INT. A DIMLY LIT DINER – NIGHT
The place is almost empty. Rain streaks down the windows. FRANK CASTLE sits across from MEL GIBSON, who stirs his coffee slowly, eyes narrowing with curiosity.
FRANK CASTLE
My old man, Frank Castiglione Sr… Sicilian, hard as nails, but wise. He’d sit me down as a kid and say, “Frankie, Moses didn’t carve exceptions into those Commandments. The Pope says we must not kill. Period.”
(he leans in closer, voice lowering)
He told me, “If you want to stop the wicked, don’t spill their blood. Put ‘em all on an island. Surround it with the Coast Guard. Let them rot.”
MEL GIBSON
(chuckles darkly)
That’s… Old Testament thinking without the blood. Sounds like exile, not justice.
FRANK CASTLE
Maybe. But the worst of the worst—guys like Jacob Rothschild, Epstein—they don’t belong in the streets, Mel.
(leans back)
Alcatraz. Locked down. That was Trump’s idea, not mine.
MEL GIBSON
So you’re saying the Punisher… doesn’t punish?
FRANK CASTLE
I’m saying my father taught me restraint. But the world keeps pushing me to cross the line.
(Mel studies Frank, the coffee trembling slightly in his hand. The rain intensifies. A moral question hangs between them like a storm cloud.)
