FADE IN:

EXT. TED'S BUILDING - DAY

Morning sun falls on a modest apartment building.  Deep
green FOREST in the background.

INT. TED'S APARTMENT - DAY (CONT'D)

A large, empty room.  Sunlight filters though window blinds.

TED, 30s, lean, strong, unshaven, slightly wild, quickly,
quietly goes to the window and peers out.

EXT. TED'S BUILDING - DAY

Just below, the steps leading to the entrance.

CAROL, 30s, a beautiful blond woman, jeans, leather jacket,
descends the steps.  Sunlight fills her hair, making it glow.

INT. TED'S APARTMENT - DAY (CONT'D)

                         TED (V.O.)
                  (staring at her)
             Have you ever noticed the
             distance, the short, short
             distance between here and forever,
             between chance and failure,
             between heartache and bliss?
             It's the air between soft moist
             lips and dry scratchy throats,
             between longing and speaking,
             between momentary, joyous life
             and interminable, blackest death.
             It's a shroud of silence, caution,
             hesitation or just plain fear,
             but it's there every day, every
             single day.

INT. TED'S BUILDING / ENTRANCE AREA -DAY

A wall of MAILBOXES, with numbers corresponding to each
apartment in the building.

TED uses a small key to open his, removes a few envelopes.
Behind him, the entry door opens, and CAROL enters, proffers
an offhand greeting in passing.

                         CAROL
             Hi there.

                                                            2.

                         TED
                  (polite)
             Hello.

She continues on her way, without stopping.  He, clearly
affected, watches her walk away.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             It's a separation weighing down
             on my eyes, oppressive, daunting,
             gnawing at my gut, stuck here on
             this sullen island in the forever
             of the all darkness.

EXT. BUS STOP - DAY

Bright sun shines.  Ted sits on a bench in a glassed-in bus
shelter.  People, cars, and trucks buzz about.

An ATTRACTIVE WOMAN, 20s, tanned, athletic, sandy blond hair,
arrives, setting down her shopping bag.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Today, for example, the bus
             stop -- another strip off my soul.
             She just showed up, sat down so
             close.  Young, tanned, long wavy
             hair.  Incredible.  She spoke to
             an elderly woman, those banalities,
             "Nice day", "Great weather",
             "Summer is going fast."  She was
             so upbeat and carefree and
             trivial and -- I had a huge
             desire to tell her how incredibly,
             unbelievably beautiful she was.
             But I didn't, I couldn't.  And
             she wouldn't.  She sat that close,
             and didn't say one word to me.

He sits there.  She sits there.  Nothing but ambient noise.
Minutes go by.  Ted closes his eyes.  Shakes his head.  The
bus arrives.

INT. BUS / RIDING ALONG - DAY

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             On the bus, the whole way home, I
             took in that sight, her shimmering
             hair, her suntanned arms, her big,
             intense eyes.  No, she knew, she
             knew very well I was looking, but
             didn't speak a sound.  She knew.
                         (MORE)

                                                            3.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Women know instinctively, this
             gaze, the male motive, like deer
             can sense wolves prowling behind
             bushes, unseen, unheard, but very,
             very real.  This is their
             distance, their silence.  Look
             outside, see darkness, see it,
             and know, know for certain, that
             terrible things happen out there,
             every single night.

EXT. TED'S BUILDING - NIGHT

A large black BEAR walks through the parking lot, minding
his own business.  He stops, SNIFFS the ground, continues on
his way.

INT. TED'S APARTMENT - DAY

Another morning.  Ted sits by his apartment door, sipping
coffee, silently.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Don't lose sight.  It's the power
             of observation.  Curious things
             happen every day.  Silly, quirky,
             strange, interesting, unreasonable,
             haunting and terrible things.  No
             reason, no stopping, no
             considering.  Unless you can see.
             Take, for example, her, Carol.

INT. HALLWAY / OUTSIDE TED'S APARTMENT - DAY

The door to a neighboring apartment opens.  Carol emerges.

INT. TED'S APARTMENT - DAY (CONT'D)

He listens...

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Every morning, Monday to Friday,
             at precisely seven fifty, ten
             before eight in the a.m., that
             sound reverberates from walls.
             Click, rattle, creak, the heavy
             door opens, keys jangle, feet in
             the hallway, a thud of the
             closing door, keys, plastic lunch
             bag, twisting, shaking that
             handle to verify closure -- and
             she's off.
                         (MORE)

                                                            4.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             The exactitude, the planning, the
             thoroughness, every morning, same
             time, same sounds, same lunch,
             same keys, same route.  What's
             the point of keeping it so to-
             the-minute?  Is their some profit,
             some spiritual gain from strict
             adherence to routine?  Perhaps,
             but that's not what captivates.

EXT. TED'S BUILDING - DAY (CONT'D)

She walks out the front door, down the steps, towards her
parked car.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Look ...  at ...  that.  This is
             not a woman who subsumes to
             anyone's moralizing.  Hair,
             makeup, tight jeans, wraparound
             shades, her cigarettes, her
             concern for attractiveness,
             perhaps trying too hard, coming
             off a little desperate, obvious,
             younger than her years.  She's
             eager to please.

INT. TED'S APARTMENT - DAY (CONT'D)

He picks up a small NOTEBOOK, notes the date "060906"  and
the exact time "075014".

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             In that cycle, the routine that
             would imply probity, sturdiness,
             and striving, something makes her
             sad, alone, and...  predictable.
             You know, predators thrive on
             predictability.  To know the
             habits is to know when and where
             to set the trap.

EXT. FOREST - DAY

The BEAR sees a RABBIT hunched near his hole.  Immediately,
he slowly, slowly advances.

                                                            5.

EXT. TED'S BUILDING - DAY (CONT'D)

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Could it happen?  Could it?  Who
             knows?  This is ages-old,
             visceral, instinctive.  There is
             no reasoning, no explaining, no
             falling back on standards or
             civility.  Go ahead, tell me,
             tell me once you've seen those
             legs walking across the parking
             lot.  You'll know, all the way.
             I'm looking, I'm compelled to
             look.  The Compulsion to Look.
             The distance between looking and
             having, as if to look hard enough
             or often enough gets you half way
             there.  I don't think I want to
             know.  I don't want to hear that
             voice, that history.  Just be
             still.  The body speaks so much
             clearer.  That's all.  It's --
             the dark motive.  The male motive.
             Primal, powerful, consuming, all-
             engaging, when it goes by.  Don't
             ask me.  It's inside.  I want it.
             I want it.  Therefore, it is.

She gets in her car, starts it, backs out of her space...

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             This is not without precedent, or
             arbitrary.  This is a process.
             It's about basic needs.  It's
             about here and now, and what
             happens deep in the woods.  The
             route has been developing,
             emerging, occurring over years in
             this experience, in this life.
             It's there, like other things in
             this life.  There are times when
             examples, when stimuli vexes,
             gnaws at you, makes you think,
             what if, what if, I could just
             break through, if only temporarily,
             just for one glorious moment,
             please, please, pretty please.  I
             want more.

INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY

Ted, basket in hand, wanders along the meat section.  He
places a thick STEAK into his basket.

                                                            6.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             So, where does reality come from?
             Is it not from experience, is it
             not from what you've done, not
             what you've thought?  If so, then
             this life hasn't amounted to much.
             I have so little to go by.  How
             many people are destined to
             compile the huge list of things
             they didn't do.  "They're ain't
             nothing like regret to remind you
             you're alive," as Sheryl says.  I
             don't want my time here to be a
             lot of excuses for things I
             haven't done.  Life is so tedious.
             Ninety-nine percent of the time,
             there's nothing going on.

An attractive female employee, HELEN, greets him.

                         HELEN
             Good afternoon, Sir.

                         TED
             Hello.  Beautiful day.

                         HELEN
             Yes, it is.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             So, what is the process, the
             process by which walking becomes
             running, wanting becomes planning,
             hunger becomes grasping, a bullet
             becomes death?  It's observation,
             motivation, opportunity, and
             action.  There is no soul-
             searching in nature.  See it,
             take it, and run.  Hearing,
             seeing, smelling becomes touching,
             holding, and consuming.

As she walks away, smiling, Ted SLIPS the steak into a large
pocket.

EXT. FOREST - DAY

Early WINTER, a light covering of snow on the ground.  Ted
walks along, observes numerous RABBIT TRACKS leading in all
directions.

                                                            7.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             I went into the woods near my
             home last winter, on a sunny day.
             Cold, cold, snow crystals, dull
             gray-brown leafless trees, rocks,
             and icy puddles.  And I saw
             dozens, maybe hundreds of rabbit
             tracks.  They must have spent
             most of the night or morning or
             evening or whenever they come out
             of their cold homes to look
             around, hop around, and leave
             tracks.  What are they looking
             for?  There doesn't seem to be
             any food around that I can
             discern, but the their little
             trails were everywhere.

He sets a rabbit TRAP.

INT. DEPARTMENT STORE - DAY

A big discount department store.  Long aisles, huge stacks
of discount merchandise, dowdy employees in colored vests.
Ted walks along the DVD section, slips one into his basket.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             The clerks in the department
             store, kids and young people in
             their twenties and thirties,
             eking out a living, seemingly so
             happy to be earning minimum wage.
             They care not for the darkness,
             the marauding presence, the one
             that would vanquish them.  They
             watch the clock, do their menial
             tasks, counting, restocking,
             smiling, feigning pleasantness.
             Is it so surprising that they are
             the prey and not the hunters?
             Food disappears, clothes and
             shoes and DVDs.

Ted, basket in hand, enters an aisle in a quiet, unoccupied
section of the store.  He removes a tiny metal blade from
his rear pocket, SLICES OPEN the DVD, removes the SECURITY
TAG, slips the DVD into his pocket.

                                                            8.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Their homes are not even as well
             hidden as the rabbit's.  Some
             need to survive by other means.
             The seasons change, but lives are
             not forever.  The season of want,
             of hunger, comes back, from fruit
             to berries to rodents to rabbits
             and bears and--

EXT. FOREST - DAY

A RABBIT slowly creeps of his its hole...

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             I wonder, do the bears that also
             inhabit my woods hear rabbits
             hopping around, in their torpor,
             their months-long somnolence?
             Does the taste of rabbit enter in?
             When they emerge from their dens
             in the spring, cold and tired and
             thin, very thin, what is the
             process by which they quench
             their desires?  Ask them about
             standards.  Does the rabbit not
             seek to escape?  Does he not run
             fast, or is he surprised, perhaps
             in his sleep, the nose of the
             wily carnivore follows one of the
             numerous tracks -- no snow
             required -- to define the trail,
             leading right to the hole, the
             sudden demise of the little furry
             body by claws and teeth and...

Just as the full length of the rabbit's body emerges --
CRUNCH -- a bear takes a mighty SWIPE with its paw, killing
it instantly.

INT. COMPUTER STORE - DAY

A small mom-and-pop electronics store.  Ted eyes an
impressive LAPTOP COMPUTER on display.

An ELDERLY WOMAN engages the only employee on duty.  Ted
FOLDS UP the computer, holds it at his side like a briefcase,
purposely angling it from view.

                                                            9.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             So, what happens when you bridge
             the distance, when you reach out
             and take it?  You'd be surprised.
             There's a rush, something very
             real, strong, exciting.  What is
             transgression, what is theft or
             violence but a sorry acting out,
             grasping, venting, or just
             turning and running, with the
             hope that no one will notice and
             one will survive another day?
             The things of note that I've done,
             that I've accumulated, have been
             by taking, not asking, not
             winning, but taking, and leaving
             and not looking back.  It's your
             attitude to life.  Take it, take
             it, take it.

The computer in hand, he calmly walks out the door.

EXT. FOREST - DAY

Ted, dressed in hunter's camouflage, RIFLE over his shoulder,
deposits a large bucket of pungent, rotting meat, cheese,
and gruel on the ground in a clearing.

He climbs a tree about a hundred yards away, rifle at the
ready, waits.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             It happens every day.  Some
             disappear off the face of the
             earth, or at least to all known
             existence.  The lost, the land of
             the lost, unknown and soon to be
             forgotten, where it all ends up,
             the land of Never Again,
             Nothingness, the Void.  That's
             where fear lives.  That's the
             distance, what inhabits the
             distance between here and there,
             all of existence turned inside
             out and erased.  Disappeared.
             It's a real place, it exists as
             surely as does here and now.
             Call it Gone Forever.  Those that
             step over to that realm are gone.
                         (MORE)

                                                           10.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             It's a giving over to the basest
             motives, the darkest calling,
             primal desires, the insatiable,
             irrational, the instinctive
             without thought or emotion.  If
             I'm hungry, I take food, by
             whatever means possible.  If I
             want her, I will--

EXT. DOWNTOWN - DAY

Carol emerges from her office building, enters a narrow
alley on the way to a parking lot.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Can it be that it all comes to
             this?  I don't think anyone can
             ever change their lives.  You are
             who you are.  You are what you
             will always will be.  It's just
             dark, cruel fate.  Some are
             hunters and some are hunted.  You
             can't change a person.  There
             could have been more, but that's
             not going to happen.  I knew it
             from the beginning.  That's enough.

BEGIN MONTAGE:

--Carol approaches her parked car.

--The RABBIT approaches a SNARE, the wire set to spring back.

--The BEAR emerges from the woods, gingerly stepping into a
clearing as he approaches a pile of BAIT.

--The snare SNAPS back, grabbing the rabbit by the neck.

--BANG! A loud, booming GUNSHOT thunders through the woods.

--A DARK FIGURE GRABS Carol, pinning her to the ground.

--The rabbit flails wildly about, a few desperate seconds
before giving up.

--The bear falls dead.

--Carol struggles, a few feeble screams.  She twists and
grabs, trying to free herself, to no avail.

--Hands and ankles bound, she's tossed into a wooden box and
loaded onto a dolly.

                                                           11.

END MONTAGE

INT. TED'S APARTMENT - DAY

A BEARSKIN RUG lies stretched out in the living room.  Glass
EYEBALLS looks up.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             So, that's the distance that
             keeps us apart, that will always
             be here, will never go away.  How
             did it get there?  It's always
             been there.  I know it, I know
             very well, it's been there from
             the start.  It'll never leave.

The box is opened.  Carol is dumped onto the floor,
blindfolded and gagged.  Duct tape is RIPPED off her face.
Her glassy, moist eyes look up...

A variety of mounted birds, animal heads, and stuffed
animals look down at her.

                         TED (V.O.,CONT'D)
             Terrible things happen every day.
             But all you ever hear is what
             happened, not why.  People get so
             hung up on superficialities, they
             can't see past the obvious.
             People don't ask why, they don't
             know.  They don't delve, they
             don't ask questions -- they don't
             want to know.  If they did,
             they'd have to admit to themselves
             the real awfulness, the horror,
             the blackness that lies just
             below the surface, in that
             terrible, terrible distance.

                                            FADE OUT:

The end.