Temptation Waits (Southland Tales)

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Southland Tales
Directed by	Richard Kelly
Produced by	Sean McKittrick Bo Hyde Kendall Morgan
Written by	Richard Kelly
Starring	Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Seann William Scott Sarah Michelle Gellar Justin Timberlake Wallace Shawn Miranda Richardson Mandy Moore Kevin Smith John Larroquette Jon Lovitz
Music by	Moby
Distributed by	Samuel Goldwyn Films Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (DVD) Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	November 14, 2007
Running time	144 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15–17 million
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Temptation Waits is the first story featured in the film Southland Tales. Temptation Waits is Part Four of the Southland Tales saga. The film was written and directed by Richard Kelly.

Southland Tales was initially planned to be a nine-part "interactive experience", with the first six parts published in six 100-page graphic novels that would be released in a six-month period up to the film's release in 2007. The feature film comprises the final three parts of the experience. A website was also developed to intertwine with the graphic novels and the film itself. The idea of six graphic novels was later narrowed down to three. The novels were written by Kelly and illustrated by Brett Weldele.

[edit] Plot

Various protestors are standing outside of a public building. The narrator begins to talk about US-IDent-an agency that was set up by the Republican Party to regulate over cyberspace and CCTV. US-IDent is run by a woman named Nana Mae Frost (Miranda Richardson) (wife of Texas senator Bobby Frost) (Holmes Osbourne)

The film then cuts to Boxer, standing in front of a mirror, the narrator says that Boxer suffers from amnesia and says that he has been manipulated by Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar)-an ex-porn star and has convinced him that they have both written a script called ‘The Power’. They are both lying in bed watching the film ‘Kiss Me Deadly’.

The narrator begins to talk once more about America’s quest for alternate fuels and tells of a German scientist named Baron von Westphalen (Wallace Shawn) who created a machine in the ocean that would essentially create a field of wireless electricity called ‘Fluid Karma’.

A man named Fortunio Balducci (Will Sasso) is watching TV and flicking through the channels until he finds a show called ‘Now’-a talk-show that features Krysta Now and her group of fellow porn-stars where they talk about abortion, terrorism, crime, poverty, social reform, quantum teleportation, teen horniness and war. They begin to talk about why Krysta won’t do anal. Krysta walks up the stairs of Fortunio’s home and Fortunio jokes that with her that great social changes are impossible without feminine commotion. Krysta tells him that deep down, everyone wishes that they were a porn star because she believes America is ‘a bi-sexual nation living in denial... all because of a bunch of nerds-a bunch of nerds who got off a boat in the 15th century and decided that sex was something to be ashamed of-all the pilgrims did was ruin the American Indian orgy of freedom’.

Then Boxer walks into the room and asks Krysta whether or not she has been lying to him about everything. She tells him that she is protecting him.

Later, Krysta goes to a diner and meets with a porn director/Neo-Marxist member named Cyndi Pinziki. Krysta begins talking about how at first she was known as just ‘Krysta’ but changed her name to Krysta Now! – to differentiate herself from the 76 other Krysta’s in the porn industry. Krysta then begins to talk about her career reinvention with the launch of her new talk show, pop album, clothing and perfume line, an energy drink and a jewellery line. Krysta then asks her if she can keep a secret and reveals that she is sleeping with ‘a very large and important man’

At US-IDent, the head of the organisation, Nana Mae Frost is searching for her son-in-law, Boxer. Boxer is married to her daughter, Madeline Frost-Santaros (Mandy Moore). Boxer has been declared missing for several days, but they know that he was in Nevada and that he is back in California. They believe that Boxer was kidnapped at a charity event in a stolen SUV prototype which was tracked to Lake Mead. They also believe that the person behind the kidnapping was involved in the Neo-Marxist group. The car was set on fire and that there were two people inside the car.

Pilot starts narrating about the Neo-Marxists and what they stood for ‘Destroy Capitalism, Dethrone God’. We cut to Cyndi and another woman named Teri Riley who are doing surveillance on Fortunio’s house (where Boxer and Krysta are in hiding). Apparently Krysta tipped them off (which is why she was at the diner talking with Cyndi) and that she has promised ‘a marriage AND election killer’. They then watch as Krysta and Boxer stand on the balcony of Fortunio’s home.

Revelations 6:8 - “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death...”

Cut to: Another Neo-Marxist member named Zora Carmichaels and a gun-runner named Walter Mung standing inside of an ice cream truck, which has been retrofitted for holding guns which he sells from the truck. Zora is there to buy some blanks from him but her eye catches a rocket launcher behind him. She gives him a cheque which he won’t accept and calls her a ‘Cro-Magnon bitch’. She then grabs his neck and pushes him to the floor. She storms off with the blanks.

The scene then shifts to a TV reporter talking with the committee behind Treer Products, who asks them about the usage of ‘Fluid Karma’ as a drug (According to a scroll at the bottom of the screen-Pilot Abilene released a statement saying that he was involved in a military drug test when he was stationed in Iraq). The camera turns around on Dream and Dion (the leaders of the Neo-Marxists) (Wood Harris and Amy Poehler) and Zora at the Neo-Marxist HQ where they are watching the report. Officer Ronald Taverner (Seann William Scott) is inside the bathroom staring at a big mirror where his reflection seems to be delayed and follow 2-3 seconds later.

Pilot introduces him and then says that Ronald is a pawn for the Neo-Marxists who will be used to destroy the Republican Party’s chances of winning the state of Florida and also to destroy US-IDent. He is also suffering from amnesia, like Boxer. Dion and Dream have blood-packs taped to their clothes. Zora goes to the bathroom door and reminds Ronald that he kidnapped an L.A.P.D. officer, which is against the law and that she needs him to help her. Ronald pulls a gun on his own head and then shoots the floor. Ronald then walks out of the bathroom to Dion, Dream and Zora and asks them to promise that no one will get hurt. Ronald walks out and the camera whips around to an unconscious Ronald tied up in a chair (the ‘Ronald’ that is tied up is his twin brother-Roland)

Ronald is outside Fortunio’s house looking out at the Santa Monica beach. Pilot is still at his turret and recognises Ronald. He narrates by saying that Ronald’s mission was to impersonate his twin brother – who is an L.A.P.D. cop himself). Fortunio walks outside and invites him in.

Boxer and Krysta are upstairs and they begin pitching a movie to Ronald. The movie is ‘an epic Los Angeles crime saga’. Ronald can assume that Boxer is playing a cop and that he’ll want a ride along. Boxer says yes and tells him that it’s a film that takes place in the near-future (Krysta chimes in by saying that scientists predict that the future is going to be far more futuristic than they originally predicted) and that he plays a paranoid schizophrenic police officer named Jericho Kane-who can ‘see things’. One day he senses a change in L.A.-crime skyrockets for no apparent reason and the apocalypse is occurring-but his character is the only one who knows why – the Earth’s rotation is slowing down at .00000006 miles per hour each day and it’s disrupting the chemical equilibrium in the human brain which cause erratic criminal behaviour.

Ronald isn’t exactly thrilled by the pitch but asks how Boxer’s character stops it. Boxer says that he can’t stop what can’t be stopped and that only God can do so. Boxer says that his character is killed at the end in a shootout in downtown L.A. while he is whispering the truth to Dr. Muriel Fox (a character who will be played by Krysta Now)

Boxer and Ronald are on the ride-along, where Boxer has a camcorder and is asking Roland a bunch of questions. He asks how he feels when he’s behind the wheel of a car as a police officer and how he perceives the world. Ronald says that he believes they act like ‘concerned citizen’. Ronald then says to Boxer ‘to be honest with you-we have to look out for the niggers. Boxer believes him to be serious but it turns out he was joking with Boxer (The Neo Marxists had Ronald intentionally say that to make him seem to be a racist cop).

Dion and Dream (who are listening in on the car conversation) are pleased that he has said nigger. Dream tells him over a microphone to ask Boxer about his wife. Ronald does so and asks how she feels that is having an affair with a porn star. Boxer doesn’t know what he is talking about and says that he isn’t married and tells Ronald to stop asking questions (Because Boxer suffers from amnesia, he doesn’t know he is married to Madeline Frost-Santaros and this is the first time she is made reference to him). Ronald then asks what Boxer’s movie really is about. He knows there is something that Boxer won’t say. Boxer then says that it all hinges on a top secret experiment – a young couple come home from the hospital with a newborn baby but the baby has not yet produced a bowel movement in a week and Boxer then says that the baby is special and that it processes energy differently. Ronald is weirded out by this because he then confesses to Boxer that he has not made a bowel movement in six days.

Revelation 11 - Two witnesses appear in Jerusalem to speak out against the sins of mankind. They are eventually killed by those who are tormented by their prophecies.

Dion and Dream are arguing about Ronald’s inability to produce a bowel movement. Dion believes that it is wrong because it’s going against Mother Nature whilst Dream believes that it’s not written in the Bible that you have to produce a bowel movement. They then stop arguing because they know they’ll never get to a right answer and they are waiting impatiently for a man named Kenny Chan to arrive. Kenny then arrives and they tell him that he is really late. Dion and Dream go to leave but before they do, they tell Kenny that if Ronald’s twin brother-Roland wakes up, inject him with the needle left beside him (it is fill off Fluid Karma).

Pilot narrates by saying that Kenny works at US-IDent and that the Neo-Marxists recruited him to infiltrate it as a mole. Kenny is seen talking to Starla Von Luft (a fellow employee at US-IDent) for his coat back. She had it bugged so that she can track him.

A TV news broadcast says that US-IDent have unravelled a plot by Neo-Marxists to rig the US election by using severed thumbs. Bobby Frost, Vaughn Smallhouse (John Larroquette) (Frost’s Hollywood Aide) and Brandt Huntington (Frost’s assistant) are watching this report on a laptop. Bobby picks up a CD at the laptop-it’s Krysta’s CD entitled “Teen Horniness Is Not a Crime” and are e-mailed a video file of Boxer and Krysta kissing on Fortunio’s balcony. The e-mail was sent from a group called ‘Deep Throat 2’.

They can’t trace the e-mail but immediately, they get a phone call from ‘Deep Throat 2’-It’s Cyndi, Teri and Krysta. They tells them that they have a tape of Boxer Santaros in ‘compromising positions’-they’ll give them the tape in exchange for $1 million in cash and a ‘Yes’ vote on Proposition 69. Bobby threatens them and he hangs up on them. Cyndi and Teri remain calm and tell Krysta that there is always ‘Phase Two’. Krysta wasn’t aware of a ‘Phase Two’ but they tell her to be quiet and leave it to them.

Back at US-IDent, Nana Mae Frost is watching Krysta’s show ‘Now!’- one of the women on the show ask about if you are on a flight from London to L.A. and you have sex on the flight, then takes the ‘morning after pill’-while travelling over the time zone-then it becomes the ‘morning before pill’.

Pilot narrates about what ‘Phase Two’ was... Dream and Dion were going to stage a domestic disturbance that Ronald would investigate along with Boxer and fake their deaths. In an abandoned house, Dion and Dream are dressed as a newly-wed couple and are getting prosthetics applied on their face by another member of the Neo-Marxist group named Bing Zinneman. Zora is also there, playing around on rollerblades. Zora doesn’t see the point of them wearing prosthetics, but Dream says that the two of them are ‘cultural icons’ and that they cannot be recognised.

Back at US-IDent, Starla traces Kenny’s whereabouts to an abandoned building in downtown L.A. (The Neo-Marxist HQ). Kenny is on the phone to a female telling her about how some password should work. Nana Mae Frost is tapped into the conversation and when she hears Kenny saying ‘Nana Mae Frost can go eat a fucking dick’-she orders in the police to raid the building. They go in and kill two Neo Marxist members (one of which is Hostel director Eli Roth in a blink-and-you’ll-miss cameo) before they make their way to Kenny upstairs. Kenny hears the shots and runs to Roland and tries to wake him and when he does, Roland sees everything distorted and quasi-animated (similar to A Scanner Darkly). Ronald says ‘Where Is He? Promise Me You’ll Find Him’. Kenny tells Roland that there is a window that leads to the roof and he should escape. Roland gets out in time while Kenny is gunned down. Once Roland gets to the top of the roof, he jumps off and lands inside of a dumpster.

At a diner at Santa Monica Beach, Ronald and Boxer are having lunch and discussing the film. Ronald tells Boxer that he is having a recurring dream where he wakes up in a maze of sand and when he is walking inside the maze, he finds a light source and there is a person waiting there for him – Boxer. Boxer then asks him does he ever feel like there is a thousand people locked inside our yourself. Ronald says sometimes. Boxer then adds that it’s your memory that keeps them glued together and from breaking out and fighting one another – a memory gospel (a reference to a song from Moby). Ronald sees two men (one with a Mohawk – his cousin Jimmy Hermosa, and his uncle – Tab Taverner) and they signal Ronald to go over to them. When he leaves, Boxer notices an Asian women smoking a cigarette who is staring at him – her name is Serpentine (Bai Ling). Ronald turns around to Boxer and looks at him very suspiciously. Boxer then gets up from the table and follows Serpentine into a bookstore called ‘Small World Books’.

He then finds her with Inga Von Westphalen (mother of Baron) and a midget named Dr. Katarina Kuntzler. Inga tells Boxer that no matter what happens next, it’s not Boxer’s fault and then Dr Kuntzler says that they have read his script. Boxer takes the script off of her and asks how they got a copy. Serpentine just says ‘Don’t look so scared, Mr. Santaros-the future is just like you imagined’. Inga says ‘This Is the Way The World Ends... Not With A Whimper, With a Bang)....'

TO BE CONTINUED

[edit] External links

v • d • e Richard Kelly

Short films	The Goodbye Place (1996) · Visceral Matter (1997)

Films, written & directed	Donnie Darko (2001) · Southland Tales (2007) · The Box (2008)

Films, written	Domino (2005) · Optimistic (2006) · Vanishing Point (2008)

v • d • e Southland Tales saga

Graphic Novels	Two Roads Diverge • Fingerprints • The Mechanicals

Feature Film	Temptation Waits • Memory Gospel • Wave of Mutilation

Other	Mega-Zeppelin • Southland Tales: Original Soundtrack • Southland Tales: The Prequel Saga