HUDSON HAWK

                            HUDSON HAWK  

                           Screenplay by

                        Steven E. de Souza

                           Revisions by

                            Dan Waters

                   Based on an original idea by
                    Bruce Willis & Robert Kraft

     A Silver Pictures/Flying Heart Films      June 14, 1990
      Production

     NOTE: THE HARD COPY OF THIS SCRIPT CONTAINED SCENE NUMBERS
     AND SOME "SCENE OMITTED" SLUGS. THEY HAVE BEEN REMOVED FOR
     THIS SOFT COPY.

     FADE IN:

     EXT. VINCI COUNTRYSIDE - RENAISSANCE - DAY

     Beneath a jawdroppingly storybook castle, a small
     Renaissance Fair with florid awnings, demented ACROBATS
     and roaring puppets is unfolding.

     RUSTIC FARMERS and their families rumble with enjoyment
     at the Sabbath afternoon entertainment.

     Encircled by children, A JUGGLER WITH AN UNFORGETTABLY
     ETCHED FACE elegantly plucks the red balls from a pouch
     on his mule.  As he begins to juggle, a LOUD EXPLOSION
     is heard, causing him to ungracefully drop his balls
     and collapse in a heap.

     Everyone at the fair, including the puppets, looks up.

                             UNFORGETTABLE JUGGLER
               Leonardo, che pazzo.

     The juggler shakes his fist up to a swish pan that swings
     up toward a smoking window of the awesome castle...

     INT. ROOM OF THE GOLD MACHINE

     where the charismatic LEONARDO DA VINCI laughs down at
     him.  Da Vinci wears a pair of very early, very cool sun-
     glasses with his trademark beard.

     He turns and loses his smile, something extraordinary
     reflecting off his glasses.  Removing his shades, Da
     Vinci moves to the Something, a gloriously incredible
     machine.  The opening CREDITS REVEAL its dazzling idio-
     syncrasies.

     TWO COUGHING APPRENTICES haplessly try to disperse smoke
     from the still billowing, mysteriously spectacular
     Machine.  Mirrors attached to parts of it reflect beams
     of light which cut through the smoke like a Renaissance
     laser show.

                             DA VINCI
                       (silencing authority)
               Basta vapore.

     The apprentice throws a lever.  A shunt near the furnace
     turns.  Steam escapes upwards.  The machine immediately
     slows down.  Da Vinci oh-so-gently coughs and moves for-
     ward with tongs.

     A LITTLE TROUGH - IN THE MACHINE'S INNARDS

     comes to a trembling, mystical halt.  Right behind this
     trough is a CONPLEX POLYHEDRON CRYSTAL as intricately
     modulated as any Rubik stocking stuffer, but much more
     dazzling in beauty.  It gleams like a jewel in the yellow
     glow which pours from a PLEASANTLY GRINNING DEMONHEAD into
     a trough--a glow of heat--and something more than heat.

     The tongs enter the frame.

     Da Vinci brings the object closer to his face.  A murmur
     goes up from the awestruck apprentices as the Master
     peers at the smoking yellow bar.

                             APPRENTICE TWO
               Maestro, che meraviglia!

                             APPRENTICE THREE
               Lei e' proprio fantastico!

     Da Vinci's pride goes dead as the implications hit.

                             DA VINCI
               Lasciatemi, solo.  Solo!

     The apprentices scurry out.  Mind reeling, Da Vinci turns
     his back to the viewer, before a wall of frescoes.

                             DA VINCI
               L'ho fatto.

     Spinning back around, using the edge of his cloak, Da
     Vinci pulls out the large gleaming crystal with a pop.

     INT. DA VINCI'S WORKSHOP

     With an accompanying blast of smoke, Da Vinci bursts
     through some double doors into his workshop, sadly
     reflecting upon the crystal in one hand and the tonged
     bar in the other.

     His workshop is a spendiferously enigmatic blend of
     laboratory and studio; On a table in the foreground is
     a fresh clay equestrian statue; a large VOLUME of
     sketches, the inkwell nearby; a MODEL of what looks like
     a HELICOPTER; Da Vinci flings the tonged bar on the table
     among these goodies.

     Pocketing the crystal, Da Vinci meanders through his work-
     shop casually tinkering with various experiments.  He
     snaps his fingers at a BATHING SUITED APPRENTICE, wearing
     a diving helmet prototype.  The Apprentice jumps into a
     pool of water.

     Leonardo next stops at an easel displaying a finished-
     except-for-the-mouth portrait of Mona Lisa, who happens
     to be seated in a stool before the easel.  She broadly
     smiles, revealing the worst dental work of her epoch.
     Da Vinci shakes his head and moves out onto a

     EXT. CASTLE TERRACE

     A FLYING APPRENTICE sails past Leonardo in a bat winged
     glider, enthusiastically shouting.  Da Vinci grins back
     until he touches his pocket.  He pulls out the crystal
     and, after a beat, angrily twists it apart into two
     separate, geometric pieces revealing a small intricate
     mirror.  He quickly folds the surprisingly shapable
     geometric pieces.

     Calming down, Da Vinci looks from the three components of
     the crystal to each of the three unfinished works on the
     table in his workshop.  He ponders then looks back out to
     the Vinci vista.

     The bat winged glider DISSOLVES into:

     A HAWK

     who is revealed to be flying over Sing Sing prison.

     INT. A SING SING PRISON CELL

     The shadow of the hawk passes through a cell window, over
     the face of EDDIE HUDSON HAWKINS causing him to break out
     of an eye-closed trance.

     Before the viewer can get a good look at him, Hudson
     Hawk turns to an oddball version of the "Mona Lisa" that
     has his face and tears it off the cell back-wall.

     INT. PRISON BLOCK WALKWAY

     TWO PRISON GUARDS, One WISE and BLACK, the other YOUNG
     and GREEN march down a cell block.  The Former is smoking
     a pipe which the Young Guard lights with a lighter.

                             WISE GUARD
               We're losing our biggest celebrity
               today.

                             YOUNG GUARD
               You're kidding, Petey the Paint
               Thinner Killer is getting paroled?

                             WISE GUARD
               Not that slime, you Fizzhead.
               Hudson Hawk.  The last of the
               great cat burglars.

     INT. PRISON CELL WALL

     A hand tears down a picture of a happy Hudson Hawk and
     a LITTLE MONKEY, identically dressed in black cat
     burglar gear.

     THE BLOCK

     The Wise Guard and the Young Guard rumble forward.

                             WISE GUARD
               As a thief, Hawk was a poem.
               Iambic fucking pentameter.  You
               know, Crime used to have a little
               class.  A hundred reporters were
               here when he came in, now they're
               probably out covering some tired
               crack gang war...

     The Guards approach Hawk's cell.  Hawk, with his back
     turned, hefts on a nifty blazer.

                             HAWK
               Remind me to fire my publicist.

     The Wise Guard chuckles as the Young Guard fumbles with
     his key-ring.

                             YOUNG GUARD
               Darn, these are for L-block...

     Hawk's hand reaches through the bars and grabs a pipe
     cleaner from the Wise Guard's pocket.  Then the lighter
     from the Young Guard's pocket--BURNS OFF the fabric fuzz
     with the lighter beside it--bends the now blackened
     wire--and with a quick turn of the wrist uses it to
     UNLOCK the door.

                             YOUNG GUARD
               - go back down to security and-

     He stops, dumbfounded, as the door clunks open.  The
     Guards double-take as Hawk, finally in full view, struts
     past them, down the hall.  The Guards hustle to catch
     up.  The wise guard puts his finger in the air and
     sarcastically pretends to be stung by the heat emanating
     from Hawk.

                             WISE GUARD
               Guess this means, Hawk, you'll
               be able to let yourself back in...