THE INSIDER

     Jeffrey's impressed by Lowell's perceptivity...

                         WIGAND
               How'd you know that, Lowell?

                         LOWELL
               It's obvious, isn't it?

     He looks at Liane in the next room, asleep.

                         LOWELL (CONT'D)
               Hello.  You there

                         WIGAND
               Yeah...  Look, thanks for talking.  I'm
               sorry I woke you up.

                         LOWELL
               It's okay.

     Jeffrey hesitates, holding the phone, then he hangs up...but
     the phone RINGS right away.

                         WIGAND
               Lowell...?

     But there's thick silence.

                         WIGAND (CONT'D)
               Who is this?  Do not call here!  Do
               not...

     They hang up.  And he realizes he's talking to a DIAL TONE.
     He hangs up.  And as he sits in the patch of light from a
     street lamp, the gun in his hand on his lap, to be up all
     night guarding his family...

     INT.  THEIR BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT

     And past Liane's sleeping form down the hall into the living
     room is her husband, his back to her, sitting in the
     trapezoid of light.  And as we DOLLY along her side, we come
     upon her face and discover she's been up all along and her
     eyes are pressed shut, her hands over her ears...her reaction
     to his raging on the phone.  She's far from "OKAY."

     INT. A JAPANESE RESTAURANT, WASHINGTON D.C. - NIGHT

     And we see Lowell and Wigand sitting in their stocking feet
     at a traditional Japanese table in a private screened room...
     A traditionally-dressed Japanese Waitress waiting to take
     their order...  Wigand conversing with her in Japanese...

     The Waitress formally nods, and leaves...

                         LOWELL
               What did you get us?

                         WIGAND
               Tempura...

     And Wigand drinks some more saki.

                         WIGAND (cont'd)
               The internet said you did graduate work
               in Wisconsin, then went to UC La Jolla
               with Professor...Marcus?

                         LOWELL
               Marcuse.  Yeah.  He was my mentor.  He
               had a major influence on the New Left in
               the late '60s...and on me, personally.

                         WIGAND
               Next to your father?

                         LOWELL
               My father?  What the hell's that got to
               do with my father?

                         WIGAND
               Is that why you became a journalist?
               Then you get to ask all the questions?

                         LOWELL
               You charge by the hour?

                         WIGAND
               My father was a mechanical
               engineer...most ingenious man I ever
               knew.

                         LOWELL
               Well, my father left us when I was five-
               years old.  He was not the most ingenious
               man I ever knew...  Let's get back to
               Brown & Williamson.  If you decide to go
               on "60 Minutes," I got to know everything
               about why you got fired.

                         WIGAND
               Why?

                         LOWELL
               They're gonna dig up stuff from your
               past, they're gonna throw it at you.  I
               got to know what they're gonna throw.
               You understand?

                         WIGAND
                   (concedes)
               I drink.  A couple of occasions more than
               I should have.
                   (thinks)
               I was cited for shoplifting once.  But it
               was a mistake...
                   (hesitant, after a beat)
               I pushed Liane one time.  We were both
               stressed out because of the pressure.
               She went to her mother's.
                   (out of the blue)
               I got fired because when I get angry I
               have difficulty censoring myself.  And I
               don't like to be pushed around!

                         LOWELL
               I'm not pushing you around!
                   (after a beat)
               I'm asking you questions.

                         WIGAND
               I'm just a commodity to you, aren't I?  I
               could be anything.  Right?  Anything
               worth putting on between commercials...

                         LOWELL
                   (honest)
               ...to a network, probably, we're all
               commodities.
                   (beat)
               To me?  You are not a commodity.  What
               you are is important.

     And he's begun to consciously or unconsciously "sell"...

                         LOWELL (cont'd)
               You go public and thirty-million people
               hear what you got to say, nothing, I mean
               nothing, will ever be the same again.

     Wigand doesn't react.

                         LOWELL (cont'd)
               You believe that?

                         WIGAND
                   (skeptical)
               No.

                         LOWELL
               You should.  Because when you're done, a
               judgment is going to go down in the court
               of public opinion, my friend.  And that's
               the power you have.

                         WIGAND
               You believe that?

                         LOWELL
               I believe that?  Yes, I believe that.

                         WIGAND
               You believe that because you get
               information out to people...something
               happens?

                         LOWELL
               Yes.

                         WIGAND
               Maybe that's just what you've been
               telling yourself all these years to
               justify having a good job?  Having
               status?  And maybe for the audience, it's
               just voyeurism?  Something to do on a
               Sunday night.  And maybe it won't change
               a fucking thing.  And people like myself
               and my family are left hung out to dry.
               Used up!  Broke, alone!

                         LOWELL
               Are you talking to me or did somebody
               else just walk in here?!  I never
               abandoned a source!

                         WIGAND
               I don't think you really understand --

                         LOWELL
                   (running over)
               No, don't evade a choice you gotta make
               be questioning my reputation or "60
               Minutes'" with this cheap skepticism!

                         WIGAND
               I have to put my family's welfare on the
               line here, my friend!  And what are you
               puttin' up?  You're puttin' up words!

                         LOWELL
               Words!  While you've been dickin' around
               at fucking company golf tournaments, I
               been out in the world, giving my word and
               backing it up with action.

     Lowell is getting very close, in spite of the value of
     Wigand, to telling Jeff to take his story and stick it up his
     ass.

                         LOWELL (cont'd)
               Now, are you going to go do this
               thing, or not?

     Wigand abruptly rises...

                         WIGAND
                   (surprisingly mild)
               I said I'd call the kids before they went
               to bed.  Onisa...

     And turning, he crosses the restaurant.  And that's where it
     hangs.

     INT. A CBS EDITING SUITE, NEW YORK - DAY

     And we see we're watching footage in an on-line editing bay
     from what we will learn is Lowell's "N.O.P.D. Blue" on police
     corruption in New Orleans.

     Lowell, TONY BALDO (his editor), Debbie and an intense YOUNG
     MAN wearing glasses, an Intern, looking at the cut.  All the
     police are on horseback, lots of cops on horses.
     Lowell is waiting for a call to go through...

                         LOWELL
               The stringer was supposed to be shooting
               B-roll on street cops in New Orleans.
               What's with all the horses?

                         TONY BALDO
               Camera guy's got a thing about mounted
               police.

                         LOWELL
                   (re:  horses)
               Don't any of these guys ride in cars or
               walk?

                         TONY BALDO
               How long did he stay on this?

                         LOWELL
               What was he seeing?

                         DEBBIE DELUCA
                   (into phone)
               Yes, hello...  I'm trying to reach Mr.
               Richard Scruggs...

     INT. A LEAR JET - DAY

     And we see the PILOT, a fit-looking, unassuming man, wearing
     aviator glasses, in his late forties.  A heavyset Man in his
     forties, riding up in the co-pilot's seat we'll come to know
     as RON MOTLEY.  The Pilot's on a headset...  He has a
     distinctive Southern accent...

                         THE PILOT
               This is Richard Scruggs...

                         DEBBIE DELUCA
               Could you hold on one second, please?
                   (to Lowell)
               Lowell, I got him on the phone.

                         LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER)
               Hello, I'm Lowell Bergman.

                         RICHARD SCRUGGS
               Hold on...  Mobile approach...this is
               Lear November 643.  Over.

                         CONTROL OPERATOR'S VOICE (OVER)
               Go ahead 643.

                         RICHARD SCRUGGS
                   (after a beat)
               Request a flight level 220, on a heading
               of 284 degrees.  Over.
                   (after a beat)
               Mr. Bergman?

                         LOWELL
               Yes, I'm right here.  Could you call me
               back on a hard line?