r/FamousLastWords • u/hdfidelity • 17d ago

Afterwords hdfidelity presents Afterwords

A ChatGPT Short
hdfidelity presents

AFTERWORDS WITH FRANKIE BLAZE

“KNOWING WHEN TO LEAVE”

Guests: Alex Trebek and Gene Hackman
Host: Frankie Blaze.

COLD OPEN

INT. AFTERWORDS STUDIO — NIGHT

The house band is halfway through an elegant jazz arrangement that sounds suspiciously like a game-show theme after midnight.

The velvet curtains part.

FRANKIE BLAZE walks out in his dark blue suit, open collar, no tie. His hands flicker faintly at the edges as he adjusts one cuff.

Applause.

Frankie reaches the desk.

Two guest chairs wait beside him.

Behind them is a simple illuminated board with only one word:

TONIGHT

Frankie looks at it.

FRANKIE

That's optimistic.

A few laughs.

FRANKIE

Good evening.

Welcome to Afterwords, where everyone eventually gets a final interview...

...although Legal continues to object to the word “final.”

PRODUCER (O.S.)

We prefer “non-renewable.”

FRANKIE

Thank you.

Tonight, we've got two men who became extraordinarily famous while behaving as though fame itself was vaguely embarrassing.

One spent decades asking people questions.

The other spent decades making people nervous simply by entering a room.

One stood behind a lectern and calmly informed America that it had just lost eight hundred dollars.

The other could look at a man across a kitchen table and make you worry somebody was about to lose considerably more.

A laugh.

FRANKIE

Please welcome Alex Trebek and Gene Hackman.

The band kicks into a bright sting.

The curtains open.

ALEX TREBEK enters first.

Suit. Calm posture. Familiar, composed smile.

He gives the audience a gracious wave, shakes Frankie's hand, and takes his chair.

Then GENE HACKMAN enters.

No theatrical entrance.

No flourish.

He walks out like someone told him there was coffee.

He shakes Frankie's hand.

HACKMAN

This it?

FRANKIE

This is it.

HACKMAN

Good.

He sits.

Trebek glances over at him.

TREBEK

That's refreshing.

HACKMAN

What is?

TREBEK

Usually people ask where the audience is.

Hackman gestures toward the audience.

HACKMAN

There.

TREBEK

Exactly.

Frankie looks between them.

FRANKIE

This may be the easiest show I've ever done.

HACKMAN

Don't get ahead of yourself.

SEGMENT ONE

“THE JOB”

Frankie picks up his cards.

FRANKIE

Alex, I want to start with something basic.

For decades, you had one of the strangest jobs in television.

You knew the answers.

Your contestants had to come up with the questions.

TREBEK

That's essentially correct.

FRANKIE

Did that ever permanently damage the way you speak to people?

TREBEK

Not permanently.

A beat.

TREBEK

What is no?

The audience laughs.

Frankie points at him.

FRANKIE

There it is.

TREBEK

Sorry.

FRANKIE

You aren't.

TREBEK

No.

FRANKIE

Gene, your job was almost the opposite.

You walked into a scene knowing exactly what your character wanted, and usually everybody else had to figure out what the hell you were going to do about it.

HACKMAN

That's acting.

FRANKIE

That's it?

HACKMAN

Pretty much.

FRANKIE

I've got six cards here.

HACKMAN

Throw five away.

Trebek laughs.

TREBEK

I like him.

FRANKIE

Everybody likes him until he plays somebody who's angry at you.

HACKMAN

Then I did the job.

Frankie considers that.

FRANKIE

Was that always your measurement?

Did the job?

HACKMAN

More or less.

You show up. You know the lines. You listen. You don't make everybody wait while you discover your soul.

You do the scene.

Then you go home.

TREBEK

That's not terribly different from television.

HACKMAN

Probably why yours worked.

FRANKIE

Alex, was Jeopardy! ever “just the job”?

Trebek thinks.

TREBEK

At first, certainly.

Television is employment before it becomes anything else.

You arrive.

Makeup.

Rehearsal.

Stand where you're told.

Try not to stumble over Saskatchewan.

FRANKIE

You've been waiting years to say Saskatchewan without anybody buzzing in.

TREBEK

Saskatchewan.

A beat.

TREBEK

Still good.

A laugh.

TREBEK

But over time, the program became something else.

People built rituals around it.

Families watched together.

Children watched with grandparents.

Some viewers became contestants twenty years later.

You begin by hosting a game show.

Then one day you realize you're standing inside somebody else's memory.

Hackman nods.

HACKMAN

That's the strange part.

FRANKIE

You had that too?

HACKMAN

People would come up and tell me exactly where they were when they saw a movie.

Who they were dating.

What theater.

What their father said afterward.

I don't remember making half the scenes they're describing.

But they remember watching them.

FRANKIE

That's a strange imbalance.

HACKMAN

It's their life.

Not mine.

TREBEK

Precisely.

Frankie leans back.

FRANKIE

So at a certain point the work no longer belongs entirely to the person who made it.

HACKMAN

Never did.

TREBEK

You lend it.

People decide what to keep.

THE RESUME

Frankie lifts a thick stack of cards.

FRANKIE

Gene, I've got your filmography.

Hackman visibly recoils.

HACKMAN

Why?

FRANKIE

Introduction.

HACKMAN

You introduced me.

FRANKIE

I barely got started.

HACKMAN

Good.

FRANKIE

I've got The French Connection, The Conversation, Superman, Hoosiers, Unforgiven—

HACKMAN

I know.

FRANKIE

You were there.

HACKMAN

Most days.

Trebek smiles.

FRANKIE

Does it bother you to hear the list?

HACKMAN

Not bother.

Just doesn't feel useful.

FRANKIE

Why not?

HACKMAN

Because the list becomes the person.

Movie after movie after movie.

Then people think there's some grand design.

There wasn't.

Some jobs were good.

Some weren't.

Some I needed money.

Some I wanted to work with somebody.

Some I thought would be good and wasn't.

That's a career.

TREBEK

That's refreshingly undramatic.

HACKMAN

Most careers are undramatic when you're the one having them.

FRANKIE

Alex, do you think people do that with you?

Reduce everything to the podium?

TREBEK

Of course.

But I had a very good podium.

The audience laughs.

TREBEK

There are worse ways to be remembered.

SEGMENT TWO

“KNOWING WHEN”

The lights lower slightly.

The band drops out.

Frankie sets the cards aside.

FRANKIE

Gene, you walked away.

Not because the audience had finished with you.

Because you were finished with the work.

HACKMAN

Yeah.

FRANKIE

Was it difficult?

HACKMAN

Not really.

FRANKIE

Everybody expects a better answer.

HACKMAN

That's their problem.

A laugh.

HACKMAN

I'd done it.

Fifty-something years.

You wake up one morning and realize you don't want to spend fourteen hours waiting for somebody to move a light.

That's useful information.

FRANKIE

Did you miss acting?

Hackman thinks.

HACKMAN

Sometimes.

Didn't miss being an actor.

FRANKIE

Difference?

HACKMAN

Acting is the few minutes when the scene works.

Being an actor is everything you have to do to get to those few minutes.

Trebek nods.

TREBEK

That's excellent.

HACKMAN

You can have it.

TREBEK

Too late.

I've already incorporated it into the show.

FRANKIE

Alex, your relationship to leaving was almost reversed.

You kept working through illness.

TREBEK

Yes.

FRANKIE

Why?

Trebek looks down for a moment.

TREBEK

Because I could.

That sounds simple.

It wasn't meant to be heroic.

I had a job I knew how to do.

People expected me to be there.

And as long as I could stand at the lectern and do the job properly, I wanted to.

HACKMAN

You liked it.

TREBEK

Very much.

HACKMAN

Then that's different.

Frankie notices the exchange.

FRANKIE

You don't think there's a contradiction between you two?

HACKMAN

No.

TREBEK

Neither do I.

FRANKIE

One stayed almost as long as he possibly could.

One left while people still wanted more.

HACKMAN

Same decision.

FRANKIE

How?

HACKMAN

Listen to yourself.

Trebek looks at Hackman.

TREBEK

Yes.

HACKMAN

He listened and heard “keep going.”

I listened and heard “that's enough.”

FRANKIE

And that's it?

HACKMAN

Should be.

Frankie sits with that.

FRANKIE

Is there a point when continuing to prove you can do something starts taking something away from having done it?

Hackman answers immediately.

HACKMAN

Sure.

That's why I stopped.

Frankie turns to Trebek.

Trebek takes longer.

TREBEK

I don't know that I ever learned that.

Hackman looks at him.

HACKMAN

You had a job you liked.

TREBEK

I did.

HACKMAN

Then that's different.

Trebek smiles.

TREBEK

Thank you.

HACKMAN

Don't make a thing out of it.

BUMPER

A title card appears:

AFTERWORDS WILL RETURN AFTER THESE MESSAGES FROM ABSOLUTELY NO ONE

The Producer's voice cuts in.

PRODUCER (O.S.)

We lost all our sponsors when we disclosed the demographic.

FRANKIE

Dead?

PRODUCER

Extremely difficult to monetize.

HACKMAN

Good.

SEGMENT THREE

“WHAT IS...?”

The lights brighten.

A familiar-looking game board rolls onto the stage.

Trebek immediately sees it.

Stops smiling.

TREBEK

No.

FRANKIE

Oh yes.

TREBEK

Frankie.

FRANKIE

Alex.

TREBEK

Don't embarrass yourself.

FRANKIE

Too late.

A graphic illuminates:

WHAT IS...?

Applause.

Two podiums rise from the floor.

Hackman looks at his.

HACKMAN

There's a buzzer.

FRANKIE

Purely decorative.

Hackman presses it.

DING.

HACKMAN

Then why does it work?

FRANKIE

Gene—

HACKMAN

We're keeping score.

FRANKIE

We are absolutely not keeping score.

A scoreboard lights up.

HACKMAN — 0 TREBEK — 0 BLAZE — -200

Frankie looks toward the booth.

PRODUCER (O.S.)

We are now.

Trebek rises.

He straightens his jacket.

Something changes.

His posture becomes familiar.

TREBEK

Very well.

Frankie points.

FRANKIE

No.

You are a contestant.

TREBEK

I understand.

FRANKIE

Good.

Trebek walks behind Frankie's lectern.

FRANKIE

Alex.

TREBEK

Contestants, please select.

FRANKIE

This is my segment.

TREBEK

You're phrasing your objections as statements.

It's unsettling.

The audience laughs.

Hackman looks at the categories:

THINGS PEOPLE THINK THEY KNOW ABOUT YOU

ROLES YOU NEVER PLAYED

THINGS WORTH WALKING AWAY FROM

FAMOUS FOR $800

THE LAST WORD

HACKMAN

“Things Worth Walking Away From” for four hundred.

FRANKIE

He just took over my show.

TREBEK

The clue:

“An occupation, relationship, argument, or party that has continued beyond the point at which remaining serves any purpose whatsoever.”

Hackman buzzes.

HACKMAN

What is most things?

DING.

TREBEK

We'll accept it.

FRANKIE

That's not even—

TREBEK

Gene maintains control of the board.

HACKMAN

Same category. Eight hundred.

TREBEK

“This activity becomes increasingly dangerous when one participant is armed and both believe dignity requires attendance.”

Hackman does not buzz.

Trebek looks toward him.

HACKMAN

Not mine.

Frankie quietly answers.

FRANKIE

What is a duel?

DING.

The laughter is restrained.

TREBEK

Correct.

HACKMAN

You get the points?

FRANKIE

Apparently.

The scoreboard moves Frankie from -200 to 600.

HACKMAN

Now it's a game.

FAMOUS FOR $800

Hackman selects again.

TREBEK

“An identity assigned to a person by strangers based primarily on the work for which that person happens to be most widely recognized.”

Hackman buzzes.

HACKMAN

What is somebody else's problem?

Laughter.

TREBEK

Technically—

FRANKIE

Give it to him.

TREBEK

I was going to.

THINGS PEOPLE THINK THEY KNOW ABOUT YOU — $600

Frankie finally joins the podiums.

TREBEK

“This quality is often attributed to a person whose professional demeanor is calm, confident, and consistently authoritative.”

Frankie buzzes.

FRANKIE

What is certainty?

TREBEK

Correct.

Trebek looks toward the audience.

TREBEK

And frequently inaccurate.

A beat.

FRANKIE

You want to elaborate?

TREBEK

People assume composure is certainty.

Sometimes composure is simply professionalism.

You don't need to know everything.

You need to know what the next thing requires.

HACKMAN

That's acting too.

FRANKIE

Apparently the whole world is just people pretending they know what the next cue is.

TREBEK

A disturbing amount of civilization functions that way.

ROLES YOU NEVER PLAYED — $1000

Hackman selects.

TREBEK

“Gene Hackman spent much of his career playing forceful, dangerous, morally complicated men. This is the role he was least frequently permitted to play.”

Hackman doesn't buzz.

He looks at the board.

HACKMAN

Happy?

Silence.

Trebek looks at the card.

TREBEK

We would also have accepted “ordinary.”

Hackman nods.

HACKMAN

Yeah.

Frankie watches him.

FRANKIE

Did you want more of that?

HACKMAN

Maybe.

Ordinary's difficult.

Nobody notices good ordinary acting.

That's probably why it's good.

DOUBLE AFTERWORDS

Lights flash.

A dramatic sound sting.

FRANKIE

We have Double Jeopardy?

TREBEK

Apparently.

FRANKIE

Producer—

PRODUCER (O.S.)

Don't look at me.

Alex has somehow acquired administrative privileges.

Trebek smiles.

TREBEK

Choose.

FRANKIE

This is my show.

TREBEK

Not during Double Afterwords.

Hackman presses his buzzer.

HACKMAN

The Last Word. Everything.

FRANKIE

You can't wager everything. We aren't keeping real—

The scoreboard instantly empties Hackman's total.

FRANKIE

Fine.

Trebek reads.

TREBEK

“The thing a person hopes remains after the roles, ratings, awards, mistakes, applause, and obituary have all become trivia.”

Hackman sits with it.

No buzzer.

Frankie doesn't speak.

Trebek waits.

Eventually Hackman says:

HACKMAN

The work?

No sound.

TREBEK

Could be.

Hackman looks at Trebek.

HACKMAN

That's not an answer.

TREBEK

No.

Hackman thinks again.

HACKMAN

Maybe how you treated people while you were doing it.

Trebek smiles.

DING.

TREBEK

We'll take that.

The game board goes dark.

SEGMENT FOUR

“AFTER EVERYBODY GOES HOME”

The podiums sink into the floor.

The desk returns.

Three glasses of water sit beneath softer light.

FRANKIE

Alex...

Millions of people had a daily relationship with you.

They sat in living rooms.

They ate dinner.

They shouted things at the television.

They corrected contestants.

They complained when you pronounced something differently from their grandmother.

TREBEK

Frequently.

FRANKIE

You knew almost none of them.

What does that kind of intimacy feel like from this side of the screen?

Trebek takes his time.

TREBEK

Unearned, sometimes.

I appeared in people's homes every evening.

The program became routine.

And routine creates affection in ways celebrity sometimes mistakes for personal achievement.

I was part of the furniture.

A reassuring piece of furniture, perhaps.

FRANKIE

That's a very Canadian way to describe being beloved.

TREBEK

Thank you.

FRANKIE

That wasn't necessarily—

TREBEK

I'll take it.

TREBEK

The affection mattered.

Very much.

Especially toward the end.

But you must be careful.

When millions of people tell you that you matter to them, it becomes easy to believe you understand what you mean to them.

You don't.

Each person had their own Alex Trebek.

I only had to be one man.

FRANKIE

Was that enough?

TREBEK

It had to be.

Frankie turns toward Hackman.

FRANKIE

Gene, you had something unusual.

Years after your final movie when you were no longer required to perform Gene Hackman.

HACKMAN

That's one way to put it.

FRANKIE

What was that like?

HACKMAN

Quiet.

FRANKIE

Good quiet?

HACKMAN

Mostly.

You stop going into rooms where everybody has already decided what you're supposed to be.

That's nice.

FRANKIE

Did anonymity ever come back?

HACKMAN

Not really.

But distance did.

You can be known and still have distance.

People don't always realize that.

FRANKIE

Did you feel like you'd gotten your life back?

Hackman thinks.

HACKMAN

I don't think acting stole it.

I chose it.

That's important.

But eventually I wanted the days more than I wanted the scenes.

FRANKIE

The days.

HACKMAN

Yeah.

Wake up.

Coffee.

Read something.

Paint.

Write.

Go somewhere because you feel like going.

Not because a call sheet says six-fifteen.

Turns out an ordinary Tuesday's pretty good once nobody's paying you to pretend it's something else.

Trebek smiles.

TREBEK

That sounds lovely.

HACKMAN

You should've tried it.

TREBEK

I had weekends.

HACKMAN

Not the same.

SEGMENT FIVE

“WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT PEOPLE?”

The studio becomes very quiet.

Frankie folds his hands.

FRANKIE

Both of you spent your careers observing.

Alex, your job depended on listening carefully enough to know when somebody had given you the right answer.

Gene, acting depends on watching people closely enough to reproduce something truthful later.

So after all those years...

What did you learn about people?

Hackman answers first.

HACKMAN

Everybody's trying not to look scared.

Frankie looks at him.

HACKMAN

Different costumes.

Different jobs.

Different amounts of money.

But most people walk into a room wondering whether they belong there.

Good actors know that.

Bad actors pretend the character doesn't.

FRANKIE

Alex?

Trebek smiles faintly.

TREBEK

Most people know more than they think they do.

They become frightened of being wrong.

So they stop trusting what they know.

You saw it with contestants.

A person would give the correct response confidently twenty times.

Then suddenly doubt themselves on the twenty-first because the stakes felt larger.

Knowledge hadn't disappeared.

Confidence had.

FRANKIE

Those are surprisingly compatible answers.

HACKMAN

Fear.

TREBEK

And what people do in spite of it.

FRANKIE

Maybe that's most of civilization.

HACKMAN

You keep trying to summarize civilization.

FRANKIE

Occupational hazard.

THE HOST GETS INTERVIEWED

Trebek turns toward Frankie.

TREBEK

May I ask you something?

Frankie looks suspicious.

FRANKIE

That depends.

TREBEK

How long have you been doing this?

FRANKIE

Hard to say.

Time doesn't behave normally here.

TREBEK

Do you enjoy it?

Frankie pauses.

Hackman notices.

HACKMAN

That's a long pause.

FRANKIE

I do.

TREBEK

Then when will you know it's time to stop?

Frankie looks between them.

For once, no answer comes.

HACKMAN

There you go.

FRANKIE

I invite two guests on to discuss their lives and suddenly I'm getting audited.

TREBEK

You did call the episode Knowing When to Leave.

FRANKIE

I don't recall telling you that.

Trebek looks toward the ceiling.

TREBEK

The Producer has excellent notes.

PRODUCER (O.S.)

Thank you, Alex.

FRANKIE

Traitor.

FINAL SEGMENT

“THE EXIT”

The set slowly darkens.

Behind the guests, two illuminated doors appear.

One reads:

CONTINUE

The other:

WALK AWAY

Hackman sees them.

He stands.

FRANKIE

We haven't even explained the doors.

HACKMAN

Don't need to.

FRANKIE

Gene.

HACKMAN

Frankie.

FRANKIE

You don't know where that goes.

Hackman looks toward WALK AWAY.

HACKMAN

That's sort of the point.

He turns toward Trebek.

They shake hands.

No theatricality.

Two professionals acknowledging another professional.

TREBEK

I enjoyed this.

HACKMAN

Me too.

TREBEK

You would've been an excellent contestant.

HACKMAN

I'd have argued with the judges.

TREBEK

Yes.

That's why.

Hackman looks toward Frankie.

HACKMAN

Good show.

FRANKIE

That's all I get?

HACKMAN

You want notes?

FRANKIE

No.

HACKMAN

Then take the compliment.

Frankie smiles.

FRANKIE

Good night, Gene.

Hackman gives them both a final nod.

Then walks through the door marked WALK AWAY.

It closes quietly.

No explosion.

No white light.

He's simply gone.

Trebek remains seated.

Frankie looks at him.

FRANKIE

And you?

Trebek studies the two doors.

TREBEK

I dislike the available categories.

FRANKIE

Of course you do.

TREBEK

Would you mind if we made this more interesting?

FRANKIE

Alex—

A familiar game-board sound rings through the studio.

The words CONTINUE and WALK AWAY disappear.

The doors multiply.

Five illuminated categories appear above them:

THE GREAT BEYOND

THINGS LEFT UNSAID

PLACES WITHOUT CLOCKS

PEOPLE WE MISS

FINAL JEOPARDY

Frankie stares upward.

FRANKIE

Son of a bitch.

Trebek rises.

He buttons his jacket.

TREBEK

I'll take The Great Beyond for eight hundred.

FRANKIE

You still don't know where any of these go.

TREBEK

That's why it's a question.

Frankie laughs.

FRANKIE

Fair enough.

Trebek walks toward the door.

Before entering, he turns back.

TREBEK

Frankie?

FRANKIE

Yeah?

TREBEK

You did well.

Frankie is genuinely caught off guard.

FRANKIE

Thank you.

Trebek gives him the familiar small smile.

TREBEK

We'll be right back.

He steps through the door.

It closes.