Original "Red Eye" Script

[cougarlady]

Hello everyone! I finally decided to join the forum after lurking for a while. May I just say that you all seem like such a lovely group, so supportive of one another and of our favorite actor. I'm glad to be here and look forward to chatting with all of you.

While browsing another thread about whether we enjoyed all of Cillian's films or not, I noticed a comment from someone (sorry, forgot the name!) who felt that one of Cillian's more popular film scripts was "fall down the stairs clumsy." After laughing about that for a minute, I surmised that she must have been referrring to "Red Eye." I felt the same way about the final third of that movie, although I loved the initial two thirds. I think director Wes Craven actually admitted on the DVD that they were making things up as they went along during the scenes in Lisa's house, and that's exactly the way it played onscreen.

Like the person who posted that response, I had a feeling that the script that was filmed was probably not the script that Cillian and Rachel signed on to do. In fact, I felt so strongly about it that I searched online and actually FOUND a copy of the original "Red Eye" script! Someone bought it on ebay and then very generously typed it all out on her blog.

It's a quick read, and a much different story than the one that was filmed. A far better story, IMO. Here is the link if you would like to read it:

www.freewebs.com/reobsession/originalscript.htm

[The Phantom Lady]

Thank you so much for sharing that amazingly interesting read!

I could barely recognize a thing from the movie, and yet I do see it's the same idea, how interesting to see how many ideas were discarded!

In the end I think I prefer the actual outcome though...

[Jinx]

This is epic. Trully, trully epic. That person had so much patience to write it all on her computer. Bravo for finding it, and thanks a lot for sharing it! That last scene was very real, the last image is strong and even if I don't think Red Eye is one of Mr Murphy's best movies, I enjoyed reading that script. Felt kinda like I was Cillian, studying the script before signing for the part of Jack Rippner
Thanks a lot for that link, CB for you, and welcome to the forums ;D

[Zombiekitten]

OH WOW !!!! This is really stunning and epic !!!!! Thanks a thousand times Cougarlady !!!

I haven't read the whole thing so far (my eyes are too tired : but I already see that there is a VERY HUGE difference from this script to the actual movie they shot. It differes that much from the movie that I ask myself how the director was able to change so much of the script so spontanously.... I mean... there are completely different scenes and settings and conversations/lines! How can it be that a script can be changed that much while shooting ? But I have to admit that I know NOTHING about scripts LOL

However. This is incredibly interesting to read !!! OMG.... Love that scene were Jackson comes so close to her... even KISSING her nearly...

But actually I think the movie is somehow tighter, the conversations shorter and more to the point. IMO....
And I'm also not that much a fan of the "chasing around the house" ending LOL

[Cait]

Definitely like the movie version more, but this an intense read! I love the part where Lisa tells him he's f*cked, and how it pisses him off. His line, "If you don’t look at me, you’ll get a glimpse of just how f*cked I am." OMG!! He's the sexiest villain. UNF. I have to watch Red Eye now. ;D

Edit: OMG, I'm sorry but this part made me squee!!!

The attendant moves off. Rippner glances back to Lisa, watched her for a beat… then…

He reaches towards her face with the back of his hand…

We’re not sure if it’s a move to strike her or strangle her… but then…

He caresses her cheek…

Brushes her hair from her eyes…

[cougarlady]

Hello all! Well, I am so glad that I posted this link, and very happy to hear that you all enjoyed it so much. We can probably only guess which edited version Cillian and Rachel might have read, but this version seems like the pure, unedited original script. I suspect that the film studio or director began rewrites as soon as they bought the script, and probably sent their edited versions to the actors. Rachel McAdams mentioned in an interview that the bathroom scene was in the script version that she read, and we can see that there was no bathroom scene at all in the original.

I agree with many of your comments about the benefits of tighter dialogue and faster pace of the film. I can even see how a flirtation between the two characters in the initial stages of the film would help draw the audience in, rather than filming it as originally scripted.

However, I do feel that the original story overall is much stronger. My favorite element of the original script is Lisa's growing suspicion that Rippner is just telling her what he wants her to believe and has nothing really tangible as proof. She even tells him that he could have just pickpocketed her father's wallet in the airport. There are no cutaways to assassins outside her father's house, or any other reason for the READER to believe him either. Notice how Rippner immediately plays on her uncertainty and fear with his actions, even going so far as to suggest that perhaps it IS all a tall tale, with GEORGE (Jackson's real name) in the middle of it all. I love that aspect of the mindplay between the two, and the fact that at this point, you really aren't sure about it yourself.

Another favorite element was the fact that Rippner was not his name at all, something which I doubted when I first saw the film. Why would an assassin tell you his real name, especially when he could just deny everything later, as he did in the original script? I felt that Jackson Rippner was meant to be not only an intimidating name, but one whose initials conveniently matched those on her father's wallet. I liked the interrogation scene in which Lisa is suddenly trying to explain her actions while Mr. Plausible Deniability put on the innocent act. That was MUCH more the type of resolution that I was expecting. In fact, had the author not included the scene with the stinger missile, you MIGHT be left wondering if this guy was really some sort of assassin, or just an obsessed stalker.

Anyway, good times! lol Thank you for all your nice comments and CBs.

[iseebutterfly]

Hey!

Well, I have to say, this isn't the first time I read this script, back ago in the summer, I read it, but I couldn't find it again.

I am SO glad, that you posted it here, thanks a bazillion times for that!!

I agree with you that the story seems much more complete in the script. However, I don't like the fact that this Rippner is so much more cruel and revenge driven than the one in the movie. I mean, how he snaps and tells her that he will personally kill her daddy and then her brother, his wife and their little kid, just because he is upset with her.

I know that he is -as an assassin- probably a very coldhearted person, but it's a movie, and what is so intriguing about his character is, that there is a part of him, which is very much human. We see that in the movie, when he gets really uncomfortable about killing a kid, how he has to swallow and convince himself that he just does his part and "moves on". I liked that.
Sure, it's not realistic, but hey, it's a movie!

Also, this Script-Rippner seemed very inconsequent about his feelings for Lisa. He seems to REALLy hate her at some parts. I love the scene where he kisses her forehead, even if just to unsettle her, but I hate that the took away this thing they had, this weird chemistry, neither of them could explain. I LOVED that in the movie, is the best thing about it, IMO.

I strongly disagree that Jackson Rippner isn't his real name. First because he gets really angry, when Lisa calls him Jack in her hhouse, just like he was supposed to, second because it is a fact (yes, not a fanbased imagination) that Rippner had certain feelings for Lisa, strong feelings, and I guess that a narcistic man as he is would like her to call him by his real name.

Btw: with the fact I mean things I read in interview, the most obvious would be, when Wes Craven says that "I want the audience to realize that this guy [Rippner] is kind of in love with this woman (...)" Craven also mentions in the audio commentary of the movie, that a lot of Rippner's character is based on how he realizes that the more Lisa despises him, the clearer it is that he will never have her, a woman that loves him, knowing him.
So yes, I don't know why you think that George is meant to be his real name and maybe it was originally thought so in the script (because, really, I don't see his strong feelings for her there at all, and that's what botheres me the most) but in the movie Jackson Rippner, definetely is his real name.

And of course, just the fan that I'm being, I am sooo sad that there is no bathroom scene. Because COME ON! You all loved it.

[cougarlady]

Great comments, I love reading everyone's individual take on the original script versus the film. When I watched the film, I thought Jackson was a sociopath, plain and simple. I felt that the original script drove this point home ever further. If you look up the definition of sociopath or psychopath, many of his character traits definitely seem to fit the profile.

This guy has absolutely no remorse or feeling for Lisa's distress, and in fact, he mocks it. And in the film's bathroom scene, while she gasps and chokes from his near throttling, he fixes his own hair in the mirror! Classic NPO! (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) Not quite the "Are you O.K.?" guy he was pretending to be before. The chemistry, I felt, was that of master and victim -- whenever he felt in control of her, he seemed to soften a bit, although it was a far cry from his initial charm offensive. He just didn't have to resort to violence when he thought she was cooperating. It seemed to me that he was only manipulating her to get what he wanted, be it through threats, charm or physical violence.

And the original script offers a glimpse as to why he might be that way -- he says he was an orphan, so we can only guess what kind of upbringing he had or abuse he may have suffered that caused him to shut down emotionally. And that's who an assassin would have to be, isn't it, someone with no conscience, no guilt, no remorse, no real emotions, no real human attachments, just a manipulator. I thought Cillian did a tremendous job of portraying that coldness, especially with his eyes. His eyes were often unnervingly calm even while his mouth contorted.

I agree, the film version almost seems to indicate a little chink in the NPO armor, but these types are not really capable of love or attachment, so even if Jackson was supposed to be a little bit in love, it is not the kind of love that a normal person would feel. It's more like control. And when she defies him, thwarts him, stands up to him , his feeling of control and any affection he might have shown her is gone and replaced with rage.

You know, I read a few Wes Craven interviews AFTER I posted the script link, and I posted a compilation of them in the Interview section of the forum. And surprisingly enough, Craven did say that the name Jackson Rippner was a pseudonym. Here's another cut and paste from that post:

"Interviewer: What’s up with the Jack Rippner name? Is that a play-on-words?

Craven: Yes, it’s a pseudonym — he father’s name is Joe Reisert, so it’s “J.R.” and his daughter gave him a wallet as a gift and we see it in the opening moments of the film. Her father walks by, tosses it on the bureau, and goes into the bathroom. You hear the shower running, and there’s a pause… then this gloved hand come in and — whoosh! — just takes it. And it turns up in the airplane with Cillian, as his proof that they have her father. So “J.R.” now stands for Jack Rippner. We don’t know his real name."

I was actually surprised to read that from Craven, lol. But since the film never actually clarifies it, I definitely think it's open to individual interpretation, as is the entire script!

And yes, of course we love he bathroom scene, lol! After all this talk of sociopaths, I ask myself why I love these characters, and the reason I can come up with is that I really WANT to believe that the charming Jackson is the REAL Jackson, and that Lisa's understanding, love and acceptance could change him, even though I know it's not possible... that initial mutual attraction vibe just sucked me right in, as it did Lisa. I also wonder that if the two leads in this movie did not look so darned good together, if I would even care, lol. Great casting.

[iseebutterfly]

I think it might be not like control, but more like obsession. It fits his narcisitic personaly that he regards her as his belonging in a way, because he has watched her for so long, thus taking the privileg of knowing everything about her. I think that's why he's so interested in her scar.

I don't know how many of you are active on fanfiction.net, but there's this really good story, Uprooted, and it's really in-character, and it had such a great impact on me, I see him pretty much like that now. I think the author has his character figured out really well.
Or maybe there is no "Good" figuring out and "bad" figuring out. It's all interpretation, in the end. But her interpretation is really in character and fits the movie, unlike so many other fanfictions, that are to smutty or (on the other hand) to fluffy -.-. Hers has none of that and she also does not need any smut to create a fine portion of sexual tension. It's all hints here and there, really nice.

It's a must-read for RE fans, in my opinion!

[Pisces]

I went for the obsessive Jackson rather than psychotic Jackson when I wrote Crossing the Line as well. ;D I absolutely saw him as someone who was a real Type A personality, who grappled with his own growing fixation on Lisa as he set his life on a collision course with hers. To have written Jackson as simply crazy or madly in love wouldn't have been right to me; neither seemed to fit him nor make sense in the larger scheme of their situation. But the chemistry between Jackson and Lisa, and the destructiveness of her impact on him, was something I could believe in and dig my teeth into. It was a LOT of fun to write. In fact, I haven't truly been able to get into writing anything else since.

[Cyraus]

As much as I loved this movie, I have to say that the original script surpasses on many levels. I don't understand why they didn't stick with it. It seemed that Craven must have strove to put his own taste on the ending. Sure, the chase and the house scenes were exciting, but not nearly as satisfying as this ending would've been.

Firstly, one thing that I'm pleased was changed is that Rippner was the one who snapped at the airline marshal. While it's understandable that he would be irked, I would think he'd want to make a good first impression with Lisa instead of acting like an ass. However, I do like how at first the viewers would be antagonized by Rippner, then gradually come to tolerate or even like him, then suddenly fear him. It plays with your mind... =w= Just like the possibility that Rippner was lying all along about the hit on Keefe. That was brilliant.

Another thing I prefer with the movie is that Lisa was raped; the tragic past event in this script is that her husband died, which I'd rather her not been married. It's obstructs my fanshipping... XD Nonetheless, the affair that she and Keefe had was an interesting touch; it give a little more motivation for Lisa to save him.

As for Rippner's personality, it's just as great as it is in the movie, if not more so. All the sarcasm, condescension, and intimidation is just lovely. His narcissism is so enthralling; I often have roleplaying characters with that personality disorder. I actually like how much more sadistic Rippner is in this script, outwardly threatening to kill her and her family. His confession that he killed Lisa's grandmother was very unsettling, as well. His sociopathy is made much more evident by that. I loved the part where Lisa calls him "f*cked" and he replies, "Lisa, that language doesn't suit you." Just shows how collected he acts. The part where he has her in his clutches ready to break her neck with his mouth crawling over her almost makes up for not having the lavatory scene. However, one part I despise is that Rippner's name is found to be "George King." Doesn't suit him at all. =_=

Although I love Rippner so, I could see no better ending to this. The fact that Lisa killed him indicates how much he changed her. Whether he ruined or saved her life is debatable; a concept that I adore and admire. The movie is good on its own merits, but it falls short compared to this. However, I agree with Zombie that the conversations are best shorter and to the point. I never cared for the conclusion of Red Eye, being the happy-ending hater that I am. I much prefer the bittersweet endings, much like this had. No matter, I am just glad to have discovered the original script. Thank you very much for posting it. ^_^

Oh, now I am in a Red Eye mood. I think I'll go watch it now... or probably even take another look at Crossing the Line. *rubs hands together* It pleases me... =w=

[bunnie24]

Feelings cannot express this!!
I really wish they had taken the original script completely to heart.

i'm not going to lie; for a second I thought it was a joke (aka fan fiction disguised as a script) but yeah--I like this version MUCH better.

but the movie is awesome regardless

[miserablex]

Does anyone still have this script? This link doesn't work anymore, website is frozen. :/

[askyy]

I'm years late but does anyone still have a copy of the original Red Eye draft script? I've been searching through the Internet but to no avail. I'd appreciate the help xx

[darlingthxs]

Jul 18, 2018 2:58:23 GMT -5 miserablex said:

Does anyone still have this script? This link doesn't work anymore, website is frozen. :/

I don't know if you still want this but here is the link web.archive.org/web/20080627003608/http://www.freewebs.com/reobsession/originalscript.htm