interview with the vampire page8

INT COFFIN.

Louis sleeps, upside down. Sound of bricks being broken, thrown aside. Then of locks breaking.

Louis opens his eyes. The lid opens. He sees -

ARMAND

Above him, reaching down to take his hand.

ARMAND

Hurry. Don't make a sound.

Louis gets out, into a vast long catacomb. Louis runs to the end of it, steps through a broken brick wall.

LOUIS

Where is she? Where's Claudia?

ARMAND

Follow me - that way - through my cell -

He points to his cell at the end of the passage, the foot of the steps. Sound of rain beyond the door.

LOUIS

Not without Claudia. Where is she?

ARMAND

I can't save her.

LOUIS

You can't believe I'd leave without her. Armand! You must save her! You have no choice.

ARMAND

Louis, I can't save her. I will only risk losing you -

Louis runs up the stone stairs. It leads to the ballroom. He enters.

Estelle stands far off, looking at him coolly. She lifts the stage skull mask and laughs softly behind it. A male vampire
slumps in a chair staring softly at Louis.

Silence. Indifference.

Louis sees Lestat sitting in a far corner. he rushes up to Lestat, who looks up at him, confused. He's holding something
crumpled, made of cloth.

LESTAT

You'll come home with me Louis? Fro a little while... until I am myself again.

LOUIS

CLAUDIA!!!

Louis turns round and round in rage. Passive still faces. A door bangs open and shut.

Louis looks again at Lestat. He snatches the cloth from Lestat's hand. We see it is a small torn bloodstained dress.
Claudia's dress.

The door bangs again. Estelle laughs. Rain gusts into the ballroom.

Louis goes to the door, holding the dress. Armand approaches, trying to pull him away, but Louis shrugs him off. He
draws nearer and nearer and stairs at --

INT. BRICK AIRWELL

On the stones lie Claudia and Madeleine, burn to ashes, in each other's arms, like the corpses of his wife and daughter
in the New Orleans graveyard, embracing each other.

Only Claudia's blond hair and Madeleine's red hair remain unburnt.

Louis looks up at the walls of this airwell, many stories to the sky. He cries out in agony.

Santiago appears behind him, staring. Louis roars in horror and attacks Santiago, scattering the ashes into the rainy
wind. Claudia's golden locks fly up into the wind, they whirl around the warring figure.

Armand appears, drags Louis free, pulls him screaming from the airwell, into the ballroom, towards the exit.

Claudia's hair is sucked up by the wind through the airwell, towards the night sky.

EXT. NOTRE DAME DOOR. NIGHT.

Louis is slumped against the stone wall. Armand stands beside him like a guardian angel.

ARMAND

I couldn't prevent it.

LOUIS

I don't believe you. I do not have to read your soul to know that you lie.

ARMAND

Louis, they cannot be brought back. There are some things that are impossible, even for me.

LOUIS

You let them do it.

Louis climbs to his feet.

LOUIS

You held sway over them. They feared you. You wanted it to happen.

ARMAND

Louis, I swear I did not.

LOUIS

I understand you only too well. You let them do it, as I let Lestat turn a child into a demon. As I let her rip Lestat's heart to
pieces! Well I am no longer that passive fool that has spun evil from evil till the web traps the one who made it. Your
melancholy spirit of this century! I know what I must do. And i warn you - you saved me tonight, so I return the favour - do not
go near your cell in the Theatre Des Vampires again.

EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES. DAWN.

Wet and deserted, the streets around the theatre are quiet.

C/U CLOCK

Chiming five a.m.

CLOSE ON LOUIS

Lookin at the paling sky. He is in an alleyway, outside of Armand's cell. He has a huge keg with him. he finds the door
unlocked. He enters.

INT. CELL.

Empty. The hearth is cold. The old coffin is gone. Louis silently closes the door to the passage and blocks it with an
immense bar. He goes in the other door.

INT. THEATRE

Louis hurls kerosene all over the stage, the curtain, the sets, the seats below. He grabs the scythe from the playlet. He
walks out. Dribbling a trail of kerosene behind him.

INT. STAIRS.

Louis walking rapidly down, leaving the trail of kerosene. He creeps quietly into the --

BALLROOM

Leaking kerosene from the cask. He splashes over the coffins that gleam in the dimness.

Then he strikes a match and heaves it into the kerosene. Everything bursts into flame. The trail of kerosene roars into
fire through the ballroom over the coffins and up the stairs. We hear EXPLOSIONS of fire from above.

LOUIS

Shudders all over, fighting the morning weakness. He readies the scythe, like the grim reaper.

ESTELLE rises from her burning coffin, screams and tries to run through the fire but Louis slashes her down with the
scythe and she goes down screaming, her dress in flames.

ESTELLE

Stop him. It's morning. The sunlight. Stop him.

Others rise, choking in the smoke. Screams from everywhere. They are burning.

Louis backs up the stairs to the --

DUNGEON

He can see there a thin pale light under Armand's bolted door. Suddenly --

SANTIAGO

Comes at him from behind. Louis turns. Santiago rushes him in a blur. Louis swings the scythe, too fast to see what he
himself is doing. Santiago's head streaming blood flies through the air.

The body drops, flapping its arms.

SCREAMS come from everywhere.

Another vampire rushes burning towards Louis. He decapitates him in turn. Then he staggers into Armand's cell, and
bars the door the connects it to the ballroom behind him. He staggers to the outer door. There is a thin strip of
daylight, beneath the door, blinding him. He throws it open, and staggers into the daylight.

EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES. DAWN.

Louis staggers out of the burning theatre, into the thin daylight. Great gusts of smoke cover the street. He staggers
through the daylight, weakening, about to fall, when through the clouds of smoke comes -

A MAGNIFICENT HEARSE -

As in a dream, driven by Armand's human boy. The door of the hearse opens. Through the curtains enclosing the
interior, we see Armand. He reaches a hand out to Louis and pulls him inside.

The hearse vanishes through the smoke, leaving the spectacle of the burning theatre.

EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES. TWILIGHT.

The gutted Theatre and ballroom, the roof collapsed, exposed to the evening sky. The life of Paris goes on around it,
oblivious.

INT. LOUVRE. NIGHTS LATER.

It is already a museum by this time and Louis and Armand, fancily dressed and composed, walk through it. They stop
by a Gericault - The Wreck of the Medusa.

LOUIS

You didn't even warm them, did you?

ARMAND

No.

LOUIS

And yet you knew what I would o.

ARMAND

I knew. I rescued you, didn't I? From the terrible dawn.

LOUIS

You were their leader. They trusted you.

ARMAND

You made me see their failings, Louis. You made me look at them with your eyes.

He looks at Louis affectionately.

ARMAND

Your melancholy eyes...

LOUIS

What a pair we are. We deserve each other, don't we?

ARMAND

We are a pair, and that's what counts.

Armand and Louis walk slowly through the Louvre together. Camera follows them for a while, then comes to rest on a
sunrise by Turner.

LOUIS (VO)

We left Paris shortly after. For years we wandered. Greece, Egypt, all the ancient lands. Then, out of curiosity, perhaps,
boredom, who knows what, I took him home, to my America...

INT. MOVIE THEATRE. NIGHT.

A deco cinema of the twenties. Louis and Armand, dressed in the style of the period walk down the aisle through the
crowded seats.

LOUIS (VO)

And there, a technological wonder allowed me see sunrise, for the first time in two hundred years...

On the screen, Murnau's SUNRISE, in black and white. We see a montage of sunrises, from a whole range of movies,
in black and white.

LOUIS (VO)

And what sunrises! Seen as the human eye could never see them. We would sit in the dark, night after night among nameless
humans, entranced with the miracle of light. Silver at first, then as the years progressed in tones of purple, red and my long-lost
blue...

The SUNRISES continue, in colour now, and the backgrounds in them change to the fifties.

LOUIS (VO)

And in time parted. We had become so alike, we both wanted the certainties of loneliness once more.

The lights come up in a different theatre. Louis sitting there, alone, in a half empty theatre, dressed in the clothes of
the fifties. He rises, exits with the others.

EXT. NEW ORLEANS STREET. NIGHT.

Cars rushing by, twentieth-century madness. Louis emerges from the theatre, walks through the streets.

LOUIS (VO)

I had returned to new Orleans. As soon as I smelt the air, I knew I was home. There was sadness there, rich, almost sweet,
like the fragrance of jasmine. I walked the streets, savouring it like a long lost perfume...

EXT. GARDEN DISTRICT. NIGHT.

Louis walks past the many Greek Revival Mansions.

LOUIS (VO)

And then on Prytania Street, only blocks from the Lafayette cemetery I caught the scent of death and it wasn't coming from the
graves...

CAMERA PANS OVER white-walled Lafayette cemetery and its surrounding mansions.

LOUIS (VO)

The scent grew stronger as I walked. Old death. A scent too faint for mortals to detect.

Louis sees rats darting across the street. They rush into a great overgrown garden surrounding a ruined mansion. No
lights.

Louis stops at a rusted gate. He forces it open and enters --

A VERITABLE JUNGLE of overgrown rose and oak tree and wisteria. he sees a faint glimmer of light coming from a
distant glass window of a huge Greek Revival house. He approaches then he sees --

OLD SHRIVELLED CORPSE of a man, long dead and dried up, snagged in the thorny rosevines.

LOUIS looks around. Walks on. Sees another corpse, almost nothing but bones, sinking into the wet earth, the roots of
an oak overgrowing it.

He looks up at the distant light.

He passes a third corpse, caught in wisteria and rose vine, only bones and clothes.

LOUIS (VO)

They were like the doomed princess caught in the thorny vines of Sleeping Beauty's castle. I knew what it meant. A vampire
had lured them here, but had benn to weak to get rid of them.

Louis sees dead rats lying near the steps.

LOUIS (VO)

It spelt weakness, madness, the behavior of a dying animal that pollutes its own lair.

Louis treads carefully on the rotted steps. he moves along the porch. More dead rats. He sees through the floor-length
window into rooms lined with stacked books. Virtually walled with them. Water seeps down from the ceiling, gleaming
as it streaks over the books. The floors of the splendid rooms are bare, except for a rotten French chair by a dead
fireplace. A single mirror reflecting the moon.

Dead rats.

He moves along the porch to the parlour windows. The candle flickers inside. He sees --

HIS POV

Lestat lying on the floor. He is gaunt to near starvation. All his scars are gone, but he is almost a skeleton and his eyes
are enormous in their sockets. His clothes are rags. Blond hair beautiful, as always.

MALLOY'S ENTRANCES FACE SUPERIMPOSED OVER

MALLOY (VO)

Lestat escaped the fire!

LOUIS (VO)

He hadn't even been there. And all those years I thought he was dead.

BACK TO --

Lestat. One tiny candle stands beside him. He reads an early comic, from the turn of the century. Without turning his
head, he speaks.

LESTAT

I'm so glad you're here Louis... I've dreamed of your coming...

LOUIS

Don't try to speak... it's alright...

LESTAT

I didn't mean to let them do it... that Santiago, he tricked me...

LOUIS

That's all past, Lestat.

LESTAT

Yes. Past... she should never have been one of us...

He turns and looks at Louis. Old, fearful, broken.

LESTAT

Still beautiful Louis. You always were the strong one.

LOUIS

Don't fear me, Lestat. I bring you no harm.

LESTAT

You've come back to me, Louis? You've come again to me?

Louis shakes his head. A series of police sirens go by, piercing the night sky. A helicopter goes overhead. Red flashes
illuminate his face. Lestat shivers, covers his ears. He's terrified. Louis touches him, calming him, until the lights pass
over.

LOUIS

It's only a siren...

LESTAT

I can't bear it Louis! The machines out there, that fly and that roar! And such lights! They make the night brighter than the day!

LOUIS

And they frighten you?

LESTAT

You know I love the dark. But there's no dark anymore.

LOUIS

It's false light, Lestat. It can't harm you...

LESTAT

If you stayed with me Louis, I could venture out... little by little... become the old Lestat.

Louis shivers. He releases him.

LOUIS

I have to go now Lestat...

LESTAT

You remember how I was, Louis.. the vampire Lestat...

LOUIS

Yes. I remember...

Lestat shivers.

LESTAT

I tried to tell you Louis... that night in Paris... when I first came to you... no-one can refuse the dark gift, Louis... not even you.

LOUIS

I tried...

LESTAT

And the more you tried, the more I wanted you... a vampire with your beautiful, suffering human heart. And how you suffered...
I need your forgiveness, Louis.

LOUIS

You have it...

Louis walks slowly away from him. Lestat turns back to his candle, his magazine.

LESTAT

You'll come back, Louis... take me out... little by little... and maybe I'll be myself again...

A bluebottle buzzes by him. His hand shoots out and grabs it, squeezes the blood.

LOUIS (WHISPERING)

Yes, Lestat...

ON LOUIS as he walks through the decayed house. His eyes are expressionless.

LOUIS (VO)

And my story ends there. But in fact it ended a long time ago, with Claudia's ashes in that theatre. My love died with her. I
never really changed after that. What became of Lestat I have no idea. I go on, night after night. I feed on those who cross my
path. But all my passion went with her yellow hair. I ma a spirit with perternatural flesh. Detached. unchangeable. Empty.

INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO. NIGHT. (PRESENT)

Malloy, staring at Louis.

MALLOY

No... it can't end like that...

LOUIS

But it has. There is no more to tell.

MALLOY

But you talk about passion, about longing, about things I'll never know in my life! It's still inside you, in every syllable you
speak! And then you tell me it ends like that? Just empty?

LOUIS

It's over, I'm telling you...

MALLOY

You need a new passion, Louis, a new reason to feel... what a story you've told, you don't understand yourself.

Louis looks at the cassettes on the table.

LOUIS

Do what you want with it. Learn what you can. Give the story to others.

Malloy rises.

MALLOY

You have another chance, Louis. Take me! Give me your gift, your power...

Louis is slowly horrified, then outraged and angry.

LOUIS

Is this what you want? You ask me for this after all I've told you?

MALLOY

If I could see what you've seen, feel what you've felt I wouldn't let it end like this! You need a like to the world out there, a
connection... then it won't end like this...

He stares at Louis.

MALLOY

You need me.

Louis turns away.

LOUIS

Dear God. I've failed again, haven't I?

MALLOY

No...

LOUIS

Don't say anymore. The reels are still turning. I have but one chance to show you the meaning of what I've said.

He looks at the boy. Then suddenly grabs him, lifts him off the floor, bares his terrifying fangs and brings them to his
throat. Malloy screams, in involuntary terror.

LOUIS

You like it? You like being food for the immortals? You like dying? Is it beautiful? Is it intense?

Malloy, now terrified, whispers

MALLOY

No... please...

Louis drops him.

LOUIS

Thank God.

Malloy, falls on the floor, terrified. When he looks up, Louis has vanished.

MALLOY

Louis... Louis...

He looks up at the tape. It is still turning.

MALLOY

Holy shit...

He shakes his head. He gets up, and with shaking fingers gathers his tapes. He runs out of the room.

EXT. STREET OUTSIDE. NIGHT.

Malloy running for his car, a convertible. He leaps in and screeches off through the night.

EXT. STREETS. NIGHT.

Malloy whips the car through the tiny streets, in sheer, unfocused terror.

MALLOY

Jesus...

EXT. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. NIGHT.

Malloy driving with streams of traffic over the bridge. He breathes deeply, to calm himself. He takes a tape from his
pocket, and with still shaking hands, sticks it in the deck.

LOUIS (VO)(TAPE) Suddenly a bony hand shoots out from the back seat, pulls his neck backwards --

LESTAT sinks his teeth in his neck.

MALLOY'S hands on the wheel shaking, shuddering, losing their grip.

MALLOY'S eyes bulging, as the life drains out of him. Lestat sucking him like a rat.

THE WHEEL swinging free of Malloy's dying hands.

THE CAR veers wildly into oncoming traffic.

LESTAT drinks regardless

A TRUCK coming towards them, about to crush the car.

LESTAT'S BONY HAND grabs the wheel, jerks it as he drinks.

THE CAR misses the truck by inches.

LESTAT throws Malloy to one side, climbs into the front seat.

THE TAPE playing

LOUIS (VO) (TAPE)

My invitation was open to anyone. Sailors, whores, thieves. But it was a vampire that accepted...

ON LESTAT at the wheel, the corpse of Malloy in the passenger seat. He smiles. We can see the blood renewing him.

LESTAT

Dear Louis... will I ever forget?

EXT. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. NIGHT.

Lestat drives on, the car a tiny speck against the bridge, the sea, the sky beyond, with the first fingers of light
spreading through it.

THE END.