Cheating Death

Written By Alex Edmonds

INT. BROCKSHIRE SCHOOL - AFTERNOON FADE IN to CLOSE UP of Jerry's feet walking in a hallway CLOSE UP of the back of his body where we see the label "JANITOR" CLOSE UP of his face from the side. TRACKING as he walks. DOWN SHOT from the ceiling still TRACKING him. BANG! a light bulb breaks and the Janitor looks up in disgust. CLOSE UP of ladder being placed on the floor. ClOSE UP of Jerry's hands and feet climbing up, he reaches for the broken light bulb and tosses it aside. DOWN SHOT Jerry proceeds to insert the new light bulb but does not realize the power is on and his hands are wet from where he did not dry them properly and he is fatally electrocuted. FADE TO BLACK. FADE IN EXT. LIMBO - CONTINUOUS CLOSE UP of Jerry lying face down in an unfamiliar environment. He gets up and looks around and notices what seems to be a kiosk hovering out of black smoke with an illusive character behind the glass (Croupier Death). POV SHOT. He walks up to the kiosk looking slightly confused. CLOSE UP of the Death sliding him an old rusty coin through the hole. MID SHOT of Jerry still very confused but he takes the coin anyway and looks back at Death. MID SHOT Death points to the left of Jerry and then grabs the closing barrier of the kiosk and pulls it all the way down. MID SHOT Jerry turns to the left not noticing the kiosk and Death slowly fade away like a cloud behind him. POV Jerry see's a great cemetery entrance and walks towards it. EXT. CEMETERY POV PAN of the cemetery when he enters and he again sees

another figure in the distance. (Grave Digger Death) ZOOMS IN. Death signals to him with a lantern and walks off down the foggy path of the huge cemetery. Jerry follows. MID SHOT, TRACKING Jerry walking down the path whilst looking all around the cemetery but not looking where he is going. SLAM! He bumps into what looks like an enormous grave stone right in the middle of the path. Death is no where to be seen at this point. He soon realises that it is in fact a slot machine and that is why he was given the coin. UP SHOT of Jerry looking at the ghostly grave like machine. He looks at the controls and what the different icons mean. SPLIT SCREEN of him inserting the coin and pulling the lever. CLOSE UP of rollers. Displays 3 thumbs up, he wins the chance at a challenge where by, if completed, he can get his life back. Back to Jerry looking at the slot machine. It and everything else around him slowly starts to dissapear and it gives the illusion of movement - rushing him forward and everything else backward until he is standing in a new environment - a great chasm. INT. CHASM/PIT - CONTINUOUS Thinking he would end up back on Earth, Jerry is looking even more confused at this point and there is a new figure standing there with him (Ring Master Death). MEDIUM SHOT of Death. He does nothing but raise his hand and points to the other side of the chasm. CLOSE UP of Jerry looking at him and then looks across the chasm POV of him looking across the chasm to see a wire strung tightly across (camera rushes forward) and on the other side, a ghostly duplicate still of himself inserting the light bulb right before he died. He now understands what he must do. POV looking down the chasm with his feet at the bottom of the shot. Camera PANS UP to see what lies below. EXTREME LONG SHOT of the chasm as he takes a deep breath and

begins his first step. He makes the first few slow steps and then speeds up a little whilst wobbling from trying to keep his balance. POV of him looking down at his feet trembling across the wire. Death becomes impatient and starts to subtly flick the wire to distract Jerry. Long SHOT behind Jerry. The wire shakes and wobbles a bit but Jerry still stays on but still looks back at Death thinking it was him. MEDIUM SHOT Death whistling looking at his hands in a comical way. Jerry continues and Death gets more frustrated and uses his ringmaster cane as a pogo stick bouncing on the wire. The wire shakes a lot and knock Jerry off balance and he falls but holds on hanging by his hands. CLOSE UP Jerry's face, a beat of sweat coming down his face and turns to Death Death is pointing and laughing Jerry skillfully pulls himself back up onto the wire and carries on. He almost at the end. Back to Death. He gets very angry and swoops his cane up. CLOSE UP of the cane top transforming in a scythe blade. Takes a huge swipe and cuts the wire. LONG SHOT behind Jerry, he jumps of the wire just in the nick of time and the wire falls beneath his feet. CLOSE UP his feet lands on the edge of the platform. EXTREME LONG SHOT he wobbles on the edge but keeps his balance and proceeds to the ghostly ladder. Death throws down his scythe in anger. ClOSE UP of Jerry's hands and feet climbing up the ladder. He reaches for the light bulb and in a flash he is back in the school. He's got his life back. INT. BROCKSHIRE SCHOOL - CONTINUOUS MEDIUM SHOT of him looking at the light bulb pleased. Begins to climb down the ladder. CLOSE UP he puts his foot on one step and it breaks in half making him fall off taking the ladder with him. The ladder falls on top of him and he is dead again.

EXT. LIMBO - CONTINUOUS CLOSE UP of Jerry lying face up in limbo again. A shadow comes over him and Jerry looks up. CLOSE UP Death in his true form waddles his finger at him disapproved. LONG SHOT Death drags him into the Entrance of the Underworld with Jerry not looking impressed. FADE TO BLACK. END