Strangers Together

EXT. TRAIN - DARKNESS BEFORE DAWN

Suburban Connecticut, outside of New York City, 1973. The
still after a terrible storm. Trees dripping, their branches
torn, the air warming just before the break of a new day. The
train lies dark and motionless, a few flashing yellow
emergency lights up front, as a work crew removes debris from
the track.

INT. TRAIN. PRE-DAWN

Various passengers, huddled uncomfortably, cold, asleep.

On Paul Hood, 15-and-a-half, stoner-preppie look, hunched up
in his seat under the faint emergency exit light. He reads
his Fantastic Four comic book by the pale light of the
emergency exit sign.

Suddenly, the lights begin to flicker on and the hum of the
train's engines returns.

The conductor enters the car, blasting forth in his classic
nasal voice.

CONDUCTOR
	Good morning ladies and gentlemen --

He sounds like a baseball announcer.

			PASSENGERS
		(mumbling, ad lib)
	What ladies?

			CONDUCTOR
	-- this train originating at New
	York's Grand Central Station is
	back in service - next stop will be
	New Canaan, Connecticut. New
	Canaan, Connecticut, next stop!

He moves on to the next car.

The train begins to move.

Paul rubs his elbow against the window and looks out into the
still-dark early morning.

He looks back down at his comic book.

On the comic book: Reed Richards (also known as Stretch) has
zapped his young son with a cosmic ray gun to neutralize the
destructive energy that Annihilus has implanted in him.

The Thing, Medusa, Flame, and Richards' wife Sue Storm look
on, stunned.

 
"THEN YOU'VE TURNED HIM INTO A
	VEGETABLE. YOUR OWN SON.""DON'T
	YOU SEE, SUE? HE WAS TOO
	POWERFUL... IF HIS ENERGY HAD
	CONTINUED TO BUILD, HE WOULD HAVE
	DESTROYED THE WORLD!"

Paul looks up again, thinking.

			PAUL (V.O.)
	In issue number 141 of The
	Fantastic Four, published in
	November 1973, Reed Richards has to
	use his anti-matter weapon on his
	own son, who Annihilus has turned
	into a human atom bomb. His son is
	the result of Richards' coupling
	with the earthling Sue Storm, and
	the problem is that the cosmic rays
	that infused Richards and the rest
	of the Fantastic Four on their
	aborted moon mission have made
	young Franklin a volatile mixture
	of matter and anti-matter.

EXT. TRAIN BRIDGE. PRE-DAWN

The train moves slowly through a suburban, semi-forested
landscape.

			PAUL (V.O.)
	And that's what it is to come from
	a family, if you analyze it
	closely. Each of them is negative
	matter for the other ones. And
	that's what dying is -- dying is
	when your family, which is in fact
	your personal negative matter from
	which you emerge -- it's when the
	family takes you back, thus hurling
	you back into negative space...

INT. TRAIN. CONT'D.

On Paul, as the sun breaks over the horizon. His face glows
warmly in the yellow light. He looks down idly at the comic
book.

			PAUL (V.O.)
	So it's a paradox -- the closer
	you're drawn back in, the further
	into the void you're thrown.

James Schamus: The Ice Storm, revised first draft screenplay (based on the novel by Rick Moody), 5 January 1996: opening scene