"THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY" (2013)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

by

Steve Conrad

3/16/11

"Too much happens... Man performs, engenders so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything."

- William Faulkner

Walter Mitty (30s) sits at his small kitchen table, balancing his check book. We see his last several expense entries:

Mom’s new apt. deposit

eHarmony sign-up

O’s braces (2nd installment)

Piano movers

Piano storage

Piano delivery to Mom’s new apt.

In-piano humidity control system

During the morning rush hour, a crowd of businessmen waits on the corner to cross the street. Walter is among them, dressed in a short-sleeve business shirt and tie and with a briefcase on hand. Nothing happens. Then Walter’s head explodes.

CREDITS BEGIN

Up toward the clouds, propelled skyward, were the contents (ideas and images) of Walter’s head; they’ve begun to float toward the ground.

Some office work is going on. Then past the window (outside) comes floating down, in slow motion, Juan Valdez the Colombian Coffee guy (his donkey’s floating down way in the distance).

This happens outside other high-rise and professional building windows - a floating Bishop Desmond Tutu, the silver Monopoly piece Top Hat, Statler and Waldorf (the two elderly curmudgeons from The Muppet Show) and additional detritus from Walter’s mind such as Manute Bol, The Beastie Boys, etc. CREDITS PLAY.

Walter sits at a Midtown Starbucks. He’s got his laptop out and he’s in the middle of a phone call.

Walter’s looking at his laptop. On screen is the eHarmony dating page for CHERYL M. (34), pretty but she looks like the sort of pretty girl who takes the bus; text beside her photo reads ”Leave a wink for Cheryl M. to indicate your interest...”

Part of the eHarmony client profile has a sectionBeen There, Done That - where people list their accomplishments, travels, etc.

Some awkward moments pass as Walter’s unsure about following through on heavy conversation with a stranger.

They finish their call. Walter looks at the computer picture of Cheryl M., then out the window at actual Cheryl M. (CHERYL MELHOFF, 34) crossing the street just outside the window for the Time-Life building lobby. Then as Walter stands to go, outside the Starbucks window, a grand piano (exploded from Walter’s head) falls from the sky onto the middle of the 53rd street.

Walter’s out on 6th among a crowd waiting for a light to cross. Then a black and white New Orleans Jazz Funeral procession passes in front of him - black and white in the sense everyone in it and all their instruments and lively waving umbrellas are in black and white. Walter and the business people around them are in color. CREDITS END. The title appears: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Walter crosses the expansive lobby and passes a colleague ROY on his way to the building elevators.

Walter wasn’t expecting this; it’s thrown him some.

Walter’s in an elevator with two other guys in suits. He addresses the first one (GARY MANNHEIM)

SECOND MAN IN A SUIT Yeah. That was me. Ted Hendricks. Hey.

This is the second man in a suit (TED HENDRICKS) who’s been with them all the while. They all shake hands.

Further awkward moments pass.

Ted just looks at him for a moment.

Walter listens to the elevator muzak Ted just referred to. It’s like Maneaterin muzak; no one could get into it.

Ted just looks over. The door’s closing.

The doors are almost closed.

The doors close. Ted’s not coming by Gary’s office.

Walter walks up a long hallway toward his department floor; on the walls are hugely blown up Life Magazine photographs. Twelve foot high Muhammad Ali, Morgan Freeman (Oscar pose), Moon Landings. - Walter looks small compared. The last photo he passes is familiar -a black and white of a New Orleans Jazz Funeral.

The division Walter works in has fifty employees seated around an open floor plan - fifty cubicles in view. Walter’s arrived at his to find on his desk a wrapped gift with a note reading:

Heard rumbling’s Life’s over. Wanted to give you something cool if this is the last photo batch. Hope when you open it and look inside you’ll think it’s pretty special.

Walter’s unwrapped the gift.

It’s a leather wallet. Its front is embossed with the inscription from S.O. to Walter Mitty - thanks for the great work.

Walter looks back at the letter; it finishes -by the way, neg 12 is my best ever. Landmark. The Absolute Quintessence of Life. .... the rest of the batch kind of sucks. Sean

Walter has been working through a Life photo order negative box - it’s marked Sean O’Connell. There’s a co-worker (HERNANDO) cleaning up in the distance. Walter has been examining a negative roll with his loupes (magnifiers worn as eye glasses). THEN HE NOTICES SOMETHING THAT STOPS HIM. The negative roll, where the 12th negative should be, has been cut; 12 is missing.

A moment goes by.

The storage room is separated from the greater division floor by a wide glass window wall. At that moment, Walter has noticed new supervisor Ted Hendricks on the other side of the glass. He’s holding a conversation with a LIFE EDITOR there. Walter can hear it (muffled).

Ted starts to walk away.

This has Walter concerned.

The cafeteria is a large white room, with massive black and white Life photographs serving essentially as wallpaper. Particularly, they are images of physical and human immensity (photographs of the summitting of K2 and the beachheads of Normandy) and make the office workers here (Life magazine’s low-level corporate workers among whom Walter is one) seem tiny in terms of their personal accomplishments but also physically. Walter and a co-worker TIM NAUGHTON sit in front of the Massive K2 mountain summit photograph.

Walter gestures to the K2. It’s taken from above a guy who just summitted.

Then new superior Ted Hendricks walks past, accompanied by Life’s EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATORS.

They’ve walked past Walter and out of the cafeteria - but Walter’s heard every word - not promising.

Walter sits at the cement bench on 6th just out front of the Time-Life building. He’s looking at a photograph he’s taken from his briefcase. It’s a bad print - the kind someone takes before their camera’s set - over exposed, out of focus - it’s impossible to discern the subject.

Cheryl Mellhoff sits down beside Walter.

He hands her the foggy print - it’s clear they have an established working friendship.

Walter shows Cheryl an email exchange from Sean O’Connell -

It reads - in need of info for neg 12 of neg roll three, box 2-6.

Sean’s reply - Best picture I’ve taken. The total F’ing Quintessence of Life. I hope you’re as happy with it as I am.

Walter’s reply = Cool, but can’t find it.

Sean’s reply - Out of Office. This is an auto reply. Sean O’Connell will be out of the office through the month of November.

Walter has taken further photographs from his briefcase

Walter starts showing Cheryl the photographs. The first of which is water - just a picture of water, could be an ocean, lake, or pool (puddle).

This is a picture of a thumb.

Walter has taken the gift wallet out -S.O. to Walter Mitty - thanks for the great work.

Cheryl’s laughed.

Walter sits there for awhile. That’s tough news. He’s got a lot on his mind. Then he gets a text: FromOdessa, it reads:

- piano a-holes want 300 more dollars to take the piano back, come down. I have to go. Like right now.

Walter’s running through the huge Time-Life lobby for the 50th St. glass exit doors, but outside the lobby it’s not New York right now. It’s Sana’a, Yemen. And running parallel to Walter, along the window glass wall beside him, is rugged war photographer SEAN O’CONNELL, loaded with camera gear. Walter runs out the building entrance and is now running side by side with Sean in Sana’a, Yemen in the midst of an anti- American rally, making a desperate dash together out of there under a volley of middle-eastern shoes.

Angry Middle-easterners are throwing their shoes at Walter and Sean as they sprint by.

There are in Sana’a, Yemen, but they’re chasing an actual NYC metro south. Walter has finally reached its doors, though he’s continuously struck by shoes.

Walter’s slightly out of breath. He’s caught the bus. It’s just New York again. Walter walks up the crowded bus aisle and finds a seat. Some time passes. Walter looks out the window, his daydream has faded.

A little later, Walter’s got his lap top out, trying to leave a “wink” for Cheryl M. (Cheryl Mellhoff) on eHarmony . It doesn’t work: unable to perform request.Walter looks at it - it’s not the smooth next step he was expecting. He tries again. Same result.

Walter’s in the midst of a phone call.

Further time passes.

A pretty long time passes as Walter wrestles with this consideration.

Walter gets a text from Odessa that saysI’m leaving.

Walter walks up to Battery Park to find (really) a grand piano sitting in the park. He stops and stares at it awhile.

Walter sits at the abandoned piano (in pristine shape). Regular NY foot traffic passes around him. He absentmindedly starts playing the first bars ofCheers. Then he just keeps doing it because he’s thinking of other things.

Then Walter sees Cheryl Mellhoff and her son RICH (9), headed his way from across Bridge Street. They’ve got two skateboards. Walter smiles when he sees them and waves.

Cheryl, Walter and Rich push the grand piano toward quiet Bridge Street. It’s on its wheels and a couple skateboards. It’s rolling down the street pretty well. They’re about to push it out onto the street.

They do. The honking begins right away, but they keep rolling the grand piano down Bridge Street. It looks like it might be fun.

WALTER

It’s pretty late now. Walter has placed a tarp over the piano. They rolled it into a city parking space.

Rich is skateboarding around a little.

Walter’s got the piano all tarped. Cheryl and Rich take off.

Walter hangs out a moment. He’s watching them go. Then he starts walking off with Rich’s skateboard.

Walter’s alone again. He’s back near the park in the city, waiting to cross State. He puts the skateboard down and starts kind of messing around with it a little, moving around on it a little bit. Then he takes off on it pretty well, then he grinds the low garden curb - nicely done.

THIS IS A CLOSE UP OF THE NON-SPECIFIC PHOTOGRAPH OF WATER

Walter’s got the water photo under a light lamp. He’s scrutinizing it, hoping to gain some information.

Then he finds something. There’s been a light leak at the edge of the frame. Here, with the picture blown-up and light poured on, Walter can make out something reflected in the water. It’s the stern of a fishing trawler. Its vessel name and registry number are visible. She’s theErkigsnek SO709. Her port home is almost visible painted beneath, but only the first two letters are legible due to the light leak -Nu.

Walter and his colleague Tim Naughton have met up in their breakroom, having some coffee. *On the wall beyond them is a massive photo of Evel Knievel on fire.

Walter considers that. It connects to nothing for him. He turns to other matters.

Tim considers this.

After a moment, Gary hits the highest singing note ever recorded for a male.

Walter is visible at a table for one. He’s finishing up lunch. He checks his watch. Then he stands to leave to get back to work on time.

Walter’s running to the subway station a half-block ahead. Then he passes a man who’s just standing there silently extending (to Walter) a cup of water. Walter takes it without breaking stride, drinks it and drops the cup on the sidewalk *it was unusual. Then Walter hustles down the subway steps and checks his watch to ensure he’s running on time.

Walter has taken his subway seat. Then a shirtless, beaming Frenchman leans into view (in the seat behind Walter’s) and offers Walter pats (congratulatory) on the back.

Walter’s made it to the corner of 6th and 49th. He looks up ahead at the Time-Life building (his destination). Then he checks his watch and finds he’ll be on time. He’s relieved Then a Frenchman comes up and sprays Walter in the face with Champagne. Then multiple Frenchmen mob Walter, fighting for turns at congratulating him through frantic head rubs.

Walter is carried on the group of Frenchmen’s shoulders as they run him up 6th avenue, chanting.

The French mob jogs through the lobby with Walter atop their shoulders.

Among more serious-looking businessmen and woman, the raucous tour-de-France style congratulations party continues. Walter’s just being mobbed by ecstatic Frenchmen.

No one’s around. We hear the quiet “ding” of the elevator arriving. Then Walter gets out. There are no crowds anywhere - just Walter in his short-sleeve dress shirt, tie and briefcase. He reaches his division floor offices door and enters his pass-key. Then his mom walks up - EDNA MITTY, 76.

As Walter and Edna enter the division floor, colleague Tim Naughton walks past.

They’ve walked out onto the division floor where a group of forty or so employees has been gathered together to allow Ted Hendricks a speech (which he’s forcing a colleague to make). They stand a short distance away, in the middle of letting them know:

The employees have been expecting this. Nonetheless, the news saddens and concerns them.

Tim Naughton, among the gathered (soon to be former) employees, has begun a quiet, high-pitched, weeping. Walter has had to field this news while his mother stands beside him.

At this point, Ted Hendricks nudges the guy to move over so Ted can assume the speaking part for the good news portion.

Ted begins to clap (for some reason). So the gathered employees also begin some watered-down clapping. Walter is among them, standing beside his mom, who is clapping too. Then they all stop the fake good cheer and head back to work.

Later, Walter’s mom is with him in his work area, back in the storage area of practical assets.

Walter takes his mom’s bill. He’s paying it. He seems a little worried about money. Hernando comes back into the area.

It’s bad news. Walter is going to have to tell his superiors the negative is lost.

Walter has approached (reluctantly) Ted Hendrick’s office to confess the negative’s gone. But he finds Ted on the phone and waits politely in the open doorway for Ted to finish the call. (Ted has his back to Walter).

His situation worsened, Walter turns and leaves.

Walter has returned to the storage room. He’s looking at his laptop at a map of Earth. Specifically, at Greenland. Hernando’s working in the distance.

Hernando looks at the map. It is (actually) really not that far from Canada.

Then Walter leaves the room.

Everyone’s at work, in the cubicle spaces. Walter comes walking through the area, with his briefcase, on his way out.

Walter’s out walking among the crowds. But he’s moving with some purpose, somewhere specific. All he’s got is his briefcase.

CLOSE ON AN EMAIL REPLY

Walter Mitty is Out of the Office. This is an automatic reply

The plane is mostly empty. But Walter’s on it. And just one other guy. But he’s sitting in the seat beside Walter. The Captain’s speaking Danish. Walter’s looking at his iphone email from the photographer Sean O’Connell -Best picture I’ve taken. The total “F”ing quintessence of Life.Walter looks at this message like there’s hope there, like finding this thing might save his job. The plane takes off now, soars.

The plane’s midair. Walter’s looking at the photo print the image of which (out of focus) he can’t make out, trying to unlock some idea of what it is.

The capital, coastal town of Nuuk looks like it’s made out of Victorian toys. Walter’s plane drops into view and descends over these handsome little buildings.

Walter has somehow gotten involved in a Danish folkdance which involves (exclusively) linking arms with elderly Greenlanders in colorful vests (the only colorful part of the event) and shuffling slowly from side to side while making a large moving (slow) outer circle. Also they chant in Danish. Walter performs this holding his briefcase.

Outside the pub, Walter has been showing Greenlander teens his overexposed photograph.

It doesn’t really look like a chair.

No one says anything.

It’s a fresh morning. Walter’s sitting in a coffee shop, looking out on the capital town street. Then he sees a cab pull up for him.

Walter sits in back. The older female cabby cruises the car past some open, pretty fields.

A moment passes.

Walter has been surprised.

Her meter’s gone out.

An awkward moment passes.

Walter and the Queen continue their peaceful drive through the outskirts of Nuuk, Greenland.

Walter looks out the window. In a field they’ve parked beside, there are a few indigenous Oxen (they look like huge Jim Henson muppets) walking slowly.

At the end of a dock, with western Nuuk in the distance behind them and the Atlantic all around, Walter holds a conversation with an older BOAT CAPTAIN. The cab waits in the distance.

Walter shows him the water photo.

He looks at the photo for a while.

Walter’s at the desk of the small post office.

Some moments pass.

A moment passes.

Learning Sean has slipped into the unknown again, Walter’s despondent; he sits at the bar, drinking a beer out of what looks a glass, woman’s boot (it’s huge). The same folk dance dance is going on behind him. But he’s not engaged. He’s looking at the blown up photograph of “the thumb.” He’s just staring at it like it’s never going to grant him anything - a thumb - then after a moment a real thumb that looks just like that thumb appears beside it, attached to the hand of a guy who’s just walked up to the bar and put his hand on it (on the bar beside the photo). The two thumbs rest beside one another. They’re the same thumb. After a brief moment, Walter notices the resemblance. Then he turns and looks at the guy. The guy looks back.

Walter has come outside the pub to talk to this guy. There’s a helicopter parked in the field beyond the pub. The thumb guy is its PILOT.

That makes Walter pause.

The pilot sits at the bar finishing his boot beer. Walter’s in the background, looking in through the window, watching the pilot drink.

A little while later, the pilot’s in the pilot’s chair of the helicopter. The blades are spinning.

He’s about to lift off out of Nuuk. Walter’s in the distance, standing thirty yards away near the pub, looking over. He’s not going. Then the helicopter starts to lift at the same moment Walter has a change of heart and starts to run toward it to come along.

The helicopter begins to ascend (the environment around the pub is pretty, different than what we’ve seen). We also haven’t seen Walter sprinting before, which he is now (briefcase), arriving, then leaping three feet up into the passenger seat of the helicopter.

Walter’s high above Greenland, flying over a fjord. It’s breathtaking. He yells to be heard from the passenger seat to the pilot.

This is a look from way up at an international shipping vessel mid-sea. The weather around it’s getting rocky. On deck, they’re prepping a life raft.

Walter’s getting rocked a little in the helicopter passenger seat. The weather’s getting rough. They’re in some low lying storm clouds.

The pilot carries on to the freighter. Walter seems to be calling on his reserves to see this through.

It’s noisy. The weather’s rough. There is lots of lifting and dropping. Walter’s steadying himself in the cargo hold, preparing to jump..

This is wide view of what’s going on. We see the back of the hovering helicopter. To its left is the international shipping vessel theDolores which has placed a life raft between it and the helicopter. There is still some space to the right of the frame where there’s open water. That’s the side of the helicopter Walter mistakenly jumped from.After he surfaces, he starts to drift away from the freighter.

Walter’s treading water a fair distance from the freighter. The crew (Chilean) has gathered at the bow of the freighter. The captain calls out to Walter through a megaphone.

At this point a fin passes behind Walter.

The fin circles by again.

On board the crew has a brief consultation.

The fin comes nearer. Walter steels himself. Then he finds some presence of mind and power and is able to deter the thing away by thrashing at it with a few decent punches.

After another moments, another fin shows up.

At this point, though, the pontoon arrives and Walter scrambles into it (he still has his briefcase).

Walter has dried off. He’s being tended to by some young Chilean sailors. He’s been sounding them out about where Sean O’Connell is.

It’s dawned on Walter that he’s missed Sean. Just by a little.

The freighter’s hauling automobiles. The surface of the ship looks like a mall parking lot. One of the Chilean sailors accompanies Walter on a walk among the car rows.

They stop alongside a Subaru. The Sailor opens the driver’s door. He means this is where Sean slept. In this Subaru. Walter’s confused.

Walter has gotten in. There are five Chilean Stevedores in the back in different states of rest - sleeping, reading, playing chess.

They wave.

Walter starts miming taking photographs.

The guy’s pointing to where Walter is in the front seat.

A deck Squall Alarmsounds. These guys leave the car quickly (to perhaps batten something down). Walter notices the breaktime snack they were enjoying - half’s been left behind.

Walter’s alone in the Subaru.

He reaches for some cake, it’s been sliced into pieces, wrapped bakery style in some stray paper from the backseat. Walter takes one such slice. While the storm lifts and lowers the ship, Walter enjoys some clementine cake, then he notices something about the paper scrap it’s wrapped in. There’s handwriting on it. Walter examines it.

What Walter’s holding is a half-torn page bearing cursive handwriting. There is a date beside the word: Eyjafjallajökull.Then TTL shoemount flash. Zoom bounce flash. Nikon Camera....

There is a later destination and date on the paper - and some scrawl beside it.

A CLOSE UP OF THE WORDEYJAFJALLAJÖKULL

During this storm, Walter has climbed up the crow’s nest ladder and stands in the crow’s nest with the English- Speaking Chilean Sailor who escorted him to the Subaru. Walter’s showing him the paper -Eyjafjallajökull

Walter’s brought the cake up with him.

Walter starts to descend the crow’s nest ladder.

The storm has broken. The sea is calm. The sun is out. This is a huge ship. Walter’s sitting on the bow, all by himself. His briefcase is beside him. It’s quiet. He’s looking out at the water, then (oddly) his cell phone rings.

MAN’S VOICE Walter.

MAN’S VOICE Todd Mahar. From eHarmony.

Some time passes. A bird flies by.

Walter doesn’t say anything about us being the best. Life’s heavy for him right now.

Walter’s been equipped with a kayak pole and life vest. Some of the crew assist him down a ladder to the ocean; others keep watch over a kayak waiting there.

Walter’s quietly kayaking through an empty expanse of the Atlantic. His paddle makes noise; that’s it. Then Cheryl Mellhoff emerges from underwater - but she’s giant. She takes up the whole horizon. She’s catching her breath like she’s been underwater for a while. Then her son Rich (giant) pops up from underwater beside her. He catches his breath, too, but he’s pleased.

Cheryl fakes going underwater on three. Rich has. She’s still above water. She’s cheating. She stays there for a while, smiling. Then Rich pops up.

They both get caught faking it this time, and they start to laugh. Then they both go underwater. They’re under for a long time. A pretty long time, in fact. Then Cheryl surfaces. But Rich doesn’t. She’s breathing again, but she expected to see Rich and doesn’t, and now she’s concerned.

He’s nowhere.

Finally, he pops up. But he’s coughing, was under too long and has taken in some water; he’s scared.

She hugs him.

He’s freaked, he’s crying a little.

After a moment, she begins to sing to distract him. She’s singing Bob Marley’sThree Little Birds pretty well.

Walter looks on from (from his kayak).He’s worried about a lot of things, but what he’s picturing soothes him too. The day dream fades. Walter keeps kayaking. It looks desolate, then a guy in a rubber triathlon swimsuit swims by. Then another one does.

A wide shot shows that Walter has kayaked near to the coast of Reykjavik, Iceland during the swimming portion of a triathlon. Now he’s in the midst of a hundred pissed guys in rubber swim suits.

Walter’s in the heart of Reykjavik, Iceland, driven through the city. He’s taking in the sights, looking around through the cab window, when his phone rings again. He checks his caller I.D

A moment goes by.

Walter’s out front of the capital building in Reykjavik texting Odessa.

Walter writes - Wtf on mom’s p.?

He waits. This comes back -I had to go last minute to yoga workshop out of town. Can you handle?

Walter sends - Can you please take care of this - I am in Iceland. I repeat. Iceland.

He gets back - thanks lots :) I’ll have my phone off forseeably. Love, O.

Walter just sits there for a while - tending to the piano has been left to him - at this critical moment. He turns around. You can see the volcano (where Sean O’Connell is) looming way in the distance.

Walter has left. He’s taken off. He’s looking out the small window, down at Iceland as he goes, down atEyjafjallajökul the volcano he nearly reached. It’s getting smaller. Walter watches as it does.

Home now, Walter lands at JFK. He’s in economy, taking out his laptop.

Walter’s laptop is on. So he goes on eHarmony. Again, he tries to leave a wink for Cheryl. The reply he gets, again, is “unable to perform request.”

It’s two a.m. Walter is alone on a terminal moving walkway. He hasn’t changed since we met him - he’s still got hold of his briefcase. He’s looking (again) at the out of focus picture. He can’t draw anything out of it.

Walter hurries through a car impound facility. Among the rows of impounded cars, there is his mom’s grand piano.

It’s Walter’s turn in line.

A moment goes by.

The guy just keeps adding.

The guy ignores Walter. He just stays at his task which is adding money Walter doesn’t have.

Walter looks on while movers consider how to load his mom’s piano into the back of their moving van.

Walter walks over, lowers himself beneath the keyboard, finds a grip, then rises and lifts the piano up by himself.

Walter’s carrying the piano on his back, walking down the middle of the New Jersey Turnpike, slowing down traffic.

Walter climbs a set of stairs to the subway with the piano on his back.

Walter sits on a bench waiting for the train. The Grand Piano is beside him.

Walter has brought the piano onto the subway. Then the subway hits one of those mid-tunnel stops where the train stops, and the lights go on and off. When the lights return we see the piano’s gone. Walter’s still there though.

A CHECK BOOK EXPENSE ENTRY

Piano move (third) - $1,100.00

This is an empty (small) apartment. Walter and his sister ODESSA sit on the carpet. She’s pretty, good spirit, a little flighty (also she’s wearing braces). She’s watching Walter write this piano moving check. But she’s looking at a checkbook entry a few entries above it.

At this point we see a piano float up into view outside the living room window beyond them, odd because they’re fifteen stories up.

Walter’s quiet for a moment.

Walter is putting his checkbook back in his briefcase. Odessa has noticed the out-of-focus photo Walter carries in it.

Odessa looks the photo for a while.

Out the window we see that the piano is attached to a crane. Movers have lifted it up to the fifteenth floor. Walter looks out at it from the small, small room they’re in.

Walter’s surprised. There’s no way the piano fits in this space.

Walter’s trying to keep his composure (as a grand piano dangles out the window nearby).

A retirement facility administrator has joined them to deal with the piano problem. They’re all convened at the kitchen counter. *The piano’s in view out the window, dangling there.

Quietly, Walter’s getting really worried about money.

This is a little more than Walter has around. He’s starting to show it.

Walter’s writing the wordVilla in the memo space of his check.

Then he checks his balance - he has $7,100 in there.

THIS IS A SERIOUS REALIZATION FOR WALTER. THIS EXPENSE WILL TAKE NEARLY EVERYTHING HE HAS.

Walter and Odessa ride the elevator down. Walter’s pretty stressed.

Walter takes out the torn piece of paper Sean O’Connell had written some of his itinerary on (also that was wrapped around cake). Walter’s now concentrating on the destination under Iceland. The one where the destination name has been torn off. It just has the dates and words:

Klipspringer

Koofiyad

Fakr ad-D

And one that looks likeWarlock.

Then letters from a strange looking alphabet.

Walter and Odessa are back in Battery Park. The piano is still across the street dangling from a winch 15 stories up. Walter has just written (yet) another check to the mover.

Odessa has handed him two wrapped gifts. Walter begins to unwrap them. Inside are two toys: A Stretch Armstrong and, from yesteryear, the cheap drawing tablet where little metal filings are moved about with a magnetic wand to add features to a cartoon face.

Odessa gives Walter a kiss.

Walter’s riding the subway to work. Everything looks pretty normal except there’s a small African Antelope walking around.

Walter gets in the elevator - but already in there are Ted Hendricks and the executive board member guys. Walter has been caught off guard. He’s holding toys - the Stretch Armstrong and drawing tablet.

Walter offers his hand to Ted.

Walter begins to open his briefcase to stash the toys, but he’s nervous so it drops.

Walter’s in Ted’s glass partitioned work space.

WALTER’ MOM APPEARS ONCE MORE IN THE HALLWAY; she’s out there, peeking into this office.

Walter has no reason to be confident he’ll find it. So he doesn’t say anything.

Walter’s at a loss.

An awkward moment passes.

Ted turns around (his back to Walter) to pour himself some Fiji.

While Ted is turned around, Walter leaves. So when Ted turns back, he finds Walter gone.

Walter and his mom ride the elevator down.

Walter’s in a desperate state.

Walter’s in Starbucks, on his laptop. He’s in google. He’s put in the words: klipspringer, koofiyad,, and he’s looking at the Clementine cake paper scrap that sayswarlock but he’s beginning to maybe realize it says Warlord. So Walters enters it in google with the other clues.

The first result is the Wikipedia page for...

Mogadishu, Somalia.

Walter processes this. Not great. On a nearby customer’s laptop, a youtube clip plays:

YOUTUBE CLIP

Of David After Dentist.

But Walter has been miniaturized and morphed into a little boy, so finely done he’s recognizable both as Walter and as famous little drugged-up, young David from the youtube phenomenon clip David After Dentistwherein a five-year-old boy was videotaped by his dad in a post-dental-visit painkiller haze. He’s in a kid-seat in the back of an SUV trying to get his mental bearings (unsuccessfully).

WALTER AS DAVID AFTER DENTIST I feel funny. Why is this happening? (existentially bewildered about where he is) ...Is this real life?

Soon after, David arches up and roars some noise meant to express kid rage that he can’t control his situation - but we’re watching a grown man do it and it applies specifically to the frustrations and challenges of his grown-up life.

Then, in Starbucks, Walter takes out his gift wallet from photographer Sean O’Connell. He looks at the inscription:

From S.O. To Walter Mitty- Thanks for the great work.

Then Walter looks at a further embossment on the back. It says Life’s Purpose. It’s the mission statement of his company. Walter believes in it.

WHAT FOLLOWS IS A MONTAGE OF THE MOST CLASSIC PHOTOGRAPHS

...on proud display at Life. These aren’t simply celebrities or commemorations of familiar events - these are the results of the painstaking quest to fulfill the pledge of Life at its inception. Amid the pictures we glimpse parts ofLife’s Purpose engraved on the lobby wall.

“To see life;

to see the world;

to eyewitness great events;

to watch the faces of the poor

More photos that reach this standard pass - American faces. Faces from all over the world.

“to see man’s work –

his towers,

discoveries and labor

We see photos of men and women in pain, moments of deep pride, fear, uncertainty, glory.

things hidden behind walls

These are depictions of American plights - what devastating weather wrought, the sequestered lives of the deeply poor.

things dangerous to come to;

to see and to take pleasure in seeing;

to see and be amazed;

That is the purpose of Life.

Walter walks up a white terminal with his briefcase. He stops. He unsure he’s going to go forward. Then he looks at his wallet again.

Specifically the phrase Life’s Purpose -to see the World. Things dangerous to come to.He’s looking hard at thethings dangerous to come to part.

Walter buys a ticket at the desk of the national airline of the United Arab Emirates at the far western edge of terminal three.

Walter’s the only guy on here without a headdress. He’s still looking at the out of focus photograph he printed way back, hoping yet, that it will give him some indication of what the missing picture is.

Walter is waiting for his bags to come around on the luggage carousel. They do - it’s just his briefcase he’s had with him for the film’s entirety. But as he retrieves it, he makes the acquaintance of a group of traveling Danish teens by helping them lift their heavy backpacks from the carousel.

These teens are boys Knud, Soren and Ulf. And girls Grys and Denll.

The group of teens (and Walter) tour into Dubai in a gypsy van.

Walter’s in a skate park with Danish teens Knud, Soren and Ulf. And girls Grys and Dnll. And skateboarding around them are Middle-Eastern Emiratis, performing familiar skateboard moves like “ollies,” and “shuvits” but in traditional Arab robes and headdresses. It’s a lot to take in. Walter seems pleased to be doing it.

The group (including Walter) waits to register at a youth hostel. Late teens and kids in their early twenties mill about the lobby. Walter’s the oldest guy around. The clerk has been speaking to Soren in Arabic. Soren seems to know him. They seem to have been talking about Walter. Then they stop. Then Soren turns to Walter. *note - Walter has a skateboard with him now (with Arabic graphics on it); he’ll have it with him for a while.

Walter stands there for a moment.

Walter’s laying in the business center of the Dubai youth hostel. It looks like he’s possibly sleeping on a copier machine. Audio from the succeeding scene can be heard.

Cheryl’s watching the nightly news - specifically a report about escalating violence in Somalia.

Against the news report, we see news video from Mogadishu - car tire fires mid-city, skinny goon squads, gun-toting 11- year-olds, and in each of them there is a glimpse of Walter Mitty, usually in the far background and generally just hustling (but not running) just hustling across the street in his short-sleeve shirt and briefcase presumably to do some sort of business there. Cheryl has noticed this.

Walter’s sitting in a shitty park in Mogadishu. Walter once had a dream like this - where he was in a hotspot like this. Now he is. He’s speaking to a Somalian sitting on the bench facing his. *occasionally, people pass by carrying small deers.

The guy has pointed a block east of there.

Walter has run up to the Mogadishun soccer field to find a group of Korean soldiers amassed at midfield. Then he makes out a blond white photographer among them. Walter has started running across the soccer field.

Across the field, SEAN O’CONNELL (42) is in a squatted, interlocked arm embrace with four Korean soldiers. There’s aircraft noise above them.

The photographer turns around.

Sean looks at Walter coming nearer. He doesn’t recognize Walter.

Walter has reached the group.

Walter doesn’t know why this became important to Sean just now. But he reaches for his wallet, but when he looks up, he finds that Sean and the Korean guys he’s attached to have been lifted as a group briskly into the air. They’ve been tethered to a hovering rescue helicopter that’s withdrawing quickly. Sean’s yelling something down. It’s unclear. They ascend further as a unit, way up, way out of reach, getting smaller. Walter, though remains down on the soccer field.

SOCCER FIELD - LATER

Moments later, Walter remains there, holding five bucks that’s flapping in the wind. He’s watching the Koreans and Sean floating away. They’re very small and very far away.

Walter is skateboarding through Mogadishu. There are random tire fires going on in the distance. A tire on fire rolls by.

Walter’s back in the city park, talking to the same Somalian who told him where to find the Koreans.

Walter's behind the wheel of a small car. But as the camera pulls back, we see that he's behind the wheel of a small car parked on another large shipping vessel (Chinese this time).

Still sitting in one of the cars, Walter’s made a phone call.

The shot lifts up and we see the full scope of what Walter is willing to do to keep his job, sleep in a Chinese car on a Chinese boat, on a slow trip back home.

Walter walks up to the front desk of a residential apartment building.

She dials the inner-building phone, then has a brief conversation with Cheryl. Walter waits quietly.

Walter’s holding the Arabic skateboard.

Cheryl and her son Rich have entered the lobby waiting area to greet Walter. *We’re only on her for the top of the following exchange

Now we see Walter; he’s a short distance away in the seating area, but he’s not seated because he’s a human cubicle. He’s shaped like a cubicle.

They’ve gone out among the throngs of New Yorkers, walking up the sidewalk of Avenue A. Walter is with Cheryl and Rich but he’s remained a cubicle.

Walter (real Walter again) and Cheryl are sitting on the lip. Rich is out using the Arabic skateboard.

Walter has walked out to show Rich how to ollie. Walter does it pretty well.

Rich starts trying his best. Walter sits back down.

At this point, Rich wipes out. He’s scared. He slid on the pavement pretty far and he’s shaken up. He bumped his shoulder pretty hard, and he’s privately started to cry.

Rich has come over.

She means Rich to sit beside her. She puts her arm around him. He’s trying not to cry, but he’s crying.

She wraps him up. She starts rubbing his back. Then she starts singing.

Walter’s sitting right there with them. He knew she knew this song, and that she used it with Rich. He doesn’t know why he knew it, but he did. They just sit there for a while, while Rich calms down. The song’s pretty much worked, Walter’s enjoyed being there as much as Rich.

Walter walks south up 6th amid foot traffic. Coming past him, though is a huge black and white Morgan Freeman (it’s a mover carting off the Life Morgan Freeman photo, but he’s hidden behind the picture, so this Morgan Freeman has a surreal, lifelike quality.

Elsewhere up 6th, Walter is passed likewise by the Beatles, Winston Churchill and a huge Warhol Soup can color photo.

Walter tries his pass key to enter the division floor. It’s not working. *More huge photos have been carried past Walter during this time: “Nixon eating with chopsticks.” Then “Ruby shooting Oswald.” Then Ted Hendrick’s colleague comes out, he’s with a guy we haven’t seen yet. They’re both dressed for squash.

Walter is shaken.

Walter’s on the squash court holding a conversation with these two guys who are trying to play squash.

Steve serves into Walter.

Penders just served into Walter again.

There’s been a little bit of a shoving, shoulder thing. It’s getting a little hot.

Walter’s on the bus. He’s looking at the out of focus print again.

Some time passes. Then Walter puts on his loupes (eye glasses with a center magnifying lens). Then his cell phone vibrates. He’s got an email. He reads it.

*it looks weird because we’re seeing it through Walter’s magnifying loupes - but much of it is clear: It’s from human resources and reads in part:because you have been terminated with cause you do not qualify for severance or to salary beyond your last day of work. This message confirms that today’s date (11/12/11) constitutes the last day of your.....

Walter is stunned.

Walter’s among some others, walking up a sidewalk home, but he’s been so thrown by being fired in this manner that he’s forgotten to take his head-mounted loupes off. It’s an unusual image.

This is a view through Walter’s loupes as he walks through Brooklyn trying to get his head together. The middle images are magnified but the outside circumference isn’t - it’s unusual and sort of pretty - to see people pass by, sometimes enhanced, then not, all a little dizzy, like Walter’s feeling.

Walter rides up the elevator with some normal-looking residents in his head-mounted loupes.

Walter walks into his apartment. He sits down in the small living room (he’s still wearing the loupes). Some time passes. Nothing seems to happen. Then, slowly, after considerable time, a look of powerful and complete astonishment comes over him. He’s looking at something that has just shifted his world.

We see things from Walter’s perspective (through the loupes). Most everything is out of focus because he’s wearing them. But he’s looking, in real life (in his apartment), at exactly the out of focus image that he has been carrying around a photo of. The object is in his apartment. He looks at this out of focus (because of the loupes) real object. Then he looks at the photo he still holds. They are indisputably the same. Then he looks back at the real object and removes his loupes to bring it into focus. It’s the piano.

Some time goes by.

Edna has entered the room.

Walter listens.

The information’s been right there. Walter thinks about that for a while.

She smiles at Walter. Then Edna looks at the out of focus print.

Edna pats her actual piano. Then she looks at Walter with great affection.

Walter thinks about it. Then Edna kisses him.

Walter sits there for a moment. He is the man of the family. He’s got to go out into the world and get something done.

This is New York at lunch hour. Walter’s out there with everybody. It’s the same kind of Manhattan scene we’ve seen before, but here everybody around Walter’s walking to their dream jobs. There’s a large female jockey. A black matador, an elderly magician, etc. A wider view reveals a block full of men and women headed for jobs that were not “fall back” jobs but longed-for walks of life - astronaut, beekeeper, rodeo clown, Supreme Court Judge, a city-block full of who are visibly living dreams. It’s a colorful environment. Except for one normal looking guy beside Walter.

Walter looks normal. But he’s holding a trophy. This is what he’s just been congratulated over.

Walter (with his trophy) crosses the street with the whole massive host of dream job-going New York commuters - a thousand of them.

Walter back in the working world, runs up a platform to catch a train that’s nearly leaving.

Walter’s at Etihad Airways booking desk. It’s a shabby airline. It’s a shabby-looking desk. There’s only one clerk and Walter’s the only one in line.

He looks around like he shouldn’t be selling it, like it’s not by the books, but he’ll do it.

Walter’s sitting in the airplane lavatory. He’s not using it. He’s just riding on it. It’s the seat he just bought. Someone knocks. So Walter has to get up and leave for a moment.

We jump cut through Walter doing this several times. Then we find him during a nice quiet stretch, where he can sit on the lavatory seat uninterrupted for a couple minutes. During this time we watch him take out his wallet - the gift from Sean O’Connell. Walter looks at it

CLOSE ON THE “LIFE’S PURPOSE” CREDO

Specifically we’re looking at the line “...the Purpose of Life.”

Walter’s looking at this embossment on his wallet. He’s lost faith anyone besides him takes it to heart. Walter no longer does either. So he discards the wallet in the lav trash. Then someone knocks on the lav door after which Walter must rise and leave the lavatory once more.

A small bus drives slowly up the single mountain road through the town of Zhengmo, Nepal.

Walter rides on this bus. There is a great deal to look at and marvel over out the window. Walter’s doing that.

The bus has stopped in a remote village.

Walter speaks with a mountain guide near the lodge fireplace.

There is a pause.

Walter looks skeptical.

Walter and the guide drive snowmobiles up into the hilly distance of Nepal.

They’ve gotten off their snowmobiles. Walter has started walking west - all we see that way is snow, mountains and forest.

Walter has pointed to make a point. But his guide adjusts the direction of Walter’s sarcastic point slightly.

After a moment, Walter starts to go that way.

A massive snow scape. You can only see a snow horizon and bare forest, and Walter walking across it (with his briefcase). Total middle of nowhere. He walks for a while, then his phone begins to ring.

Todd has gotten to the heart of the matter.

Walter has come upon, without realizing it, some kind of snow nest camp, camouflaged among trees. Photographer Sean O’Connell is camped there with his gear. Walter looks at him.

Walter hangs his phone up. He looks at Sean.

Walter sits by the fire with Sean.

A moment goes by.

Walter doesn’t understand.

Walter’s listening.

Walter’s dispirited (and cold).

Walter thinks about it. Then he shakes his head. Some time goes by.

Walter turns.

Sean points up ahead at a tree line. What they find there, a pretty good way off, are two snow leopards. Sean gestures for Walter to recline. Sean does too.

Sean has his camera rigged up. He just shifts it a little as the snow leopards draw nearer. This all thrills a part of Walter. Sean nods at the camera to mean that Walter should take the picture, if he’d like.

Walter seems to like that idea. He looks through the lens, he prepares to take the picture. He’s smiling.

Walter takes the picture. Then he sits up. Then both guys watch the snow leopards for real- it’s a little thrill.

Walter has landed in Los Angeles. He looks exhausted. He’s sitting in a terminal chair, on the phone with his sister. He’s all alone. It’s quiet there.

The situation makes no sense. But it’s where they’ve found themselves.

This is a huge shot of downtown. We pan back around and find we’re in a metro train. Walter’s there. He’s nearing his stop. So he rises, and he walks past his rowmate to the aisle, but he’s jostled her accidentally.

She’s a fifteen-year Puerto Rican girl (who’s Morgan Freeman).

15-YR-OLD-PUERTO-RICAN GIRL MORGAN FREEMAN (Morgan freeman’s voice) Don’t worry about it.

She’s been morphed with Morgan Freeman -- still Puerto Rican but also Morgan Freeman. We notice elsewhere around Walter this has happened; everyone in his vicinity (the train he’s walking off) has a combination with Morgan Freeman’s features - Korean Morgan Freemans, Transit Police Freemans, six-year- olds. Black ones. Everyone around, morphed with the familiar characteristics of the dignified and peaceful actor. Walter has a hundred Morgan Freemans around him. It’s a good world. Walter walks in the midst of it all.

Walter, walking with his briefcase, has reached a street corner farther east in downtown L.A. The Morgan Freemans have left him. It’s the regular world. Walter’s trying to cross up 2nd Street, but he’s found a police barricade there.

Walter watches a series of limos drive by; they’re bound for their downtown hotel and the summit there. Walter recalls an association to this. The director of his corporation’s attending.

The TVs are on in the corporate board rooms, no one’s watching but if they were, they’d see news report from MSNBC from the G8 summit in Los Angeles

Behind her you can see a great number of young people, anti- establishment and anti-capitalist chanters. It looks like a hot environment already.

Walter walks by her. He’s still dressed the same. Still with his briefcase, now in Los Angeles at the G8.

The G8 summit attendees (business leaders and government leaders from across the industrialized world) are being hustled past the crowds of chanting young people. Some are fielding reporter’s questions hastily, then heading up the hotel steps for the summit. There’s a huge number of people here, protestors, reporters, police (many). It already feels a little like mayhem.

Business leader MARK CHATHAM is wrapping up an exchange with CNN on the sidewalk outside the steps, then he starts being peppered with a request from Walter who’s amid the chanting protestors on the other side of the barricades.

Chatham has noticed Walter. The CNN reporter looks on.

It’s awkward for Chatham, observed and on camera by CNN. He can’t blatantly ignore Walter now.

Mark says something to an aide. The guy begins to make a phone call. Walter waits as Chatham finished his CNN exchange. Walter’s jostled by the crowd. The police are in the midst now, trying to push people back. It’s getting a little rough, ugly.

When Chatham finishes with CNN, his aide hangs up his phone and he says something to Chatham that Walter overhears.

Chatham heads up to the hotel. He’s brushed Walter off. A cop’s trying to move Walter back. Walter’s resisting, needing Chatham.

Chatham’s a little farther away.

Walter has passed the barrier. The cop’s getting hard with him.

It’s at this point one of the young Danish teens Walter befriended in Dubai comes up to Walter, glad to see him.

Now the cop’s convinced Walter means harm. He’s just shoved Walter in the chest with his nightstick.

Something has snapped beyond them. Some real violence has started. The cops are bearing down. Walter gets jacked in the thigh with a nightstick.

A phalanx of police has moved in. They’re a straight-across line of force, there to push the protestors back. During this scrum, Walter becomes separated from his briefcase. *He’s literally held it throughout the movie - Greenland, Dubai, Mogadishu, Nepal; now it’s been torn from his hands.

New desperation comes over him.

Walter’s being pushed farther back. There is great noise around and an antic vibe of violence brewing.

Walter, during the mayhem finds an abandoned megaphone at his feet. He starts to use it.

Walter really has to fight to even hold his ground here.

A new line of mounted riot police have moved in, filling the space left between Walter, the riot police wall and Walter’s briefcase laying there on the pavement. The horses endanger it. They gather around it, precariously close to damaging what it holds.

Two police officers have moved in on Walter because he’s the only protestor holding his ground and not fleeing (because he wants his briefcase)

A TEAR-GAS CANNISTER LANDS AT WALTER’S FEET. But he remains there. He starts to call over (through the megaphone) to Mark Chatham forty yards away on the hotel steps.

The cops are getting rough with him.

Walter has fought through the cops, now he fights through the horses to reach his briefcase.

Walter’s choking on the teargas but he won’t quit. He’s finally fought his way to his briefcase.

They’re watching this on the news at Life. It’s a riot. Like Seattle. On screen, Walter’s image has a beautiful thing to it - it’s like Tank Man.

A company man standing there in a short-sleeve dress shirt, getting tear-gassed, fighting to get out of there with his briefcase.

Ulf and Soren arrive at his side and try to drag him back from an approaching flank of LA riot police. They want these kids stepping back. Walter’s not. When they reach him, there’s a dust-up with Ulf. More kids get in the mix. It’s going to get out of hand; the police are too rough, the kids too dumb to move. Walter’s in the middle of it all. Soon, there are some wild punches. Then everyone in the scrum must fight to keep their teeth in their mouth. It’s all broken loose. Walter’s fighting it out like everyone else. More kids have run in. Some others, too, older.

The kids start yelling this, too.

There’s like eight people yelling this now.

Over where there’s just a lot of people safely observing, along the sidewalks, some more down to earth types, older people, family people, this message is starting to hit. There’s a 60-year-old WORKING MAN there. He’s admiring Walter’s guts.

Back on the boardroom TVs we see that CNN is broadcasting a report on the riot.

On screen, there is further footage from the G8. Walter’s in the middle of a pack really getting worked over by fired-up police.

We have a helicopter view of the G8 scene, there’s a huge concert going on, the summit across the street and the street in between swelling with a mob of people.

On the streets, outside the summit, lots of the crowd is yelling “I’m a man.” You can hearRage Against the Machine soundchecking across the street.

*it’s important to note that the source footage for most of what follows is the actual hand-held video captures of the cop-baiting Rage Against the Machinedaytime concert staged among five city blocks outside the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Five thousand angry, anti- establishment young people - 2,000 police officers wearing riot gear, as well as additional horses, motorcycles, squad cars and police helicopters, all captured in raw frames Walter has been very naturally included in. He’s trying to walk through the crowd, find his way home through it (this is the free provocative downtown concert the reporter mentioned) but he’s being recognized.

Walter’s trying to find his Danish friends.

Walter’s being rubbed on the head by way of congratulations, recognized from what he did earlier. Pretty soon he’s up (sort of against his will) on their shoulders. Rage Against the Machine has begun Bulls On Parade - it’s an anti- establishment classic. On stage:

LEAD SINGER ZACH DE LA ROCHA Brothers and sisters, Our democracy has been hijacked. All your true freedoms in this country are over, as long as it’s controlled by corporations. (noticing Walter) Is that that motherfucker from the fight?

Back in the crowd, they’re riled up. They start passing Walter forward (atop them) like a beach ball.

The song kicks in. It’s an electric area now. The song’s powerful. The crowd’s starting to feel like a mob. Walter’s still a beach ball they’re sending up to the stage. He crosses seventy feet on his back, passed up by a couple hundred hands. Soon the crowd has him on the stage. Right among the band.

The music keeps playing.

Walter takes the gear.

The music has some drive for sure. Walter’s getting pumped. He looks at the crowd - all anti-establishment jumping up and down.

Walter performs the first sets of verses, mic through a megaphone. He’s got some decent body language and an okay metal-rap flow (and he still has his briefcase).

The crowd’s liking it. Soon, they want Walter to stage dive and join them. He does it.

There’s no way that this crowd stays inside the concert grounds, and its energy level won’t keep things safe. Soon enough the sparks of a riot start when some folding chairs start flying from the crowd over to the police, now flying cups of ice and water. Then there’s face to face, cop- protestor taunting. There are five thousand young people in the street (and Walter) and they’re too close to the sedans that drove the business leaders there. When a folding chair hits a lady cop it’s a riot.

Down in the middle of it, Walter’s got some mixed-feelings - some fear, but the mayhem’s releasing something pent up that makes him feel good. He’s thrashing around as hard as anybody. He’s pushed past a news camera whose feed we have the perspective of.

They all spill into the LA street next door. So, it’s one of those fifteen minutes where rules don’t work anymore. The music, sun, collective anger. Someone throws a chair through a Starbucks window. Walter gets involved in some property destruction, all caught up in this big feeling. He tries to kick over a post office drop box, but it’s welded in there, so he can’t. Then he gets arrested.

Walter’s down on the pavement with a policeman’s knee in his back.

Walter’s alone in the back of the police wagon. His arms are shackled. He’s sitting on the built in metal bench, until the transporter hits a bump and he falls to the metal floor. It’s not easy to stand when your hands are cuffed. But Walter struggles up. But he’s standing without any means to stabilize himself and every time the wagon turns he gets chucked around.

Walter has just been booked. The police clerk hands him a phone.

After a moment, Walter calls this number. He waits while it rings.

Walter’s being released. His short-sleeve dress shirt is torn. Worked over. He’s worked over. He doesn’t look like much of a businessman anymore. Just the contours. His briefcase is being released back to him, ticking off its contents.

There is a young man waiting on the steps of the downtown police station. Walter comes down the steps his way.

After a moment, they hug.

Todd and Walter catch a late bite at IHOP. They got a good booth.

Walter’s cell has started ringing.

WOMAN’S VOICE Hi this is Cynthia Despihg. With Etihad Airlines. Is this Walter Mitty?

WOMAN’S VOICE We found your wallet. I think.

This has surprised Walter. He’s gone quiet.

WOMAN’S VOICE (CONT’D) Are you a Walter Mitty who flew to Nepal Wednesday the 15th?

WOMAN’S VOICE We have your wallet. It’s at our Los Angeles terminal office.

WOMAN’S VOICE It’s exciting to get your wallet back when you thought you lost it.

WOMAN’S VOICE Maintenance found it in a trash receptacle. You must have accidentally--

WOMAN’S VOICE Our luggage delivery car can get it to you. She’s going out now.

Walter and Todd Mahar wait out in front of IHOP, under the IHOP overhang, waiting for Walter’s wallet to arrive in the parking lot. *every once in a while, when Walter looks at Todd, Todd’s wearing an old time judge’s wig.

This didn’t really jack Walter up.

A car pulls up.

A young woman (middle-eastern, 20s) has left the small car. She’s walking up to Walter; she’s got his wallet.

She hands Walter his wallet.

She looks at Walter for a while.

They’re driving through nighttime Los Angeles. Walter’s just opened his wallet. He’s looking at the little picture sleeve. There’s a small white envelope in there. Walter removes it. Then he takes a film negative from the envelope. Just to check it’s there. Then he puts it right back in the envelope without examining it.

Walter and Todd ride along for a while.

Walter has walked up to the front desk of the Four Seasons lobby.

The young desk clerk picks up the house phone. A ring.

The clerk listens for a moment. Walter waits to see if he’ll be allowed up. He will.

Walter waits just outside a Four Season’s hotel room door. He’s just finished knocking. The guy who holds conglomerates Mark Chatham answers the door.

A moment goes by.

Mark looks at him.

You don’t know which way Chatham’s going to go. But he respects Walter. He extends his hand. Walter takes it.

A moment passes.

Mark and Walter sit Indian Style facing each other in the Four Seasons fifth floor hallway. Chatham’s holding a negative roll.

Walter hands the small envelope over.

A long time passes.

Walter still doesn’t say anything about his participation in a riot. So Mark rephrases it.

Some moments go by next, while Mark and Walter sit Indian style with the Sean O’Connell photo of Walter sitting between them.

Mark has stood up and started in to his hotel room. Walter’s been following him.

The door closes, Walter’s left out there to wait.

Walter has returned to Brooklyn; he’s heading up a set of Subway stairs up to a neighborhood street.

Walter crosses the huge lobby, dressed as always for work.

Walter has entered the elevator. He’s alone. It won’t work without his floor elevator key (which stopped working once he was let go). Walter waits a moment. Then he tries his key. The button illuminates. Walter starts to ascend.

Walter has reached the floor elevator corridor door to his division floor office. He’s just tried his pass key. That functions as well.

Walter waits in a line at an accounting office window counter (like a DMV) behind recently let-go colleagues Tim Naughton and Gary Mannheim. Tim speaks to the accounting clerk.

She hands Tim his check. He’s sad, but he takes it and heads off.

After a moment, Gary gets his severance. He’s also blue about it. Then Walter steps up.

She starts typing into her keyboard.

She’s typed additional stuff. Then she roots around in a check stash. Then she hands Walter an envelope. He takes it. He looks at it for a while. For the first time in a long while, he seems relieved.

Walter’s just walking through the park. He looks at peace. There are many others around, all coming and going at a normal pace, but the earth around them transforms from winter to summer smoothly over the course of thirty seconds as they naturally inhabit the park in their regular ways. So when Walter sits at a bench. It’s all midsummer around him. He’s smiling from relief.

A FLOATING PIANO

This is a grand piano mid-air in Manhattan.

There’s a winch machine, a huge rig, lifting this piano to the 7th floor of the residential building Walter secured for his mom. Walter and Odessa stand in Battery Park, looking up at the piano. The movers are setting it into the removed window space. It looks like it’s going to fit.

The piano has fit easily here. Odessa and Edna are straightening up, putting the last few things away. The room’s in good shape. It’s really pretty nice. Edna seems at home.

Odessa and Edna head out the door.

They go. The room is quiet. Walter looks around again. Making it happen took considerable effort no one but Walter will know about. After a moment, he goes and sits at the piano. Some time passes. Then Walter plays the beginning ofCheers. Then he gets up and follows his sister and mom out.

Walter’s walking with Odessa and Edna. They’ve come past a newsstand with magazine displays. Walter was going to walk right on by like Edna and Odessa did. But he’s noticed something on the magazine racks that’s stopped him. He stands there for a while looking at it.

It’s the last issue of Life Magazine. Its cover is a black and white photograph of Walter siting on a cement bench out front of the Time-Life building. He’s got his lunch in a brown bag beside him; he’s looking over photo prints with his loupe, working carefully on some day in the past to fulfill the wishes of Life’s photographers- a person who’s work the world never knew took place. It’s really good. You can see the word LIFE on the building sign above the bench. So the last photograph, on the last cover ofLife, elegantly honors the people who quietly worked there and cared for it.

Walter stands in front of the newsstand looking at it. It’s the first time he’s seeing it. It’s a message that to Sean, at least, and possibly to others his work was meaningful.

On another day, Walter’s sitting in Battery Park across the little street where his mom lives. He’s with Cheryl. Her son Rich skateboards around the park.

Time passes.

She smiles at Walter.

She starts looking in her scheduler.

Walter seems pleased. Rich skates by and does a move. Cheryl and Walter sit there a while. They can hear piano music.

Some time goes by. Walter looks tired, worn out from his extended journey and his large efforts to keep the lid on the critical matters of his life. But he also looks relieved and satisfied. Piano music continues. The title appears again: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.Then CREDITS BEGIN.