INT.

MASTER KIMS SCHOOL ANOTHER DAY, AFTERNOON

DAN enters the school and bows to MASTER KIM. DAN I just want to thank you for everything. wanted to say goodbye. MASTER KIM Where are you going? DAN Nowhere - Im just not going to train anymore. MASTER KIM Why? DAN Because its done me more harm than good. MASTER KIM (thinks, probes) Is it because that girl you used to bring here? DAN (hesitates) Yes and no. MASTER KIM What happened? DAN I got in some fights around her and I hurt some people that didnt deserve it pretty badly. MASTER KIM I see (thinks) Do you remember the first time you brought her here? When you finally beat BILLY? Of course. forget. DAN That type of thing is hard to And I

MASTER KIM Do you know why you beat him? DAN I thought about it for a while but I never could figure it out. So many things were happening at the time that I couldnt make (CONTINUED)

DAN (contd) much sense of anything. (thinks) Are you saying I beat BILLY because of her? MASTER KIM (shakes head) Your abilities were forming even earlier than that. They were forming the day you sat and watched the others train. You were working towards something, but this girl just helped you get closer. She helped release something that was always inside of you. But it came out too quickly. You didnt know how to handle it. DAN I dont understand. MASTER KIM All martial artists must use emotions. It is needed for your development. If you ignore them, youll never be a complete martial artist. DAN I know that. MASTER KIM You say you know - but you still dont understand. To know and to understand are two different things and this has always been your problem. Sit down. DAN sits. MASTER KIM Your technique was fine, but it was useless because you couldnt use the love, joy, hate pain that was inside you. This girl helped you use them, but you held them back for so long, so they came out of you like a flood, filling you with darkness. (pauses) Theres a part of your training youve ignored. As long as you ignore it, you will never be complete. (thinks) Do you know the story of Bodidharma, the founder of kung fu? DAN Of course.

MASTER KIM Do you remember what happened when he first visited the temple of Shaolin? DAN The monks they didnt welcome him. They didnt see him as worthy of entering the temple. MASTER KIM So what did he do? DAN He sat in a cave and stared at a wall for nine years. When he came out of the cave and approached the gates of the temple, his cosmic radiance was so great that the monks had no other choice but to let him in. MASTER KIM (truthfully) Have you ever stared at the wall of a cave for nine years? DAN Of course not. There arent any caves in the city. Where am I gonna even find one if I wanted one? MASTER KIM (shakes head) The cave isnt out there. Its inside of you. It is wherever you decide to sit, sit perfectly still. Find that place, and all your questions will be answered. DAN (confused) So even if I find that place - then what? Nine years? Nine years? How am I supposed to live? Eat? Survive? MASTER KIM (impatient) If you must - stare for ninety years! Nine hundred years! (calms down) The truth you seek is in a place beyond this world. Beyond its obligations to the body, to money, to duty, to society to family. Sit perfectly still and you will see yourself exactly as you are. You will know why you got in the fights why you beat BILLY and why this girl left you. And you will know exactly what you have to do.

DAN (thinks) Thank you sir. DAN rises. Both men now bow to each other as something more than student and teacher. DAN exits. INT. DANS APARTMENT LATER THAT DAY

DAN enters. His apartment is now littered with various discarded fast food containers. Books, videos, and music are strewn everywhere. DAN sits on his bed, his head still swimming. His eyes scan his bedroom, surveying the sum of his life. He notices some videos remain at the bottom of the VIDEO bookshelf. He moves in closer and examines them. They are Gandhi and Neon Genesis Evangelion. DAN recalls a BRUCE LEE quote. A JKD symbol appears next to the quote. DAN (v.o.) Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality. DAN takes the videos. As he stands, he notices a copy of Enter the Dragon on the upper shelf, and takes this copy as well. He watches GANDHI first- various clips of GANDHI bleed interspersed with images of DAN watching intently. One scene is GANDHI explaining to a British clergyman (CHARLIE ANDREWS) non-violent resistance while walking down a street. GANDHI and ANDREWS see three street thugs loitering ahead of them. CHARLIE ANDREWS Perhaps we should GANDHI Doesn't the New Testament say: "If your enemy strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left"? CHARLIE ANDREWS Well, I think perhaps the phrase was used metaphorically. I don't think our LordGANDHI I'm not so sure. I have thought about it a great deal, and I suspect He meant you must show courage, be willing to take a blow, several blows, to show: you will not strike back, nor will you be turned aside. And when you do that, it calls on something in (CONTINUED)

GANDHI (contd) human nature something that makes his hatred for you decrease and his respect increase. I think Christ grasped that, and I have seen it work. (to thugs) Good morning. THUG #1 Get off the pavement you bloody coon. BLEED TO: DAN watches a scene where GANDHI speaks to a Hindu about his guilt for killing a Muslim boy. GANDHI I have the cure for your sin. Go find a Muslim boy, and raise him a Muslim. BLEED TO: scene where Life magazine photographer MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE interviews GANDHI, questioning if non-violent resistance is a solution to Hitler. BOURKE-WHITE But do you really believe that you could use non-violence against someone like Hitler? GANDHI Not without defeats and great pain. But are there no defeats in this war? No pain? What you cannot do is accept injustice from Hitler or anyone. You must make the injustice visible. Be prepared to die like a soldier to do so. BLEED TO: the final moment where GANDHI is shot. Oh God. Movie ends. the VCR. GANDHI Oh God. Oh God.

DAN loads Neon Genesis Evangelion (NGE) into

[Note: NGE is a Japanese amine that features teenagers saving the world by piloting giant robot-humanoids (Evas), utilizing weapons like a knife (Progressive Knife) that penetrates an invisible force field (AT or Absolute Terror Field) of the invading enemies called Angels. Evas also possess the AT field as part of their weapons arsenal. The hero of this TV series is a troubled boy named Ikari Shinji (SHINJI), whose father (Ikari Gendou) oversees the Eva program.] Scenes from NGE bleed interspersed with bleeds of DAN watching. One pivotal scene is SHINJIs Eva gripping an Angel disguised as a human named KAORU.

KAORU To be or not to be. That makes no difference to me. You must kill me to let the humans live. Goodbye SHINJI. SHINJIs Eva decapitates KAORU by squeezing him. The final scenes of NGE involve the world in Armageddon. Humanitys survival rests in SHINJIs hands. The Armageddon is hauntingly beautiful, filled with allegorical imagery. Finally, DAN watches Enter the Dragon (ETD) - the collectors edition, which includes key deleted scenes not included in its theatre release. This includes a scene where BRUCE LEE discusses while walking with an elder monk his experiences from a previous fight the elder monk (OLD MAN, 70s) witnessed. OLD MAN What are your thoughts when facing your opponent? BRUCE LEE There is no opponent. OLD MAN And why is that? BRUCE LEE (stops) Because the word I does not exist. OLD MAN So, continue. BRUCE LEE and OLD MAN walk. BRUCE LEE A good fight should be like a small play, but played seriously. A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Not thinking, yet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come. When my opponent expands, I contract. And when he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, I do not hit. (stops, raises fist) It hits all by itself. OLD MAN Now you must remember: the enemy has only images and illusions, behind which he hides his true motives. Destroy the image, and you will break the enemy. BLEED TO: Mirror Room fight where BRUCE LEE fights an

adversary named HAN (mid-40s) in a room filled with mirrors. The mirrors initially confuse BRUCE LEE with false images of HAN. Eventually, he remembers the words of the old monk. OLD MAN (v.o.) Now, you must remember: the enemy has only images and illusions, behind which he hides his true motives. Destroy the image, and you will break the enemy. BRUCE LEE breaks as many mirrors as possible, eventually revealing the real HAN. BRUCE LEE side kicks HAN into a spear, impaling him. Movie ends. DANs cup is now emptied. He moves without thought. He walks to the BRUCE LEE shrine and tears down all the images. He finds a spot in front of the heavy bag, and sits Indian-style in front of it, closing his eyes and breathing deeply into his nostrils and exhaling through his mouth in a controlled fashion. As he meditates, space and time dilate. DAN feels himself rapidly rise above his body into outer space with tremendous velocity. We pull away by a power of ten into the vastness of the universe to a terminating point where we find ourselves back inside DAN: subatomically, then molecularly, then biologically, through the skin, and finally outside of DAN again. DAN calmly opens his eyes. DAN meditates again, this time turning the journey inward. DANs inner world magnifies through the skin all the way to a subatomic level, then back into the vastness of the universe into galaxies, then the solar system, the Earth, and finally back into DAN. DAN calmly opens his eyes. DAN meditates again, this time within his own subconscious. Flashes of physical and psychological abuse by KEN are displayed, with abuse used as a means of control. Images over the course of DANS life overlap rapidly. Images increase in pitch and intensity until we see the last instance DAN visited KEN. DAN opens his eyes as if yanked out of a nightmare. His face is glassy still for an extended beat, contemplating all that has transpired. He then closes his eyes serenely and meditates a final time for an indiscriminate duration. Time elapses. The sun rises and sets and days begin and end countless times over, and finally DAN calmly opens his eyes. DISSOLVE TO: DAN sits on the raised wooden floor, dressed in a black button-up shirt, black tie, black pants, black shoes, and a black trench coat: gaunt and emaciated from weeks of fasting and meditating. The apartment is restored to immaculate. The door upstairs opens. TONY descends and sits next to DAN as DAN ties his shoes.

TONY Cool. You cleaned up. You had us worried for a bit but I figured it best not to bother you. Looked like you were laying down your sword at the gates of the Garden of Eden. DAN Something like that. TONY Hey man - I know shits gotta be bad since that girl left. I could see she meant something to you But fuck it. Bitches are bitches. TRISHA (o.s.) Quit callin bitches bitches! DAN (extended beat) TONY - I never got a chance to thank you for letting me live here. I know I couldve been a better friend, and I couldve been cooler to you. After today Ill try to be a better friend to you. TONY Dude - it is what it is. Youve always had some cool music, and youve always been cool to me so fuck it. TRISHA (o.s.) Watch the language! TONY (carelessly exhales) I gotta tell you something DAN - Ive always admired you. I dont completely understand why you do what you do, or what made you the way you are but at least youre driven. (chuckles) Look at me. I smoke way too much weed for my own good but whatever. (thinks) I should do something with my life. Maybe write a screenplay about you living in my basement with your BRUCE LEE shrine (notices BRUCE LEE shrine missing) Whatever. We should hang out like we used to. I kinda miss the good ole days when we used to just chill. We got a spare room upstairs. We wouldnt charge you extra. (beat, nonchalant) Honestly - my old lady wanted me to ask. She worries about you sometimes.

TRISHA (o.s.) Live upstairs DANNY! We like you! (screams playfully) And quit callin me old lady! DAN Id like that. TONY Personally - I dont know how you can handle it down here. This place doesnt flood too often but if it happened to me just once Fuck. Whatever. (beat, rise) Were gonna watch Ninja Scroll upstairs. You down? DAN Id like to but theres somethin I gotta do today. TONY (notices DANs outfit) No offense dude but whats with the outfit? DAN Its why I cant watch Ninja Scroll. Whatever. TONY Move upstairs when youre ready.

TONY and DAN tap fists. TONY returns upstairs. DAN goes to the mirror and straightens his appearance, and then walks out the door.