The Voicemail Script Part 3

The Voicemail Script Part 3

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  The Voicemail (WORKINGTITLE) By Mary Ashton Ellis
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  INT. PUBLIC BATHROOM.DAY. Tom is a middle aged man and his hair is very neat and has a perfectly tailored suit on. He is staring at his reflection in the mirror. A soulless, slightly dirty office building bathroom with urinals and stalls lining the wall. As he is still staring in the mirror he turns on the tap and the looks down and bends over the sink and splashes water in his face. He then turns off the tap. Tom looks at himself with a wet face. He reaches over and grabs the paper towels without looking and wipes his face. He looks at himself one last time, readjusts his tie, sighs loudly, and nods to himself. You can hear the sound of water splashing his face and a dripping tap from one of the other sinks. Mark enters the bathroom at this point. Mark is also a middle aged man who is slightly larger than Tom and he is wearing glasses. He looks over at Tom with an annoyed face, sighs, and starts walking over to Tom. Once he reaches Tom he smiles and looks friendly. MARK Come on Tom it’s time to go to the meeting you’ll do fine. Mark’s voice echoes inside the bathroom. Mark pats Tom on the back reassuringly and picks up Tom’s briefcase from the floor and hands it to Tom. Tom grabs the suitcase and follows Mark out of the bathroom. INT. MEETING ROOM. DAY. Mark enters first. The meeting room is a small room with a long table in the middle that seats 5-10 people. There are two chairs empty. One being Mark’s and the other is Tom’s. It’s very neat. MARK He was in the bathroom. Mark rolls his eyes to the rest of the group and proceeds to sit down at his chair surrounded by Tom’s other coworkers. You can see that some of the coworkers have annoyed expressions and some are tapping their fingers on the desk. Tom walks in after Mark and everyone is staring at him with (CONTINUED)
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  CONTINUED: 2. a blankexpression. Tom is standing just inside the frame of the door not really knowing what to do. He then looks around makes eye contact with Mark who gives him a thumbs up and makes his way to the front of the desk where he will be giving his presentation. After Mark reassures his Tom feels more confident in giving his presentation. He props his briefcase on top of the table and rumages through it. All of his folders are brand new and are labeled. He pulls out the folder labeled ’Meeting 20.11.15’ but it’s upside down and all of his papers fall out. Some of the coworkers glance at one another giving each other a look of annoyance and murmur to each other. INT. RECEPTIONIST OFFICE. DAY. The area for reception into the boss’, Richard, office is very modern with all white walls and furnishing. The desk itself is situated off to the side after you get off the elevator where the receptionist Sarah sits. Sarah is slightly younger than Tom but still in her thirties. Sarah has brown hair and is dressed in a smart dress suit. Her desk is very clean with only a laptop, phone, and a jar of pencils. Sarah is sitting at her desk when she sees Richard, Tom and Marks’ supervisor, get off the elevator and walk into the boss’ office. She stands up and tiptoes quickly over to the office door. She presses her ear up to the door. INT. BOSS’ OFFICE. DAY. The boss of the company is Nicholas. He is much older than Tom in his fifties. He has a lot larger than Tom but has a very strict look to him. Nicholas’ office is very large and there are windows lining the walls looking over the city. He has a large mahogany table towards the back of the room with two chairs that are much smaller in comparison in front of the desk. Nicholas is sitting at his desk and looks up when Richard walks in the door. He walks over to one of the chairs in front and sits down. RICHARD Have you decided who’s getting the promotion? NICHOLAS I’ve narrowed it down to Mark and Tom. I personally think Tom would be the best for the job but he (MORE) (CONTINUED)
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  CONTINUED: 3. NICHOLAS (cont’d) mightbe a bit too neat for the job. I’ll let you know my final decision on Monday but have Sarah my receptionist call him and tell him to come to my office first thing Monday. Richard gets the hint and gets up to leave. He starts walking towards the door. INT. RECEPTIONIST OFFICE. DAY. Sarah hears Richard making his way to the door and runs back to her desk. Just as she sits down Richard opens the door and walks out. She awkwardly waves goodbye to him and tries to fix her hair. As Richard presses the elevator button he turns around. RICHARD Call Tom and let him know to be in Nicholas’ office first thing Monday morning. Thanks. Sarah nods and Richard gets in the elevator. Once the elevator door closes Sarah scrambles to get the phone. SARAH Meet me in the break room immediately. I’ll be there in 5 minutes. INT. BREAK ROOM. DAY. Mark is waiting for Sarah when she arrives. Sarah quickly shuts the door and locks it. They stand in the middle of the office break room and Sarah keeps looking over her shoulder to make sure no one enters. SARAH Tom’s getting the promotion. Nicholas is making it official Monday morning. I’m supposed to call him now but I got it. Sarah sounds slightly out of breath and she rushes to tell Mark the news.
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  4. INT. TOM’S DESK.DAY. Tom is sitting down at his desk. Tom has a normal sized cubicle. It is extremely neat without a piece of paper out of place. Everything is in neat stacks and put into folders. All of his pens are sitting in a mug next to his computer. All of a sudden Tom’s desk phone starts ringing. He looks up from the drawer he was rummaging through and picks up the phone. TOM Hello? SARAH Hi, Tom, it’s Sarah. Nicholas has asked you to be in his office first thing Monday morning. TOM Have I done something wrong? SARAH You’ll need to pack up your desk by the end of the day. Heather’s bringing boxes. Sarah immediately hangs up the phone and you can hear the empty call ring through. Tom puts down the phone and puts his head in his hands. Tom looks back up when he hears Heather walking up. She hands Tom 3 flat cardboard boxes and a roll of duck tape, gives me a small sad smile, and walks off. Tom gets off of his chair and sits on the floor to start putting together the first box. At this point Mark comes over. Mark looks down at Mark and sees him setting up the boxes. MARK Oh shit Tom I’m so sorry. Here let me help you pack and once we’re finished we can go out for drinks. Tom looks up at Mark with appreciation and nods his head. Mark starts handing Tom folders out of his drawers to put in the box. Mark only helps Tom for a minute when he looks down at his watch. MARK I’m late for a meeting. You finish up here and after meet me at my desk and we’ll go to the pub around the corner. (CONTINUED)
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  CONTINUED: 5. TOM Ok thanksMark for all your help. You’re a really nice friend. Mark smiles at Tom and waves goodbye. Once Mark has turned his back his smile is gone and he walks off to his desk. INT. PUB. NIGHT. Mark and Tom have been in the pub for a few hours now. Mark is still on his first drink while Tom has had multiple shots and drinks. Mark is egging Tom on and getting him angry. TOM I hate him! I’ve worked harder than anyone here I don’t deserve this. Tom says this slightly slurred and he’s swaying on his bar stool. MARK Come on up you get let’s get out of here. Mark grabs Tom by the arm and pulls him off the bar stool. EXT. MARK’S CAR. NIGHT. Mark pulls in to the Tesco car park. MARK Wait in here. I’ll be right back. Mark opens the door and gets out. Mark returns to the car a few minutes later with a bag in his hand and a mischievous look on his face. TOM What’s in the bag? Mark gives Tom the bag and starts to drive off. Tom looks inside and sees a carton of eggs and a bottle of whiskey. EXT. BOSS’ HOUSE. NIGHT. Mark pulls in front of the house. (CONTINUED)
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  CONTINUED: 6. TOM Is thisNicholas’ house? He looks over at Mark as if he’s gone crazy. MARK Yep now come on. Let’s have some fun. If you are being fired why not go out with style? They both get out of the car. They stand in front of Mark’s car looking at the boss’ large house. There is a really nice car sitting in the driveway. Tom takes out the bottle of whiskey and takes a swig then hands it to Mark. As Mark is drinking, Tom takes out the carton of eggs. He takes one of the eggs and throws it at the boss’ car. The egg hits the car and immediately the alarm starts going off. Tom and Mark look at each other and run back to the car. Tom drops the bag and gets in the car. They drive off. INT. TOM’S FLAT. NIGHT. Tom is dropped off by Mark at his flat. He enters the flat and you can immediately see the flat is extremely tidy and there’s barely a speck of dirt. Tom is very drunk by this point and starts taking off his tie, jacket, and shoes and throws them around the house. He falls asleep on the couch. The rest of the weekend consists of Tom trashing his apartment where it doesn’t look recognizable and drinking. INT. TOM’S APARTMENT. MONDAY MORNING. Tom is asleep in his bed when his alarm clock goes off saying it’s 7am. Tom rolls over, turns off the alarm, and throws his phone across the room. His phone lands in a pile of dirty clothes. He finally wakes up realising he’s going to be late. He jumps out of bed and frantically rushes to find his phone. He digging through the pile of clothes and finds his phone. He clicks the home button to bring up the home screen to see what time it is. The clock says it’s 8:30. Work starts at 9. He jumps up again and races to the bathroom to splash his face with water. He hasn’t shaved since Friday morning. You can tell Tom is very hungover. He sticks a toothbrush in his and leaves the bathroom in a rush. Tom runs around his flat trying to find the suit he wore on Friday. He finds pieces of it scattered around the place. He struggles to brush his teeth while getting dressed and stumbles over a few times. He grabs his phone, puts it in his pocket, and spits the toothpaste into the bush beside his door and throws his toothbrush down. He wipes his mouth and runs outside.
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  7. INT. ELEVATOR. DAY. Tomenters the elevator and mutters for someone to press the top floor. Everyone looks around at him and looks disgusted at his appearance and smell. As the elevator goes higher in the building more people get on and off at different floors. There is classic elevator music playing softly in the lift and it gets louder and louder as Tom reaches the top floor. The elevator doors open and Tom steps out of the lift. INT. BOSS’ RECEPTIONIST OFFICE. DAY. Sarah looks up as Tom exits the lift and has to do a double take at how awful Tom looks. SARAH Morning Tom.. You can go on in. He’s waiting for. Tom nods to Sarah and walks across the room to open the door to Nicholas’ office. He wrings his hands before going inside. INT. BOSS’ OFFICE. DAY. Tom enters the Nicholas’ office slowly. Nicholas is on the phone facing away from the door and gestures for Tom to take a seat. Tom hesitantly sits down at one of the chairs. NICHOLAS *murmuring into the phone* Alright bye. Nicholas turns around in his chair to face Tom and hangs up his phone. At first Nicholas looks taken aback by Tom’s appearance and then begins to smile. NICHOLAS Oh this is perfect! You got the promotion Tom!