Network

INT. UBS BUILDING – FOURTH FLOOR

– as the elevator load of audience is led out of the elevator and down the long, carpeted corridors, past the large wall photographs of TV stars, glass-enclosed control rooms, and other showpieces of the network's electronic glory. OVER THIS, the VOICES CONTINUE:

HACKETT'S VOICE

There must be a formula for the computation of the purchase price.

AMUNDSEN'S VOICE

Offhand, I think it was based on a multiple of 1975 earnings with the base period in 1I think it was fifty percent of salary plus twenty-five percent of the first year's profits –

INT. HACKETT'S OFFICE

The meeting is still going on –
 

AMUNDSEN

(continuing above speech)

– multiplied by the unexpired portion of the contract. I don't think the show has any substantial syndication value, would you say, Diana?

DIANA

Syndication profits are minimal.

INT. THE BEALE SHOW STUDIO AND AUDIENCE AREA

The new load of audience finds seats in the rapidly-filling auditorium. On the floor of the studio, the CREW is setting the cameras, checking the booms. The stage curtain is down. OVER THIS, the VOICES of the meeting CONTINUE:

CHANEY'S VOICE

We're talking about a capital crime here, so the network can't be implicated.

AMUNDSEN'S VOICE

(chuckling)

I hope you don't have any hidden tape machines in this office, Frank –

INT. THE BEALE SHOW STUDIO – SHOWTIME

The warm-up is over; the stage footlights are on; the audience sits expectantly. The big wall CLOCK shows: 6:29, clicks to 6:On the studio stage, the ANNOUNCER strides out from the wings, bellows happily at the audience

ANNOUNCER

Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it – how do you feel?

REVERSE SHOT of the audience. Suddenly SPOT the Great Ahmed Khan and some of his FOLLOWERS, right in the middle, happily joining all the others in their communal response:

AUDIENCE AND THE KHAN

We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take this any more!

ANNOUNCER

Ladies and gentlemen! The Network News Hour! With Sybil the Soothsayer, Jim Webbing and his It's-the-Emmes-Truth Department, Miss Mata Hari, tonight another segment of Vox Populi, and starring –

MUSIC: A FLOURISH OF DRUMS

ANNOUNCER

– the mad prophet of the airways, Howard Beale!

MUSIC: A FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SOARS INTO AN IMPERIAL CRESCENDO –

– as the HOUSE LIGHTS go to BLACK. The curtain slowly rises. The bare stage, the stained glass window, the celestial SHAFT of light. Howard Beale, in his black suit and tie, strides on from the wings, stands basking in the SPOTLIGHT. APPLAUSE UP.

INT. HACKETT'S OFFICE

The meeting is still going on.

HACKETT

Well, the issue is: shall we kill Howard Beale or not. I'd like to hear some more opinions on that –

DIANA

I don't see we have any option, Frank. Let's kill the son of a bitch.

INT. THE BEALE STUDIO

The APPLAUSE for Howard Beale has died. HUSH – suddenly, the HUSH is shattered by a HORRENDOUS ENFILADE of GUNFIRE. An embroidery of red bullet holes perforate Howard'S shirt and jacket, and we might even see the impact of a head wound as he pitches backwards dead.

A BANK OF FOUR COLOR TELEVISION MONITORS

It is 7:14 P.M., Wednesday, July 9, 1975, and we are watching the network news programs on CBS, NBC, ABC and UBS-TV. The AUDIO is ON: head shots of Walter Cronkite, John Chancellor, Howard K. Smith, Harry Reasoner, and Jack Snowden, substituting for Howard Beale, interspersed with tapes of the horrible happening at UBS the day before, flit and flicker across the four television screens. Television continues relentlessly on.

NARRATOR (OVER)

This was the story of Howard Beale who was the network news anchorman on UBS-TV, the first known instance of a man being killed because he had lousy ratings.

FADE OUT

THE END