VISION QUEST - fish out of water comedy. A medicine man’s final vision quest takes him to New York City where he’s adopted by East Village street people. There he discovers that his spiritual powers are highly valued in a depraved urban society.
EXT. VISTA OF NEW YORK CITY - DAWN
A beautiful, polluted sunrise bounces off gleaming skyscrapers in the distance. The train dips into the tunnel, into darkness and wooshes into Penn Station.
EXT. TRAIN PLATFORM
PASSENGERS rush the platform, trampling over SWIM WITH FISH who's crouched beneath his star quilt. When all have disembarked, shiny black shoes tap impatiently before him. His head pops out and his eyes behold the anxious STEWARD. He picks up his belongings and timidly steps down off the platform.
INT. PENN STATION
A rush of COMMUTERS. Amid the frenzy he walks in circles waiting for the spirits to guide him, inhaling the rich scent of coffee from a nearby deli. Thrashing through the crowd, he makes his way toward it.
INT. DELI
He stands there as the COUNTER GIRL, a QUEENS transplant, looks at him befuddled.
COUNTER GIRL
Next!
A SUIT breaks in front of him.
SUIT
Two black, a bagel with a smear.
The counter girl works at lightning speed.
COUNTER GIRL
Tree fifty.
The suit hands her money and she gives him change. Swim With Fish is still standing there in silence.
COUNTER GIRL
I ain't got all day.
He points to the coffee urn.
COUNTER GIRL
Yo. Dark, light or sweet?
SWIM WITH FISH
Dark.
She produces the coffee. From his pouch, he pulls out a stunning, beaded bracelet and offers it in exchange for the coffee.
COUNTER GIRL
That's some bad shit.
She looks around then pockets the trade. He takes a sip of coffee and he doesn't look pleased.
EXT. PENN STATION - MORNING
Swim With Fish spills out onto the crowded avenue. PEDESTRIANS rush past. Horns HONK, buses GRUNT and SNORT carbon monoxide and fumes. Taxis and cars swerve around him. Making his way down 7th Avenue, he sees a park in the distance.
EXT. PARK
He zeros in on a horse abandoned by a mounted policeman buying muffins from a vendor. He moves quickly toward it, pulls out his bottled water and affectionately wets the horse's lips then mounts it and rides off on the most bored of civil servants.
EXT. STREETS
Visions of city and prairie are strangely suggestive, one and the same. Highrises like great stands of cottonwood eighty feet tall. Traffic lights blend like swatches of paint on a warrior's face. Cars prowl the roads like packs of wolves crossing the plains. Little sun filters through the skyscrapers on the narrow streets. It is the day which is night; the night which is day.
He passes a newsstand. On the rack are porno rags with images that curiously resemble the piercing of skin by warriors of the Sun Dance. Gazing up at prewar condominiums, he sees wooden water towers like great sweat lodges but these are in the sky, not bound to Grandmother Earth.
Mesmerized by this, he doesn't notice the SCREECHING COP CARS and GALLOPING POLICE veering toward him. Sitting tall on the horse, he raises his hands to Tunkashila.
SWIM WITH FISH
Hi-yah. Hi-yah. Hi-yah.
He dismounts to wet the horse's lips again but before the cops close in, whizzing toward him on skates is C. BASS, her two-toned beehive bracing the wind. She scoops up Swim With Fish and drops him on the skateboard she's towing. It's clear by her utter defiance that she's a Lower East Side archangel.
Her hand gropes for his as they weave in between stalled cars in rush hour traffic, eventually losing the cops. This homeless Southern Baptist-would-be-hair-stylist has come to the big city to escape religion. The long, shiny silver mane of Swim With Fish compelled her to abduct him in the first place.
She skates him home to an abandoned building in the East Village.
EXT. ABANDONED BUILDING
They're greeted by her entourage of squatters - the exotic dancer LUCKY CHARM, BIG BOY, a fortyish dwarf with a big heart, TWO TIME, a Polish hermaphrodite plagued by schizophrenia, MERCOLETTI, the Italian stallion, and an African American short order cook named ABE LINCOLN. It's the ubiquitous urban circus that never leaves town. They're all hanging out of the windows, goading C. Bass and gaping at Swim With Fish.
INT. BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON
The shabbiness is brightened by colorful fabrics draped about the room. Everything's much neater than one would expect in a place like this but it's covered with a thick layer of New York grime. The squatters sit in a circle with Swim With Fish in the middle. He's passing out slabs of dried meat.
C. BASS
I could use me a pickled egg to go with this.
MERCOLETTI
Some roasted peppers and a nice glass of Chianti.
TWO TIME
Mmm...sounds divine.
BIG BOY
Would you guys shut up?! You're making me hungry.
Swim With Fish pulls out a pouch of Bull Durham and loads up the pipe. Meanwhile, Lucky Charm is getting dressed for a night of exotic dancing. She holds up one stocking.
LUCKY CHARM
Shit, it's a goddam run the size of the Brooklyn Bridge. You need
a freakin' Hanes factory to hold down my job.
Mercoletti sweeps her off her feet and slings her over his shoulder then races around the room.
MERCOLETTI
How 'bout a juicy filet mignon?
Lucky Charm accidentally drops her hose in Swim With Fish's lap. He ties his wrists, leans back and prays to Tunkashila.
LUCKY CHARM
(leaps out of Mercoletti's arms)
Hey, getta load of that. He sure don't waste no time.
I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't got nothing against
getting off but I gotta watusi. Gimme back them
hose.
Swim With Fish holds up his wrists. She unravels the hose and like magic, the run is gone.
LUCKY CHARM
That's swank!
Lucky Charm leans down and shows C. Bass. Mercoletti sneaks up behind them and gooses Lucky Charm.
LUCKY CHARM
Hey! Don't touch the merchandise. It's kosher.
A beautiful, polluted sunrise bounces off gleaming skyscrapers in the distance. The train dips into the tunnel, into darkness and wooshes into Penn Station.
EXT. TRAIN PLATFORM
PASSENGERS rush the platform, trampling over SWIM WITH FISH who's crouched beneath his star quilt. When all have disembarked, shiny black shoes tap impatiently before him. His head pops out and his eyes behold the anxious STEWARD. He picks up his belongings and timidly steps down off the platform.
INT. PENN STATION
A rush of COMMUTERS. Amid the frenzy he walks in circles waiting for the spirits to guide him, inhaling the rich scent of coffee from a nearby deli. Thrashing through the crowd, he makes his way toward it.
INT. DELI
He stands there as the COUNTER GIRL, a QUEENS transplant, looks at him befuddled.
COUNTER GIRL
Next!
A SUIT breaks in front of him.
SUIT
Two black, a bagel with a smear.
The counter girl works at lightning speed.
COUNTER GIRL
Tree fifty.
The suit hands her money and she gives him change. Swim With Fish is still standing there in silence.
COUNTER GIRL
I ain't got all day.
He points to the coffee urn.
COUNTER GIRL
Yo. Dark, light or sweet?
SWIM WITH FISH
Dark.
She produces the coffee. From his pouch, he pulls out a stunning, beaded bracelet and offers it in exchange for the coffee.
COUNTER GIRL
That's some bad shit.
She looks around then pockets the trade. He takes a sip of coffee and he doesn't look pleased.
EXT. PENN STATION - MORNING
Swim With Fish spills out onto the crowded avenue. PEDESTRIANS rush past. Horns HONK, buses GRUNT and SNORT carbon monoxide and fumes. Taxis and cars swerve around him. Making his way down 7th Avenue, he sees a park in the distance.
EXT. PARK
He zeros in on a horse abandoned by a mounted policeman buying muffins from a vendor. He moves quickly toward it, pulls out his bottled water and affectionately wets the horse's lips then mounts it and rides off on the most bored of civil servants.
EXT. STREETS
Visions of city and prairie are strangely suggestive, one and the same. Highrises like great stands of cottonwood eighty feet tall. Traffic lights blend like swatches of paint on a warrior's face. Cars prowl the roads like packs of wolves crossing the plains. Little sun filters through the skyscrapers on the narrow streets. It is the day which is night; the night which is day.
He passes a newsstand. On the rack are porno rags with images that curiously resemble the piercing of skin by warriors of the Sun Dance. Gazing up at prewar condominiums, he sees wooden water towers like great sweat lodges but these are in the sky, not bound to Grandmother Earth.
Mesmerized by this, he doesn't notice the SCREECHING COP CARS and GALLOPING POLICE veering toward him. Sitting tall on the horse, he raises his hands to Tunkashila.
SWIM WITH FISH
Hi-yah. Hi-yah. Hi-yah.
He dismounts to wet the horse's lips again but before the cops close in, whizzing toward him on skates is C. BASS, her two-toned beehive bracing the wind. She scoops up Swim With Fish and drops him on the skateboard she's towing. It's clear by her utter defiance that she's a Lower East Side archangel.
Her hand gropes for his as they weave in between stalled cars in rush hour traffic, eventually losing the cops. This homeless Southern Baptist-would-be-hair-stylist has come to the big city to escape religion. The long, shiny silver mane of Swim With Fish compelled her to abduct him in the first place.
She skates him home to an abandoned building in the East Village.
EXT. ABANDONED BUILDING
They're greeted by her entourage of squatters - the exotic dancer LUCKY CHARM, BIG BOY, a fortyish dwarf with a big heart, TWO TIME, a Polish hermaphrodite plagued by schizophrenia, MERCOLETTI, the Italian stallion, and an African American short order cook named ABE LINCOLN. It's the ubiquitous urban circus that never leaves town. They're all hanging out of the windows, goading C. Bass and gaping at Swim With Fish.
INT. BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON
The shabbiness is brightened by colorful fabrics draped about the room. Everything's much neater than one would expect in a place like this but it's covered with a thick layer of New York grime. The squatters sit in a circle with Swim With Fish in the middle. He's passing out slabs of dried meat.
C. BASS
I could use me a pickled egg to go with this.
MERCOLETTI
Some roasted peppers and a nice glass of Chianti.
TWO TIME
Mmm...sounds divine.
BIG BOY
Would you guys shut up?! You're making me hungry.
Swim With Fish pulls out a pouch of Bull Durham and loads up the pipe. Meanwhile, Lucky Charm is getting dressed for a night of exotic dancing. She holds up one stocking.
LUCKY CHARM
Shit, it's a goddam run the size of the Brooklyn Bridge. You need
a freakin' Hanes factory to hold down my job.
Mercoletti sweeps her off her feet and slings her over his shoulder then races around the room.
MERCOLETTI
How 'bout a juicy filet mignon?
Lucky Charm accidentally drops her hose in Swim With Fish's lap. He ties his wrists, leans back and prays to Tunkashila.
LUCKY CHARM
(leaps out of Mercoletti's arms)
Hey, getta load of that. He sure don't waste no time.
I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't got nothing against
getting off but I gotta watusi. Gimme back them
hose.
Swim With Fish holds up his wrists. She unravels the hose and like magic, the run is gone.
LUCKY CHARM
That's swank!
Lucky Charm leans down and shows C. Bass. Mercoletti sneaks up behind them and gooses Lucky Charm.
LUCKY CHARM
Hey! Don't touch the merchandise. It's kosher.
