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Danny, between two cops, walks out of the hospital side door and into a police van. Bandages gone
now. CUT TO Danny being unloaded from van, still escorted, at airport. He is walked to a twin-engine
plane. CUT TO interior of plane. Five youths are already aboard: two blacks, two Puerto Ricans, one
white. Each is sitting, flanked by a white guard. A sixth guard takes Danny's arm at the entry-hatch and
sits him in the only remaining pair of seats. Danny tries to look cool, but he's really delighted to be next to
the window.
Interior of a "classroom"&
A large room. No windows, cream-coiored walls, perfectly blank. About fifty boys are fidgeting in metal
folding-chairs. Danny is sitting toward the rear. All the boys are now dressed in identical gray coveralls.
Two uniformed guards stand by the room's only exit, a pair of large double doors.
The boys are mostly quiet; they don't know each other, they're trying to size up the situation. Hansen
comes through the double doors (which a guard quickly closes behind him) and strides to the
two-steps-up platform in the front of the room. He has a small microphone in his hand. He smiles and
tries to look confident as he speaks.
"I'm not going to say much. I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Dr. Hansen. I'm not a medical doctor, I'm a
specialist in education& "
A loud collective groan.
"No, no& " Hansen chuckles slightly. "No, it's not what you think. I work with teaching machines. You
know, computers? Have you heard of them? Well, never mind& "
One of the kids stands up and starts for the door. A guard points a cattle prod toward the kid's chair.
He gets the idea, goes back sullenly and sits down.
"You're here whether you like it or not," Hansen continues, minus the smile. "I'm confident that you'll
soon like it. We're going to change you. We're going to make your lives worth living. And it doesn't
matter in the slightest whether you like it or not. You'll learn to like it soon enough. No one's going to hurt
you, unless you try to get rough. But weare going to change you."
Interior of the "reading room"&
A much smaller room. Danny and Hansen are alone in it. Same featureless plastic walls. No furniture
except an odd-looking chair in the middle of the floor. It somewhat resembles an electric chair. Danny is
trying to look contemptuous to cover up his fear.
"You ain't gettin' me in that!"
"It's perfectly all right; there's nothing here to hurt you. I'm merely going to determine how well you can
read."
"I can read."
"Yes, of course." Doubtfully. "But how well? That's what I need to know."
"I don't see no books around."
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"When you sit in the chair and the electrodes are attached to your scalp& "
"You gonna put those things on my head?"
"It's completely painless."
"No you ain't!"
Hansen speaks with great patience. "There's no use arguing about it. If I have to, I'll get the guards to
strap you in. But it will be better if you cooperate. Mr. Carter the one you call, uh, 'Spade,' I
believe he took the test without hesitating a moment. You wouldn't want him to know that we had to
hold you down, would you?"
Danny glowers, but edges toward the chair. "Mother-humpin' sonofabitch& "
Series of fadeins and fadeouts&
Danny in the "reading room," sitting in the chair, cranium covered by electrode network. The wall before
him has become a projection screen, and he is reading the words on it. MUSIC UNDER is Marine
Corps Band playing Cornell UniversityAlma Mater ("Far Above Cayuga's Waters& ")
DANNY (hesitantly): The car& hummed& cut& quiet-ly to it-self&
FADEOUT
FADEIN
DANNY (tense with concentration): So my fellow Americans& ask not what your country can do for
you&
FADEOUT
FADEIN
DANNY: "Surrender?" he shouted. "I have not yet begun to fight!"
FADEOUT
FADEIN
DANNY (enjoying himself): Robin pulled his bowstring back carefully, knowing that the Sheriff and all
the townspeople were watching him&
FADEOUT
Interior of Brockhurst's office&
Hansen is pacing impatiently before the desk, an intense smile on his face.
"I tell you, it's succeeding beyond my fondest hopes! Those boys are soaking it up like sponges. That
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Romano boy alone has absorbed more knowledge& "
Brockhurst is less than optimistic. "They're really learning?"
"Not only learning. They're beginning to change. The process is working. We're changing their attitudes,
their value systems, everything. We're going to make useful citizens out of them!"
"All of them?"
"No, of course not. Only the best of them: half a dozen, I'd say, out of the fifty here Romano, 'Spade'
Carter, three or four others. At least six out of fifty, better than one out of ten. And this is just the first
batch! When we start processing larger numbers of them& "
Brockhurst cuts Hansen short with a gesture. "Do you actually think these students of yours will go
back to their old neighborhoods and start to rehabilitate their fellow gang members?"
"Yes, of course they will. They'll have to! They're being programmed for it!"
Interior of library&
Danny is sitting at a reading table, absorbed in a book. Bookshelves line the walls. A lumpy-faced
redhead sits one table away, also reading. Hansen enters quietly, walks to Danny. "Hello Danny. How's it
going today?"
Danny looks up and smiles pleasantly. "Fine, Mr. Hansen."
"I just got the computer's scoring of your economics exam, You got the highest mark in the class."
"Did I? Great. I was worried about it. Economics is kind of hard to grasp. Those booster pills you gave
me must have helped."
"You did extremely well& What are you reading?"
"Biography, by Harold Lamb. It's about Genghis Khan."
Hansen nods. "I see, look, it's about time we started thinking about what you're going to do when you
go back home. Why don't you drop over to my office tonight, after supper?"
"Okay."
"See you then."
"Right."
Hansen moves away, toward the other boy. Danny closes his book, stands up. He turns to the
bookshelf directly behind him and reaches unhesitatingly for another volume. He puts the two books
under his arm and starts for the door. The title of the second book isMein Kampf .
Brockhurst's office&
Six boys are standing in front of Brockhurst's desk, the six Hansen spoke of. They are now dressed in
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