key off a hook. Another forcefully shakes a cocktail-shaker full of ice.
MR. MOUSTAFA
(
voice-over
)
Pffeifelstad fell by lunch under heavy shelling, and the Zig-Zags surged across the long, western border. The Lutz Blitz would last all winter.
Insert:
A Martini glass. The drink is poured neatly – then stirred with a ‘Z-Z’ swizzle-stick.
MR. MOUSTAFA
(
voice-over
)
High Command advanced to Nebelsbad.
INT. LOBBY. DAY
The hotel is busier than ever, and every man in the room is in uniform. ‘Z-Z’ symbols are plastered across every conceivable surface.
Agatha comes in the front doors carrying a tall stack of pink cardboard pastry-boxes. A soldier seated at a small desk blocking the entrance looks up from his ledger book. He frowns. Agatha explains:
AGATHA
Compliments of Herr Mendl. For the Executive Staff.
Agatha takes a smaller box off the top of the stack and sets it down in front of the soldier. The soldier hesitates. He opens the box and sees inside: one Courtesan
au chocolat
. He looks back up to Agatha, hopeful. She nods. He signals for her to proceed.
An officer with a crew-cut mans the concierge desk. A badge on his chest reads: ‘Military Concierge’. He is M. Chuck. Mr. Mosher stands beside him taking notes while he dictates orders:
M. CHUCK
General Stieglitz requests a garden-view sitting room with an extra roll-away. Let’s put him in the Duke Leopold Suite. Secretary Woroniecki’s office cabled. He’s checking-in a day early (rooms 401‒2‒3). Tell Tactical Logistics we’re moving them to a standard-double on the third floor.
MR. MOSHER
(
skeptical
)
They’ll need more space than that.
Mr. Mosher points to a group of four soldiers carrying a ping-pong table through the lobby. Agatha waits calmly while they pass. She pauses, looks left and right, then ducks through a curtain below a sign that reads:
STAFF ONLY .
She dashes up a staircase.
Cut to:
The storage pantry adjacent to the vault. Agatha comes in and sets aside her boxes. She immediately stands on a chair and runs her hand along the top of a picture rail near the ceiling. She finds a brass key. She unlocks the outer door of the vault and slides it open – revealing the inner one
(
which has a combination lock
).
Agatha reaches into her pocket and withdraws Zero’s hand written square of tissue-paper and a small magnifying glass. She squints and studies the tiny document. She quickly spins the dial and opens the door.
Agatha whips the fur stole off the radiator.
She pulls out the wrapped painting.
She tucks the package under her arm, exits the vault, and relocks the doors.
INT. VAN. DAY
The entrance to the hotel. ‘Z-Z’ banners hang from every awning. A dozen Zubrowkian flags wave and rustle in a row. Crests, heralds, and insignias are displayed in vitrines, doors, and windows. A chanting platoon marches up the promenade, and a soldier in a pilot’s cap sits smoking a cigarette on top of a parked tank next to the funicular.
M. Gustave and Zero wait, tense, in a parked delivery truck with ‘Mendl’s’ painted in delicate, pink cursive across the side. The engine idles. Zero is at the wheel. He and M. Gustave both wear white caps and aprons. M. Gustave says, deeply disgusted, as he stares at the new ornamentation:
M. GUSTAVE
The beginning of the end of the end of the beginning – has begun. A sad finale played, off-key, on a broken down saloon piano in the outskirts of a forgotten ghost town. I’d rather not bear witness to such blasphemy.
ZERO
Me, neither.
M. GUSTAVE
(
elegiac
)
The Grand Budapest has become a troops’ barracks. I shall never cross its threshold again in my lifetime.
ZERO
Me, neither.
M. GUSTAVE
(
on a roll
)
Never again shall –
ZERO
(
alarmed
)
Actually, I think we might be going in right now, after all.
Zero points to a long, silver limousine
(
last seen parked in front of theDesgoffe und Taxis mansion in Lutz
)
as it pulls up the drive and stops between the Mendl’s
MR. MOUSTAFA
(
voice-over
)
Pffeifelstad fell by lunch under heavy shelling, and the Zig-Zags surged across the long, western border. The Lutz Blitz would last all winter.
Insert:
A Martini glass. The drink is poured neatly – then stirred with a ‘Z-Z’ swizzle-stick.
MR. MOUSTAFA
(
voice-over
)
High Command advanced to Nebelsbad.
INT. LOBBY. DAY
The hotel is busier than ever, and every man in the room is in uniform. ‘Z-Z’ symbols are plastered across every conceivable surface.
Agatha comes in the front doors carrying a tall stack of pink cardboard pastry-boxes. A soldier seated at a small desk blocking the entrance looks up from his ledger book. He frowns. Agatha explains:
AGATHA
Compliments of Herr Mendl. For the Executive Staff.
Agatha takes a smaller box off the top of the stack and sets it down in front of the soldier. The soldier hesitates. He opens the box and sees inside: one Courtesan
au chocolat
. He looks back up to Agatha, hopeful. She nods. He signals for her to proceed.
An officer with a crew-cut mans the concierge desk. A badge on his chest reads: ‘Military Concierge’. He is M. Chuck. Mr. Mosher stands beside him taking notes while he dictates orders:
M. CHUCK
General Stieglitz requests a garden-view sitting room with an extra roll-away. Let’s put him in the Duke Leopold Suite. Secretary Woroniecki’s office cabled. He’s checking-in a day early (rooms 401‒2‒3). Tell Tactical Logistics we’re moving them to a standard-double on the third floor.
MR. MOSHER
(
skeptical
)
They’ll need more space than that.
Mr. Mosher points to a group of four soldiers carrying a ping-pong table through the lobby. Agatha waits calmly while they pass. She pauses, looks left and right, then ducks through a curtain below a sign that reads:
STAFF ONLY .
She dashes up a staircase.
Cut to:
The storage pantry adjacent to the vault. Agatha comes in and sets aside her boxes. She immediately stands on a chair and runs her hand along the top of a picture rail near the ceiling. She finds a brass key. She unlocks the outer door of the vault and slides it open – revealing the inner one
(
which has a combination lock
).
Agatha reaches into her pocket and withdraws Zero’s hand written square of tissue-paper and a small magnifying glass. She squints and studies the tiny document. She quickly spins the dial and opens the door.
Agatha whips the fur stole off the radiator.
She pulls out the wrapped painting.
She tucks the package under her arm, exits the vault, and relocks the doors.
INT. VAN. DAY
The entrance to the hotel. ‘Z-Z’ banners hang from every awning. A dozen Zubrowkian flags wave and rustle in a row. Crests, heralds, and insignias are displayed in vitrines, doors, and windows. A chanting platoon marches up the promenade, and a soldier in a pilot’s cap sits smoking a cigarette on top of a parked tank next to the funicular.
M. Gustave and Zero wait, tense, in a parked delivery truck with ‘Mendl’s’ painted in delicate, pink cursive across the side. The engine idles. Zero is at the wheel. He and M. Gustave both wear white caps and aprons. M. Gustave says, deeply disgusted, as he stares at the new ornamentation:
M. GUSTAVE
The beginning of the end of the end of the beginning – has begun. A sad finale played, off-key, on a broken down saloon piano in the outskirts of a forgotten ghost town. I’d rather not bear witness to such blasphemy.
ZERO
Me, neither.
M. GUSTAVE
(
elegiac
)
The Grand Budapest has become a troops’ barracks. I shall never cross its threshold again in my lifetime.
ZERO
Me, neither.
M. GUSTAVE
(
on a roll
)
Never again shall –
ZERO
(
alarmed
)
Actually, I think we might be going in right now, after all.
Zero points to a long, silver limousine
(
last seen parked in front of theDesgoffe und Taxis mansion in Lutz
)
as it pulls up the drive and stops between the Mendl’s
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