Rush Hour

OPERATIVE'S VOICE (V.O.)

(on recorder)

... Missile heading to L.A. has a Kipchak Warhead! Repeat: missile is Kipchak equipped!

The Teenager rolls to a computer running CompuServe. He clicks the CHAT icon, types: "Anyone up on their spy terminology?"

INT. BACHELOR APARTMENT – LOS ANGELES – DAY

With the gardeners gone, and their sound sensors disabled, Mrs. Han, Joy and Sam are SHOUTING for help.

They listen for a response; it is completely quiet.

EXT. K-EYE STUDIOS – LANDING PAD – LOS ANGELES – DAY

Just as the government helicopter lands, Bobbi's news copter lands right next to it.

Bobbi intercepts Carson, Sabatini, Miranda and Colonel Lee on the pad. Her Cameraman follows, ENG camera on his shoulder, videotaping everything.

CARSON

Oh, great, the media...

(realizing)

It's the goddamn traffic girl!
 

MIRANDA

Traffic person.

BOBBI

Where are you going?

CARSON

We can't get into that right now...

BOBBI

Hey, you expect to use my station's facilities and not even tell us –

Carson grabs the ENG camera, pops the videotape out of it and crushes the tape.

MIRANDA

(to Bobbi)

Sorry...

BOBBI

(looks Miranda over)

What the fuck are you, the Barbie Corporate Ass-Lick model?

Miranda is utterly aghast. She reaches under Carson's jacket and takes the handcuffs off his shoulder rig. She grabs Bobbi by the arm and gets her in a half-Nelson.

MIRANDA

Guess what, Sister... you're about to spend the next five years in a penitentiary for interfering with a federal investigation.

The STATION MANAGER comes running out of the building.

STATION MANAGER

Bobbi! I promised we'd respect their news blackout!

BOBBI

(to herself)

Figures... you dickless wonder.

Bobbi wriggles out of Miranda's grasp. Carson looks at his wife, who's still fuming, and smiles to himself.

The Station Manager hands Carson the keys to his Lexus.

STATION MANAGER

I get an exclusive later, right?

CARSON

This works out, I'll play the fuckin' banjo for you.

EXT. SKY OVER PACIFIC OCEAN – DAY

The cruise missile makes a slight course adjustment.

EXT. STREETS OF LOS ANGELES – VARIOUS ANGLES – DAY

People begin to arrive at the events. BOOSTERS pass out food, wine and beer... and crank up the Beach Boys TUNES.

Meanwhile, law enforcement cars move into the areas with high rises – Century City, Westwood, downtown, etc.

EXT. U.S. AIR BASE – VARIOUS ANGLES – DAY

A sign on the control tower reads: U.S. Air Force, Okinawa.

Flight Crews direct a squadron of planes out onto the flight line: F-16 fighter bombers, along with F-15 fighter escorts.

They begin to TAKE OFF...

EXT. FOUNTAIN AVENUE – DAY

The Lexus is stuck in a dense knot of traffic.

Carson gets out and walks across the hoods of the stopped vehicles around him – to much COMPLAINING by their owners – until he finds the reason for the jam-up:

Along the shoulder of the road, a long line of equipment trailers and motor homes, cables, lights, rent-a-cops and gawkers. A MOVIE SHOOT. Carson groans.

He hurries back to the Lexus. Miranda rolls her window down.

CARSON

We're hoofing it.

Miranda and Colonel Lee immediately get out of the car and run off, leaving Sabatini to contend with it.

SABATINI

(pissed)

'She's got the field experience'... To park the fuckin' car!

EXT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – DAY

A boxy, ten-story complex built in the sixties.

INT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – DAY

Carson, (FBI jacket folded over his arm) Miranda, and Colonel Lee rush into the lobby.

Carson is about to show the CONCIERGE behind the desk his ID, but the Concierge is nervous and sweating. Carson pulls out his Sig 9mm, approaches the door behind the desk, which is ajar... He pushes it open...

And finds himself staring at the muzzles of three M-16 rifles.

Three SWAT TEAM members are standing there in full body armor.

CARSON
(pulls out his ID)

Whoa... FBI...!

They lower their weapons.

CARSON

(continuing)

How the hell you get here so fast?

SWAT TEAM #1

They're shootin' a cop movie down the street. We're workin' as extras.

CARSON

Terrific. Who else is here?

SWAT TEAM #1

Three officers on the roof, next building over, and two in the tenth-floor hallway.

CARSON

Tell 'em to be cool. We're going up.

(to Concierge)

Give me your master key.

EXT. ADJACENT APARTMENTS – DAY

The SWAT team SHARPSHOOTERS crouch on the roof.

SWAT TEAM #1
(thru radio)

Feds going up – Anglo male and female; Asian male.

INT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT – DAY

Sabatini drives the Lexus in and parks it in the fire lane.

INT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – HALLWAY – DAY

The fire door opens next to an elevator with the number "10" on it, and Carson, Miranda and Colonel Lee come out.

Carson and Miranda creep quietly along the hallway, toward apartment 1060. Carson listens at the door, hears nothing.

He moves to the next door down, apartment 1058, and quietly unlocks the door.

INT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – #1058 – DAY

The shades are drawn, and the apartment is dark.

As Carson and Miranda cut through the apartment, they realize there's a WOMAN lying in the bed. She's naked, and she's not alone. Someone is under the sheets. ANOTHER WOMAN.

The first Woman opens her eyes, sees the intruders, and grabs for a Colt Gold Cup .45 auto in the dresser drawer.

WOMAN

What the fuck...!

Her friend sits up. Miranda holds her finger to her lips and shows them her FBI shield.

MIRANDA

Sorry...

Carson cranks open their window and steps out onto the foot-wide, ornamental balcony.

CARSON

(to Miranda)

Wait here.

She begins to protest. He shoots her a look that silences her.

EXT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – DAY

The SWAT sharpshooters watch from the next building over as Carson, ten floors up, peers through the slit in between the curtains into the window of Javal's apartment.

He swings his legs over onto Javal's ornamental balcony... the bolts holding the rail onto the wall are loose and rusty... the balcony SLIPS a little...

He leans on the crank-operated window until it SNAPS open.

INT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – JAVAL'S APARTMENT – DAY

Carson steps inside. He looks around the bedroom – it's empty. No furnishings, the closet shelves are bare, even the pictures on the walls are gone, leaving only their outline.

Carson cautiously goes into the living room –
 

It's also empty. All that remains are a few cardboard boxes, and three flower pots in macramé ceiling hangers by the living room window. Some dead leaves lie on the floor beneath them.

CARSON

(into radio)

I'm in. It's empty, but sit tight while I look around.

Carson cautiously approaches the cardboard boxes.

INT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – #1058 – DAY

The clock on the bedstand reads 4:25. Miranda smiles uncomfortably at the two naked women together in bed.

MIRANDA

I like what you've done with the place...

INT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – HALLWAY – DAY

The elevator DINGS. Sabatini comes out, H&K MP-5 in hand.

SWAT Team #2, standing on the far side of the hallway with Colonel Lee, sees her machine pistol and takes aim.

COLONEL LEE

Wait!

Colonel Lee walks over to Sabatini.

SABATINI

Where's Carson?

COLONEL LEE

Inside.

Sabatini starts down the hall. Colonel Lee stays where he is.

INT. MIMOSA APARTMENTS – JAVAL'S APARTMENT – DAY

Carson cautiously peers in the moving boxes. They're empty.

He crosses to the front door, looks it over, unlocks the deadbolt. He turns the knob, the button POPS open...

He stops, noticing a HAIRLINE SEAM in the doorjamb where a piece was cut, then neatly replaced.

Then, he's startled as he hears a strange, mechanical whining NOISE coming from the kitchen.

He goes to investigate – it's an almost-dead, avocado-green refrigerator straining to start its compressor. He looks for booby-traps, opens it, and looks inside. Empty.