1. EXT. CEDARS-SINAI - WIDE - DAY A monolith with alienating foregrounds. A bus pulls in on Beverly. NEIL McCAULEY and a nurse get off. Neil carries a paper bag and wears white pants like a hospital attendant. Neil is an ice-cold professional: very big, very tough. At 42 his short black hair is graying. He spent eight years in McNeil and three in San Quentin. He got out and hit the street in 1987. Four of the McNeil years were spent in the hole. Neil's voice is street, but his language is precise like an engineer's. He's very careful and very good. Neil runs a professional crew that pulls down high line, high number scores and does it anyway the score has to be taken down: if on the prowl (a burglary), that's fine; if they have to go in strong (armed), that's fine too. And if you get in their way, that's got to be your problem. His lifestyle is obsessively functional. There's no steady woman or any encumbrance. Neil McCauley keeps it so there's nothing he couldn't walk from in 30 seconds flat.

ANGLE Right now, he enters the big double doors and pulls a white intern's coat from his paper bag. CUT TO: INT. CEDARS-SINAI CORRIDOR - TRAVELING TWO SHOT - DAY We DOLLY on Neil as he crosses through the long crowded corridor. Patients, nurses, interns and doctors pass by. A P.A. broadcasts occasional messages. PROFILE Nail crosses under an "EMERGENCY" sign and keeps going towards the exit doors. TRAVELING - FRONTAL Neil APPROACHES THE CAMERA. From the other direction two ambulance attendants wheel an old man under oxygen and pass by Neil. CUT TO: WIDE REAR SHOT Without breaking his stride from the moment he got off the bus, Neil exits through the doors, examines four ambulances parked in the slots, climbs into one and drives off. Maybe he's stolen it. We don't know.

2. EXT. R & C CONSTRUCTION SUPPLIES - ON CHRIS - DAY CHRIS SHIHERLIS crosses past stacks of gravel and cement with a white-coated BLACK CLERK. Chris wears a hard hat over a mongol cut, Levi's, black boots and a sleeveless sweat shirt and carries on one shoulder a 150 lb., red, Milwaukee Tool Company case. He looks like a construction worker by day who by night hits L.A's slams, jams and raves. He's 29, from Austin, Texas. Chris is also a highline pro: a boxman who knows five ways to open any safe made. Right now he's buying a hollow core drill. He and McCauley were cellmates in San Quentin Penitentiary from 1984 to 1987. Chris hit the streets in 1988. He's a hot dog and spends money as fast as he makes it. Right now, he and the Clerk exit to the sales counter.

CUT TO: EXT. SALES COUNTER - TWO SHOT

As they approach, the Clerk goes behind it.

CLERK What you working on?

CHRIS Drillin' some post holes into concrete ...

CLERK (re: toolcase) With that you can ream solid steel. Check, charge, or cash?

CHRIS Cash. Put "Jack's Fencing" on the receipt.

CLERK $788.30 Chris pays; Clerk writes receipt.

CLERK (continuing)...that a good racket? I ought to get out from behind this counter...

CHRIS (takes receipt) Yeah.(beat) Take it easy. He leaves with the heavy red case.

3. INT. "TOYS 'R' US STORE" - ON CERRITO - DAY MICHAEL CERRITO - at 40 - is looking at a doll house. He's a wide, thick, coarse-featured big man. Sicilian from Sunnyside, he's spent 15 years in Attica, Joliet and Marion penitentiaries. He's strictly a "cowboy": his natural inclination towards a score is "...get the guns and let's go." He's been off smack and everything else for five years. He's clean and sober. He's the nicest guy on the block and a loving father. If you get in his way, he'll kill you as soon as look at you. If you asked him about the contradictions, he wouldn't know what you were talking about. CLOSE OR DOLL HOUSE DETAILS It's 3 x 6 and two feet high. Miniature room sets are inside. Cerrito's thick fingers close the door. He picks it up. WIDEN. He crosses to a counter and MIDDLE-AGED CLERK. CERRITO Wrap this here up. CLERK Yessir. You're going to have a happy little girl. CERRITO Two. I got two girls. CLERK That's nice. CERRITO Yeah. And gimme those three masks there. Clerk takes down Clark Gable, Three-eyed Monster, and Beautiful Lady, full-head rubber masks. CERRITO (continuing) Gimme Donald Duck, too CLERK (does and laughs) A little early for Halloween? CERRITO Yeah. Halloween's coming early this year. What do I owe you?