Where this sits in the pilot
Michael has spent the whole pilot as his father's son without quite being his father's accomplice — Dartmouth, lacrosse, the good-cop routine at the family casino. This drive is where that stops being true. One conversation in the car, one job at an abandoned airfield, and Michael can't unknow either of them. A single elision below removes one graphic clause from Dante's dialogue — the meaning survives intact; the line itself doesn't need to be reproduced in full to make the point about Michael's face.
EXT. DRY LAKE HIGHWAY – NIGHT
A black ribbon of road with dry lake on either side. After a beat, Dante’s BMW speeds past, rocketing into the darkness.
INT. DANTE’S BMW – DRIVING – CONTINUOUS
Dante at the wheel, puts a finger to his lips, shushing Michael in the passenger seat. A voice on the SPEAKER PHONE.
SHERIFF BRIGGS (V.O.)
— just got off with him.
DANTE
They’re comin’ to get Jose Luiz?
SHERIFF BRIGGS
Not yet. Gotta run it up through his channels.
DANTE
’Kay. I’m headin’ out to the base with some grub for Helena’s boys. I’ll pass along the info.
(beat)
Anything else?
SHERIFF BRIGGS
You’re wiping the video after this one. Or so help me, God. You’ll be joining Joe Gundersen in Hell.
DANTE
A deal’s a deal, Sheriff. G’night.
Dante ends the call. Now Michael’s got a question —
MICHAEL
He’s been in your pocket for years. What is it? Gambling debts?
DANTE
Your girlfriend. Joe’s daughter.
MICHAEL
I went out with both of them, remember?
DANTE
Oh yeah. Britt. When she worked for Crystal, she partied with Briggs at his Bachelor Party. Knowin’ I had tape was enough to keep him lookin’ the other way. But helpin’ me get rid of Joe gave him cold feet. So I leaked that clip of her dancin’ to jog his memory.
Dante pauses for effect, then lets it out, laughing —
DANTE (CONT’D)
He paid her extra to […]. He’s screaming like a coyote caught in a barbed wire fence. She’s high as fuck, laughing her ass off. I’ll show you when we get home. It’s not in HD, but they left the lights on so it’s not too pixelated.
(beat)
If his wife and kids ever saw that, they would, they’d never be able to stop seein’ it.
Michael’s shocked and unsettled, staring straight ahead.
MICHAEL
Are you gonna delete it?
DANTE
Son, if I told the truth I’d either be dirt poor, dead, or in jail. Hell, you wouldn’t even be here. Do you think your Mom would’ve let me fuck her without a Trojan?
Michael stares into the darkness ahead, unable to regard the darkness beside him.1 His father gives the devil a bad name.
EXT. ABANDONED AIRFIELD – DRY LAKE – NIGHT
The BMW slow rolls along a dirt road, headlights illuminating an abandoned airplane hanger circa World War Two. The lights catch a familiar Bentley SUV parked in cover, then shut off.
Michael walks away from the BMW carrying several bags of McDonalds. He tries to smile as three figures approach out of the shadows. We recognize them as Jose Luiz’s bodyguards.
MICHAEL
Hola. Hi. We brought you some food.
Michael hands a bag to each bodyguard, occupying their hands.
BODYGUARD
Our boss wants to see her money.
MICHAEL
My Dad’s gettin’ it.
Michael stands with the bodyguards, watching Dante approach, arms overloaded with those familiar MCM duffle bags.
DANTE
We got your order right this time. No special sauce on that Big Mac.
Dante puts down the bags and calls Michael over.
DANTE (CONT’D)
Michael, let’s show ’em the cash.
(to the bodyguards)
You can text Helena a picture.
Michael crouches at the bags as Dante unzips two of them. The bodyguards approach, enjoying their fast food when —
— Dante and Michael pull SHOTGUNS from the duffel bags and SHOOT the startled bodyguards, FIRING dozens of ’rounds. After a mad moment of noise, smoke and fire, silence returns.
Dante walks over to check-on the bodies. Yup. They’re dead.
DANTE (CONT’D)
Let’s get ’em into their car.
Michael can’t, he’s on his hands and knees, puking his guts out.2 Dante walks over to his son, offers comforting words.
DANTE (CONT’D)
You did great. They were trash. Cartel killers. We’re making the world a better place. That six million will buy you a seat at the table. You’re goin’ to Washington, right? To help Maddox and those Freedom Riders drain the swamp.
Michael gets to his feet, wiping his mouth, still freaked.
- 1
No adjective, no interiority, no cut to a close-up described in the prose. Just a direction of gaze and its opposite: forward, not sideways. The withheld response — no scream, no argument, not even a question — is what tells us Michael has already understood something he can't take back, before he's had time to decide what to do about it.
Reaction Shots - 2
Three pages earlier, Michael absorbed something monstrous by going rigid and silent — a withheld reaction. Here, the body simply overrides him: no delay, no control, immediate and physical. The same character, the same relationship, two opposite reaction patterns back to back, and the gap between them is the whole arc — the first horror he could still process at a remove, the second one he's now an active participant in.
Reaction Shots
What this excerpt doesn't show
Dante's after-the-fact comfort to Michael — casual, paternal, utterly unbothered — is left unmarked here on purpose. It's doing real character work, but it's Dante's scene at that point, not Michael's, and this page is built specifically around what Michael does with his body when there's nothing useful left to say.
Read the whole thing
This excerpt is drawn from a 60-page pilot. The full logline, genre, and comps are on the original post — Spec TV Pilot: “Outlaw City” →
Related pages
- How to Write Reaction Shots and Silent Character Behavior — the five reaction patterns behind notes 1 and 2.
- How to Write and Direct for Onscreen Restraint — the discipline of trusting a held surface to read as loudly as a line.
About the author
Jesse Alexander is a screenwriter, showrunner, and narrative designer whose work spans film, television, games, and transmedia storytelling. Scribbler’s Toolbox collects practical frameworks developed from professional story development and production.