Introductory shot: General Motors Automotive Factory up in Flint, Michigan.

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper leaning against the wall, sipping a beer in casual outfit, like on the cover of the book.

"Hi. My name is Ben and I build your trucks"

(Takes massive slug of beer) (Sound of passing cars)

(Off-Camera Interviewer-- a solemn clinical voice):-- "What's that like?"

A music video kicks up, a montage that plays "Hellbound Train" by George Thorogood & The Destroyers-- a rumbling, rollicking nightmare tune that captures the desperation of folks being driven quite literally to hell with shift-work. Through the huge doors of GM, clanging hell, like something out of Dante's inferno that shows shots of the factory-- dirty men in overalls welding, shooting sparks. Swabbing floors. Riveting rivets. Among other unpleasant duties. Workers knocking back beer. Supervisors making their way around, hand in back pocket, like small-minded tumble-weed. Steam. Sweat. Industrial inferno.

A great 5 minute little way to kick off the movie, in order to establish "what it's like" down here on the line. From here on out we can focus on the people and the hijinks!

Cut back to Ben Hamper standing back against the wall with his beer

"Wanna watch my collection of Charles Manson interviews on home video?"

Cut to shot of Charles Manson nattering on crazily with his freaky eyes in jailhouse interview

"Flint, Michigan-- 'Vehicle City'-- 'Greaseball Mecca'-- where it all happens. A town that scratches its butt with the jagged peaks of the automotive sales chart. Cog Butcher of the world. Beer belly Valhalla. Gravy on your french fries"

As narration reads, camera passes by bars on outer road, the stuff of neon Budweiser signs

Cut to shot of late afternoon, beginning of second shift, autoworkers hauling in a giant boom-box, two speakers, and a car battery like pallbearers into the plant

Cut to shot of workers riveting as Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" plays over the din

"Yesssir. Dead rock stars are singin' for me and the boys on the Rivet Line tonight. Hendrix. Morrison. Zeppelin. The whole Dead Rock Star catalogue churnin' outta the boom box. There's Joplin and Brian Jones and plenty of Lynyrd Skynrd. Dead Rock Stars full of malice and sweet confusion. Tonight and every night they bawl and yowl at us as we kick out the quota"

"We're all here. Department 07; Blazer/Suburban Line-- factory outpost FF-15 stenciled in black spray paint on the big iron girder behind the workbench. We're building expensive trucks for the General Motors Corp. The few, the proud, the imminently grubby"

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper leaning up against the wall outside the factory

"Well, ol' 'Hogjaw", a buddy of mine, brought in the boom-box with the car battery for a month. You see, it's GM policy that none of their juice can power a radio. But then security didn't take a shinin' to the car battery, figurin' that acid might spray in somebody's eyes and spark a lawsuit. Now we line an electrical cord down through a workbench over to the power outlet by the drinking fountain and the foreman pretends 'to look the other way'. They don't care, just so long as the work gets done. Isn't industrial logic fun?

Cut to shot of 1950's mental hygiene film that shows the virtues of American industry-- a very white-washed picture full of sacchriney, artificial pronouncements

"FUN, FUN, FUN", the narration lays over sarcastically.

Cut to shot of gap-toothed worker taking out a giant rubber spider attached to a fishing pole and lowering it down next to a dollar bill laying out "very obviously" on the shop floor, scaring "the bejesus" out of a mark.

"Well if ain't greed that sunk an honest man", the workers hee-haw

The same gap-toothed worker takes out a wallet and nails it to the wooden divider that distinguishes one concrete landing from another, tucking in the torn corner of a $20 bill. An unsuspecting sucker bends down and strains in back when he attempts to pick it up, and goes "OOOOOHHH!".

"You see? What did I tell you?", the industrial gang laughs

As workers carry on, slapping their knee and grinning, this narration overplays:

"The Clock, The Clock, The Killing Clock. It ticks not one second slower or one second faster on our account"

Cut to shot of scene from old movie "Metropolis", workers synchronized at switches on triple-leveled platform (A CLASSIC SCENE ANY MOVIE BUFF SHOULD KNOW)

Cut to shot of scene from old movie "Metropolis", worker spread-eagled and manually moving the hands of a massive clock. Truly the machine of capitalism is oiled by the blood of the worker!

Cut to shot of Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times" when he goes hurtling through the machine like a piece of lunch-meat

Back to Ben Hamper out by the wall with a beer, he's gazing somewhere off-camera, completely casual and lost-in-thought. The solemn, clinical, interviewer's voice asks, "How did you get started?"

Ben Hamper thinks a second (-- with beer in hand), turns to the camera, and says:

"My Daddy was a shoprat. My Daddy's Daddy was a shoprat. My Daddy's Daddy's Daddy WOULD HAVE BEEN a shoprat, if only Henry Ford had dreamed up this shit sooner. It's my birthright, I guess. That, or I didn't have any other options. The angels of destiny don't call from bugles of gold around these parts, you know" (-- Ben shrugs)

"But seriously-- I fucked up in school. I had a wife. A kid. You hear that shift horn, and you think 'money'. GM was never lookin' for 'a few good men', but the dregs-- you know, IDIOT LABOR. Those who were willing to put up with the monotony of 'THE SAME THING' over and over and over. It was a fair enough deal. . . . . . what else would guys like us DO?"

Ben takes a swig of beer

"Ah, work. . . . . . curse of the drinking classes"

"Or did I get that turned around?" (-- Ben counts on his fingers) "Drink is the curse of the working classes. . . . . . Hmmmmnn. Sounds like my home life growing up"

Film turns to black and white, implying the mid '60s, supposedly "more wholesome" times of the classic American family

Young Ben Hamper, about ten years old, is sitting around the breakfast table with his brothers and sisters as his parents argue about money and responsibility-- the father staggering around drunk after being absent on a three-day binge and the mother acting meek, pleading with him to take responsibility. The gist of the conversation is that he drinks too much and that he can't hold down a job and "hey, look-- you have all these kids to support". Half the young children are crying in the squalor. Another one is flipping spoonfulls of cornflakes at the ceiling. The Dad has been out at the bars again, womanizing and sports gambling. He smells like pepperoni and booze. "I'm going to go lie down. . . . ." he declaims loudly.

Cut to shot of father laying comatose on the couch in an alcoholic stupor

Cut to shot of kids leaving for school with backpacks and brown-paper bag lunches

Cut to shot of hands whirling around the clock so it moves from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Cut to shot of father still laying there on the couch, snoring

Cut to shot of young Ben Hamper and friend snickering at sight of father sleeping there on couch. Ben walks up to him, and sticks his middle finger right in his face. The father stirs, tasting his mouth, and the kids retreat in terror. He opens his lizard eyes and asks for them to "bring him a drink"

Cut to shot of kids staying up late at a sleep-over, watching "Monster-Madness" on the television-- Lon Chaney in "The Wolfman"-- when they hear a car careen into the driveway. Ben's father weaves into the t.v. room, and the fun really begins. He brags about how he broke a pool stick over some chistler's head, and how the women he hung out with had chests the size of pony kegs ("They'd be through with you boys before you ever got it unzipped," he'd chuckle). And how he was pickin' the local bookies' pockets and how "no one could put one over on him" even as he tripped and almost knocked the television over. Then he goes on a diatribe about "the niggers" and "the government" like Huck Finn's pa. Some things never change throughout the tapestry of American life.

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper standing by the wall with a beer in hand

"Oh, yeah. That was a great thing for festerin' 10 year-old minds. This was no epileptic crank up in the cheap seats at a stock-car race spittin' curses, but my old man"

"Needless to say, the apple didn't roll far from the tree"

Cut to shot of Catholic school

"I mean, it's just the way it is. They divided us up into three groups in middle school. There were the eggheads-- you know, the ones who were going places. Then there were the drones of mediocrity. (-- Also going places) And then the basement group, the who-gives-a-shit-hey-have-you-heard-the-new-Cream-album-yet-yup-my-daddy's-a-shoprot-too crowd. They pretty much gave up on us, and just let us be. . . . . . they figured that we were going to be a bunch of no-account autoworkers ("shoprats") and were unsalvageable. To some degree they were probably right, but to some degree they were probably wrong too. . . . .

(Ben Hamper shrugs) (Sound of passing cars)

Solemn, clinical narrator asks: "Could have any outside influence put you on a different path?"

"Well, believe it or not but for a while I was making good grades"

"And why was that?"

"I don't know. . . . . impress the pretty girls, I guess. I actually wrote poetry for a while. Bunch of schmaltz, like a twangin'-on-the-heart-strings Alan Alda before I decided that was for pussies. A young man gotta run wild, you know? Bustin' out. . . . . like stray dogs runnin' around the neighborhood. I ran with a bunch of hooligans and pirranha greasers in dingo boots, raising hell. We did more drugs than the Hells Angels it seems like, lookin' back some days, I figure.

"One time in my senior year in the early '70s I dropped a bunch of acid outside of class and began freakin' out. I knew I had to get home, so I ran into my old Datsun and gunned it--

Cut to shot above parking lot of high school marching band marching by

Cut to shot of car racing and tuba player in full marching regalia flipping over the hood

Cut to shot of car driving away and band teacher screaming at the top of his lungs

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper out by the wall shaking his head, still holding the can of beer

"Damn. . . . . that was some bad shit"

(Ben Hamper hocks and spits)

"By this time I got my high school hippie maiden girlfriend pregnant. She had enough credits to graduate early, so they let her go. . . . . no way were they going to let a pregnant girl wander around a Catholic high school's halls on bowed legs. Them nuns would shit! I hung on, graduated, then got married. I got a job painting apartment complexes for $3/hour.

(Ben Hamper removes three dollars from his wallet and holds it out for the camera)

"This wouldn't buy me a 6 pack of beer now-a-days"

(Ben Shakes his head)

"Jesus"

"Needless to say, money was a problem in our household. But I didn't WANT to do anything. I was young; I had my health; what would I want with A JOB? Which was really just stallin' time for that ol' factory up on the hill. But I kept trying to get out of it. . . . . I tried freelance painting. (Cut to shot of paint brush) I tried working on a janitorial service. (Cut to shot of man pushing mop) But it didn't pay 'dick'. Animosity came to the teenage "doll house" and threatened to rip it to pieces. I was sitting around drunk all day just like my old man, smelling like booze and pepperoni. That's when I figured it was time to "cash in the birthright" and sign on to one of the factories"

A little underheader reads "Whatever you see is a dramatic reenactment taken on by the courtesy of Ben Hamper's acting skills"

Cut to shot of sign at Personnel Office where a sign rather bleakly reads "No Applications"

The camera follows Ben Hamper in as he inquires about employment opportunities. The woman with a Marlboro cigarette (Give her Satan's horns) asks if he he had noticed the sign.

"Yes"

The woman with a Marlboro cigarette asks if he can read

"Yes"

She then tells Ben to vacate the premises immediately

Cut to surreal shot of father-and-law sitting on a bar-stool-- speaking in a grandfatherly voice as he dips picked eggs in his beer

"Ben, I'm your father-in-law. I'll give you the tips. You just got to go to the right office and talk to the right people. You see, you got to go talk to. . . . . . (he nuzzles up his cupped hands to the camera as if telling a secret)

Cut to shot of Ben entering the Personnel Office and all the ladies (All with horns) shaking their heads in unison

Narration Overlay: "So much for that shit"

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper standing out against the wall with beer in hand

"But then again, it was the mid '70s recession. All those A-rabs were twistin' knots in the oil pipeline and had us cryin' for mercy for a while there. . . . . ."

Cut to scene from Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, the part when the camera is panning over a miscellanaie of thugs, including Arabs stroking their camels, which are restless. A very over-the-top scene

"Finally I got ahold of an elusive application, some distant aunt on my ex-wife's side of the family. Yeeep. . . . . (-- Ben hitching up his britches with one hand, holding on to a beer with another) By then I was livin' in my mother's basement, hibernating like a muskrat during winter"

Cut to shot of heaving muskrat in den

"I dropped it in and I kept waiting. . . . . and waiting. . . . . and waiting. . . . . my friends all around me were getting jobs but I wasn't"

Cut to shot of Ben sitting in a bar watching television with Rick, ths sister-in-law's boyfriend

"The day I finally got called, I wasn't even at home-- I was in a bar-- on a Saturday, no less. My relatives sped over and told me the news"

FLASHBACK

Cut to shot of sixter-in-law rushing through the doors

"Ben, BEN! GM just called you! They want you to come to work!"

"Shit, it's about time those satanic bastards rang. On a god-damned Saturday. That gives me and the old Ricker here some time to do some much-deserved celebrating. Did they mention what time they need me on Monday?"

"No, no, no! They want you to work TODAY! They said to be there at four and to wear some work boots if possible"

"Today? Saturday? It is Saturday, isn't it? Four o'clock? WORK BOOTS?"

"Four o'clock. Work boots if possible"

"I better get moving" (Ben says to Rick) "Musn't keep the corporate maw waiting"

Cut to scene of "Metropolis" a later scene based on when the workers were synchronized at switches on triple-leveled platform. The apex has turned into a ghoulish, fiery mouth and workers are marching to their deaths through that mouth (A CLASSIC SCENE ANY MOVIE BUFF SHOULD KNOW)

Rick: "Wear something sexy, ratboy. And don't forget to write!" (His laughter barrels through the bar obscenely)

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper driving to the plant, view of him through the windshield. A little grandmotherly voice is playing through his head, giving him withered advice: "Keep your guard out for troublemakers. Don't be tricked into drinking. Be on time. Do everything you're told. Try to do extra. Don't knock around in horseplay. Address your supervisor as 'sir'"

Cut to shot of plant hospital, about 20 shiftless guys sitting around chain-smoking nervously. The camera pans on these faces, hard-worn faces. The supervisor (-- with Satanic horns) then orders them to stand in line for their urine test

Cut to shot of guys standing around awkwardly in line outside of bathroom, each holding a tiny cup

Cut to shot of man standing in front of Ben looking around nervously, glancing over his shoulder at Ben. Asks if Ben will donate some of his piss because "he just can't get it to flow right now". Ben look surprised, and the man insists that he'll PAY him for it

Narration overlay as Ben nods and goes into the bathroom: I don't know if what he had to hide was any worse than what I had to hide, but I'd never trade $10 for the piss of a stranger. That kinda creeps me out"

(Sound of door busting open and closing shut)

Cut to shot of man explaining to the supervisor that he was late, that he was caught up in traffic, that he got a speeding ticket and is really sorry. But the supervisor explains that "You were told to be prompt; there can be no excuses". The man protests that it's "just ten minutes". The supervisor shakes his crew-cut in his white shirtsleeves. The man breaks out into tears and starts sobbing right there, wondering what he's going to tell his wife and kids. The guys are looking on in shock, pathetically holding their vials of piss as the man leaves. The supervisor turns around and paces the line without a word

Cut to shot of supervisor leading the employees around various points of the factory, dropping them off at their "station". The Trim Line. The Axle Line. The Frame Line. The Tire Line. The Motor Lines. As they make their way around, the scruffy guy next to Ben says "Cab shop. We're heading for the cab shop" like a prophet. Finally, the last two guys are let off on the final place on the line.

"God damn-it, I knew it! The bastard's letting us off in cab shop!"

The cab shop is an area that will be nicknamed "The Jungle". Ropes, wires, and black rubber hoses drooping down and entangling everything. Sparks shooting out in all directions-- bouncing every-which-way. flying into the rafters and even colliding with the natives' heads

The supervisor: "Here you are, boys-- the Cab Department. In this area you are advised to wear clothing made from a nonflammable fabric. Also you will need to purchase a pair of steel-toned work boots, available at fair cost in the shoe store next to the workers' cafeteria. (He grins) "Good luck, boys" (He pads off through the jungle)

A black foreman directs them down the line with jazzy snap (with Satanic horns) toward their job setups. His name is "Brown", the foreman. The workers at their station pause to give them the razz because they were fresh blood, ignorant meat.

"Turn around before it's too late!"

"Hey, Brown, let 'em hang tailgates!"

"You know where you are? You in the JUNGLE baby, and you gonna DIE!" (Lyrics from Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle")

The foreman stops next to a big red-haired fellar and a man in a filthy welder's cap. The foreman points at Ben and informs him that he'll be replacing the man in the welder's cap. Both seem elated

"It's about goddamn time you got me outta here", says the red head

The man in the welder's cap lift's it up like a catcher's mask and introduces himself

"My name is Gary and this is Bud. You'll love it here. Just love it!" (Both laugh)

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper standing out against the wall with a beer

"The deal was that you sat back and watched them do their jobs for three days. That's the time you had to master it"

Detached, clinical voice of interviewer: "What happened if you couldn't get it down?"

(Ben Hamper shifts his eyes into the distance)

"I asked them that question"

"Then they give ya' the Van Slyke shuffle", the red-head roared with laugher. "Throw you out in the street. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

Cut to bleak shot of Van Slyke street sign

"Yeah, I'll have it down in a day. I've seen enough of the street!"

Cut to shot of men "Doubling-Up", one man doing the job of two. Bud the red-head sits out filing his nails. Ben asks what the deal is and Bud explains the system and how it kills the clock.

"Look at Penthouse, bounce your balls, drink a beer, whatever you want. Just do the other guys' job when it's your turn. That is, when you get good enough"

Cut to shot of sparks flying in the noise and din

Cut to shot of inching clock

Narration Overly: "Monotonous, isn't it?"

Cut to shot of clock eventually getting to "quitting time"

Cut to shot of Ben and his novice partner walking through the factory

"Fuckin' A Ben. Don't you realize we just grossed about $100 for standin' around don' absolutely nothing'?"

"How do you figure?"

"This is Saturday. Saturday means time-and-a-half. You can also include our night shift premium A hundred dollar gross for watchin' a bunch of dipshits tinkerin' around!"

"Yeah, but don't forget starting next week you and I will be the dipshits"

"Hell, those jobs they gave us are pussy detail. Once we get settled in, we'll be sittin' on our asses half the time while bringin' home three or four bills a week. It's a highway robbery. I'm gonna go get drunk. Care to join me?"

I'll pass this time. See you Monday"

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper out by the wall with beer in hand

"As time went by, and we got into the swing of things, I began to notice things about our jobs. Off the bat, you noticed that our jobs were identical-- get under the wheel-well and start installin' the goods". It reminded me of the two neighbors in the "Right Guard" deoderant commercials who meet every morning on their split-screen medicine cabinet"

Cut to split-screen shot of Ben and partner working on the wheel-wells in order to make the point

Cut to shot of them doing the job over and over and over

A black cartoon sillhoutte, representing an impatient person in the audience, stands up and shrieks "WHY DON'T YOU DO SOMETHING ELSE?!"

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper standing out by the wall with beer in hand

"I can't. That's the nature of assembly-line work"

Cut to shot of boss (Brown) coming around and nodding

Cut to shot of Ben looking nervously over his shoulder

Time flies

"What's he doing? Why's he back here?" Ben asks through clenched teeth to the welder. The welder lifts his mask.

"Don't worry about him. He's having a drink".

"HAVING A DRINK?"

"Sure. I bought him his beer. Bribery, my friend. Greases the wheels"

Cut to shot of boss (Brown) looking around and taking a giant swig of booze with a stupid expression on his face and licking his lips

"So that's how it works. . . . . ."

"Now you're catching on!"

"You know, with all the corruption of this place I say we should start doublin' up"

"Yeah, YEAH!"

Cut to shot of Bud showing Ben how to operate the spot-welder. The harder he struggles, the more the machinery won't cooperate. Ben grunts and carries on.

"Whoa. Cool it. Don't wrestle with it-- if you just guide it right along, it will go right where it should-- like a knife through butter"

Cut to shot of shooting sparks

Narration overly as the camera pans over the industrial process: "We got that 'doublin' up' down better and better. First we did it for an hour. Then two hours. I was paid to sit on my ass and read a couple of newspapers and a book. GM might as well stood for "Gravy & Mashed Potatoes", it seemed for a while there"

"But things weren't working out too well for the guy I went in with. He couldn't get a 'doublin' up' system going and the factory drudgery was slowly eating away his mind. If he could just reach the required 90 days, then he could apply for sick leave. . . . . but the odds weren't looking good in his favor"

Cut to shot of them out in the parking lot, and the partner taking out a massive joint

"Want one?" he asks

"No thanks, I'll just stick to the beer. Pot makes me nervous"

"I got a numb myself out, man. It's driving me crazy!"

"Yeah, look on the bright side. When you do make your 90 days you can fake a disability, like 'Spinal Aggravation', and semiretire to a life of singles bars, dope dens, and sick pay benefits. How's that for a work ethic?"

""IF I make the 90 days"

"Yeah. IF you make the 90 days"

"O.K. Ben. I'll try"

Cut to shot of moving clock

Cut to shot of Ben wandering around the factory, marveling at the pure size, checking out the process casually. Having a smoke. Watching the men do their jobs. A leisurely walk. The place is HUGE! But when he comes back, people are pulling on his sleeve. His old novice partner is speaking gibberish and isn't making any sense. His face is as white as a sheet. Ben comes around and sees his partner, "Roy" walking around in circles and raving. Ben tells Roy to sit down for a little while. Roy shows Ben a little cardboard dollhouse he's made for a mouse. "Look-it, look-it, look-it!". He coos into the dollhouse.

Cut to shot of mouse's perspective of man leaning close in to the dollhouse

He then begins to shake the house violently. And scream through the windows.

Cut to shot of mouse's perspective of screaming crazy man

He then violently reaches into the doll house, picks up the mouse, holds it up by the tail, and before anyone can do anything, picks up a welding torch, turns it on, and incinerates the mouse. Then he throws everything down and runs away.

Cut to shot of Ben Hamper standing outside the wall with beer in hand

"Needless to say, he didn't make his 90 days"

(END OF DEMO)

*******************