Script To Screen: “Grosse Pointe Blank”

From the 1997 movie Grosse Pointe Blank, screenplay by Tom Jankiewicz and D.V. DeVincentis & Steve Pink & John Cusack, story by Tom Jankiewicz.

Setup: Martin Blank [John Cusack] is a professional assassin. He is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, and, by coincidence, his ten-year high school reunion party is taking place there at the same time. Here he meets with Grocer [Dan Aykroyd], another assassin.

INT. DINER - LATE MORNING Martin sits in a window booth splitting nutrient caplets
into an apple juice and looking out the window. GROCER slides into the booth, across from Martin. MARTIN AND GROCER Martin draws a nasty little PPK pistol from his waist, and
levels it at Grocer under the table-- but Grocer is already
drawing his pistol down there, and there is an instant
Mexican breakfast stand-off. GROCER
Easy, tiger. A waitress approaches. WAITRESS
Hi. Welcome to B.I. McCafferty's. My
name is Melanie and I'll be your
server this morning. Let me tell you
about some of our specials. Today we
have the "Alfalfa on My Mind," our
feature omelette. And there's our
"Gatsby's West Egg Omelette." And if
you're in the mood for something
different there's the "I left my
heart in San Franchezie." Martin and Grocer's eyes remain locked. GROCER
I want two eggs poached, hash brown
well-done. English muffin for the
bread. And a coffee. MARTIN
Whole-grain pancakes. And an egg-
white omelette. WAITRESS
What would you like in the omelette? MARTIN
Nothing in the omelette. Nothing at
all. The waitress nods pertly and leaves. GROCER
(re: the omelette)
Come on, live a little. I'm sorry
about the incident yesterday. MARTIN
No harm no foul. GROCER
A little misunderstanding among my
associates. Beat. GROCER
I told them to kill you and they
didn't. MARTIN
Hard to get good help these days. GROCER
But since we're both here, I think
it's time to take a fresh look at
our relationship. MARTIN
I didn't get into this business to
have "associates." And I don't want
to join your Goddamned union. "Loner--
" "Loner gunman." Get it? "On my
own." That's the whole point. Why
don't you become a cop, or something.
You can drink coffee in the morning...
with friends! Grocer looks a little hurt. MARTIN
(easing up)
Look, this is a one-on-one business...
Every time you get to know people,
bad things happen. If it'll make you
feel any better, this is my last
job. So what do you say we put our
guns away and forget the whole damn
thing. Grocer loses it. GROCER
Fuck you! No scabs! From now on,
everything's regulated! Long beat as Grocer gets a hold of himself. MARTIN
No deal. GROCER
Fine. But we're not going to let you
do your job. Because we're gonna do
it. And then, after we do your job,
we're gonna do another little job... MARTIN
(Wry)
Is that right? GROCER
Yeah-- after I shoot you through the
fucking forehead I'm gonna fuck you
in the bullethole. MARTIN
Nice talk, Sugarmouth.

Here is the scene from the movie:

I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this scene from Grosse Pointe Blank.

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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