PLASTIC MAN

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Without the nanobot it appears there

          will be no way to stabilize the

          waste entirely.  Even at subzero

          temperatures it remains active.

DR. NIGEL NEBBLEMAN is Susan's assistant.  More nebbish

than man.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          I wonder if there is a way we could

          catch that mouse.  Susan?  Susan, are

          you listening to me?

She blinks.

                         SUSAN

          What?  Oh, I'm sorry, Nigel.  I was

          just thinking...

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Aaabout...?

                         SUSAN

          This morning.  I saw someone I

          haven't seen in a long time.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          A man?

                         SUSAN

          Yeah.  I knew him when I was still

          in school.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          What did he want?

                         SUSAN

          I'm not sure.  That's the funny

          thing about him.  He's the kind of

          guy that you never know what he

          wants or what he might do to get it.

EXT.  STREET

O'Brien is moving against the general flow of traffic on a

crowded street.

He notices a MAN in a business suit with a briefcase in

one hand, a white Styrofoam cup of coffee in the other.

The Man, apparently in a hurry, slugs down the last of the

coffee, crumbles the cup in his fist and without a second

thought, tosses the cup into the hedge.

                         O'BRIEN

          Hey!

The suit walks right past him, oblivious to O'Brien's

outrage.

O'Brien looks back at the cup and then the Man.  A single

word hisses from his lips.

                         O'BRIEN

          Litterbug.

He rushes to the hedge and seizes hold of the cup, then

whirls back, chasing after the bug.

                         O'BRIEN

          Hey!  Hey, you!  Hey, litterbug!

          Mr. Litterbug!

He grabs the bug by the shoulder and spins him around.

                         O'BRIEN

          Excuse me, but I believe you dropped

          this.

The Litterbug, a very large litterbug, laughs.

                         LITTERBUG (MAN)

          Yeah?  So what?

                         O'BRIEN

          So what?  So what?  For starters,

          how about littering is a crime.

                         LITTERBUG

          Haw-haw!  Why don't you run off and

          find a cop and I'll wait right here.

                         O'BRIEN

          Why don't you just put this in your

          pocket so when you see a garbage can

          you can put it where it belongs.

                         LITTERBUG

          Why don't you just shove it up your

          ass!  Haw-haw!

The Litterbug starts walking away, but O'Brien continues

to dog him.

                         O'BRIEN

          What is it with you litterbugs?  Is

          it a territorial thing, marking your

          turf with your garbage?

                         LITTERBUG

          You better quit pushing me, pal.

                         O'BRIEN

          I just want to know what goes on in

          the mind of a litterbug.  What

          chemical is secreted by your smooth

          brain that tells you, 'It's okay,

          just chuck it'?

                         LITTERBUG

          Look, asshole, I don't got time for

          this.  If you got a problem, you

          better take care of it yourself.

                         O'BRIEN

          Oh no, no, no.  No can do.  You

          enjoyed a tasty beverage and thus

          this receptacle becomes your

          responsibility and I don't care if

          it's a Styrofoam cup or the Exxon

          Valdez!  You've got to learn to take

          responsibility!

                         LITTERBUG

          What are you going to do?  Make me

          throw it out?

                         O'BRIEN

          I'll do whatever I have to do.

Fists clench as they eye one another up and down until the

Litterbug laughs again.

                         LITTERBUG

          Jee-sus!  You're crazy as catshit!

          You win.  Gimme the cup.

Smiling, O'Brien starts to give him the cup.

                         O'BRIEN

          Believe me, later on you'll feel a

          lot better about this...

When suddenly the Litterbug seizes O'Brien's wrist,

yanking him off balance as he pops him square in the nose.

A second blow to the gut doubles O'Brien over and a

briefcase to the back of the head drops him to the

sidewalk.

                         LITTERBUG

          Later on you're going to feel a

          whole lot worse!  Haw-haw.

He kicks him in the gut.

                         LITTERBUG

          Next time mind your own business!

He walks away as O'Brien squeezes the styrofoam CUP,

CRACKING it in his fist.

                         O'BRIEN

          No good stinking litterbug...

INT.  SUSAN BRIGHT'S LAB

Susan is still talking to Nebbleman.

                         SUSAN

          Do you remember about five years

          ago, that uh... incident at Purnell

          Labs?

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Oh yeah.  They were working on

          molecular assemblers, too, weren't

          they?

                         SUSAN

          They also tried using viral R.N.A.

          as the bonding element.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          That's right.  C.D.C. found out and

          closed them down...

Susan looks into the mouse cage as Nebbleman remembers the

rest.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Yeah, somebody broke in and stole

          the samples, one of those animal

          rights groups, right?  I remember

          now, they freed all the monkeys

          which caused that huge pileup on the

          Massachusetts Turnpike, right?

                         SUSAN

          Yeah.  But it wasn't a group.  It

          was one man.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          That's the guy?

She nods.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          And you think he knows what we're

          doing here?

She nods again.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Oh.

EXT.  MAIN GATE

A security card slides through the gate box.

The arm raises and Daniel O'Brien drives in, waving to the

security man who absently waves back.

INT.  SECURITY OFFICE

We GLIDE THROUGH the frosted glass and out THROUGH the

inverted letters spelling, "SECURITY."

                         SIM

          So you think this psycho-

          environmentalist character stole

          your security key to break into the

          lab?

The head of Argon Security sitting behind his enormous

desk is D.T. SIM, a little guy with something to prove.

His silent partner is Doby, an enormous man with the face

of a mastiff.

                         SUSAN

          It might be paranoia, but I've never

          lost my keycard before.

                         SIM

          'Paranoia is what separates the

          secured from the unsecured.'

He smiles, enjoying his own cleverness.

                         SIM

          Just a little saying we've got in

          the security business, Dr. Bright.

          We get paid to be paranoid.  We

          worry so you don't have to.

He lights a stogie.

                         SIM

          A lot of people think security is

          just a job, but for me it's a way of

          life.  It's a state of mind.

He blows a cloud of smoke into the air.

                         SIM

          If this nutcase did take it and has

          half a brain, he'd use it right

          away, before we could invalidate it.

                         SUSAN

          Yes, that is what I was thinking.

                         SIM

          In fact, would it be safe to say,

          based on your general knowledge of

          this character, that he is already

          in the building?

                         SUSAN

          Yes, he might be.

INT.  ARGON LAB - CLOSE ON COLORED ID

that O'Brien forged, clipped to the pocket of a lab coat.

We notice that he also inked in some dark glasses and a

moustache.

Smiling, nodding, he moves through the busy corridors with

a sense of inconspicuous conspicuousness.

Susan appears from around a corner, walking toward him as

he turns away.  Something about the tall moustached man

catches her eye when --

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Susan!  Susan!

Nebbleman hurries to catch up.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          What did security say?

                         SUSAN

          They'll in validate the key.

          Probably nothing.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Well, you got another problem.

                         SUSAN

          The replicators?

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Worse.  Mrs. Argon wants to talk to

          you.  She's waiting in the lab.

                         SUSAN

          This day just keeps going from bad

          to worse.

INT.  SUSAN BRIGHT'S LAB

FROM INSIDE the mouse cage, we see Poppy looking DOWN AT

us.  Her perfect red lips slightly curling into a sneer.

                         POPPY

          Vermin...

                         SUSAN (O.S.)

          Can I help you, Mrs. Argon?

As Susan enters the lab, Nebbleman fades back and

disappears.

                         POPPY

          I spoke to Dr. Argon this morning

          and he remains frustrated over the

          loss of the original nanobot.

                         SUSAN

          I am aware of Dr. Argon's

          frustrations.

                         POPPY

          He believes that the second nanobot

          should be ready for testing by now.

Susan does not want to hear this now.

                         SUSAN

          Dr. Argon is going to have to muster

          a little patience.  I was rushed

          into testing the nanobot on that

          mouse and now we are dealing with a

          toxic waste that has the potential

          to make Three Mile Island look like

          spilled milk.

Susan stares daggers.

                         SUSAN

          Under the circumstances, I can't

          fathom what makes Dr. Argon think we

          are ready for anything bigger.  If

          C.N.N., or hell, if the E.P.A. knew

          what was in my basement --

                         POPPY

          Is that a threat, Dr. Bright?

                         SUSAN

          Look, as I have said and will

          continue to say, the instability of

          the assembler waste remains my

          priority --

                         POPPY

          While you remain on the staff at

          Argon Laboratories, your priorities

          will always be the same as Dr.

          Argon's priorities.  I imagine that

          is a simple enough equation for a

          bright girl like you to figure out.

Poppy smiles.  Susan suppresses the urge to smash her head

with a microscope.

                         POPPY

          If you don't have any questions,

          I'll let you get back to doing your

          job.

                         SUSAN

          Just one question.  Since Dr. Argon

          no longer has feeling below his

          waist, how is it that you're still

          able to do your job?

Poppy glances up at the security camera in the far corner.

She leans close to Susan and whispers.

                         POPPY

          I could have you fired right now.

                         SUSAN

          You won't.  That's why you're

          whispering.

Poppy glares at her, then spins on her heels and leaves.

Still fuming, Susan turns to a special computerized,

vault-like machine which is the nanobot freon-containment

system.

At the top, there is a sealed plate that is connected to

an electron microscope.

She touches the plate, almost lovingly, letting her anger

drain away.

Nebbleman skulks back in.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          He wants another test?

She says nothing.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          I bet he hasn't read a single report

          we've written on the waste problem.

                         SUSAN

          I hope you're right.  I'd feel a lot

          worse if he had read them and just

          didn't care.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          What are you going to do?

                         SUSAN

          What I've always done.  As long as

          I'm the only one who can build the

          nanobot, I'm the only one who can

          say when it should be tested.

As they return to work, we RISE UP TO the unblinking eye

of the security camera.

INT.  SECURITY BOOTH

The security booth is Sim's world; he is intimate with

every detail of each small framed monitor.

                         SIM

          Hey, Dobe... Ever wonder if this is

          how God feels looking down on us?

Doby says nothing.

                         SIM

          Yeah, me neither.

EXT.  ARGON LABS - DAY

The sun, a brilliant ball of lemon yellow, slowly begins

to curdle --

Transmogrifying into a full moon, pale and winter blue

against a night sky.

INT.  STORAGE ROOM - NIGHT

A dark room filled with barrels labeled, "EXPLOSIVE

MATERIALS:  CONTAINS TRINITROTOLUENE."