Script To Screen: “American Psycho”

A scene from the 2000 movie American Psycho, screenplay by Mary Harron & Guinevere Turner, novel by Bret Easton Ellis.

Plot Summary: A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.

Here is the scene in the script:

INT. BATEMAN’S APARTMENT — NIGHT

The living room floor has been meticulously covered with 
newspaper.

Owen is slumped drunkenly in a white Eames chair, a glass 
in his hand. Bateman is looking through his CDs.

BATEMAN 
You like Huey Lewis and the News?

OWEN 
They’re okay.

BATEMAN 
Their early work was a little too New Wave for my 
taste. But then Sports came out in 1983, I think they really 
came into their own, commercially and artistically.

Bateman walks to his bathroom, taking a large ax out of the
shower. He takes two Valium.

BATEMAN 
(Said partly from the bathroom) 
The whole album has a clear, crisp sound and a new sheen of 
consummate professionalism that gives the songs a big boost.
Bateman comes back out and leans the ax against the wall. 
He walks to the foyer and puts on a raincoat, watching Owen 
from behind ail the time.

BATEMAN 
He’s been compared to ELvis Costello but I think 
Huey has a more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

Owen is absent-mindedly leafing through the Barneys 
catalogue.

OWEN 
Hey, Halberstam?

BATEMAN 
Yes, Owen?

OWEN 
Why are there copies of the Style section all over 
the place? Do you have a dog? A chow or something?

BATEMAN 
No, Owen.

OWEN 
(Confused) 
Is that a raincoat?

BATEMAN 
Yes, it is.

Bateman moves to the CD player. He takes a CD out of its 
case and slides it in the machine.

BATEMAN 
In 1987 Huey released this, Fore!, their most 
accomplished album. I think I heir undisputed masterpiece is 
“HiP To Be Square,” a song so catchy that most people probably 
don’t listen to the lyrics. But they should because it’s not 
just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of 
trends. It’s al~ a personal statement about the band itself.

Bateman puts on “Hip To Be Square.”

BATEMAN crosses the room and picks up the ax.

We follow BATEMAN from behind as he walks up to Owen, the 
ax raised over his head.

BATEMAN 
Hey, Paul?

As Owen turns around, FROM OWEN’S POV we see Bateman swing 
the ax toward his face.

Blood sprays onto the white raincoat.

FROM BEHIND OWEN, we see BATEMAN as he yanks the ax out.

Owen drops to the floor. His body falls out of the frame. 
We stay on his legs twitching mechanically.

Blood pulses onto the newspaper-covered floor.

BATEMAN 
(Raising the ax and screaming) 
Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now, you fucking 
stupid bastard!

LOW ANGLE ON BATEMAN as he beats Owen with the back of the 
ax.

OFFSCREEN, the sound of the ax hitting Owen.

BATEMAN 
(Panting) 
Fucking bastard…

Bateman takes his raincoat off, still panting. He folds the 
coat carefully in half, bloody side in, and drapes it neatly 
over the back of a chair.

He sits back on the white sofa and surveys the scene. He 
checks his Rolex and lights a cigar.

OFFSCREEN, Paul Owen’s last faint sighs are heard.

Here is the scene from the movie:

This is an example of an almost direct translation of what was on the page onto the screen. Notice the economy of scene description, every line specific to Bateman’s action. Lean, clean writing… unlike the way poor Paul is dispatched.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

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