Αντιεπιστημονικός σκοταδισμός | Αντιδιανοουμενισμός
EXT. COUNTY SCHOOL- DAY 10. The truck pulls up to school, drone fuselage hanging out.
COOPER How’s this work? You guys come with?
TOM I’ve got class. But she ... [Pats Murph on shoulder.] Needs to wait. [Murph glares at Tom as he hops out.]
COOPER Why? What?
MURPH Dad, I had a thing ... well, they’ll tell you about it. Just try and ...
COOPER Am I gonna be mad?
MURPH Not with me. Just try not to
COOPER Relax, I got this. [Murph pulls out a notebook. Starts drawing a BARCODE.]
INT. PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE- LATER (MORNING) Cooper enters, awkward. The PRINCIPAL (male, fifties) turns from the window.
PRINCIPAL Little late, Coop. (Indicates chair.) Guess you had to stop off at the Asian fighter plane store.
COOPER (sits, smiles) Actually, sir, it’s a surveillance drone. With outstanding solar cells. [Cooper nods at Murph’s teacher, Ms Hanley, thirties, attractive.]
PRINCIPAL We got Tom’s scores back. He’s going to make an excellent farmer. Congratulations. [The Principal slides a paper across the desk.]
COOPER (taken aback) What about college?
PRINCIPAL The university only takes a handful. They don’t have resources.
COOPER I’m still paying taxes - where’s that go? There’s no more armies.
PRINCIPAL Not to the university. Coop, you have to be realistic.
COOPER You’re ruling him out for college now? He’s fifteen.
PRINCIPAL Tom’s score simply isn’t high enough.
COOPER What’re you? About a thirty-six-inch waist? (Beat.) Thirty-inch inseam?
PRINCIPAL I’m not sure I see what...
COOPER You’re telling me you need two numbers to measure your own ass, but just one to measure my son’s future?
[Ms Hanley stifles a laugh. The Principal shoots her a look.]
PRINCIPAL You’re a well educated man, Coop. A trained pilot...
COOPER And an engineer.
PRINCIPAL Okay. Well, right now the world doesn’t need more engineers. We didn’t run out of planes, or television sets. We ran out of food.
[Cooper leans back. He’s not going to win this one.]
PRINCIPAL The world needs farmers. Good farmers, like you. And Tom. (Smiles benignly.) We’re a caretaker generation. And things are getting better. Maybe your grandchildren...
COOPER Are we done, sir?
PRINCIPAL No. Ms Hanley is here to talk about Murph.
[Cooper shifts his gaze to Ms Hanley.]
MS HANLEY Murph’s a bright kid. A wonderful kid, Mr Cooper. But she’s been having a little trouble ... Ms Hanley places a textbook on the desk. She brought this to school, to show the other kids the section on the lunar landings ...
COOPER Yeah, it’s one of my old textbooks, she likes the pictures.
MS HANLEY This is an old federal textbook. We’ve replaced them with corrected versions.
COOPER Corrected?
MS HANLEY Explaining how the Apollo missions were faked to bankrupt the Soviet Union.
COOPER You don’t believe we went to the moon?
MS HANLEY (tolerant smile) I believe it was a brilliant piece of propaganda. The Soviets bankrupted themselves pouring resources into rockets and other useless machines.
COOPER ’Useless machines’?
MS HANLEY Yes, Mr Cooper. And if we don’t want a repeat of the wastefulness and excess of the twentieth century, our children need to learn about this planet, not tales of leaving it.
[Cooper considers this in silence. Looks at Ms Hanley.]
COOPER One of those useless machines they used to make was called an MRI. And if we had any of them left, the doctors might have been able to find the cyst in my wife’s brain before she died, rather than afterwards. Then she could be sitting here listening to this, which’d be good, cos she was always the calmer one...
[Ms Hanley looks at Cooper, embarrassed.]
MS HANLEY I’m sorry about your wife, Mr Cooper. But Murph got into a fist fight with several of her classmates over this Apollo nonsense and we thought it best to (MORE) MS HANLEY (cont’d) bring you in and see what ideas you might have for dealing with her behavior on the home front.
COOPER Sure. Well, there’s a ball game tomorrow night, and Murph’s going through a bit of a baseball phase. There’ll be candy and soda ... [Ms Hanley looks at him, expectant.]
COOPER I think I’ll take her to that. [Ms Hanley turns to the Principal, not happy.]
EXT. PICKUP TRUCK OUTSIDE SCHOOL- MOMENTS LATER Murph looks up from her notebook at her dad, expectantly.
MURPH How’d it go?
COOPER I, uh ... got you suspended.
MURPH What?!
COOPER Sorry.
MURPH Dad! I told you not to!
Preside: Non capisco dove vuole arrivare...
Cooper: Sì, è uno dei miei vecchi libri di testo. Lei ha sempre amato queste immagini.
Signorina Hanley: È un vecchio testo federale. Li abbiamo rimpiazzati con le versioni corrette.
Cooper: Corrette?
Signorina Hanley: Sì. Spiegano che le missioni Apollo erano solo finzioni per far fallire i sovietici.
Cooper: Lei non crede che siamo andati sulla Luna?
Signorina Hanley: Credo sia stata una geniale propaganda e che i sovietici siano andati in bancarotta da soli investendo in razzi e in altre macchine inutili.
Cooper: Macchine inutili...
Signorina Hanley: E se noi non vogliamo ripetere gli eccessi e gli sprechi del ventesimo secolo allora dobbiamo insegnare la Terra ai nostri figli, non come abbandonarla.
Cooper: Una di quelle macchine inutili che producevano si chiamava RM e se l'avessimo avuta ancora i medici avrebbero trovato la ciste al cervello di mia moglie prima della sua morte invece che dopo. E ci sarebbe stata lei qui ad ascoltare al posto mio, e sarebbe stato un bene perché è sempre stata lei... quella più calma.
