Pocket Change
(I'm posting this old screenplay of mine as an example [yours DOESN'T need to be a screenplay]. I got the idea from a joke I heard back in high school.)
INT. FIRST NATIONAL BANK - DAY
NORMAN PURSE, nobody, early 20s, “The Heavy” graphic t-shirt, plaid button-down shirt, jeans, taped glasses, waits in a long line to cash a check. He gives the check a halfhearted smirk. Several bank patrons and bank tellers conduct business in the background and foreground.
NORMAN
"It’s better than nothing. What am I saying? This is barely enough for the rent. If I’d just applied for the manager position, I know I would’ve gotten it. But, no, I had to be the shy guy, too afraid to do anything."
Suddenly, a loud voice rings out. Two masked men enter. TALL BANK ROBBER, 30s, tall and lean, and LARGE BANK ROBBER, 30s, average height and fat are brandishing guns.
TALL BANK ROBBER
"EVERYBODY, FREEZE! THIS IS A BANK ROBBERY!"
BANK PATRONS, men, women, and children, various ages, panic.
NORMAN
"Oh, crap. Do what they say! Just do what they say, and they won’t hurt anyone!"
Large Bank Robber goes over to Norman.
LARGE BANK ROBBER
"Shut up, fool! Who said we won’t hurt anyone?"
Large Bank Robber grabs Norman and throws him to the ground. Tall Bank Robber then fires gun up into the air.
TALL BANK ROBBER
"Everybody, get on the ground!"
Bank Patrons fall to the ground in fear.
Tall Bank Robber gives BANK TELLERS, men and woman, 30s-40s, business clothes, empty sacks. Bank tellers fill empty sacks with large bills. Once the sacks are full, Tall Bank Robber takes them. Large Bank Robber grabs Norman and takes him as a hostage.
LARGE BANK ROBBER
"Anybody follows us, he dies!"
They leave the bank.
EXT. CITY - FRONT OF FIRST NATIONAL BANK - DAY
The men are met in the street by a barricade of police vehicles in a semicircle around the entrance.
POLICE OFFICER #1
"Freeze!"
POLICE OFFICER #2
"Don’t move!"
POLICE OFFICER #3
"Put the boy down!"
POLICE OFFICERS are poised to fire behind the barricade of police vehicles.
NORMAN
"I’m an adult!"
LARGE BANK ROBBER
"Shut up!"
Suddenly, an armored vehicle comes barreling into the police vehicle barricade, tossing the POLICE OFFICERS and mashing the police vehicles. Large Bank Robber throws Norman into the cargo hold of the armored vehicle. Tall Bank Robber and Large Bank Robber get in and sit on the bench seat of the armored vehicle, driven by GETAWAY DRIVER, 30s, masked, average build, and drive off.
INT. ARMORED VEHICLE - DAY
TALL BANK ROBBER
"HA! Too easy!"
LARGE BANK ROBBER
"That was genius!"
Tall Bank Robber, Large Bank Robber, and Getaway Driver are heading off for the Mexican border at breakneck speed through the city.
GETAWAY DRIVER
"I bet those idiots didn’t know what hit ’em!"
TALL BANK ROBBER
"I do... YOU!"
The three of them laugh.
INT. ARMORED VEHICLE - CARGO HOLD - DAY
Norman is standing in the middle of the multitude of money with his hands and arms outstretched on the walls of bills, keeping himself steady as the vehicle moves.
NORMAN
"There’s got to be at least 150 million dollars in here. I’ve never done that much before."
POLICE SIRENS.
LARGE BANK ROBBER (O.S.)
"Eat it, copper!"
GUN SHOTS.
NORMAN
"Oh, crap."
EXPLOSION. SIREN DYING.
"Okay… here we go."
Norman begins to hit the stacks of bills and, with each strike, turns them into their same value’s worth in pennies.
NORMAN (CONT’D)
"Come on!"
He strikes another stack of bills. He does this again and again. He is growing tired. He is now shin-deep in pennies. Just then, a look of concerned and dawning come across his face.
EXPLOSION.
Another rocket goes off outside the armored vehicle as bullets ricochet off of the vehicle’s exterior.
NORMAN (CONT’D)
"This is going to hurt... but it’s all I’ve got."
Norman slams both fists and a foot onto the three walls of remaining bills surrounding him.
NORMAN (CONT’D)
"I wish the guys could see this. I’ve been saving this for a special occasion...
I MAKE IT HAIL!"
EXT. CITY STREET - BEHIND ARMORED VEHICLE - DAY
EXPLOSION.
The armored vehicle bursts in an explosion of pennies, jettisoning out of its back, bottom, sides, and top. The force of the sudden increase in volume, like that of a grenade, causes the vehicle to fly up through the air in the hail of coins, then land onto its side, sliding across the pennies as if through water, and, finally, crash into the side of a building.
EXT. CITY STREET - CRASH SITE - EVENING
As police officers and EMERGENCY WORKERS, 20s-30s, escort the bank robbers away, they happen upon Norman's body, halfway buried in pennies.
POLICE OFFICER #4
"Detective, over here!"
DETECTIVE, 30s, noir, walks over to the officer’s location.
DETECTIVE
"God…"
Norman’s corpse has pennies lodged in its flesh.
DETECTIVE (CONT’D)
"Who was he?
POLICE OFFICER #4
"We don’t know yet."
DETECTIVE
"Check his pockets. See if he has any identification on ’im."
After searching Norman’s clothing, the officer only finds a handful of coins.
POLICE OFFICER #4
(HUSHED) "Pocket change?"
DETECTIVE
"Speak up, I couldn’t hear ya. Did he have any identification?"
The officer turns to the detective and holds up the coins.
POLICE OFFICER #4
"Just... pocket change."
The two of them stare at the handful of coins, the body of Norman, and then back at the handful of coins.
DETECTIVE
"Pocket Change."