DAVID RUSH

​Writer

SCENE FROM  "CUTTINGS" 

 

 PAUL is an intense mid-30s.  GREG is about 17.  They are in Paul's apartment.

GREG

Pow! Pow!  Boom! That's what it'll be, that's what it'll be like.  An explosion like you never saw, the biggest explosion in the universe...          

PAUL

Really massive, huh?

GREG

Yeah, like the Death Star in STAR WARS, a hundred Death Stars, one-two-three, all going off at the same time, oh man, oh, man... can you fucking SEE it!  God, what I'd give to be there. Standing, like, in a space ship, some monumental, indestructible space ship, a thousand light-years away, you know what I mean?  Far enough away so I don't get roasted, but still close enough to take it in.

PAUL

And then what?

GREG

What do you mean?                 

PAUL

After the explosion, then what?

GREG

After the explosion?                

PAUL

Yes, what'll happen after the god-damned explosion?

GREG

What are you talking about; there isn't going to BE any 'after.' It's the end, don't you get it?  How can there be any AFTER after the end of the universe?

PAUL

There has to be something.

GREG

No, idiot; it's the end, the total, complete end.  There won't be any universe. There won't be any space.  There won't be any time.

PAUL

Then what'll happen to you?

GREG

To me?

PAUL

In the space ship? What time will you be in if there is no time?  What space will you be in if there is no Space?  How can you watch the end of the universe if there's no place to watch it from?

GREG

(hesitates)

My own space. The universe of Gregory, my own eternal, ever-fucking cosmos.

PAUL

Ah, you will have your own universe.  You’ll be God.

GREG

Of course.                                

PAUL

And what kind of universe will yours be? Better than this one?

GREG

A million times.                       

PAUL

Tell me. Go God.

GREG

In the first place, everybody will be good-looking and rich. Young. Cool.  And...  and queer. Everybody in the perfect universe of Greg will be hopelessly homo.

PAUL

That’s a spin.

GREG

Yeah, helplessly hopelessly happily homo.

PAUL

And how will they reproduce?