EXT. SITE OF CORTLANDT DEVELOPEMENT - DAY

Mrs Dubray is walking around the site. There are reporters and police at the scene. Some teenage boys from Hell’s Kitchen are there also wandering around.

Mrs Dubray looks very upset and for once looks kind of fragile.

TEENAGER1

You OK Mrs Dubray?

MRS DUBRAY

(quietly)

Who would do this? Who could have this much hate inside them?

TEENAGER2

I heard it was anarchists.

TEENAGER3

Nah. It’s the Commies.

TEENAGER4

Nah it was Meaney’s gang. The fellas that done over Bozzers’ were holed up inside.

TEENAGER5

I heard it was an architect.

The rest, including Mrs Dubray, start laughing.

MRS DUBRAY

Well at least we can still laugh.

TEENAGER3

Will it still be ready for Christmas Mrs. Dubray?

Mrs Dubray just shakes her head and walks away. Teenager4 thumps Teenager3 for being so stupid.

INT. HOWARD’S APARTMENT - DAY

COP

What do you know about this?

HOWARD

Arrest me. I’ll talk at the trial.

ELLSWORTH TOOHEY TALKING OVER A SHOT OF HIS COLUMN

MR TOOHEY

Howard Roark is guilty by his very nature. It is whispered that he designed Cortlandt. - What if he did? - Society needed a housing project. It was his duty to sacrifice his own desires and to contribute any ideas we demanded of him on any terms we chose. Who is society? We are. Man can be permitted to exist only in order to serve others. He must be nothing but a tool for the satisfaction of their needs. Self-sacrifice is the law of our age. The man who refuses to submit and to serve, Howard Roark, the supreme egoist, is a man who must be destroyed!

INT. GAIL WYNAND’S OFFICE - DAY

GAIL WYNAND

We have never learned to understand what is greatness in man. Self-sacrifice, we drool, is the ultimate virtue. Let’s stop and think. Can a man sacrifice his integrity, his rights, his freedom, his convictions, the honesty of his feeling, the independence of his thought? These are a man’s supreme possessions. To what must he sacrifice them? To whom? Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed. A man’s self is his spirit. It is the unsacrificed self that we must respect in man above all and where do we find it? In a man like Howard Roark.

Gail looks at the secretary who has been taking dictation.

GAIL WYNAND

Have that run off and set up on tomorrow’s front page.

SECRETARY

Yes, Mr Wynand.

EDITOR

Gail, are you out of your mind, defending that ...?

GAIL WYNAND

Keep still or I’ll bash your teeth in.

EDITOR

The whole city is against him. An unpopular cause is dangerous business for anyone. For a popular newspaper, it’s suicide! - Public opinion is responsible...

GAIL WYNAND

Public opinion is what I make it. For once, I’ll fight for what I believe. I’ll stand alone against everybody for the first time in my life. Yes, for the first time in my life.

INT. HOSPITAL, PRIVATE ROOM - DAY

Dominique is in bed asleep. Gail is sitting by her beside, waiting patiently. Dominique begins to wake.

GAIL WYNAND

You fool, why did you have to make such a good job of it? Didn’t you know broken glass is dangerous?

DOMINIQUE

It didn’t hurt.

GAIL WYNAND

The next time you wanna play the innocent bystander let me coach you. You didn’t have to cut an artery.

DOMINIQUE

Do the police believe that I was only an innocent bystander?

GAIL WYNAND

Yes, they believe it. They have to. You almost died. They don’t know that you’d risk your life for him.

DOMINIQUE

For whom?

GAIL WYNAND

Howard. Haven’t you always fought for his work? I’m glad you did it and that it was for him. I’m glad he did it.

DOMINIQUE

He had to.

GAIL WYNAND

Yes.

DOMINIQUE

Have they arrested him?

GAIL WYNAND

He’s out on bail.

DOMINIQUE

What’s he told them?

GAIL WYNAND

Nothing. He’s refused to make any statement. They all say he’s guilty, but they can find no motive. They think he designed Cortlandt but they can’t prove it.

DOMINIQUE

Is the public against him?

GAIL WYNAND

It’s the worst storm of public fury I’ve ever seen.

DOMINIQUE

Are all the newspapers against him?

GAIL WYNAND

Except one.

DOMINIQUE

Gail, if you’ll stand by him today...

GAIL WYNAND

Don’t offer me bribes. It’s a battle I’ve waited for all my life. I know how much I have to redeem. This will be my redemption. This time, the Banner is serving a crusade.

INT. SMALL NO-LONGER-BARE OFFICE - DAY

Ann is sitting with her back turned to the door and Peter is sitting on her desk, clearly in the middle of a conversation with Ann.

Mrs. Dubray strides into the office holding up a newspaper in her right hand.

MRS DUBRAY

Is this true? Did your friend blow up Cortlandt Homes?

Ann stays turned away. Peter walks over to Mrs Dubray.

PETER

Mrs. Dubray ... we are as much at a loss as you to[]

MRS DUBRAY

You are not as much at a loss Mr. Keating. You are not!

Ann turns around, her eyes are all red and puffy, she has a handkerchief in her hands and she’s clearly been crying.

ANN

He can’t have done it. He can’t have.

PETER

Ann...

ANN

He wouldn’t do this.

The sight of Ann so distraught knocks the anger out of Mrs. Dubray.

MRS DUBRAY

He didn’t do it?

PETER

I’m afraid he probably did Mrs. Dubray. I don’t know how we will fix this but ... Ann and I will do everything in our power to... we’ll do everything we can.

MRS DUBRAY

Why did he do it?

PETER

He’s insane.

ANN

He can’t have. He just can’t.

INT. HOSPITAL, PRIVATE ROOM - DAY

Howard enters.

DOMINIQUE

I was waiting for you to come.

HOWARD

Do you want to ask me any questions now?

DOMINIQUE

No.

HOWARD

I may be sent to the penitentiary for years. Does that frighten you?

DOMINIQUE

No. I’ll share whatever they do to you. I failed you once because I was afraid to see you suffer. Now I’ll stand by you openly. I’ll take the disgrace, the scandal, the smears, anything.

HOWARD

Darling.

DOMINIQUE

Yes.

HOWARD

You’re Mrs. Gail Wynand. You’re above suspicion. Everybody believes you were at the scene by accident. If you let it be known what we mean to each other it’ll be a confession that I did it.

DOMINIQUE

Is that why you asked me to help you? In order to stop me from joining you now?

HOWARD

Yes. Dominique, if I’m convicted I want you to remain with Gail. And you must not tell him about us because he and you will need each other.

DOMINIQUE

All right, if that’s what you want but if you’re acquitted?

HOWARD

We can’t speak of that now.

DOMINIQUE

You’ll be acquitted.

HOWARD

That’s not what I wanted to hear you say.

DOMINIQUE

If they convict you if they lock you in jail, if they never let you design another building if they never let me see you again it won’t break me. I know how to fight it. I’m not afraid of them any longer.

HOWARD

That’s what I wanted to hear all these years.