Script Analysis: “Destroyer” — Scene By Scene Breakdown

Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay:

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire.

For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

• We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.
• By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.
• A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

Today: Destroyer (2018). You can download a PDF of the script here.

Written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi.

IMDb plot summary: A police detective reconnects with people from an undercover assignment in her distant past in order to make peace.

Destroyer
Scene by Scene Breakdown
By Roo Black
GoIntoTheStory.com

Pg. 1–4: We meet Detective Erin Bell, she’s in her car, described as “pretty rough”. A voice on her radio dispatches a possible homicide. Erin shows up at the crime scene at Bowtie Project Park, just after dawn, gets disapproving looks from the cops on the scene, and Detectives Kudra and Gavras dismiss her. Bell examines the victim, a male, face down on the ground, red jacket, a tattoo on his neck, and $100 dollar bills stained with purple dye are under his body and scattered around him. He was shot three times with a pistol left at the scene, a .38 with red tape on the handle. Kudra tells Bell to leave, but she responds with, “What about if I know who did this?” Bell goes back to her car, disturbed and distant, and we hear the sound of a skateboarder trying to land a trick and failing.

CUT TO THE TITLE: DESTROYER.

Pg. 4–5: Bell at her precinct, Lt. Oshima comments that she must live there now, asks if she’s getting her mail there. We find her at her desk, looking at an envelope she found there, addressed to her. She pulls an ink stained $100 dollar bill out of the envelope, just like the ones at the crime scene. In a panic, she puts the hundred dollar bill in an evidence bag and leaves.

Pg. 5–6: As Bell drives, we hear a V.O. from her past, a male voice, SILAS, calling someone (presumably Bell) a “little dog” and “a hungry little mutt.” We rotate around to see the back of Bell’s neck, a scar where a tattoo was removed, the same shape as the one on the body in the park.

Pg. 6–10: Bell meets Gil Lawson, FBI. The two seem to be old friends. She tells him Silas is back, reveals the ink-stained bill and asks him to look it up for her, and then forget about it. We find out through their conversation that whatever happened with Silas, happened 17 years ago, and that Bell has a daughter named Shelby who is 16. More bits of backstory as Lawson looks up the numbers on the bill — this thing with Silas involved a bank and there’s still 3 or 4 million out there. The numbers are a match. Lawson wants to know where she got the hundred dollar bill but she won’t tell him. He tries to talk about what happened, says “We put you and Chris there … too green … you weren’t ready.” Gil asks her if she’s sure she wants to go down this hole again, wants to know if she ever talked to anyone about what happened, invites her to Bible study.

Pg. 10–12: A flashback from 17 years ago, a younger Bell, late 20’s, sits with Chris, FBI agent, in a bar, going over their cover story so they get it right, details like where they met and where they went to school.

Pg. 12- 13: Back to the present, Bell in a bar, getting plastered, talks to some guy, tries to do a trick that involves salt and pepper, but fails at it. She gets a call.

Pg. 13–16: Bell meets “Eddie” who called her, he’s followed her daughter Shelby to a bar on Sunset Blvd. Bell goes in the bar and finds Shelby with a guy named Jay, in his 20’s. Bell is drunk and she causes a scene, which angers Shelby. The two obviously have a strained relationship. Bell threatens Jay with statutory rape, then slaps him. The bouncer throws them all out.

Pg. 16–19: Bell makes a call outside the bar and her partner, Antonio, shows up and gives her a ride, she knows she shouldn’t be driving in her condition. He asks if she’s okay and Bell says she’s got shit to deal with. He wants to know what it is, but Bell says she just needs room to move and wants him to cover for her. Antonio doesn’t like it, but he agrees.

Pg. 19: Bell’s house, a brief scene where we watch her eat, almost like a dog, huddled over her food, protecting it. She raises her head as if she’s heard something, looks down the street but there’s nothing there.

Pg. 19–22: Bell goes to see Ethan, “a man in his forties”. He’s working on a house, he’s a HVAC guy. From the conversation, it sounds like Ethan is Shelby’s dad. Bell tells him she saw Shelby at a bar. Ethan says Shelby doesn’t come home much, doesn’t stay at school. They talk about Jay. Ethan tells Bell she needs to talk to Shelby again, but she says she just pulled a case and it’s gonna take her away for a while.

Pg. 22–25: Bell pays a visit to some guy names Taz. She tells him there’s a murder weapon and it smells like it came from him, a burner with no serial, built from spare parts. She wants to see a list of everyone he sells to. He denies it, and Bell reaches into his truck and takes out a duffel bag full of guns. She says she’s taking the guns and he can have them back when he gives her the list. Another guy shows up and Taz warns Bell not to do it. She throws the bag in her car and drives away with Taz yelling at her that she’s “fucking up”.

Pg. 25–26: Bell’s house, the duffel bag on the floor, a V.O from Chris takes us into-

Pg. 26: Flashback, 17 years ago, in a bar. Bell and Chris, he wants her to kiss him. He says it’s so he won’t look surprised the first time they kiss in public, and Bell kisses him. They smile, Bell asks him if he can fake liking that and he says, “Probably, yeah.” There’s obviously a spark between them. The sound of a phone call as we go back to the present.

Pg. 26–29: The caller shows up outside Bell’s house, it’s Gil Lawson, he has a bottle of wine, says he was thinking about her. Bell is suspicious, and Gil says he’s worried about her, he doesn’t think it’s a good idea for her to be digging back into what happened 17 years ago, he says it’s isn’t healthy to be doing that, and Bell asks, “Who says it isn’t healthy?” She clearly suspects someone has put him up to this. He tells her to just let it be, and leaves.

Pg. 29–32: Bell, in her car, headed out of the city, east, makes a phone call to a prison and asks to interview a prisoner about an open case, and is told that prisoner number 40054063, Toby Soll, was released the end of last month on a “compassionate release.” Road signs to Palm Desert, we have a series of INTERCUT flashbacks:

-FBI Conference Room, 17 years go: Dossiers and files on a table, a hand sorting through them, Gil describing “ … several loosely connected groups, gangs, anarchist collectives …”

-House Bell grew up in, 17 years ago: Bell moves through the house, two young men on the couch, her brothers?

-FBI Conference Room, Gil continues: “Mostly drug related, but guns are starting to flow through, and we think there’s a hard center in there somewhere that has moved into armed robbery, planning more, interested in affiliating with some of the Bureau’s bigger targets regionally.”

-Bell’s room, she doesn’t want to be there, rummages through drawers, grabs a few things. There’s an old punk t-shirt.

-Diner, Chris and Bell, their looks and demeanor changed. Bell wears the punk t-shirt and her hair is chopped.

-FBI Conference Room, Gil says, “We’re placing our agent (Chris) undercover with a local asset. Sheriff’s deputy. This is her.” And a picture of Bell in uniform comes up.

- Diner, back to Chris and Bell, both nervous, “twitchy.”

-FBI Conference Room, Gil continues: “One of our CI’s has a cousin in one of the groups, this kid by the name of Toby Heath. The CI will make the introduction.”

-Diner, the Informant Cousin meets up with Chris and Bell, Toby slides in next to Chris, described as “young, skinny, nervous …” He says, “Wanna come to a party?” Bell smiles, and suddenly there’s music, getting loud and fast

-Gang house, the windows are darkened, a junked yard. Bell and Chris enter the packed house, filled with smoke and the loud music. Toby puts his arms around their shoulders and says, “Let’s meet the man.” They enter the living room where everyone is looking at SILAS, he looks up and we close in on his eyes, eyes that “could make you do anything.” END OF INTERCUTS.

Pg. 32–38: Bell pays a visit to Toby at his mother’s house, he is in a hospital bed in the living room, dying from cancer, has a couple of months left. Shelves in the room are lined with owl figurines and Toby asks Bell to turn one of them he doesn’t like around, he doesn’t want it to be the last thing he sees. Bell tells Toby that Silas is back and she needs to bring him in. She says Silas is coming but Toby doesn’t care because he’s dying anyway. Bell tells him not to go out like this, to do something good for once. Toby insists he doesn’t know where Silas is, but he can give her “Arturo”, but he wants something in return, a sexual favor. Bell tells him no, she’s fuming mad, but she finally gives in and gives him what he wants. When she’s done, Toby tells her where to find Arturo, at a church, giving out free legal advice to immigrants. We get another piece of what happened 17 years before when Toby says that the “that girl in the bank was just fucking dumb … same with Chris. He didn’t have to be a hero.” On the way out, Bell turns the owl back around and tells Toby to have a nice month.

Pg. 38: Bell sits outside the church waiting, it’s closed up. She dials Shelby but doesn’t get an answer. She checks the church schedule. Shelby calls her back.

Pg. 38–41: Bell meets her at a Chinese place, she tells Shelby she wants to start fresh. She says she needs to be able to find her, especially now. Jay shows up and Shelby wants Bell to apologize to him. Bell refuses. She tells Shelby she needs her to be at Ethan’s every night and to get back in school. Jay keeps interrupting and Bell tells him to stay the fuck out of it, at which point Shelby leaves.

Pg. 41–49: Bell goes back to the church, it’s night, she locates Arturo who bolts. Bell chases him down a commercial street, then a residential street, into the wilderness, up a steep hill to Elysian Park. She finally catches him. Arturo is scared, he’s been hiding from Silas. Bell tells him she doesn’t care about him, she just needs Silas. He gives her a name, a lawyer, “DiFranco … He helps launder the money and distributes it. Petra sees him for that every once in a while. Petra is still with Silas.” We get a flashback to Petra, “a hungry, unnerving 20 year old woman.” Arturo gives Bell the information she needs and ends with, “I wish I thought you could get him.”

Pg. 49–52: Bell at her house, on her steps, she stands up and we cut to-

Another flashback: the gang house, there’s beer, weed, guns. Chris and Toby playing Madden football. Silas making out with a woman on the couch, Petra sulking. Arturo comes back from a beer run and sits down with Bell, she strokes his head. Silas takes notice and doesn’t like it. He grabs a gun, takes a few bullets out, spins the barrel, and tells Arturo, “Let’s see if it’s your time.”

Back to the present, Bell driving south on the 405. The flashback continues:

Silas challenging Arturo, Chris tries to intervene, tells Arturo not to do this. Silas grabs another gun and threatens Chris so he backs down. Arturo is hyperventilating, crying, but lifts the gun and pulls the trigger. It clicks. Silas laughs and says Arturo should stop letting people push him around. Arturo storms out. Chris picks the gun up and checks the chamber, announces that there were “three fucking bullets in there.” Silas says, “Fuck, really?” Winks at Chris.

Pg. 52–59: Bell arrives at DiFranco’s house in Palos Verdes. Bell is buzzed through a security gate, goes around the side. DiFranco’s teenage son, RYAN, is in a batting cage across the yard. A BODYGUARD beckons Bell through patio doors into the living room. While DiFranco huffs and puffs at his son in the batting cage, Bell tells him why she’s there. She says he’s funneling money to Silas Howe, money from the Palm Springs job. DiFranco laughs it off. She brings Petra up, and he claims to be golfing friends with her father, says he helped her out when she got into trouble with drugs twenty years ago. Bell calls bullshit, she says Silas and Petra used DiFranco to hide their money from the bank job. She guesses the money is almost gone, and that’s why Silas has resurfaced. Bell wants to know where the next drop is, but DiFranco tries to call her bluff, says she’s out there on her own, playing out some vendetta, and he knows her story. He asks her if she thinks it was her stupidity that got those people killed, at which point Bell snaps and moves on him, but the bodyguard punches her in the kidney and she goes down. He kicks her in the side, takes her gun away. DiFranco tells Bell she’ll never catch Silas because he’s in her head and he’s smarter than her. The bodyguard leads Bell out, but she starts retching and he pushes her into a bathroom. Inside, she collects herself, picks up a stone soap dish, opens the door and smashes the guard upside the temple. He falls and she hits him again, takes her gun, and heads back to the patio. She finds DiFranco outside with his son and she smashes him with the soap dish, too. He falls to the grass where she keeps right on hitting him. His son screams for her to stop, grabs for his phone, but DiFranco tells him not to call anyone. DiFranco confirms that Silas is almost out of money. He says the next payout is Wednesday in Griffith Park, that it will be Petra there, not Silas. Bell tells him to move it up to tomorrow.

Pg. 59: Bell at her house, coughing, wincing in pain. She feels her lower back where the bodyguard hit her, then BLACK, she’s on her knees, half on the bed, and she sleeps.

Pg. 59–60: Back in the past, at the gang compound, firelight, only Silas and Bell awake. This is where Silas calls her “ … a hungry little mutt … you want …. You want us. A family.” He says she’s a liar, asks if she’s used to being noticed for what she is. Bell fears for a moment that her cover has been made, but he continues, says she wants to be seen, she wants to be powerful, but she can’t do what she wants because she’s ashamed somebody’s going to see her and she’s gonna get punished for what she wants. We get the feeling that Silas is pretty accurate in his description of Bell. Finally, he tells her “nobody’s fucking watching.”

Pg. 60–62: After a call from Ethan wakes her up, Bell goes to the hospital-Shelby is there, she has a fractured wrist. She was at a club with Jay and he got into a fight with some guy. The guy’s girlfriend started hitting Shelby and Shelby fell on her wrist. Bell goes through Shelby’s wallet, finds a fake ID, tells her she’s in over her head and asks her where she thinks this ends up.

Pg. 63–64: Outside the hospital, Antonia shows up. He wants to know why she isn’t answering her phone. Gil has been calling him, wanting to know where she’s at and what she’s doing, and Taz is calling saying she’s holding his shit. Antonia wants her to deal him in on whatever it is she’s doing, but she insists she is looking out for him. She says, “This thing I’m on — this guy I’m looking for — I own it. Just me. Okay? Can you hold on for a bit?” Antonio nods and Bell walks away.

Pg. 64–65: Bell in her car at Griffith Park, watches DiFranco, waits, Petra finally arrives. DiFranco puts the bag down and leaves, Petra picks it up and goes off to a car in the parking lot. She gets in the car driven by someone else and Bell follows. She follows them to Petra’s apartment. Petra and the driver get out and go inside and Bell waits in the dark.

Pg. 65–66: Flashback, the gang house, Bell in the hallway hears a conversation through a partially opened bedroom door — Silas and Petra discussing the bank job. “How big?” asks Silas, and Petra says, “Very, very fucking big. Huge money.” Bell goes back into the living room where we see Chris, “using, enmeshed in the group in every way.” Chris and Bell go into another bedroom and kiss, no longer pretending.

Pg. 66- 67: It’s morning, Bell has waited all night outside Petra’s place. Petra and her friend finally emerge, get into a Honda, and drive off. Bell follows and after a while the car pulls over, Petra gets out with sunglasses and a large handbag, and the driver pulls away. Bell follows as Petra walks up the street. Halfway down the block Petra meets another woman also wearing sunglasses and a long coat. Then suddenly four men emerge from a sprinter van, wearing masks. They head right toward a bank, and Petra and the other woman put masks on and follow. Bell stares at one of the men, his long, dark hair from under the mask, and a flash back to the past, Silas glancing back at Petra, the same long, dark hair. It’s Silas, and they’re about to rob a bank.

Pg. 67–68 Guns come out, and the group is inside the bank. Bell calculates the situation, this is not what she wanted. She curses, has no other choice, reaches for the radio and calls in a “211 in progress. SoCal Mutual bank, 9000 block Aviation Boulevard, at least six armed suspects.” She adds, “Silent approach. Off duty LAPD on scene, request SWAT”, punches the wheel and curses again, then gets out.

68–70: Bell pulls her sidearm and starts toward the bank, then turns back. A metronomic beat plays as Bell opens her trunk and takes out an MP5 submachine gun, heads back toward the bank. She waves civilians out of the way and moves into the lobby to the bank entrance. The blinds have been pulled, but she’s able to see through an opening. The guard and the customers are on the floor. Silas is speaking but Bell can’t hear what he’s saying. The situation looks unstable. Inside the bank, the crew is shouting, all over the place, Petra tries to calm them. Bell keeps her eyes on Silas. Thinking.

Outside, the first police SUV arrives, the officers see Bell, she holds her badge up. The two officers, one male and one female, join Bell in the lobby. Inside the bank, an argument between two of the gang members. The situation deteriorating. A customer runs for the door and one of the men in a camo mask stops her. Bell tells the officers they have to go in now. Inside, the customer’s hands are up, the masked guy has his gun out, angry. People are screaming.

Pg. 70–72: Bell and the cops rush in. Camo masked guy swings his gun around and Bell fires, kills him. Silas makes a run for it, Bell shoots but misses. Bell moving through gunfire, firing back. The male cop shoots the long-coated woman, and another gang member shoots him. He falls and his partner pulls him behind a planter. Silas runs for the back door and Bell gives chase. Petra and the two remaining gang members fire at her, and then disappear into the back after Silas. Bell reloads. Bell heads into the back of the bank, the manager’s office is empty, the door outside open.

Pg. 72–73 Bell moves outside, civilians everywhere. Confusion. Panic. Then shots come at her and she has to duck for cover. She can’t return fire because of all the civilians. The van rolls away, with Silas in it. Petra screams at the van. Petra and two men run up the street, one of them firing back at the bank. Sirens are heard now, blocks away. Petra falls hard on the ground, and the men keep going. Petra is up, limping, red and blue lights visible now coming toward them. They go around a corner and Bell runs to her car.

Pg. 73–74 Bell in her car, looking for Petra. She spots the three, weaves up the street to follow. They reach and intersection and cross. Petra can’t keep up with the men. She limps, looks around. The men veer up some stairs into an establishment, but Petra sees something else. Bell sees Petra just as she enters a storefront. She passes the entrance, turns into an alley behind the buildings.

Pg. 74–77: Inside the Cool Coast Creamery, there’s families, teenagers, two lines, three deep. Petra gets in one line, tries to fit in. In line next to her, a mother and a seven year old boy. He’s looking at Petra, at her left knee, bleeding. He looks up at her, she glances at him. He’s fascinated by her. She moves toward the counter, looking at the manager. The door opens and Bell comes toward Petra, Glock 9 up. “Against the wall get against the wall,” Bell tells her. Petra says “Fuck you” and reaches into her bag, but Bell shoves her “five feet into the wall.” Her bag drops, the contents spilling out. Bell shouts again to put her hands on the wall, and notices the little boy going to the wall, right next to Petra. On the ground, Petra’s .357 revolver at the boy’s feet. Petra grabs the boy but Bell hits her in the face with her gun. Bell grabs the boy and throws him across the floor to safety. Petra hits Bell, and Bell hits her back, “furiously”, and then a customer tries to get involved, tries to separate them. Bell throws him off and she and Petra continue fighting it out. Petra stomps Bell in the chest and gut and tries to run, but Bell grabs her foot, drags her back down, hits her some more.

The mother and children across the room try to leave but a cop running past tells them to stay inside. More cops with guns run up the street toward where Petra’s accomplishes disappeared.

Bell pushes Petra toward the kitchen, tells the customers to lock the door and stay inside, then tells them she’s a cop. Outside, shots are heard as Bell pushes Petra through to the kitchen, Petra’s teeth broken, her mouth bloody.

Pg. 77–78: Outside in the alley, Bell leads Petra to her car which she left there, sirens getting closer. She puts Petra in the trunk of her car. Two cops come up the alley, Bell shows them her badge, tells them, “Lost her. Went toward El Segundo, Caucasian female, 5’6, dark hair, long tan coat.” They run off down the alley and Bell gets in her car and goes.

On the freeway, watching the taillights of Bell’s car, we hear voice overs, Antonio, wanting to know where she is and what’s going on, and her Lieutenant telling her to report right away to give her statement.

Pg. 78–84: Petra’s apartment, night. Petra on the floor, handcuffed to something. Bell sits across from her, Petra’s phone on the floor between them. Bell talks about how disgusting Petra’s place is, and says that it’s her choice to be there, she could call her Daddy anytime, and we have a flashback to the gang house and almost the same conversation. Bell says, “You could call your daddy anytime. You’re rich.” Petra answers, “You don’t fucking get it.”

Back to the present, they watch the phone and wait on Silas to call. Petra says the same thing others have been saying, that Silas owns Bell, and that she’s never going to take him in. Bell is in pain, from where Petra kicked her. Petra tries to get Bell to give her drugs, but she won’t. Petra starts in about Chris, and there’s a flashback of Chris and Bell, “like pictures falling apart.”

Bell tells Petra to shut up, but she continues, talking about how sweet Chris was, and how he wanted to kiss her. Playing games with Bell.

The phone finally buzzes. Bell holds the phone up for Petra who talks briefly. She tells Bell there will be a text to say when and where. Bell checks the battery and pockets the phone. Before she leaves, Petra drops some more backstory when she says, “… you wanted the money just as bad … you were a cop … doing your job. But you wanted it just the same as me.”

As Bell leaves Petra’s apartment we hear another voice over, one voice says, “How much is a lot?” and another answers, “Depends … somewhere between seven and ten million, probably.”

Pg. 84–85: A flashback, taco stand in Indio, California, a rendezvous spot. Bell and Chris huddle at a table, sharing a pair of headphones, listening to the voices we just heard. Chris says they have more than enough to arrest, they should call Gil and get him to start pulling them out. But Bell says, “What if we don’t?”

Pg. 85–88: Bell goes to Ethan’s house. He’s exiting the house with a bottle of wine. Bells says she needs him to do her a favor, she wants him to “take the money.” This is our first inclination that Bell took money from the bank job with Silas. Ethan tells her to stop talking, they had a promise, she wasn’t supposed to ever mention the money. She wants Ethan to take the money, which we find out is three hundred thousand dollars, and get Shelby out of there. She begs him to “let one good thing come from my mistake.” Ethan says, “I could have been that thing,” and, “You can’t handle that I know everything and still love you.” Bell figures out that there’s another woman, but Ethan says it doesn’t matter. He finally tells Bell to get the money.

Pg. 88–89: Bell’s house, she’s hunched over, in pain. Her side, her chest, everything hurts.

Another flashback: A pharmacy, Bell looks like hell, she asks for the key to the bathroom. Goes inside and rips open a package, sits on the toilet. Her phone rings. It’s Chris, he tells her she’s gotta get back. Bell stands in front of the mirror, looks down at a pregnancy test, two lines are visible. She shudders, not clear whether she’s laughing or crying.

Pg. 89–90: Bell goes to a self-storage place, goes to her unit. It’s filled with stuff and she goes to the back, pulls aside some boxes. Then she notices something with alarm, they’re stained, the same stain that was on the hundred dollar bills in the beginning. She pulls out a duffel bag, filled with money, also stained. She finds the dye pack which must have exploded after she left the bag there. Bell curses, throws a stack of money against the wall, kicks the bag. She looks through the bag for clean bills. Winces in pain. Over this a phone rings.

Pg. 90–93: Bell meets Jay in Fletcher Bowron Square. She shows him an envelope with eleven thousand four hundred and sixty dollars. She tells him it’s his if he wants it. She will send it to Spokane, he can go there and get it, as long as he promises not to ever come back and not to ever contact Shelby again. She says if he does come back, she’ll kill him. Jay accepts the deal.

Pg. 93–100: Bell in her car, driving, watching the phone. We go to a series of flashbacks that fill in the rest of the story of what happened 17 years ago, how it all went down, intercuts between Chris and Bell rehearsing their story and the moments leading up to the crime-

– Desert diner, Chris and Bell. Chris says, “We had no indication we were blown. We were sent to meet a dealer contact they had.” They choose a name for the dealer

– At the gang house, Bell watches Petra arguing with Silas. She notices that her bag is open on the ground and her cell phone is visible inside. Bell uses her cell, calls “Petra” on her list, lets it ring, hold for ten seconds saying nothing, making a trail

– At the diner, Chris and Bell continue their rehearsing. Bell says, “When he wasn’t there, we called Petra to tell her we were coming back.” They fill the rest in, Petra didn’t answer, they returned to the house, no one was there. They became concerned and went to two locations they knew the gang was looking at

– Bell’s van, they pull on masks, one by one, slow motion. The conversation at the diner intercutting with this in voice overs: Bell says, “While we were at the first — the jewel repository in the file — they were already hitting the second. It was over when we got there.” Chris adds, “We take full responsibility for losing contact, but…”

– Back to the diner, Bell looks at Chris and recites, “There was no forewarning and we believe we did nothing to cause them to mistrust us.” Chris says, “You’re a good fucking liar.”

– Bell’s van, outside the bank, she and Chris look at each other through the windows of their vans

– The diner, Chris says, “He’s got us driving on the day. That’s good. We’ll be outside.” Bell: “Masks anyway.” Chris: “We get to the meetup, take our share, they all scatter. We come back to the scene, tell our story.” Bell: “We do the after-action reports, go through the motions for a while until it quiets down enough to quit. Then we’re gone.”

– Bank parking lot, Silas changes plans at the last minute and makes Chris go inside with them. Arturo takes his place in the van. We get a voice over as Chris moves toward the bank with Silas — Chris: “Something goes wrong, then what?” Bell: “We break cover, call it in ourselves. Make arrests when responders get there.” Chris: “We have to work that story out too. We say they took our phones, we made the first move we could.”

– The diner, on Bell: “Yes.”

– Bell’s van, parking lot. Faster cuts as Bell watches it all go down

– They take control of the bank. We focus on a young teller, shaking. Gang members pull bags out of the vault, employees shove money into the bags. Chris watches, anxious. The teller is crying. The gang members leave with the duffels. Silas asks the teller, “No dye packs in there? It’s clean?” but she doesn’t respond. He walks out the door.

– Bell watches them come out, throw the bags in the vans. Toby gets in with her. Silas comes out. A dye pack explodes, purple everywhere. Silas turns and walks back to the bank. Chris runs after him, pulls off his mask, identifies himself as FBI. Silas is already inside, gun raises. Bell tries to get out but Toby stops her with his gun at her neck. Chris goes through the door.

– On surveillance footing inside the bank, we see Chris firing, misses. Chris and Silas both fire, Chris falls. Silas shoots the teller, then puts another shot in Chris. Bell screams outside. Silas leaves the bank

– Bell’s van, Toby makes her drive. Silas is in another van. Sirens are coming. Bell drives faster and faster. She makes a sharp turn, accelerates, turns down an alley, accelerates into a cinder block dumpster enclosure. Toby is unconscious. Bell stumbles out, takes one of the bags out, puts in another dumpster down the alley, then calls for officer assistance. She drags Toby out of the van and starts crying

Pg. 100–105: Back to the present, Bell meets with Shelby in a coffee shop. She tries her best to make amends with her daughter. Shelby tells her that a shrink at school asked her to remember good memories for her childhood but she couldn’t remember one good thing. She says she remembers one thing, when she was seven years old Bell came and took her out of school early for a surprise camping trip. They went up into the mountains and a bad snowstorm came and they got lost overnight. She wants to know why they were out there. Bell says she knows what it’s like to grow up mad. She tries to tell Shelby about Chris, her dad, and how he got killed, but Shelby says, “Ethan’s my dad.” Bell confesses that it’s her fault Chris died, and other people died. She says she stole and she lied, and she tells Shelby that she can be better than her. She says she loves her and then leaves, and Shelby watches her mom walk down the street. She starts to cry, having found some kind of peace with her mom.

Pg. 105–109: The text arrives on Petra’s phone. Bell drives, parks under an overpass in Bowtie Project. She exits her car in the park, goes through a fence, down a dirt path around the river. At the top of the embankment, a fire, a figure taking things from a duffel bag and burning them, a long-haired wig, some clothes. As he stands, we hear Bell’s voice: “Silas.”

He raises his hands, says, “That voice. Petra’s not coming, is she? You get what I sent you? Wanted you to know you didn’t get away.”

Silas comes into the light and only now do we see, his head is shaved, and he wears a red jacket, just like the body from the beginning. On the back of his neck, the tattoo we saw on the body. Bell walks toward him with a gun, but it’s not her gun, it’s a revolver, with a red-taped handle. “You’re still mine,” Silas says, and Bell shoots. As the bullet hits Silas, we get flashbacks:

– the scene with Bell at her desk in the precinct, looking at the envelope addressed to her, removing the ink-stained hundred dollar bill. A voice over: “He sent a message.”

– Bell in the supply room. Voice over: “I need a little … room to move.”

– Bell in Gil’s office. Voice over, Gil: “Why don’t you tell me where you got this? Let me handle it.”

– Bell in her house, rummaging through the bag of guns she took from Taz. Voice overs. Bell: “I’ve got a murder weapon and it smells like it comes from you.” Taz: “Whoa, what?” Bell chooses the revolver with the red tape

– Bell tailing Petra. Voice over, Toby: “You’re so fucking sad. You’ll never get close to him.”

– Chris and Bell at the bar, 17 years ago. They kiss. Voice over, Bell: “He’s a murderer.”

– DiFranco’s house, Bell storming out on to the lawn. Voice over, Difranco: “You’ll never touch Silas. Because he’s in your head. And he’s smarter than you.”

– Torrence Bank, Bell firing at the fleeing Silas. Voice overs. Petra: “He’s never gonna let you take him. He owns you just like he owns me.” Bell: “No.”

– Gang compound, 17 years ago, back at the scene around the fire. Voice over, Silas: “Nobody’s fucking watching.” Telling her the truth. Silas: “But I see who you are.”

Continuing at Bowtie Project Park, Bell fires at Silas again. Shoves a handful of marked bills into his chest and fires a third time. Silas drops dead, in the position we saw the body in from the beginning. And now we realize that Silas is the body. He is the victim. Bell is the killer. The script tells us that we’ve been watching the plotting of a crime, not the investigation of one. Bell drops the gun. Voice over, Bell: “What about if I know who did this?”

Back at the scene from the beginning, Bell at the crime scene. She says, “What about if I know who did this?” and we follow her away, just like in the beginning.

Pg. 109–111: Bell in her car, she fumbles with her keys. She’s in pain. She lifts her shirt, chest and abdomen swollen and purple. Internal bleeding. Outside, the skateboarders. She looks out the window and her eyes flutter. A flashback, finishing the conversation between her and Chris at the taco shack in Idio: Bell tells Chris that she’s tired of scrapping, jealous and hungry and scared. She wants to spend one day on the other side of that. Chris says he knows, but this isn’t the way. Bell begs him to do it, and finally Chris asks if she loves him. She says she does and Chris says that’s the only way he’ll do it, if she promises that she’ not going anywhere. Chris adds that if anything goes wrong they’ll shut it down and accept the consequences. He tells Bell he is doing this for her, only for her.

Pg. 111–113: Bell still in her car, Antonio shows up, wants to know where she’s been. He asks if she’s okay and Bells says she is a little fucked up, needs to rest. Repetitive sounds of the skateboarder as Bell tells Antonio, “You’ll solve this.” She shows him an envelope on the seat, tells him to take it, says he’ll figure it out, and not to keep it to himself. She wants him to tell people. He leaves for “Rum and coke,” says he’ll be right back. Bell lets go of her efforts to appear okay. Antonio opens the envelope, a key and an invoice for Bell’s storage locker, and also a slip of paper with Petra’s name and her address. Bell watches the skateboarder, her eyes clouding, the repetitive sound of the skateboard. A final flashback: The woods, Bell carries Shelby on her back, through the snow. Bell looks back at Shelby. Bell’s shoes are wet and falling apart, her breaths heavy, but she keeps going. We focus on Shelby until there’s nothing more of Bell, only Shelby.

Back to Bowtie Park, Bell’s head against the headrest, not moving. She’s gone. In the background, the skateboarder finally lands his trick.

CUT TO BLACK

Writing Exercise: I encourage you to read the script, but short of that, if you’ve seen the movie, go through this scene-by-scene breakdown. What stands out to you about it from a structural standpoint?

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Destroyer, go here.

Kudos to Roo Black for doing the scene-by-scene breakdown.

For 100+ movie scripts broken down scene by scene, go here.