Script To Screen: “Traffic”
From the 2000 movie Traffic, screenplay by Stephen Gaghan, based on a miniseries by Simon Moore.
From the 2000 movie Traffic, screenplay by Stephen Gaghan, based on a miniseries by Simon Moore.
Setup: Javier Rodriguez [Benicio Del Toro] and his police partner Manolo are in trouble with a corrupt high-ranking Mexican official Salazar. Two of Salazar’s henchmen drive Javi and Manolo out into the desert…
INT. SUV - DAY
We're in the desert. There's nothing in any directions.
Javi is implacable. Manolo understands what is happening.
MANOLO
I was going to feed them wrong
information. Feed them lies to...
it was for...
The men say nothing. After a beat --
MANOLO
Don't tell Anna I died like this.
Tell her it was something else.
Tell her it was official business.
Tell her that I died doing something
honorable. Please, tell her that
for me...
EXT. DESERT - DAY
Javi and Manolo stand next to two freshly dug graves.
MAN #1
Turn around.
Javi hesitates before turning. We're on Javi as we hear the
GUNSHOT. Javi doesn't flinch. Manolo's body falls into the
grave.
Javi stands there, waiting.
MAN #1
You got anything you want to say?
Javi shakes his head. Finally, another GUNSHOT. After a
beat, a hand reaches out of Javi's shoulder.
MAN #1
Sorry about that... we had to be
sure.
They walk back to the SUV.
SOMEBODY ELSE
Are you sure you don't have anything
to tell us?
Javi says nothing, doesn't even acknowledge them. We hear a
GUNSHOT.
Here is the movie version of the scene:
A few critical changes from script to screen:
- In the movie, Javi and Manolo are shown digging their own graves. This adds to the tension.
- The gang members tell Javi to “put down the shovel” and there is a moment in which he hesitates, as if to suggest he’s thinking about fighting back.
- The conversation about how the men had tested Javi to make sure they could “trust” him takes place in the SUV driving away from the scene of the shooting.
It’s intriguing that Soderbergh set the camera as far away from the shooting as he did. Not a close-up. Not a medium shot. Rather a wide shot at distance. The script only indicates this: “Javi and Manolo stand next to two freshly dug graves.” It gives the moment a detached ‘feel’ — cold, emotionless.
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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