INT. GOTHAM COURTHOUSE – DAY
CAPTION: FIVE YEARS AGO
HARVEY DENT is sat at a desk at the front of the courtroom. Besides his is another lawyer, PETER ANDAL. In the dock is SALVATORE MARONI.
JUDGE (O.S.)
Mr Dent, the floor is yours.
ANDAL
Good luck.
DENT stands. A coin is visible in his left hand.
DENT
Now Mr Maroni, you claim that on the night of February 14th you were playing a high stakes card game with the crime lord known as Black
Mask.
MARONI
I do.
DENT
See, this confuses me. I thought you were a smart man. I thought you were the kind of guy who could cook up an alibi strong enough to
keep you from coming to court. And yet the alibi you come up with is itself enough to bring you here…
MARONI
Your point being?
DENT
I just don't get why you'd do this unless you were trying to distract us from some more heinous activity.
DENT turns away from MARONI.
MARONI
Perhaps I wanted an audience. Perhaps I wanted my message to be heard right across the whole rotten city?
DENT turns back towards MARONI.
DENT
A message?
MARONI lunges forwards, a vial of acid in his hand. The liquid hits the left side of DENT's face. Guards grab Maroni.
MARONI
Nobody is untouchable in Gotham Mr Dent. And no one interferes with Maroni business.
INT. HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM – EVENING
PETER ANDAL sits on a chair reading a book. The door opens and a nurse approaches. ANDAL looks up.
ANDAL
How is he?
NURSE
Mr Andal, I'm not quite sure how to say this but…Mr Dent… He's gone.
ANDAL stands quickly.
ANDAL
Maroni's men must've got in. We've got to-
NURSE
No, no! You don't understand. He… left. He got up, got dressed and walked out. We tried to stop him but he ran out a side exit.
INT. ANDAL'S APARTMENT – DAY
ANDAL enters his apartment. DENT is sitting on his sofa.
ANDAL
ARGH!
DENT
Don't be alarmed, Peter, we're not here to hurt you. I want you to work with me again. The past six month have been so…
disorganised.
ANDAL
You're a wanted criminal Harvey. You torched Maroni's club.
DENT
Yes we did. And we're not stopping there. I'm planning to hit the Maroni Vault.
ANDAL
That's madness.
DENT
Yes it is… No, it's tactics. Maroni launders money for most of the crime lords in Gotham. We hit this vault and he's not going to want to
ever leave his cell again.
ANDAL
I don't know Harv… This isn't petty theft.
DENT
If you join us, you get half I did some snooping, you've got a lot of debts…
ANDAL
But why me? You can hire mercenaries on every other street corner in this dive.
DENT
Loyalty, Peter. I trust you. And in this town, that counts for a lot. And besides, I recall you being a half-way decent martial artist.
ANDAL
…Fine. One job. And I get half.
DENT smiles.
INT. MARONI BUILDING – NIGHT
ANDAL and three other men are in the lobby. Two of the men have shotguns. Laying on the floor are a couple of Maroni's men: dead.
GUNMAN #1 (to ANDAL)
So you knew the boss in the old days, huh?
ANDAL
Yeah, we worked together in the DA's office.
GUNMAN #1
Why the hell would a fancy lawyer be running a job with guys like us? No offense guys.
GUNMAN #2
None taken.
ANDAL
What can I say? I should learn when to fold...
GUNMAN #1
You like cards, you should come with us to the Iceberg-
GUNMAN #1 is yanked forwards falling to his knees, his gun disappearing out the window. ANDAL raises a pistol to the window.
ANDAL
Keep trained on the window. You see movement, you shoot.
BATMAN swings in through a side window, taking out GUNMAN #2. A THUG tries to knife him but BATMAN kicks his legs out from under him. ANDAL turns and fires his gun as BATMAN drops a smoke pellet. ANDAL fires some more.
ANDAL
Where are you?
BATMAN appears behind him, getting him in a choke hold.
INT. VAULT ROOM – NIGHT
HARVEY DENT stands by the vault, moving his fingers along a touch screen. BATMAN kicks open the doors. Smoke drifts in from the other room.
BATMAN
Dent. Step away from the safe.
DENT
I can't, the failsafe will activate. Give me a moment.
BATMAN
I said step away.
Batman grabs Dent and yanks him away from the safe, pinning him to a wall. A high pitched WHEEEEE sounds.
BATMAN
What did you do?
DENT
Fool! We did nothing. It's the failsafe. Sounds like a sonic detonation trigger.
BATMAN
-Hrr-
DENT
We did warn you.
BATMAN knocks out DENT and runs to the window, firing his grapple. He jumps out and the two swing free. Inside, ANDAL is awoken by the alarm. He runs to the safe room and sees BATMAN swing away. He looks at the unconscious thugs. The building explodes. Fire burns his head and right hand. Rubble knocks him down.
INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE – DAY
A man lays on the bed, his head and right arm wrapped in bandages. It's ANDAL. The DOCTOR sits beside him.
DOCTOR
I wish you'd reconsider, Peter. I've treated your wounds as best I can but… You need surgery, skin grafts.
ANDAL
I'm not going…hh…to a hospital. They'll figure out who I am…hh… Arrest me.
A POLICE SIREN is heard. ANDAL looks out of the window and sees the Batsignal.
ANDAL CONT'D
It's all his fault. He claims to be better…hh… than people like me. But he left four men to die. Four.
He sits up.
ANDAL CONT'D
He has to be stopped…hh…has to be held account for these murders. I…hh...I need to stop him.
DOCTOR
He took you down once, you try this crap again you might die. You need to lie low.
The DOCTOR goes to a drawer, opens it and gets out a ticket.
DOCTOR
Here, it's a return ticket to Beijing.
ANDAL
Why do you have this?
DOCTOR
A gift from a …grateful patient.
ANDAL
You mean a crook.
DOCTOR (smiles)
I mean a grateful patient. That he happened to be a member of one of Gotham's largest crime families is irrelevant. Anyway, I can't get
any holiday time till November so I was gonna put them on eBay but... You need a break.
ANDAL
Thanks.
DOCTOR
Just promise me you'll stop this revenge crap, okay? I don't want you turning up on my doorstep again with a fractured arm or punctured
lung or whatever.
ANDAL looks out of the window at the Batsignal.
INT. WAREHOUSE FOURTH FLOOR – NIGHT
BATMAN looks at the burnt face of the HOODED MAN: ANDAL.
BATMAN
Who are you?
ANDAL
Does it matter? Drug dealer, mugger, assistant to the DA. You don't care. You beat us and leave us to die while you go after the mob
bosses, the supervillains.
BATMAN
I try. But if a place is going to explode you've got to do damage limitations. Save who you can. What happened to you wasn't malicious.
But you knew the risks when you threw in your lot with Joker, Penguin, whoever.
ANDAL
What a moving case you put forwards. Mr Foreman, what does the Jury make of this?
FOREMAN
On seventy-five known charges of murder by negligence, we find the defendant Batman… Guilty.
The JURORS move forwards en masse and attack BATMAN. Knocks out two straight away with a punch—high-kick-combo. He knocks out two more and slide kicks a third but the other seven pin him down. BATMAN's manages to fire his grapple gun at the ceiling. He flies upwards, the JURORS falling off him. BATMAN falls to the ground, taking out five of them. He elbows one in the face then picks up the large book from the desk and spins around, knocking out the FOREMAN with it. ANDAL claps.
ANDAL
Spectacular effort as usual, Batman. But I'm curious… how do you mean to save them?
BATMAN
Save them?
ANDAL
Didn't I say? After you entered the building my men lit it on fire. I imagine by now the bottom two floors are a veritable inferno. What will
you do? There's not time to carry them all out.
BATMAN
This your plan: distract me with rescuing your men while you get away?
ANDAL
What to correct first? No. That's not my plan to get away. Also… they're not my men.
BATMAN kneels next to one and removes his mask. It's a GCPD cop.
ANDAL
Where are my manners? Allow me to introduce Officer Addison. Also present are Officers Sloan, Markiss, Vidal and of course my dear
friend, ol' Jimmy Gordon.
He removes the FOREMAN's mask to reveal GORDON underneath. He has a mind control harness on.
ANDAL CONT'D
The one flaw of the Hatter's devices is they provide no defence against good old-fashioned blunt force trauma, do they Jimmy? (Plays
with Gordon's face) No Mr Reckoner they do not.
BATMAN cries out and hurls a Batarang at ANDAL. It tears into his mask and knocks him back. ANDAL removes his mask to reveal a burnt face with a large cut bleeding.
ANDAL
See? You're all about the collateral damage. This could get infected. All your fault… But that can wait, time's ticking. This building will soon
be destroyed and these hard-working, honest officers will die. Unless you get them out.
BATMAN
We both know it's not possible. With the stairs on fire I could get one out, two at most before I collapse with smoke inhalation.
ANDAL
Are you placing your own life above theirs? You saved Dent from the Maroni Vault. You saved Joker a dozen times over. Are you saying
they're more worthy than the heroic James Gordon?
BATMAN
If I can't save them, I'm a murderer. If I try to save them, I die. Whatever I do, you'll claim victory.
ANDAL
This isn't about beating you. It's about making you accountable. About making you aware that your tiniest actions have enormous
consequences.
BATMAN
I know all about consequences.
BATMAN shoots his grapple gun at the floor and tackles ANDAL out the window. As the fall, BATMAN clips the rope onto ANDAL. (SFX: CLICK) BATMAN lets go and swings into a window on the third floor. ANDAL is hanging upside down.
ANDAL
So instead of being accountable you're going to kill me. No. This is not the reaction I meant!
BATMAN
How were you planning on leaving?
ANDAL
Upright.
Batman gets angry. Pulls him close.
BATMAN
The lower floors are ablaze, but you're clearly not ready to die. So how. Where you planning. To get out?
ANDAL
Crane.
BATMAN
Scarecrow? How was he going-
ANDAL
No! A crane. I text a dock worker and he swings a platform this way and I get out.
BATMAN takes the ANDAL's phone and runs into the building.
ANDAL
Hey! What about me?
BATMAN throws a Batarang at the grapple cartridge clipped to ANDAL's leg. The rope starts to reel out again, ANDAL hurtling towards the harbour. ANDAL screams. The rope runs out just before ANDAL hits the surface of the water. ANDAL unclips cartridge and falls in water.
INT. WAREHOUSE FOURTH FLOOR – NIGHT
BATMAN removes GORDON's mind control device.
GORDON
Batman? Where's Joker?
BATMAN
It wasn't Joker. I'll explain later, first we have to get you all out.
The COPS help each other remove the mind control devices. BATMAN writes a text on ANDAL's phone: 'Move crane now. Fourth floor. Third window from right.' GORDON walks over and looks at the phone. BATMAN goes to the address book.
GORDON
This guy has hundreds of contacts, how do you know who to send it to?
BATMAN
I don't.
BATMAN presses 'Send all'.
GORDON
He's going to have a hell of a phone bill.
EXT. WAREHOUSE – NIGHT
The crane swings round and raises a makeshift elevator to the window.
INT. WAREHOUSE FOURTH FLOOR – NIGHT
BATMAN throws a Batarang at the window which shatters. The COPS and BATMAN climb onto the platform.
EXT. DOCK – NIGHT
ANDAL climbs a ladder out of the water. He looks up and sees the crane with BATMAN and the COPS on it. He runs the other way only to get kicked in the face. It's BATGIRL.
INT. BATCAVE – NIGHT
BATGIRL walks over to BATMAN by the computer.
BATGIRL
The GCPD just arrested the crane operator for aiding and abetting. Are they the barrel analysis results?
BATMAN
Unfortunately.
BATGIRL
What's wrong?
BATMAN
That tiny sample I took contained DNA from four separate people all known associates of Joker, Penguin and Two-Face.
BATGIRL
Oh my god, did he kill them?
BATMAN
He claimed I did. Part of his plan to make me more 'accountable.'
BATGIRL
Did it work?
BATMAN
I have my rules. They work. I attempt to change them, I may lose myself.
BATGIRL
Alright well…I'm heading home. Let me know if anything comes up.
BATMAN
Put this in your father's coffee.
He hands her a bag with 3 pills in.
BATGIRL
What are they for?
BATMAN
To counteract possible lead poisoning.
BARBARA raises an eyebrow and takes the pills. In the background, Alfred smiles.
-END-
