but every single human being.
Yeah, I agree.
You know, I also came to understand that...
That people have to be held responsible for what they do.
And that's what was lacking in my life.
I thought I could just do anything and damn the consequences.
Do you mind if I showed you something?
Not at all.
I'm going to show you some pictures.
When you see them, I want you to,
you know, just free associate.
Say the first thing that comes to mind.
Okay.
Sex, drugs, violence to society.
That's good.
What about this?
Insider trading, greed, no respect for society's laws.
And this?
I don't recognize the face, but I say,
from the get up, sadomasochism.
Heavy kink, sexual weirdness.
A lot weirder than you think, Rico.
You mentioned sadism? This man invented it.
He's the Marquis de Sade.
Now, what about this?
Oh, yeah, I recognize him. Jason Lane.
Sex magazines, clinical close-ups, pornography.
Exactly.
And this same Jason Lane
recently received a humanitarian award from a major college.
They even named their journalism school after him.
(EXCLAIMS) That's bogus.
Rico,
there's like a cancer spreading through our whole culture.
A sociopath used to be a marginal personality.
But now, he's become a regular cultural type.
What with instant replays on television, instant foods, instant sex,
a so-called normal person has become in fact a sociopath,
requiring instant gratification.
You know, I remember when I was a kid growing up,
my father and mother would say, "Rico,
"if you learn a skill, work hard, and keep your nose clean,
"eventually you're gonna get your reward."
You know, you think like that today,
they call you a chump, a loser.
That's it. That's exactly it.
People today need to understand
that there is no crime without punishment.
That it's only through punishment
that we learn that we're real.
(STAMMERING) That we have limits.
Rico, we need forceful people who understand this
and are willing to take action.
Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, now.
If you're talking vigilantism, uh-uh. I don't swing with that.
No, no, no. That's...
Of course not. That's the rule of the mob.
No, no, I'm talking about something that's...
That's like... That's an enlightened thing.
Yeah, right.
So, when are the other guests coming?
There are no other guests, Rico.
Just you and me.
Wait a minute, man.
This... You know, this was advertised as a dinner party.
I had to say that.
Come on. Be honest with me.
If I had said we were dining alone, would you have come?
No, probably not.
Well, where you going, man?
(GRUNTS)
MANNING: Good morning, Rico.
Look around you, my friend.
Now you know what my cell was like.
This is an exact replica.
RICO: If you don't let me out of here
you're gonna have a lot more time in a new cell.
(LAUGHING)
Oh, that's very witty, Rico, very witty.
And I'm so glad you haven't lost your sense of humor.
Don't count on it.
Any word from Rico?
Look, I called his house and his car.
No answer.
I just sent a unit over to his house.
No one there.
Maybe he got lucky last night with some literary chick.
It's not like Rico to be late for duty.
I got a bad feeling about Manning.
You know, I read in the paper something about this Manning
working with this far out director.
What was his name?
Robert Phelps.
He helped Manning get parole.
Yeah, now they got some TV deal together.
Call the parole board.
See if you can get an address on Manning.
I'm going to check out Phelps.
Switek, I want you to help me on this.
MANNING: If a man dares to commit a great crime,
then one must also risk suffering a great punishment.
Instead, our society makes excuses for criminals.
Lets them off with barely a slap on the wrist.
Like this man, Mason Jackson.
JACKSON: Let me out of here, man! Let me out of here!
He makes his living killing others.
You got no proof of that.
I run a legitimate business.
I first learned about Mr. Jackson in prison.
Someone actually suggested I hire him to kill you.
JACKSON: Let me out of here!
Let him go. I'll take my chances.
You're missing the point.
The man has killed repeatedly.
You got no right to do this to me!
You're messing around with the wrong...
Yet, thanks to our woefully inadequate
judicial system, he's set free
to walk the streets and kill again.
Until I took matters into my own hands.
Who gives you the right to judge?
Nobody ever gave anything to me Rico.
I took.
I had to.
Let me out of here. I'll show you both a good time.
MANNING: Isn't she beautiful?
Look at that face, like the Madonna.
But she abuses her God-given gifts
by peddling filth and perversion.
So I have chosen to make an example of her
to all those of her kind.
Come on, Manning. She's just a kid.
She propositioned me, Rico.
She's got to be punished.
ANNA: Mr. Manning? Come on, don't go, Manning. Come on. Let me out of here!
Hey, man, how about cutting me some slack, huh?
I mean, what's this all about?
I ain't done nothing wrong. All I do is get high.
You sell drugs, Eddie, or had you forgotten?
Barry's been watching Eddie for weeks.
I never hurt anybody.
You never hurt anybody.
You deal crack to children, Eddie.
You enslave them with your poison.
You, Eddie, you, not me!
It wasn't my fault.
They begged me to sell it to them, okay?
Everybody's full of excuses.
Nobody wants to take responsibility for anything.
Which leads us to our next boarder, Mrs. Rhoda King.
What's she in for?
Prison psychiatrist.
Psychiatrist?
But she's not a criminal.
Wrong, Rico. She's the worst of them all.
All the others are animals.
Blind, instinctual, greedy...
But she's educated, privileged, and yet she's a...
An apologist for them all!
You blame their actions on their childhood,
rather than admitting that evil exists and must be punished.
Manning, listen to yourself.
I know, you want me to stop, right?
No, no, there's no more talking.
Talking is over. It's finished.
The time for discussions is over.
RHODA: I think we could deal with this in another way.
I feel like I'm coming apart or something, Mr. Phelps.
PHELPS: Why, Jake?
There's some kind of blackness in me.
I don't want to hurt anybody.
Inside of my body...
Can you help me?
PHELPS: There is evil in all of us, Jake.
But you're an artist.
You can channel the darkness boiling inside you. You can use it.
Robert Phelps?
Yeah.
Lieutenant Martin Castillo, Miami Vice.
I've been looking for you for a couple of hours. I went to your house.
They said that you'd be here.
I need to ask you some questions about Jake Manning.
You want to know about Jake? Go read his book.
I have.
I've seen your films, too.
They're good.
Thanks, palzy. You can exit.
Would you say that Jake Manning is dangerous?
Dangerous?
You cops think there's only two kinds of people.
Good and bad.
You guys have been trying to grind Jake Manning down for years
as a drooling, sociopath maniac.
You're dead wrong.
Mr. Phelps,
Manning invited one of my men out for dinner the other night.
He hasn't been seen since.
Detective Tubbs?
Yes.
You got nothing to worry about.
Jake worships that cop.
Perhaps.
Could you give me maybe an address or a phone number?
No, no, no.
You got to promise me you're not going to
send a bunch of goons in to jump him.
Jake Manning is kind of a special guy.
So were the people that he killed.
They were special, too.
JACKSON: Manning! Manning! You're messing around with the wrong guy!
MANNING: I said it was time for action, Rico,
and I'm a man of my word.
JACKSON: You can't do this, man. You're crazy.
(JACKSON GRO ANING)
This man has killed.
Now, he will pay the price.
(INAUDIBLE)
No, God! Manning, this isn't the way!
"Those that remain behind will hear and fear
"and shall henceforth commit no more such evil among you.
"They shall not pity, but life shall be exchange for life.
"An eye for an eye,
"a tooth for a tooth,
"burning for burning."
(JACKSON SCREAMING)
MANNING: Better make Rico's a double, Barry. He sure looks like he could use it.
Yes, sir, Mr. Manning.
RICO: No thanks. I don't drink.
The first time's always the roughest, kid.
(SIGHS)
You gonna do all the others like that?
Why not? They deserve it.
Surely, you can see that by now?
You know, the only problem is,
these people are small-timers.
You should really be going after the real criminals.
The real criminals?
Like who?
Like corrupt politicians, judges on the take,
politicians who steal, businessmen who steal from the public.
Those are the real criminals.
Those are the ones who really deserve to be punished.
Why waste your time juicing junkies and whores?
Go after the big ones, man.
And I can help.
Oh, yeah?
How?
I know things.
I hear things that can never be used in court. Never.
Why should they go unpunished just because
they know how to manipulate the system?
Yeah, yeah.
They act so respectable and self-righteous.
I truly hate them.
You and I could make a perfect team.
Just like you always dreamed about.
How do you know that?
I know you.
I do.
Just like Mr. Phelps?
I believe you do.
Why don't you let the others go,
and we can go after the big ones.
I don't know. I mean, I still have that whore, you know. I don't know.
I don't think we can let her go like that.
Oh, come on. She's not worth it, man.
Just let her go. She's not worth it.
She's filth, though, you know.
She defiles sex, you know.
And for this crime against
that most sacred act,
she is given 60 days in the county jail.
(BOTH LAUGHING)
Yes, 60 days, I mean... Hey, hey...
We can't...
Hey, come on. Listen, listen.
I thought you were smarter than that.
I mean, I really thought you...
You know what? Listen.
She's not a whore, man.
You've been taken in.
Underneath, she's pure.
Just let me talk to her,
and I'll prove it to you.
Oh, you're not gonna hurt me now, are you?
I promise I'll make you feel really good.
Just don't hurt me, okay?
(WATER RUNNING)
Sit up.
Will you help me?
Listen! I promise to treat you real good.
Just listen and don't talk.
We've got to transform you into a virgin for Manning.
Is that what he's into? Making it with virgins?
You know, I can do that fantasy really good.
No, no, no, you don't understand.
He hates sex.
You've got to act like an innocent girl.
No matter what you do, don't come on to him.
Oh, well, I think I know a little bit more about men than you do honey, okay?
Damn it, listen to me.
You are an innocent kid.
I'll contact you if we get a lead.
That was the warden at the prison where Manning did time.
Their psychiatrist, a Rhoda King, has been missing for two days.
Oh, God.
She mentioned an invitation by Manning.
That address that Phelps gave you is a vacant apartment.
Doesn't look like Manning ever moved in.
Stake out Phelps. He may try to get in contact with Manning.
No matter what he says or does, do you understand?
Yeah, I think.
Hey, are you sure?
Yeah.
First, we got to clean you up.
Get this junk off your face.
I am very impressed.
I told you, appearances can be deceptive.
You may be right.
Oh, Mr. Manning, she's just a whore.
Shut up!
Who are you to judge another person's soul?
You're just a punch-drunk fighter.
Rico has exposed
the real Anna.
RICO: I'm glad you agree.
Anna is anxious to return home to her parents.
Of course, after we talk.
Wait a minute, you said you'd let her go.
I want to talk to Anna alone.
Keep Rico company while I'm gone.
He's up there.
Well, this is the last address I got, Lieutenant.
Yeah, I wish I could be of more help.
Yeah, all right. Thank you.
He shouldn't have hit you like that, man.
Yeah, well, he did. It didn't hurt.
A real friend wouldn't have never done something like that.
A real friend would've treated you with respect.
He is my friend and he needs me.
He needed you in prison. Not now.
He hangs around with movie stars, appears on TV.
He never takes you to do things like that, right?
No. No, he don't.
I think he made us.
Come on.
I'll get the other exit.
Stan, Phelps is heading north on 12th Avenue.
He's in a black convertible.
I'm on him.
How many? 50, 100?
How many men have you slept with?
You can tell me.
Tell me what happened to you.
How did you start on the dark road?
My father.
Your father?
You, too?
He attacked me when I was a little kid.
He made me do awful things.
When he gets caught, and he will, he's gonna tell them you did it.
No, man. He wouldn't do that, man.
You said yourself, he's a genius.
You think a genius is gonna take a fall? No, man.
He's gonna tell everybody that you did it.
You're gonna take a fall, Barry,
and he's gonna cash in on a new book.
Nah.
Yeah. But if you help me, man,
I'll make sure the police know that Manning killed them.
You'd do that?
Yeah. Let me have the keys to the cell, Barry.
Come on, Barry. Come on, man.
Do it while there's a chance.
No, man.
You were as lonely as I was.
I was. Completely alone.
You know, I just wish I could go back to being a kid again.
'Cause I was happy then.
Yeah, I'm sure you were.
Does that feel good?
Do you like that?
Do you want me to?
I want you to do what you want.
(LAUGHS)
How about that? Do you like that?
Is that nice? Do you like that?
Yes, I like it fine.
That was the wrong answer.
Hey, go get some help, fast.
Thank God. Is it over?
Not yet, I got to go find the girl.
(BARRY SCREAMING)
Get the gun!
I'm very disappointed in you, Rico.
Well, how do you feel, detective?
There's no way you're going to get away with this, Manning.
No way. You might as well give it up now.
Oh, is that so?
Yeah, that's so.
Look, Eddie's going straight to the cops, man. Straight to the cops.
You put a lot of faith in junkies.
The clock's ticking, man.
But not for Eddie.
I told Barry to take him alive,
but you know Barry.
Barry gets excited.
There's no end to my disappointment in you, Rico.
I had hoped that we could work as a team.
Maybe I expected too much, huh?
Maybe words are incapable of conveying
what I feel when I do these things.
God help you.
You are a sick, twisted man.
No, no, no. Listen to me, listen to me.
Listen to me. I swear...
Yes, yes! You are sick! Sick!
I've never felt better.
I want you to feel, Rico, what I feel.
Rico...
lf...
If you were to
push the switch and electrocute Dr. King,
then you'd feel what I feel.
Then maybe... Maybe you'd understand.
I understand.
Oh, yeah, I understand one thing.
The only person that should be in that chair is you, Jake.
You talk to her now and you'll see,
she deserves to die.
You all right?
Yeah, I'm all right.
Eddie didn't make it.
I'm next, aren't I? Aren't I?
I'm not going to let anything happen to you.
No, no! Oh, my God.
Listen. Listen, stop it.
No, please, not me! No!
Stop it, stop it!
There's no time for that.
Listen, listen. We've got to think.
Listen, we've got to think, okay?
(WHIMPERING)
Okay?
We've got to think.
All gassed and ready to go, sir.
Phelps got a boat from some kid and took off.
There's no way I'm gonna be able to follow him.
MARTIN: See if the kid knows where Phelps is headed.
I'll get a Metro police boat and pick you up.
Right.
You two had your important chat?
I explained everything.
Rhoda understands now.
She sees her mistakes.
You don't have to do this.
Well, I'm not going to. Rico, you are.
Jake, I'm begging you to spare me.
Really?
Tell me, my dear,
how long have you had this martyr complex?
I am so sorry.
Please.
Please give me another chance.
Please?
Please, please.
Strap her in the chair! No, Manning!
Get up, get up. I said, get up!
Jake-O!
(ALARM BLARING)
What about them?
Lock 'em up.
Wake up, wake up, they're gone.
What are you doing?
(PANTING) Trying to remember what Mr. Wizard
said about electricity.
Mr. Phelps. Why didn't you call?
I would have come to meet you. Yeah, yeah.
The detective, is he here?
Yes, he's here with the others.
What others?
Well, the other guests. They all stayed over.
Well, where is he?
Because the cops are going nuts.
He hasn't called in.
Oh, we can't do that. I mean, he would tell them to call here,
and that would ruin everything.
Ruin what?
Our work. Our work, Robert.
We've done so much, but there's so much more to do, Robert.
We've got Tubbs on the verge of a major breakthrough.
What the hell are you doing?
What have you done, Manning?
I'm educating them, Robert.
Well, why don't you show me that?
That's a good idea. You can watch him do it.
What do you think? Beautiful, isn't it?
You idiot!
What do you mean?
What are you trying to get me into?
Tubbs! I got nothing to do with this.
You're in it now, Phelps. Talk to Jake.
What are you talking about?
Bobby, you're the one who said I was an outlaw.
You're the one who said that
we were both outside bourgeois reality.
(STAMMERING) That we were both over the edge.
Jake-O!
That's a metaphor.
Wait, wait, wait a minute...
It's not real.
No, don't, Bobby. No, you'll make me...
A metaphor.
What do you mean, a metaphor? What is...
It means I didn't tell you to kill anybody really!
Wait a minute, Bobby... A metaphor...
You're just a cheap hustler like all the rest of them.
You glorify death and violence for profit.
You're worse than she is!
It's time you lived up to your principles, Robert.
You celebrate the dark side,
now you're going to experience it.
(SHOUTING)
You like existential dilemmas, consider this.
Is it murder if you kill to save yourself?
Don't do it, Phelps!
Shut up!
Let Jake do his own killing.
Shut up!
Let me say it less passionately, Robert.
Pull that switch or I'll blow you away, so help me God.
No! Do it!
No! MANNING: Do it!
(SOBBING) I can't, I can't.
You...
Do it, Barry!
Police! Freeze!
RICO: It's all over, Manning!
Put your hands behind your head and drop to your knees!
Don't be stupid.
This isn't the way.
Jake, you set yourself up, man.
(COUGHS)
You've finally done it.
Done what?
I've never been...
Free, Rico.