WRITTEN BYAndrew Haigh
SCREENPLAY PROFILE
This page presents the All of Us Strangers (2023) screenplay, written by Andrew Haigh, as 100 navigable scenes across 91 pages. Search the text, isolate a character’s dialogue, or link directly to any scene.
A view of London stretches south past half-built tower blocks rising above the Victorian housing stock.
This is the view from inside an apartment, twenty-seven floors up. As twilight comes, our focus shifts to Adam [45] gazing out the window.
Something on the horizon catches his attention. It looks like the glint from a shard of glass or the light from a distant star: a guide, maybe a warning.
Adam wakes on the sofa, woozy from a dream. It is silent in the room; the sound of the city blocked by the triple- glazed glass.
His flat is comfortable and well-looked after. Furniture is all carefully selected and the shelves are lined with books, DVDs and records.
Adam lies still for a while, more than a while, watching light fade from the room. He sits up, switches on a lamp. His stomach grumbles.
He looks down at his hands resting on his belly and rubs his thumb gently against his finger. The room is quiet enough to hear the sound of skin stroking skin, such a strange, sensual sound.
Adam opens the fridge door, the “buzz” of the appliance loud in the silence. There’s nothing to tempt him, just leftovers and soggy salad in bags.
He takes out his phone and orders from his ‘favourites’. Suddenly, the building’s fire alarm comes on, a howl in the silence. Adam contemplates whether to ignore it.
The alarm is louder now. Adam walks the long corridor to the elevator knocking gently on each door that he passes. He doesn’t pause for an answer. He knows no-one is in.
The alarm continues as Adam descends to the ground floor, his reflection thrown into infinity by the mirrors lining the walls.
The lift doors open. Adam passes rarely-used sofas, the rolling news playing on a large TV. There’s no security guard at the desk.
Blue lights from a police car travel across the wall and onto Adam. He turns to look for the car through the large glass windows but it has already passed.
Adam heads through the doors into the landscaped gardens secured by a metal perimeter -- the meeting point in case of a fire. He’s the only one to have left the building.
There are signs of construction everywhere, new towers going up, but the cranes are still. Hoardings on his own block promise community through mocked-up photos of friends gathering in apartments and drinking on a roof terrace.
Adam cranes his neck to look up at his building. There are few signs of life but Adam spots a faint glow on the sixth floor, the flickering light of a television. In that glow he sees the shape of a man. Watching him.
The alarm suddenly stops. Calm is restored. Adam’s phone pings. He checks the app: food is getting close. When he looks back at the window, the man is gone.
Sweet & sour pork balls lie half-eaten on the counter as Adam watches HELLRAISER by Clive Barker (1987), a classic (queer) horror with a soaring score.
He is loading his vape with weed when the doorbell rings; an ugly, glitchy sound as if rarely used. He pauses the DVD. Adam is not expecting anyone.
Adam opens the door to find a man in his twenties holding a half-empty bottle of whisky, shit-faced drunk, his eyes tired and heavy. This is HARRY (28).
He wears a green sweatshirt with stains on the front. The corridor is quiet but for an extractor fan somewhere in the building, humming, groaning.
Harry looks down the corridor towards the elevator. They can hear it open and close but no-one get outs.
He turns back towards Adam, anxious in Harry’s presence, not wanting to engage.
(CONTINUED)
99 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 99
He smiles, offers up his hand. Adam has no option but to shake it.
The extractor fan stops. Harry searches for the source of the missing sound.
They both listen. Silence.
Harry edges closer, almost conspiratorially. Adam backs away.
Harry lifts up the bottle. He really does seem fucked. Adam wants him gone.
(CONTINUED)
99 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 99
Harry looks at him for longer than is comfortable.
There is a desperation to Harry’s tone that is unnerving, his sexual intention clear.
What a strange thing to say.
Adam closes the door in his face. Adam waits, uneasy. He puts his ear to the door. Harry’s still there.
Adam feels a stab of guilt, Harry’s as alone as him, but he waits and waits until he is sure Harry is gone. When he finally opens the door, the corridor is empty. Adam closes and double locks the door.
From the vantage point of a half-built tower, we zoom out as Adam walks to the window, taking a long drag on his vaporizer.
(CONTINUED)
1010 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 1010
Pulling out further, we reveal Harry’s apartment on the sixth floor, the television still on. Harry is by the window finishing off his whisky.
He starts to scream at the top of his lungs. Only no one can hear him through the triple-glazed windows. Not Adam. Not even us.
Harsh cut to a new day, the sun watery, a warm summer morning.
Adam flicks through his eclectic LP collection ordered by the year of release. The sleeves become more battered and torn as he goes back through time.
He picks THE CIRCUS by ERASURE (1987). On the inside of the album sleeve is some handwriting, a little childish. It says ‘Dec 1987’.
The title track plays as Adam sits at his desk trying to write a script. His fingers rest on the keys but nothing comes. The flash of the cursor taunts him, hovering like a heartbeat over the start of a scene.
Adam opens the top cupboard -- a place for comfort food. Devonshire Custard. Rice Pudding. He takes out a pack of Ginger Nuts and opens them.
He eats two in quick succession, wiping the crumbs from his sweatshirt which fall to the floor with a sprinkle.
As the sun sets, Adam stands by the window. He sees Harry sitting in the garden below. He looks forlorn, all alone down there.
A white noise machine plays the sound of the wind. Adam lies in bed, half-awake, half-asleep; that time of night when nothing feels entirely real.
With a remote control, he raises the blinds just enough to see the horizon of the city. There is that glint, that shard of light beckoning him.
Adam takes a piss, a shower. He makes coffee. At his desk near the window he types on his laptop, looser and more curious. EXT. SUBURBAN HOUSE. 1987.
He sits back, looks at the words, his cursor spiralling around the screen. He doesn’t know what to write next.
Adam pulls out a plastic storage box from under his bed, the lid covered with a layer of dust. Inside are hundreds of old photos, random snapshots of a life.
Adam flicks back through time as he did with the record sleeves; back through drunken moments in the noughties, university in the nineties, school in the eighties, long- vanished enemies and friends.
There are other things in the box too: a few old birthday cards. Aged 10. Aged 11. Adam opens one, it says simply ‘Love from Mum and Dad’.
Some diaries, school exercise books, some of them backed with old wallpaper to stop them falling apart. Some sugar packets from an American themed Restaurant. And a chrome RONSON VARAFLAME lighter. Adam tries it. It doesn’t work.
Then he finds what he’s looking for: a photo of himself aged about two sitting in a red pedal car in the front garden of a semi-detached suburban house, his mother by his side. It looks like the late seventies.
Adam smiles softly but not sadly.
Adam stands at the window in his bedroom. There is no sign of Harry this time but his attention drifts to a train heading away from the half-built tower blocks. He can almost hear the soothing rhythm of the carriage on the tracks.
Adam is on the train. The carriage is quiet. The sunlight flashes through the window. He closes his eyes and feels the warmth on his face.
Sanderstead is a suburb thirty minutes from London just south of Croydon. It is small and conservative but not particularly wealthy.
Adam stands on the platform as the train pulls away. The station is quiet, only a few people around. It all seems familiar to Adam yet only half-remembered.
Adam walks down a long ginnel flanked by wooden fences, taller than he remembered. There is a sweet melancholy that comes from being back. He hears voices behind him, some kids, but when he turns around, no one is there.
Adam stands outside a small semi-detached house with a garage and a low-hedged front garden. He takes a photo from his pocket, the one with his mother and the little red car.
Is this even the same house? There is now white render on the brick walls, and the window frames, once green, are black. There is even a new tree reaching as high as the roof.
(CONTINUED)
2121 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 2121
Adam notices a YOUNG BOY watching from a bedroom window. It is hard to see him clearly. A WOMAN appears behind the boy, raises her middle finger and shoos Adam away.
Adam walks along the high street: 1950’s architecture, mock-Tudor, mediocre shops on the street level. Adam is caught by a scent sparking a memory.
Adam eats his chips at a picnic table near a playground. He flicks through a handful of photos brought with him, mainly of him and his Mum.
In one photograph, Adam finds his 7-YEAR-OLD-SELF on a swing in the same playground where he sits now. Eating the same soggy chips.
Adam walks through the park as the sun falls. TEENAGERS sit on rugs drinking beer. Some LADS kick a ball around. Somewhere is a game of cricket.
He reaches a line of swaying trees, the wind picking up. Adam walks through the tree-line to find the landscape drop away with a distant view to London. Adam has no memory of this place.
He sits on the ground as the sun sets. He watches the grass blow in the breeze. Suddenly the wind stops. A stillness falls. Adam turns around, sensing he’s being watched.
At the tree-line, he finds a MAN, younger than Adam, watching him. It is hard for him to see his face, the light obscure, but Adam feels a rush of adrenaline, a tingle of fear.
With a subtle gesture, the man beckons Adam to follow as he walks back through the trees, the wind returning. Adam hesitates, then gets up.
As Adam follows him from a distance, the light continues to fade, turning bluer and darker. Adam can’t get a good look of his face. Before too long, the man arrives at the park gates.
(CONTINUED)
2323 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 2323
He stops. Turns back to Adam. Their eyes lock. The blood drains from Adam’s face. Surely it can’t be him? The man smiles, then crosses the road.
Close to darkness now. The street-lights come on. Adam crosses the road as the man heads into an off-license.
Adam approaches and cautiously peeks through the window, the dirty glass distorting the man’s face. A car alarm goes off and Adam turns to find the source.
When he looks back to the shop, the man is standing in front of him. He has a bottle of whisky (Bells, 1980’s label) and a packet of fags (purple Silk Cut, 1980’s label).
The man offers Adam a cigarette. Adam shakes his head as if in a dream. The man lifts up the bottle.
Adam tries to speak but no words come. The man smiles and lights a cigarette (with the lighter from Adam’s box under the bed). He exhales a smoke ring into the air. Adam follows it skyward.
The man flicks the butt of his fag onto the ground. He stamps on it with his trainers, eighties in style.
(CONTINUED)
They have arrived back at the house from the photograph, but the red pedal car from his childhood is now there. A wooziness builds.
The man knocks on the door. A car passes, an old Granada looking like new. The front door opens but from where Adam stands he can’t see who it is.
Adam recognizes the voice instantly. His eyes fill with tears. As the woman pops her head around the corner, we recognize her too.
She is the woman from the photo. His mother. Only younger than Adam. And if this is his mother, then this man must be his Dad. She looks at Adam, unsure it’s really him.
Then suddenly, she sees.
Adam doesn’t even hesitate. He steps inside as if in a trance. His ‘mother’ shuts the door behind him as we pull out wide to reveal the house.
It looks different now (just for now), the white render gone, the window frames now green, and an orange Cortina parked in the drive.
The room feels like it belongs in the mid-eighties. Adam sits at the kitchen table as his Mum gets a packet of KP dry roasted peanuts from the cupboard and puts them in a bowl. His Dad gets some glasses and opens the whisky. He pours the largest for Adam.
Adam downs his whisky in one. His Dad pours him another. His mother joins them at the table with the peanuts but no-one touches them.
2626 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 2626
His mother cannot control her excitement. She jumps up and kisses Adam over and over again on the top of his head like he was a child, her child. He can’t help but laugh, finally relaxing a little.
She sits back down.
He winks at his son to let him know he not serious; it’s to wind up his wife. She bashes her husband on the arm.
(CONTINUED)
2626 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 2626
Adam smiles at this gentle mocking. It brings him back. His mum takes a cigarette and lights it, inhaling deeply.
That hits Adam squarely between the eyes. His Dad reaches over and places his hand on his.
Adam looks down at his hand. It stays there long enough for Adam to experience his touch, his Dad’s thumb gently stroking his skin. Then he reaches for the whisky.
The ‘poofy’ remark lands on Adam but he ignores it. He swigs down his whisky and hands the glass back for more.
Adam lets the night wash over him. They are all drinking more and more. Still no-one eats the peanuts. Adam stays quiet, enjoying their stories of him as a little boy.
We hear snippets. Like overlapping dreams. What about the time he wiped his poo on the anaglypta walls. Or that day he got hit by a Ford Granada when he tried to pedal his red car onto the main road.
It is a little cold outside, a chill blown in. Adam’s mother hugs him tightly, kisses him on the lips. His father does the same thing, a kiss full on the lips.
(CONTINUED)
2828 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 2828
But there is a sense from Adam that this can’t possibly be real, that it can’t happen again.
There is an insistence in her tone as if she needs this as much as him.
Adam sits in the rear, his eyes heavy. A ‘traffic light’ air-freshener hangs from the rear view mirror. It rocks back and forth.
Taxi drivers always assume you have a wife. Adam says nothing. He smells his sweatshirt for signs of the night: smoke, booze.
Adam tries to wrestle with the ramifications of tonight.
Adam’s eyes start to close as he watches the approaching city sparkle through the window. New buildings going up but the streets are quiet. A smile, almost euphoric, comes over his face.
Adam, still a little drunk, heads through the lobby to the elevators. Harry is waiting at the lift with his back towards him. Adam considers and then decides to join him.
Harry looks burnt-out, exhausted. He avoids eye contact. But the lift opens and they both get inside. The mirrored walls mean they can’t ignore each other for long.
But Harry seems deeply ashamed, with a vulnerability now that Adam finds attractive. The lift arrives on the sixth floor and Harry gets out. Adam feels emboldened.
Harry turns back to Adam but the doors shut between them before anything else is said and Adam is left staring at his reflection in the textured steel doors. What a strange fucking night.
Adam looks at the photos again. He finds himself aged 11, a melancholy kid. He stands beside his parents who look exactly as they did tonight, right down to the clothes.
(CONTINUED)
3232 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 3232
He lies back on top of the bed clothes. He holds the photo to his chest, a look of blissed-out exhaustion on his face.
Delicate beads of sweat start to appear on his forehead but he doesn’t seem to notice. He coughs, once, the photo jumps in his hand. He coughs again...
The blinds are open, sunlight weak through the windows. Adam wakes slowly, hungover, undressed now. He sits up as if trying to remember a fading dream.
Adam puts on a record: 1987’s NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC 10. He chooses the track BUILD by THE HOUSEMARTINS.
He lays some photos over the kitchen counter including one of his YOUNGER SELF AGED 9 stirring flapjack mixture with his Mum in the same kitchen as last night.
Adam sits at this laptop, the music continuing. Writer’s block seems to have gone. His mind is alive. As he types, his eyes redden with tears, not with sadness but rather something sweeter.
Music is gone. It is quiet now. Adam stands by the window as the sun drops behind a cloudy sky, lights coming on in distant towers. He sees Harry again sitting down below.
This time Adam uses a pair of binoculars to get a closer look. Sensing he’s being watched, Harry turns to look up. Adam is embarrassed but waves softly anyway. After a few tentative beats, Harry waves back.
There is a knock at the door. No doorbell this time. Adam opens up to find Harry standing there.
(CONTINUED)
3636 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 3636
A beat of doubt as Harry looks down the corridor and then back to Adam. He smiles, tentatively.
Harry takes in the apartment: the records, the books on the shelving unit. Adam hovers behind.
He turns around to face Adam.
(CONTINUED)
3737 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 3737
Harry’s got a nice smile, kind about the eyes. He walks to the window to look at the view. Adam sits on the sofa and loads up his vaporizer. They are silent for a few moments, both a little awkward.
(CONTINUED)
3737 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 3737
Adam inhales on the vape. Harry finally sits beside him. Looks at him.
Adam exhales slowly with a smile. The room is so silent. We can hear every breath.
Adam smiles. He takes another hit.
Adam laughs. Harry is happy he’s made Adam laugh. It relaxes him. Adam hands the vape to him. There is a silence again.
(CONTINUED)
3737 CONTINUED: (3)CONTINUED: (3) 3737
In the silence that follows, Harry inhales on the vape. Adam watches him. The action feels incredibly sensual, bringing an erotic charge. After he’s exhaled, he puts the vape down and looks at Adam.
Harry leans close enough to Adam to kiss him but not yet. They look at each other, both getting hard. Harry smiles.
Finally, Harry leans in. It is slow at first, then more passionate. They kiss for a while until Adam pulls away, breathless.
It is Adam who leans in this time. They kiss some more. Harry tugs off Adam’s top. He’s a little self-conscious.
(CONTINUED)
3737 CONTINUED: (4)CONTINUED: (4) 3737
Harry takes off his own top, more confident. He undoes his belt, unbuttons his flies. Adam reaches out to touch him.
Harry unbuttons Adam’s jeans and rubs Adam’s cock over his underwear. Adam tries to sit up, to feel Harry, but he pushes him back onto the sofa.
Harry pulls down Adam’s underwear and goes down on him. Adam closes his eyes, his lips falling apart.
There is barely any light left. Adam and Harry sit still on the sofa, breathing deeply. Adam has cum on his belly and his chest.
Harry leans over as if to kiss Adam but instead ducks to lick the cum off Adam’s chest. As he comes up, Harry grins before kissing him. Adam pulls back at first, but then let’s him.
Harry wanders around the apartment only half-dressed as Adam puts his clothes back on. Harry finds the photos on the kitchen counter.
He looks at the photo again and smiles.
(CONTINUED)
3939 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 3939
Adam likes the sound of that. Harry picks up a photo of his Dad smiling for the camera.
Adam looks at the photos.
Harry smiles, then looks back at the photo of Adam’s dad.
(CONTINUED)
3939 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 3939
Harry looks back at one of the photos. Adam is touched by the emotion on Harry’s face.
Harry really wants this but Adam’s reticence is clear. He smiles.
(CONTINUED)
3939 CONTINUED: (3)CONTINUED: (3) 3939
Harry can wait. He puts the photo back on the kitchen counter. It is of Adam in his dressing gown sitting with his mum on the stairs, red tinsel around the bannister, the age he was when they died.
A rumbling train ploughs through a dark tunnel and out into a blustery day. The trees billow as storm clouds build in the sky.
The clouds break. Heavy rain soaks Adam as he runs down the alleyway. Without an umbrella, he’s soon drenched to the bone.
It’s still raining when Adam arrives. He hesitates before he knocks but his excitement at being back is clear. It’s not long before she answers.
Mum shuts the door. They stand in the hallway. The rain slows outside.
(CONTINUED)
4343 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 4343
Some of those photos from the box under Adam’s bed are now framed on the walls. He knows it makes no sense but he doesn’t care. He is just glad to be back.
She comes over to him, fussing like a mother would to a young child.
Adam takes off his jacket but he’s soaked through. She starts pulling at his sweatshirt.
Unable to resist, or not wanting to resist, Adam lets her help him take off his sweatshirt.
She seems insecure all of a sudden. Worried she won’t be enough.
4343 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 4343
Adam takes off his jeans. He stands there in his under- pants and t-shirt, still damp from the rain.
She makes a face as if he’s being crazy and she heads off to the utility room. Adam rubs dust from one of the photos. We’ve seen it before, him stuffing his face with chips.
Walking upstairs, Adam feels the bannister with his hand, looks up at the sky through the window, down at his feet on the thick carpet. Memories trickling back.
His bedroom is the first room at the top of the stairs but he pauses before opening the door. A little afraid somehow.
The past hits him hard. There is his old single bed. The walls plastered with posters from Smash Hits and Look-In. Toys in a box in the corner.
His school books lie in a neat pile on his little desk. Adam opens the drawers to see pens and pencils, a half- eaten pack of ginger nuts.
Some of the LP’s from his apartment are here too. Adam picks up FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD’S ‘WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME’.
He opens the wardrobe to find his old clothes. His school uniform. He takes out the jacket and holds it up against himself. It looks tiny.
(CONTINUED)
4444 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 4444
Mum stands in the doorway holding some dry clothes.
She hands them over, feeling Adam’s T-shirt, still damp from the rain.
Adam dithers, then takes it off. She watches him closely.
She reaches out and touches his chest ever-so-gently. She touches him in the same place that Harry licked off the cum.
(CONTINUED)
4444 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 4444
She laughs away a few tears as Adam puts on his Dad’s clothes, ill-fitting but with a smell he remembers.
The oven suddenly pings repetitively downstairs, something ready.
Adam eats a gooey flapjack, more golden syrup than oats, perfectly cooked and fucking delicious. Mum takes two mismatched mugs from a mug tree and brings them to the table where a teapot is waiting. Adam’s mug is from CHESSINGTON ZOO.
Adam smiles, awkwardly.
A long beat as Adam purposely chews on the flapjack, hoping to avoid the question. He hadn’t imagined he’d have to come out today.
(CONTINUED)
She seems disappointed. Adam considers taking another bite of the flapjack but puts it down. He struggles to find the words, amused at his own reticence.
His voice cracks with unexpected nerves. It is clear Adam still needs her validation, or fears her rejection. This is a surprise even to him.
She seems a little irritated by his news. She picks up a flapjack but puts it back down. Adam tries to use humour to diffuse the situation (a defense mechanism every gay person knows only too well).
This makes Adam a touch defensive.
Adam’s amused at the specificity of her fears, fears that somehow feel more about her than about him.
Adam is not sure how to answer that.
The very idea seems alien to her.
There is a long beat. The sun goes behind a cloud, the room darkens. Neither were expecting this conversation today.
Mum gets up and walks to the sink. She pours away her tea and looks out towards the garden, clearly a little upset.
She comes back over and gently takes his left hand. She finds the scar, just the palest of lines on his thumb.
She sits down with a heavy sigh, remembering perhaps the sadness of her little boy. Adam rubs the scar with his forefinger (we’ve seen this gesture before).
4545 CONTINUED: (6)CONTINUED: (6) 4545
The strange reality of their situation fills the silence that follows. A mother, younger than her son, living in the present but from a time in Adam’s past.
She finally picks up a flapjack and takes a bite. It is burnt. They all are now.
A strained silence follows. She’s not angry with her son. Not at all. It is clear that she loves him but something hangs in the air that can’t be fixed right away.
Adam stares out of the window at passing graffiti, moving as if animated. He is pretty okay with his sexuality but his mother’s reaction has thrown him off-balance.
A group of teenage boys sit close by. Adam turns to see one of the lads unselfconsciously raising his t-shirt to show the other boys his stomach. He catches Adam staring.
Adam turns away quickly and looks out of the window. He is sure he can see the words poof queer faggot spray- painted onto the brickwork.
It’s there only a second before the train blasts into a tunnel with a violent shift of sound. His image appears in the dark reflection, his face stretched and contorted by the surface of the glass. It seems to express how he feels.
Adam walks back to his apartment, the sun bright and hot in his face. It is making him sweat.
Adam closes the door and slumps slowly to the floor. An anxiety builds, a tension in the back of his throat. A nausea gathering strength.
Adam takes off his top. He’s burning up, like he might puke in the sink. He tries to calm himself with short, shallow breaths.
Looking in the mirror, Adam feel his glands. They seem tender and sore. In the reflection he notices five small lesions appearing on his chest.
But when he looks down they are no longer lesions, just the outline of his mother’s fingertips where she touched him. Adam traces them with his own fingertips when the door bell rings.
Adam, his t-shirt back on, opens the door to find Harry. He can see that something is up with Adam.
Harry goes to feel Adam’s forehead but Adam pulls away; not used to being looked after. Harry smiles, then goes in again with the back of his hand. Both of them enjoy the tenderness of this exchange.
Adam doesn’t answer. Harry looks at him.
Harry pushes past Adam into the apartment and heads to the bathroom.
5050 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 5050
As the bath fills, the mirrors steam. Adam gets undressed still self-conscious getting naked in front of Harry.
Harry comes close.
He pretends to close his eyes then takes a cheeky peak. It makes Adam laugh. He touches Adam’s chest, the same spot his mother did. When Harry’s hand leaves his skin, the red marks from Adam’s mother are gone.
Adam sinks into the bath, the water immediately bringing relief.
(CONTINUED)
Kneeling beside him, Harry puts his hand under the water and strokes his chest.
Harry likes even more that he hasn’t read it yet. Harry’s hand moves a little lower under the water. It’s taking a while for Adam to fully relax.
Harry leaves a pause. His hand goes down to his crotch. Adam tenses at first, smiles, then relaxes.
Harry is wanking Adam off now.
Harry leans in and kisses Adam as water slaps gently on the sides of the bath.
On the bed, they kiss. Harry undresses. Soon they are fucking, facing each other. Slow and soft. We ‘feel’ rather than observe. It is close, intimate. The walls seem to breathe, match their rhythm as they get close to cumming...
Adam lies with Harry. Adam seems a little preoccupied with thoughts. Music plays on a bluetooth speaker. An insomnia playlist.
Adam shifts in the bed, up onto his elbow, inviting Harry to talk.
(CONTINUED)
5454 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 5454
Harry turns over to meet him.
They are silent a while. Adam deep in thought. Thinking about today, of course. His mother. Her reaction. How it made him feel.
(CONTINUED)
5454 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 5454
Harry smiles with understanding. More than sex, it’s a mutual understanding of something shared that brings deepening intimacy. Harry leans in and kisses him. As they break away...
Harry feels his forehead again.
Harry nods. Of course he will. They cuddle up and drift into a deeper silence. But neither fall asleep just yet. Adam’s eyes remain open, far too many thoughts in his head.
A breezy summer day. Fast moving clouds. Adam sits at his desk, writing. It feels a little harder for him to work today. He looks up and out of the window.
Passing clouds create moving shadows on the wall as Adam stares out of the window. In the reflection, a plane cuts a line across his neck.
Adam sits in the opposite direction of travel as if his childhood home is dragging him back. He sees a family at the end of the carriage.
(CONTINUED)
5757 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 5757
A train suddenly passes with a roar. It makes Adam jump and in the reflection of the window, his image flickers in the light, untethered.
Adam heads down the alleyway as the wind picks up. Fallen leaves blow across the ground as if Autumn has come.
Three BOYS, around 13 in age and dressed in 1980’s school uniform, pass in the opposite direction. Adam hears them laugh, whisper names.
He spots an old five-pound note, wedged under the bottom of a fence (from the story of running away). Adam goes to pick it up when...
The lounge has comfy sofas and textured wallpaper. Dad flicks through some LP’s as Adam picks up an ornament on the mantlepiece, a figurine of a woman, a long-forgotten memory.
He puts the needle on the vinyl. It is the same record- player we saw in Adam’s apartment only now it looks new. The song is mournful and melancholy.
(CONTINUED)
5959 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 5959
Adam puts the figurine down but doesn’t sit down yet. The record crackles to life as Adam’s Dad sits on his chair. He lights a fag.
Adam turns around to look at his Dad.
Adam smiles. Waits a beat. Then sits down on the sofa beside his Dad. He might even take a drag of his fag.
Adam laughs.
(CONTINUED)
5959 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 5959
They both laugh again. Softly, and perhaps with a little regret.
Adam pulls at a thread of material from the arm of the sofa. He wraps it around his ring finger. It makes the blood swell in his fingertip.
(CONTINUED)
5959 CONTINUED: (3)CONTINUED: (3) 5959
Adam smiles but it is a painful memory. He’s silent a moment.
That makes his Dad sad, and a little ashamed. He looks over to the record playing...
He stubs out the fag, gets up, and walks towards the record player. Adam snaps the piece of thread from around his finger, the blood coming back.
Dad takes the needle off the record, having enough of the song.
(CONTINUED)
5959 CONTINUED: (4)CONTINUED: (4) 5959
He turns around to face Adam.
Adam’s Dad looks deflated -- the weight of his mistakes weighing heavy. Adam can’t help but want to soften.
His Dad needs to know he did something right. Adam makes a gesture to the corner of the room.
His Dad remembers it well and his eyes bubble with tears. He comes over to his son.
(CONTINUED)
5959 CONTINUED: (5)CONTINUED: (5) 5959
But all of a sudden, Adam feels like he’s back again, a young boy balling his eyes out in his bedroom not sure why everyone thinks he’s a freak.
Dad gets up and Adam follows. He lets his father hold him tight allowing his body to relax, collapse into his arms.
Adam catches sight of the two of them in the mirror above the fireplace. Adam can see himself as an ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD BOY being held by his dad.
As he returns home, Adam feels a lightness of being. He doesn’t notice that some of the passengers are staring at him.
Adam pushes Harry up against the wall and kisses him. It is playful and hot. He pulls off Harry’s top, hungry and passionate, laughing, taking control.
Adam dries himself off after a shower as Harry gets out to join him at the mirror. He looks at Adam’s reflection, pallid in this light.
(CONTINUED)
6262 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 6262
Harry comes up behind him, stroking his shoulder gently, kissing him on the back of the neck.
Harry is still resistant.
Adam and Harry head out for the night, the tube is busy and boisterous. A straight couple that look queer make- out in front of them as if no-one is watching. Adam and Harry’s reflections distort behind them.
‘DUCKIE’ is a famous queer night, an institution, and the queue is surprisingly long. A passing car blasts its horn but it’s hard to tell if its condemnation or celebration.
Inside, it is packed, like a flashback to another time. The club is a converted Victorian pub with black walls and sticky floors.
The music is loud: 80’s new-wave and 90’s indie. ‘I WANT A DOG’ by the PET SHOP BOYS plays as Adam and Harry push through the crowds towards the bar.
Both seem a little nervous but it doesn’t take too long for them to relax. People dancing. Making out. Getting drunk.
The music has changed. GRACE JONES and ‘LA VIE ON ROSE’. A gentle euphoria in the air. We gaze through dancing bodies as Adam and Harry drink fizzy pints of lager at the bar.
Harry has nearly finished his pint already and is keen for another. He seems different in here, like something is being unlocked. Adam cups his hand to Harry’s ear who can’t really hear him.
Harry downs his drink. Adam orders more. Adam talks about the old days, all the old clubs, all the guys he pulled.
They both watch the crowd as the song reaches a glorious mid-climax, hands in the air, people together, very gay.
DEPECHE MODE and ‘SHAKE THE DISEASE’. Adam stands at the bar counter, struggling to get served. Harry is nowhere to be seen.
Adam notices someone staring at him, barely out of his teens but full of swagger and confidence. The YOUNG GUY looks at Adam with something like pity in his eyes.
Feeling a little paranoid, Adam checks his reflection in the mirror above the bar, rearranges his hair, the glass stretching his image. He is relieved to see Harry in that reflection coming back from the loos.
He shows a baggy to Adam.
Adam catches sight of that confident kid again. What’s he staring at? Adam looks back to Harry.
The bass of DEE-LIGHT’S ‘DEEP ENDING’ pulsates through the walls of the cubicle, blasting louder every time someone opens the door to the bathroom.
Two lines of powder are lined up on the cistern. It takes Adam a few goes to snort it and it catches the back of his throat. It’s been a while.
But Harry is clearly a pro. His line goes down with ease. Too much ease. He stands up, sniffs.
(CONTINUED)
6868 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 6868
They make out for a while, messily.
The music is louder now, the dance floor rammed. ‘DEATH OF A PARTY’ by BLUR. A strange choice for a dance floor. A sexual, slow-motion car crash of a song.
Glowing with sweat, Adam and Harry dance with lusty drug- fueled vigour. The young guy from the bar passes him with a few young handsome friends in tow. They all seem to be staring at Adam.
Adam follows them with his gaze as they head to the side of the dance-floor and he catches sight of himself in the mirror over their shoulders. Adam slows down. He stops dancing.
Only his reflection continues to dance, clothes damp with sweat, the mirror, the image, pulsating. Adam watches himself look up at the ceiling, arms aloft, letting go, grinning from ear to ear.
Suddenly we are high above, gazing down on Adam as if we have become his POV of his out-of-body experience. As he reaches for Harry, pulling him close, making out, we crash towards them...
We are back in the flat. The song continues, pulsating heavy over images of time passing, of a relationship building.
They stand naked in front of each other, still sweating, senses alive. We can literally see their hearts pulsating in time with the music.
They sleep entangled, and in the morning, they kiss in the soft light of a new day. They make eggs. They taste good. Time throbs onwards as the sun rises and falls.
Adam works, tired, skin clammy. Typing. Dreaming. They eat take-away on the sofa watching FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD on an old ‘Top of the Pops’. They drink and get stoned and dance around like they’re back in the club.
They watch HELLRAISER curled up in bed on a projector screen. Harry is grossed out, laughing, needing Adam to protect him.
Later, they lie opposite each other, a slight tension or fear as the lights of the club, blue strobes, start to flash through the windows.
Back in Duckie again -- or perhaps some other club night. The music continues, sweat and strobing lights, throwing us in and out of darkness. Harry seems off his head, his eyes rolling back.
Someone offers Adam poppers and he inhales deeply, the screen throbbing as he closes his eyes. When he opens them again, Harry has gone.
He’s somewhere off in the crowd. Adam sees him dancing with other guys. Is he kissing them? Are they kissing him? Does Adam even mind?
He catches his own reflection in the mirror again. A howl of pain flashing in the strobe, an existential howl like the figure in Francis Bacon’s ‘A Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X’.
7171 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 7171
Adam pushes through the crowd, desperate to get a closer look. The strobe starts to flash blue and in one of those blasts of light he sees his mother drinking in one of the reflections. His father too, drunk.
Adam screams for his parents, screams for Harry but he’s vanished. The clubbers around him start to get out of his way, fear and horror on their faces.
Suddenly, Adam wretches into his hands. He stumbles and falls, through bodies and space until he hits the dirty floor...
Adam wakes in darkness trying to work out where he is. He feels the texture of his sheets -- multi-coloured candy stripped winceyette.
He reaches out to touch a patch of woodchip wallpaper on the wall that has been picked off.
Adam opens his door to the landing upstairs. He wears a terry-cloth dressing gown, the carpet thick under bare feet.
He walks down the stairs, he touches the banister again. There is red tinsel wrapped around this time like we have seen from old photos.
Adam can hear music quietly coming from the lounge. He stops at the door. Slowly, turns the door handle.
A fire crackles in the hearth. Mum and Dad unpack baubles that have been in storage. They’ve both had a few drinks. Adam breathes in the scent of the Christmas tree. ‘Top of the Pops’ is on the TV. 1987.
(CONTINUED)
7474 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 7474
She looks at him, concerned.
Adam is pale and clammy, his eyes dark with shadows. His mother comes over and feels his forehead with the back of her hand. Just like Harry did.
She looks back at her husband.
She looks at Adam as if wanting to say something, make an apology, but she can’t find the words. Adam’s Dad steps in. He holds up a brightly coloured bauble with a smile.
Adam likes the idea of that and he goes to decorate the tree. Mum comes to join them as the PET SHOP BOYS hits the 1987 No 1 spot on ‘Top of the Pops’ with “ALWAYS ON MY MIND”.
After a few beats, she sings gently along with the song, almost to herself but loud enough for it feel like the apology she can’t find the words for.
(CONTINUED)
7474 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 7474
Adam appreciates the gesture. She takes a few steps back and looks at the over-decorated tree.
He hands Adam a fairy for the tree with a knowing smile. It’s been a while since Adam’s seen it. He reaches up and puts it on the top.
He has his camera on the side table, set on self-timer. The three of them gather around the tree and the flash goes off. They all smile. The Christmas lights flicker.
Adam is in bed now. His mum gives him two dissolvable painkillers that melt and fizz on his tongue. She looks at him still concerned but wants to reassure.
(CONTINUED)
7575 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 7575
A flicker of fear in Adam’s expression.
She kisses him on the forehead.
She leaves, closing the door. The room is thrown into darkness. Adam turns on to his side and tries to sleep, but he starts to feel sick.
Blue lights seem to flash through the curtains. And then something else: a subdued crying from the corner of the room.
(CONTINUED)
7575 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 7575
Adam peers into the shadows, sure he can see himself AGED 11, crying in the corner. Adam turns on the bedside light but there is no-one there.
Adam comes out onto the landing. He spies a crescent moon through the frosty window.
He taps gently on his parents door.
Adam pushes open the door against the thick carpet.
Adam breathes in the smell of the room, familiar and comforting.
Adam’s Dad grunts and rolls over, leaving a space for Adam in-between.
That makes her smile. As Dad falls back to sleep, Adam and his Mum talk in whispers, almost sensual.
(CONTINUED)
7777 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 7777
Adam smiles. It softens his anxiety. Mum is silent a beat but she has a lot on her mind.
7777 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 7777
She sighs heavy.
(CONTINUED)
7777 CONTINUED: (3)CONTINUED: (3) 7777
His Mum smiles, sadly, the imagined memory feeling almost real. But it isn’t real. A fear creeps into the room. A knowledge that none of this can last.
She looks at Adam with growing concern as sweat appears on his forehead, his anxiety building.
(CONTINUED)
7777 CONTINUED: (4)CONTINUED: (4) 7777
She touches his brow as Dad turns over in the bed, putting his arm around Adam, rubbing his chest. It becomes almost sensual.
Adam turns over to find it is no longer his Dad. It is Harry.
Harry kisses him. Adam resists at first but then softens his gaze, relishing the intimacy, sinking into it. Until he notices blue lights flashing through the window again, brighter this time.
She sounds increasingly panic-stricken. Adam turns over, but she’s gone. And when he turns back to Harry, he’s gone too.
Adam is alone, the blue flashing lights of a police car spiralling across the ceiling. Suddenly, he is an ELEVEN- YEAR-OLD BOY again. He gasps for air.
Adam wakes, exhaling. He is on the train at the station. Everyone is getting off. On the platform, walking away, he is sure he can see Harry.
The station is busy. Adam leaves the platform barrier and weaves through the rush-hour commuters, all ignoring him. He tries to keep his eye on Harry but loses him in the crowd.
(CONTINUED)
7979 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 7979
Adam pivots around to see his Mum in the distance, behind the barriers, urging him back to her. One of her eyes is missing, leaving nothing but a bloody hole.
A tube roars onto the platform. Doors open. Passengers push in and out of the carriage without consideration. Adam gets in and stays standing.
As the train jerks into the tunnel, the lights flicker. Adam thinks he sees Harry in the next carriage down but when the lights come back on he is gone.
Adam is sweating now, unstable on his feet. He coughs, then again, more uncontrollable. People look up as a fear of contagion ripples down the carriage.
The train bursts onto a platform. Adam spies old posters through the windows as the tube slows: Chessington World of Adventures, Drunk Driving, AIDS Awareness. As people get off, Adam goes to sit down.
Hurtling forward through the tunnel now, Adam finds his reflection in the tube windows. He looks distorted, full of pain. It’s as if his reflection is screaming, trapped in a circus mirror or a monstrous kaleidoscope. He tries to get up...
Adam stumbles back to his apartment, trying to avoid his reflection, like a barrage of pain made visible in the windows of passing buses and cars.
Adam staggers into the lift, his reflection bounced into infinity by the mirrored walls. He shuts his eyes and sinks to the floor.
The lift doors open and Adam stumbles to his flat. He calls out for help but no-one comes.
Adam shuts the door and falls to the floor. He tries to control his breathing but he can’t. Someone is knocking at the door, louder and louder, calling his name, we don’t recognize the voice.
Adam ignores it. He staggers to the bedroom, gets himself in bed, curls himself up into a ball as a hand reaches out for him in the darkness...
It is Harry reaching for him. He also seems shaken, as if he hasn’t slept. The dawn rises through the window behind him.
Harry’s eyes redden.
(CONTINUED)
Adam is grateful for the care but is close to breaking. Tears build in his eyes but he tries to keep it in.
Harry leaves a beat then...
The emotion in Adam finally breaks.
Harry pulls him close as Adam’s tears turn into sobs that sound like howls of pain.
The sun drops lower in the sky as we push past half-built towers towards Adam’s apartment. Inside, he drifts in and out of a restless sleep. Even when awake, it feels closer to a dream.
He showers. He brushes his teeth. Studies his face in the mirror. He knows he looks worn out, consumed. He watches Harry try to make scrambled eggs in the kitchen. When he looks back to Adam, he gives him a gentle smile.
8686 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 8686
Adam and Harry, both exhausted and hungover, sit at the kitchen counter with the eggs barely touched by either. Maybe Harry is smoking now.
Adam takes a sip of tea from an old mug. We recognize it from his parents’ house -- the one from CHESSINGTON ZOO. There is a knock on the door, the same knock we heard last night. Adam looks towards it.
Flash to a memory. We open the door, back at the house. The POLICEMAN is there, it is only him we see. He looks like Harry. We stay in this memory only for a moment.
Adam shakes his head with a smile.
Adam takes another sip of tea. What follows is recalled without too much emotion. As if being told about someone else.
(CONTINUED)
8686 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 8686
Adam takes out a chip of porcelain from his mouth. It has snapped off the rim of the mug. He rubs it between thumb and finger.
Harry smiles reassuringly but says nothing.
8686 CONTINUED: (3)CONTINUED: (3) 8686
Adam touches his solar plexus.
Harry seems to understand that feeling only too well.
He reaches out and gently strokes Adam’s arm. Adam lets that hang a moment in the air. It is reassuring for both of them to feel each other’s touch.
Harry can’t help but think Adam is talking about the two of them. And he feels the same way.
But Adam’s expression darkens.
(CONTINUED)
8686 CONTINUED: (4)CONTINUED: (4) 8686
In Adam we see something evolve; a decision to bring Harry further into the story. Harry shivers as if the window is letting in a draught.
Adam doesn’t give an answer. Harry looks down at his forearm as all the hairs slowly rise.
A train heads out of the city back to Sanderstead. We follow it from high above.
Adam is not alone this time. He holds Harry’s hand. The sunlight blasts through the window and it’s making Harry sweat.
The once-decorated Christmas tree has been left in the driveway, brown and threadbare. Adam’s red pedal car is there too, all busted up. The wind rustles the large trees in front of the house.
(CONTINUED)
8989 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 8989
Adam knocks on the front door but there is no answer. He looks through the glass. There are no lights on.
But Harry is afraid. Adam knocks again, louder. The wind picks up; not a harsh winter wind but lighter. Delicate, more wistful. Stranger.
Harry’s voice sounds strained. Adam peers through into the lounge. It is dark. Nothing but shadows. He calls up to the front bedrooms.
Nothing. What if they are gone? Adam passes Harry and moves towards the gate by the garage. Harry can do nothing but follow.
Adam bangs on the textured glass door at the side of the kitchen. No answer. The lights are off. Then again on the french doors at the back of the house. Still nothing.
Adam takes some steps back into the garden for a view of the upstairs windows.
(CONTINUED)
9090 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 9090
No lights on anywhere, the curtains closed. Anxiety builds as the wind picks up. For both of them.
Adam ignores him. He goes to the french doors. Bangs on the window again. Harder this time. Still nothing. Adam looks to Harry as if he holds the key.
Adam cups his hand over his face to look through the glass, more manic now.
Harry is starting to freak out, his chest tight. Scared out of his mind. Terrified that Adam has lost his mind. He tries to be more forceful.
(CONTINUED)
9090 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 9090
Adam desperately rattles the handle. Harry sees a flash of Adam in the reflection as a hysterical NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY tries to be let back in.
Adam can feel his parents slipping away. Harry tries to pull him from the door, but Adam pushes him off, angry, afraid.
It is Harry that spots them first. Then Adam. Standing through the windows, deep in the shadows of the house: Adam’s Mum and Dad. They look, for the first time, like apparitions.
In the reflection of the glass, Adam can see a terrified Harry stepping away from the doors into the darkness of the garden as his mum gets closer towards him.
The pull for his parents, his need to be with them, is too strong. He ignores Harry as he vanishes into the background. Adam bangs his fist on the window one more time.
His fist shatters a pane of glass into thousands of tiny pieces, not like normal glass but like a shattered windscreen of a car.
Adam wakes in his parents bed to find Mum and Dad looking out the window, whispering to each other, the light soft.
(CONTINUED)
9191 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 9191
They seem older, clothes more worn. There is a dust sheet over the dressing table.
Mum seems resistant to something that Dad is saying but Adam can’t hear the words
Mum sits beside him and lifts up his hand. There are no cuts from the broken window, only a raised red scar on his thumb. As she rubs it gently, it fades.
(CONTINUED)
9191 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 9191
Adam lets out a chuckle. As if the idea is preposterous. As if he doesn’t quite believe Harry could be in love with him. Dad comes over and sits on the bed alongside them.
Saying it out-loud has a profound effect on Adam. That makes his parents happy. There is a long beat. Mum and Dad look at each other and smile sadly. They know what has to come next. Adam knows it too. It has drifted into the room like a ghost.
(CONTINUED)
9191 CONTINUED: (3)CONTINUED: (3) 9191
He pulls his parents towards him into the bed.
Dad gently takes control.
(CONTINUED)
9191 CONTINUED: (4)CONTINUED: (4) 9191
Adam laughs gently.
Adam nods. He knows it is the right choice, the only and inevitable choice.
The three of them sit silently in the back of a taxi as they drive towards Croydon.
The family arrive at the WHITGIFT CENTRE, a brutalist concrete shopping centre, faded, falling apart. Inside, it is virtually empty as they take the escalator to the ground floor.
The restaurant is adorned with American flags and cheap paraphernalia. Adam sits opposite his parents, who both try to be light and jovial. There is no-one else there.
The waitress comes over but her eye contact is only with Adam. He tries to summon the same spirit as his parents. To give this ‘last supper’ some joy.
(CONTINUED)
He looks at the menu. His parents too. The waitress is silent. She doesn’t look in their direction.
She smiles and leaves. A long beat.
9494 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 9494
The waitress arrives quicker than expected with the ‘family special’, a large tray of burgers, shakes and fries.
She leaves them staring at the mountain of food.
(CONTINUED)
They start to laugh. It’s contagious, the three of them together. After a while, the laughs fade. Mum and Dad seem tired, eyes watery and distant as if whatever exists inside is fading.
Adam throat tightens. Dad’s voice gets quiet. His eyes cloud over. He seems a little drunk.
9494 CONTINUED: (4)CONTINUED: (4) 9494
Adam’s Mum takes her husband’s hand.
She reaches out and strokes his face, gently. Kisses him. Dad likes that. He looks back at Adam.
That is almost too much for Adam, his eyes filling with tears, his face crumpling. His Dad takes his hand and holds it tight.
Suddenly his Dad exhales heavy and slumps in his chair, life draining from his eyes.
9494 CONTINUED: (5)CONTINUED: (5) 9494
Mum gasps, reaches for her eye, inhaling sharply, her eyes tightly closed, terrified.
Her eyes open wide in a panic.
Adam reaches out and takes the hand that covers her eye. He brings it back to the table.
Adam looks down at her hand now in his own, her skin almost transparent like she is now eighty years old, as if they have had a full life together.
Adam doesn’t answer.
(CONTINUED)
9494 CONTINUED: (6)CONTINUED: (6) 9494
She starts to sway a little as if she is seeing a song in her head, drifting away, but with a slight smile.
And then she is gone. They are both gone. Adam sits alone in the restaurant surrounded by burgers and fries, tears streaming down his face.
Adam returns on a busy train, surrounded by people who know nothing of what he’s been through, laughing, talking, life carrying on.
Adam returns to his block to find the alarm going off, just like on the first night. No-one seems to have left the building.
Adam cranes his neck and looks up at the tower, only a few lights on. He hesitates but decides to enter anyway. He has someone he wants to see.
As Adam heads into the lobby, we stay outside. We look up to catch the flicker of a TV coming from the sixth floor. The alarm suddenly stops.
As the lift rises through the floors, Adam’s reflection seems normal. He looks into that image and gives himself a timid smile.
He takes a photograph from his pocket: the one his Dad took of the three of them around the tree. Only now the photo is old and faded and Adam is eleven-years old.
Adam feels a sense of calm looking at the photo, a sense of something having changed, and rather than put it back in his pocket, he finds a place for it in his wallet.
The lift reaches Adam’s floor. As the door opens, he makes a decision. He presses the button for the sixth floor.
At first as he descends, he smiles. He checks his hair in the many mirrors. But slowly -- the closer he gets to the sixth floor, his mood changes. He can feel something.
A strange reality hits Adam. He has never been to Harry’s apartment. He doesn’t know which flat is his. But he can hear a television playing.
Adam follows the sound down the long corridor, louder and louder until he’s finally outside a door. He knocks -- no answer.
He knocks again. Nothing. Adam can feel in his gut that something is wrong. He tries the handle. It is unlocked and the door opens.
The smell hits Adam first, stale and fetid. Dirty dishes and take-away boxes festering with mould. An old horror film plays on the TV. Adam finds empty baggies on the kitchen counter.
He turns off the TV with the remote control. Silence now. He looks towards the bedroom, door closed. Every muscle stiffens.
(CONTINUED)
9999 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 9999
Adam walks towards the door, fear building with each slow step. His fingers hover over the handle. Sliding the door open, Adam is hit by a sickening stench.
He looks away. His heart racing. Adam tries to catch his breath. Then something dawns on him, a truth perhaps he has always known.
He looks back to find Harry curled up on the bed, turned away, foetal position. He wears the very same clothes he wore on that first night.
And there is the same bottle of Japanese whisky by his side -- empty. It’s clear from the state of his body that he’s been there some time.
Adam edges towards Harry and sits by the side of the bed. By the man he has fallen in love with. He reaches out to touch the body but before he finds contact...
A noise. The front door opening and closing. Adam gets up from the bed and walks out of the bedroom. He finds Harry standing there, wearing the same clothes as the body in the bed and is confused, agitated.
Harry notices the half-empty bottle of whisky now held in his hand as if he had no idea it was there. It sparks some kind of painful memory.
Adam edges closer, keeping Harry from the bedroom door.
(CONTINUED)
9999 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 9999
But Harry isn’t listening. It’s as if Harry is piecing together what happened to him. The truth bubbling up. An agitation grows in him, a quiet terror. He spots the empty baggies on the kitchen counter. He picks one up.
Harry rubs his chest with his fist as if he has a knot of pain stopping him breathe. We have seen Adam do this same action.
Adam comes closer as Harry thumps his chest harder and harder. In the window’s reflection, and only there, Harry sees himself scream. Adam grabs Harry’s fist in his own hand. Holds it tight. Harry’s grip softens.
Harry’s eyes fill with tears, drowsier all of a sudden, drugs and drink through his veins.
But Harry’s focus is now on the bedroom behind. As if he remembers what happened to him, as if somehow he’s always known.
(CONTINUED)
9999 CONTINUED: (3)CONTINUED: (3) 9999
He looks at Adam not in shock, nor anger, but terrible sadness. His face collapses on the brink of tears.
Harry seems so ashamed with himself, disgusted almost -- with the very idea of himself. Adam knows what to say. He has never been so sure of anything.
Adam grabs hold of Harry as he breaks into sobs. Letting out the pain he has stored for so long. Adam knows that all that matters in this moment is that he eases Harry’s pain. That is what love means. We push in close as they kiss through Harry’s tears.
It is dark, floating free from the confines of the tower. We are back in Adam’s bed now. He has let him in. They lie together facing each other at first.
(CONTINUED)
100100 CONTINUED:CONTINUED: 100100
Harry is grateful. They are silent a moment. Harry is getting sleepier and sleepier.
A long beat. Harry looks at Adam, glad he is not alone. Both of them glad to not be alone.
(CONTINUED)
100100 CONTINUED: (2)CONTINUED: (2) 100100
A beat. A memory of something Adam’s Mum said to him.
Harry looks as if he may be about to say something but decides against it. They don’t need to declare their love. Actions are enough.
Harry turns over and lets Adam hold him from behind. The same position Harry was in downstairs. But now he is no longer by himself.
The piano introduction to THE POWER OF LOVE by FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD starts to play. We don’t need to know how. Adam whispers with the opening words.
Harry smiles.
As the song builds, Adam holds Harry tighter, comforted at last, cared for at last, no longer strangers. Harry’s breathing slows.
“Love is the light, scaring darkness away”.
(CONTINUED)
100100 CONTINUED: (3)CONTINUED: (3) 100100
As the music soars, we pull away from them. It seems like they are almost dancing, swaying together, for how long we won’t ever know.
Further and further we come. Out of the room. Spiralling. Into the night. Adam and Harry fall away as we rise into the stars.
Finally, as the music crescendos, Adam and Harry are no more than a glint in the dark sky.
A guide not a warning.
“Make love your goal”.
“THE POWER OF LOVE” CONTINUES AS THE END CREDITS ROLL